Menjangan & West Bali · Indonesia · Reef
Kebun Chris
Pemuteran's first protected reef, 20 m off the beach
Area photo: Bernard DUPONT · CC BY-SA 4.0
The first reef at Pemuteran to be given protection and care, and still noted for how rich it is. It lies about 20 m off the beach in front of the Reef Seen operation in 2 to 15 m of water, which makes it a shore dive you walk into and a natural place for easy second dives and unhurried photography.
Where it is and how deep
8.1441° S, 114.6403° EApproximate position — the dashed circle shows where the site lies; your operator's briefing has the mooring.
The dive
You walk in from the beach in front of Reef Seen and the reef starts about 20 m out, so the swim to the site is measured in metres rather than minutes and there is no boat, no schedule and no fixed turnaround. The bottom runs from 2 m at the inshore edge to 15 m at its deepest, which is a range you can cross several times in one tank without thinking about the profile at all.
That shallowness is what the site is for. It is the reef in the bay that has been protected and cared for the longest, and it is noted for how rich it is, so the diving is close work over coral rather than distance covered — the sort of dive where an hour goes on one stretch of reef. Because it is shallow and shore-based, it also doubles as the easy end of a day that started on the island's walls.
Background
Kebun Chris was the first reef at Pemuteran to benefit from protection and care, which puts it at the start of the community effort the bay is now known for. That effort grew to include about 70 bio-rock structures installed along roughly half a kilometre of shoreline, a collaboration begun in 2000 between the Karang Lestari Foundation and the Global Coral Reef Alliance. The reef is correspondingly rich in diversity.
Marine life and season
The sources we used don't single out particular species here.
| 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 Menjangan & West Bali: Divable all year thanks to the lee of Java; Apr–Nov is driest, and the wet season only affects surface conditions.
Sources
- Gerokgak, Buleleng — Wikipedia
More dive sites in Menjangan & West Bali
Wall
Sea fans and frogfish on a wall, a 150-year-old wreck below
Wall
A face to 60 m, pocked with gaps that fish shelter in
Coral garden
Sponge-studded coral slope from 4 m to 25 m, usually currentless
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Clear water from 3 m to 40 m, 15 minutes off Pemuteran
Wall
Steep wall from 3 m to 45 m, running east into hard coral
Wall
Sea fans down a 40 m face between two of the island's classics
Sand slope
Sand dunes full of garden eels, with eagle rays overhead
Sand slope
Coral blocks scattered over sand between 10 m and 20 m
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