My Secret Paradise in Earth – Scuba Diving The Liberty Shipwreck, Tulamben – Bali

Bali is famous as a tropical island paradise, but it also has a wonderfully diverse collection of dive sites around its coastline that yield many hidden treasures.

One of the most famous wreck dive sites in the world, the wreck of the USAT Liberty sits submerged on Tulamben Beach in north east Bali. The wreck has been underwater since 1963, and is now home to a huge amount of fish and coral. The stern is at 6 meters and the bow at 30 meters, and the ship itself is 120 meters long, providing a great playground for divers of all abilities to explore. Just behind Tulamben Beach is Mount Agung volcano, which last erupted in 1963, pushing the Liberty off the beach proper and into the position you can see today. The sand around the Tulamben region is black volcanic sand rather than the usual white stuff.

The Tulamben coastline has numerous dive sites, of which the Liberty happens to be the most famous. The Drop Off is a dramatic wall dive that goes down 40 metres plus which leads into Alamanda, another equally good dive site right next door, while the Coral Garden is a shallow site that is packed with exotic marine life like blue ribboned eels, mantis shrimp, cuttlefish and leaf scorpionfish, plus huge great clouds of schooling jacks. For photographers it”s extremely rewarding – there is a lot to snap on each dive. There is definitely enough diving around Tulamben to keep any diver occupied for 4 to 5 days at least. That”s just in the north east of Bali too – there are plenty more dive sites further down the coast as well if you want to move around.

Tulamben is a very small town with about 10 dive resorts and several restaurants. It”s more a strip of shops either side of the road which runs parallel to the beach. All the resorts offer accommodation as well as diving. Internet is available too, but it”s pretty slow, so don”t expect too much. It”s pretty much an eat/sleep/dive routine, but resorts can organise daytrips to some of Bali”s topside attractions like temples and rice terraces too.

Tulamben is a three hour drive from Bali”s airport at Denpasar. It”s a fairly interesting journey with twisty roads. Resorts will lay on a free pick up and transfer for you to meet you at the airport. Grab some water at the airport before you get in the car. You can stop somewhere up the coast for a meal too if you”re hungry.

On that day, I”m sitting in a rigid-hull inflatable boat, riding over glass-smooth water, watching the early-morning sun illuminate the brooding presence of Mount Agung. Bali”s highest point and still-active volcano is visible throughout Tulamben. Mount Agung”s last catastrophic eruption in 1963 created the black-rock beach and the sand on which sits the USS Liberty. Previously on land, the Liberty was pushed underwater by the eruption”s force, which also created huge trenches of volcanic rock on the seabed. Today, the wreck and the dive sites surrounding it have become a haven for marine life. It”s easily Bali”s most famous dive area. Scores of people visit every day, from Tulamben and beyond, heading up on charter boats from the south. But if, like my buddy and I, you”re staying in Tulamben, you can have the wreck to yourself by simply getting up early and entering the water at 6 a.m.

As we drop into the water, a huge school of jacks sits in a cyclone swirl directly above the stern, the rising sun catching on their silver bodies. As we move farther down and round the stern, the entire wreck stretches out in front of us, swarming with rainbow runners, fusiliers and more. Perhaps the Liberty is so popular not just because it”s a beautifully easy dive – beginning at 15 feet and running down to 100 feet at its deepest point – but because it looks exactly as a shipwreck should. The arc of the stern remains fully intact, the ribs of the ship frame the sunlight streaming in from above, and marine life encrusts every surface – the smooth metal having long disappeared.

My favorites are the large vase corals perched upright on some of the bow section”s struts and the fronds spilling from the Liberty”s now inert gun. Among the wreck”s ribs hover its resident bumphead parrotfish, their faces set in a perpetual grin beneath their bulbous foreheads. For such large fish, easily the length of my arm, they move nimbly around the wreck”s fallen debris, a flash of almost fluorescent blue-green.

For many, the Liberty is the sole site they see in Tulamben before being whisked back south. For my buddy and me, three days didn’t seem enough to explore the coastline”s endlessly surprising and nearly deserted dive sites. Kubu provides one of our most memorable dives, not least because upon descent, I see the flash of something large and silver-white above me. As I glance up, I can”t help but smile as I recognize the unmistakable profile of a bottlenose dolphin powering by, disappearing from my view almost as soon as it arrived. Kubu itself is a smooth slope of black volcanic sand that levels out around 60 feet. Scattered across it are man-size vase corals, the only feature on this otherwise unbroken level. Most are upright, but some lie on their side, as if tipped over. It makes for a fascinating and surreal landscape.

The irony that this incredible underwater world was created by Mount Agung”s destructive eruption is not lost on us as we enjoy our final sunset in Tulamben after a soothing Mandi Lulur Javanese. The tranquility of this tiny village, no more than a few houses and shops beside the dusty road, belies its recent, dramatic history.