The American USS Liberty shipwreck in Tulamben is Bali's most famous and accessible dive site and one of the safest wreck dives in the world. This large war victim is just meters from the shore and can be easy reached from a beach dive. The armed cargo ship was built in 1918 and served as a supply vessel during World War II. It was torpedoed by Japanese submarine I-166 in 1942 while in the strait approx. 10 nautical miles south-west of Lombok. The ship was rescued and towed towards Bali by a Dutch destroyer the HNLMS Van Ghent. However, damage done to the ship was so great that the attempt to reach Singaraja failed, the crew was evacuated and the ship was beached in Tulamben.
The intact ship sat beached on the Tulamben coast until Bali's volcano Gunung Agung erupted in 1963. The Liberty crashed beneath the water during this violent eruption and now sits on a black sand shelf that slopes from about 6-30m. The Wreck lies parallel to the beach with her bow pointing north. The Liberty has become one of Indonesia most beautiful artificial reefs.
A couple of coworkers and I decided to venture off on our own and do some diving while in Bali. The Liberty shipwreck was the recommended site as it's easily accessible and safe. The dive started with a 2 hour bus ride to Tulamben across the Bali countryside. On the way we passed some very beautiful scenery of rice fields and volcanic mountains.
Once we arrived in Tulamben it as time to suit up and go in. The dive company provided all of the equipment as always, though there lacked a full HD underwater camera. That was rather disappointing considering how stunning this dive was. They made it up by providing some delicious local food at a restaurant yards from our dive point.
Our dives, we did two, launched from the beach which was a first for me. Beach diving is incredibly convenient and much less intimidating than diving off a boat in deep water. For the most part you don't even notice how deep you're going until you look up at the surface. The wreck took about 10 minutes to get to under water and was truly vast. The amount of sea life and interesting formations were more than enough to keep us amazed for the two 30 minute dives.
On my second dive I tightened my mask a bit too much above water. Once I started descending the mask got tighter and tighter until it was excruciatingly painful and I had to adjust it under water. Which meant taking it off, adjusting the straps while blind, putting it back on and then clearing the mask of water. Besides that the dives were uneventful and easily the highlight of my 4 day trip to Bali.
