Gili Islands · Indonesia · Sand slope · Muck & macro
Meno Slope
Macro life on bommies scattered down a sand slope
Area photo: Magul · CC BY-SA 4.0
A sandy slope on the western shore of Gili Meno, dived multi-level from 5 m down to 30 m, with coral bommies standing on the sand and a wide range of macro life across them. There is no reef line to follow here: the bommies are the structure, and how deep the dive goes is chosen on the day rather than set by the site.
Where it is and how deep
8.3500° S, 116.0500° EApproximate position — the dashed circle shows where the site lies; your operator's briefing has the mooring.
The dive
The slope runs down the western shore of Gili Meno and is dived as a multi-level profile: in at the deep end, then up. The bottom is sand rather than reef, with coral bommies standing on it, and those bommies are the dive. Each one holds its own small population, so the pattern is to cross open sand between them and then spend time working around a single coral head before moving on to the next.
The deepest ground is at 30 m and there is no need to stay on it: bommies stand on the sand at every level of the slope, and the open sand between them is worth scanning as you cross it. Coming up the slope, the coral heads get denser and the light better, and the last stretch at 5 m makes a long, easy finish. Because the profile is a continuous climb, this is one of the simpler sites here to plan gas and no-decompression time on.
Marine life and season
- Macro critters
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Good | Good | Good | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Good |
Season follows Gili Islands: Divable year-round; Apr–Nov brings the calmest crossings, and mola mola occasionally appear Aug–Oct on the deeper sites.
Sources
- Meno Slope - Gili Meno — Scubago/SSI
More dive sites in Gili Islands
Wall
A vertical face dropping from 5 m to 30 m off Gili Air
Old bicycles under coral on a pontoon that sank in 2003
Pinnacle
Sea mounds rising from sand at 30 m to about 18 m
Juvenile whitetips tucked into small caves along a drifting slope
Sand slope
Broken rubble ground from 5 m to 16 m, then open sand
Turtles in numbers along a wall that bottoms out at 22 m
Reef
Whitetip sharks and turtles on three coral levels at 18-24 m
Reef
Deep reef meeting sand at 30 m off the northern Gilis
Similar dives elsewhere
Hundreds of garden eels swaying over an open sand flat
Two jetties over a steep sand slope to 30 metres
Fine sand and rock past 30 metres, dived for the small stuff
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Sand dunes full of garden eels, with eagle rays overhead