Bhayangkara

The boat leaves Benteng harbour and is on site in twenty minutes. There is nothing steep here: the bottom is a gentle slope of white sand with coral patches sitting on it, running down to a maximum of 15 metres. That shallow limit and the absence of current set the shape of the dive — you can take an hour over a short stretch of slope, work from patch to patch, and surface with gas to spare rather than planning a route around a wall.

The reef patches are what you dive. Green and hawksbill turtles use them, blue spotted stingrays sit on the sand between them, and schooling fusiliers move over the top. Closer in, the patches hold lionfish, crocodilefish, leaf scorpionfish and nudibranchs, which are worth slowing down for — on a slope this shallow there is enough light and enough bottom time to sit with one subject instead of passing it.

The dive ends where it starts, in a few metres of water over sand, so the ascent is untroubled and there is no need to plan a route back to a particular exit point. The one variable here is the surface rather than the bottom: in some seasons the water off this stretch of coast turns choppy, which makes the twenty-minute ride and the entry and exit more awkward without changing what the dive itself is like once you are down on the slope.