Box of Light is made possible thanks to these visionaries:
Nusa Lembongan is a tiny island off the east coast of Bali. It takes about 20 minutes to get there by fast boat when the ocean, tide and weather is on your side. It's very much like the Bukit Peninsula, but without cars. Everyone gets around on scooters and troop-carrier like taxis. In 20 minutes you can lap around the entire island. A yellow bridge connects to the nearby island of Cennigan and the larger Nusa Penida is a short boat ride away. Nusa Penida is home to some famously beautiful beaches and bays, and the manta ray.
We hired a local guy to take us to the manta ray in the hope we would beat the crowds. The short traditional boat trip gave us a great insight into how tricky the currents can be between the islands. Luckily our captain knew his way around the complexities of these and where to find the manta rays off the coast of Nusa Penida.
The tourist experience is bizarre: the manta are spotted and 100 people dive out of 20 or more boats to see them. It's a melee of panicked first-time ocean swimmers (some in lifejackets, others in inflatable tubes), manta rays and boats whizzing around in the choppy bay. When a manta is spotted it is a stampede on the water's surface and just as entertaining as the cruisy, equanimous creatures we've all come to see beneath us.
I hope the 500,000 Indonesian Rupiah I paid to the manta conservation fund goes toward some guidelines around swimming with these giants.
Surf wise, Nusa Lembongan's north west coast has all the gems. A tight clutch of seven or so waves wrap around the barrier reef, but each is so tide dependent it can take a few days to dial them in. They all like a high tide that is dropping and can jump from 2-3 foot to 4-6 foot as the tide starts running out. It's like clockwork. One wave only turns on three hours before low and then one hour before low it becomes too shallow to surf. That's a two-hour window once a day ... if the swell is big enough. But it is worth every shred of some serious patience if you like to get barreled.
Shipwrecks is the dependable break and holds pretty good size. We surfed it up to about 6 foot and heard it held 8 foot on a day we explored some other breaks. It's a weird, but intriguing wave. It used to break alongside a shipwreck. They brought a crane into remove the shipwreck and now the wave breaks beneath a massive rusty crane.
Nusa Lembongan is a stunning island with crystal clear water and amazing coral reefs. The locals are super friendly and so grateful to have tourism back after Covid. There are more restaurants/warungs than people, but they are all serving amazing food – local and international. We thought seven days might have been a bit long, but the more we learnt about Nusa Lembongan the more we realised there was to explore. It really captures island living – we even had to extend our stay because weather closed the strait. That worked out well for us as we hadn't surfed all the waves on their best tides.
The laidback charm, friendly locals and easy pace of life on Nusa Lembongan means we will certainly be back.
See you at the beach ... Derek
PS With weather events cancelling ferries and strait crossings we had to cancel our Lombok adventure. So we are now back on the Bukit with a week of swell ahead of us in the 3-8 foot range. Be careful what you wish for ...
Box of Light is made possible thanks to these visionaries: