BALI: NUSA PENIDA ISLAND

Map of Nusa Penida

As part of Bali’s district, Nusa Penida Island is under the Klungkung regency. If you want to go to Nusa Penida Island from Bali, you need to go to Padang bay to take a ferryboat crossing from Bali to Nusa Penida Island. The only ferryboat available is called as Roro-Nusa Jaya Abadi. This boat will take you crossing the Badung Strait (located between Bali Island and Nusa Penida Island), and the trip will take around one hour to get to the Toya Pakeh Harbor in Nusa Penida Island. After you have reached the island, you can continue the trip by having a modified pick-up car or known as “omprengan”.

The northern dive sites of Nusa Penida like Crystal Bay, Pura Ped and Toyapakeh are good destinations for Drift Diving. A boat ride with BIDP's speed boat of 45 minutes brings y ou to the best underwater adventures here in Bali Indonesia.

The divesites around Penida can be challenging. Upwellings from the deep can cause thermoclines and let the temperature drop to 20 degrees celsius. Currents running between the Nusa Islands and Lombok Strait are most of the time southward, but can be influenced in direction and strength by the monsoon seasons.

The three islands, Nusa Penida Island, Lembongan Island and Ceningan Island are situated at the Wallace Line which lies at the middle of Bali Island and Lombok Island. This Wallace Line is a separation line between the eco-zones of Asia and Australasia. To the west of the Wallace Line, Asiatic species and organism live, while to the east of the Wallace Line, Australian species and organism exist for living. According to the scientist, these boundaries have been existing for 50 million years. They are predicted to be the south-western edge of Sunda Earth Crust Shelf which are believed to link some main islands in Indonesia, such as Java, Sumatera, Borneo, Bali to the Southeast Asia’s mainland.

Nusa Penida Backgrounds

Nusa Penida Island as the part of Bali district under the Klungkung Regency has its own history. The Nusa Penida Island was a place where the Gelgel dynasty from Bali was held in prison at early 18th century under the Majapahit ruler. The Gelgel Dynasty was one of the Balinese Kingdoms which conquered the Lombok Island once.

Badung Strait, during WWII the Badung Strait was the location of "The Of Badung Strait". This event took place on 19 and 20 februar 1942. Allied forces had a confrontation here with the Imperial Japanese Navy.

How to get to Nusa Penida

BIDP organise daily dive trips to the Nusa Lembongan, Nusa Penida and Nusa Ceningan Islands and regularly visit 12 divesites. You can feel save to dive with an organisation with more then 25 years of experience diving in Bali, Indonesia.

These are just a short summary of so many interesting places that you can visit in Nusa Penida Island. However, many tourist are not yet well-informed about this amazing island, so that not many tourist coming to the island. Furthermore, the very potential tourism objects are not well- managed yet. Hopefully, there will be a significant improvement in the nearest future.

Diving sites

Nusa Penida covers a wide area of diving locations. They are Penida Bay, Manta Point, Batu Meling, Batu Lumbung, Batu Abah, Toyapakeh and Malibu Point. The flow through the Lombok Strait is, overall, south-tending, although the strength and direction of the tidal streams are influenced by the monsoon seasons.

During the southeast monsoons, the tidal flow tends south; during the northeast monsoons, the tidal flow tends north. In the area of the strait north of Nusa Penida, the pattern is relatively simple, with a flow, at peaktide, of about three-and-one-half knots. Tidal streams in Badung Strait are semi-diurnal, but the character of the stream is very complicated because its direction runs obliquely to the general south to north direction of Lombok Strait, and the channel has a curved shape.

Toyapakeh

Toyapakeh has a stretch of reefs, and in the southern part of the bay there is a similar area of rugged bommies, rich with color and fish. Big schools of fish, sea turtles, and occasionally molas are highlight of Toyapakeh diving. Toyapakeh is special for its pillars of coral.

Malibu Point

Malibu Point is a diving site with gray reefs, reef white tips, silver-tips and numerous sharks. While Penida Bay is another anchorage, and the rocky islands have an interesting forms; something like an old resting elephant. The bay is vulnerable to swell, creating-up-and-down-currents. Then, Manta Point is a limestone rock off Pandan cafe. The swell is relatively strong.

Lembongan

Lembongan is a diving site with vast spread of coral reefs and good visibility. Big fishes are frequently observed at the area. Manta rays or sunfishes appear in the certain season.
The site is also known of the very strong currents requiring divers some skills.

Crystal Bay

Crystal Bay is calmer than outer shore. There are many Antheases. A school of batfish comes around periodically. A bat cave is located nearby.