Pohon Miring

You will likely begin on the eastern side of the northern tip of Banda Besar, dropping in onto a sloping reef which runs down beyond 30 metres, where it begins to flatten out. The first point of interest is the swim-through: 6 m tall, almond-shaped, its floor ranging from about 26 to 30 metres. It is more or less a single file passage if you wish to avoid bubbles or contact with nearby divers and the sessile life on its walls.

Out of the passage you continue with your left shoulder to the wall, which again features many of the barrel sponges, tubastrea coral and large sea fans that characterise this region. Gentle currents are common here, so most of this stretch is gliding rather than swimming, with an eye on the blue for larger fish like tuna, bumphead parrotfish and Napoleon wrasse. Where the flow pushes onto the reef, sweetlips, black snapper and various other individuals hang in the current, sometimes in vast numbers.

The crevices and recesses along the wall are worth working slowly on the way back up, for scorpionfish, leaffish and ghost pipefish. It is a site that rewards two speeds: the swim-through and the blue water want a steady pace and an eye on depth, since the reef below the passage keeps dropping past 30 m, while the shallower part of the return is where the small stuff is and where bottom time is cheapest.