In August 2006 I dived Menjangan Island as part of a Divequest underwater photography group trip to various locations in Bali.

Initially based in the north-west corner of Bali, at The Mimpi Menjangan Resort, our group twice travelled to Menjangan Island. Led by Dive Master Wayan Sudarma, our first dive combined the Position II and Bat Cave dive sites at Menjangan Island. The island has steep dramatic vertical walls with clear water and enormous soft coral formations but although the scenery on the first dive (my dive 1278) was superb, the fish life was disappointing. However my dive buddy Paul Morgan and I could not say the same of our next dive at Coral Gardens. This dive site is on the north east corner of Menjangan Island. The main fish highlights were Batfish, Squid, Cuttlefish, Filefish, Titan Triggerfish, a Crocodilefish and a Six-Banded Angelfish.

Two days later our dive group returned on our boat, Eka Darma. I solo dived Garden Eel Point (my dive 1284) and then Menjangan Slope. Garden Eel Point, on the west side of Menjangan Island has some of the brightest white sand in Indonesia dotted with large coral heads. Apparently we were particularly lucky with the conditions for this dive, which produced perfect visibility and good light to complement the stunning coral. I cannot recall having dived a more visually stunning dive site. Alex Mustard, our Divequest group leader agreed and like me he has been lucky enough to dive some of the world’s best dive sites. Fish highlights of this dive were large Tuna, Giant Pufferfish, Filefish and a Napoleon Wrasse. Alex took a photograph of the coral while I performed the role of a silhouette model. This photograph, which I have entitled on this website "Corals & Malcolm - A Mustard" was subsequently published in the December 2006 edition of DIVE magazine as the lead photograph of an “INdepth DIVE Guide” article on Bali written by Alex. While a superb photograph of the coral, not even my own Mother recognised me so fame will have to wait. Menjangan Slope produced equally stunning coral, albeit the visibility was not as exceptional and save for a Giant Moray Eel, I did not see any interesting marine life.