Diving
P.Tenggol offers a plethora of dive sites satisfying all levels of diving proficiency. There are dive sites such as ‘the Highway’ and ‘Fishbowl’ with strong surface swells and rushing currents which provide adrenaline pumping action for experienced divers. There are too, calming dives such as the ‘House Reef’ and the ‘Coral Garden’ otherwise known as ‘Tanjung Pisang’ to ease you back into innerspace. It’s a delight to melt into this watery world, lapsing into a timeless suspension of life. It’s not hard to imagine how therapeutic a trip like this can be to the body and the soul…
NB. Although we have included the general conditions of the dive site ie. current, depth etc..it is all subject to the seasons, the weather conditions and who the divemaster is. Please check with your dive instructor before heading off to the dive locations. Generally, Pulau Tenggol has pretty rough waters at certain times of the year and there have been several accidents in the waters around the island in recent years. Please make sure that you are a proficient diver before attempting to dive here.
(Difficulty: open water and higher)
Date: 05 September 2000
Dive Site: Western Bay of Teluk Air Tawar (Fresh Water Bay)
Visibility: 45’ (15m)
Maximum dive depth: 60’ (20m)
Minimum dive depth: 35’ (12m)
Current: calm
Safety stop: 3min @15’ (5m)
‘House Reef’ means just that! Suit up on the beach and just wade into the warm bay water. The seabed slopes gently from the shoreline. Approximately 50m(at lowtide) from the shore the floor drops away. This sheer drop spreads across the bay and goes down to a depth of 90’ before levelling off.
As a first dive after a day’s worth of travelling, this is the place to ease you back into life in innerspace. There are innumerable opportunities for encounters with friendly denizens of the bay: loitering turtles, a herd of humphead parrotfish busy shifting dead corals, three footer Napolean Wrasses patrolling the area, juvenile fish taking shelter amongst the corals, rays gliding across the sandy bar.
A wooden sampan lies in its watery grave some 75’ - 80’ below surface, host to a variety of marine life….a moray eel, boxfishes and lionfishes are some of its tenants.
This is also a great place to sharpen your skills at underwater photography. There are lots of tiny creatures like the garden eels poking their heads out of their funnels in the sand and the brightly coloured nudibranchs found wandering about the gardens. I am told that night dives in the bay is simply awesome. The night creatures crawl out of their crevices in search of food whilst the active day creatures catch up on sleep. Don’t forget that the spiny sea urchins come out to feed at night and this little creature can cause extreme pain if their spines pierce through skin and flesh. Avoid contact with any surface area until you have scoured the place. There have been sightings of Coral Cat sharks and Pantherfish in the area at night…check it out and if you do find them, do let me know at pappy@journeymalaysia.com
| 2. Tokong Laut or ‘The Highway’ |
(Difficulty: advance level and above)
sketches found in this article have been 'lifted' from the divelog of dennis ho, with permission of course. |
Date: 06 September 2000
Dive Site: Pulau Nyireh
Visibility: 45’ (15m)
Maximum dive depth: 66’ (22m)
Minimum dive depth: 54’ (18m)
Current: gushing
Safety stop: 3min @15’ (5m)
Many experienced divers cherish this spot for its swift currents - the feel of the rush.(this dive should only be attempted by divers with wide diving experience in open sea conditions).The strong eddy currents on the surface may be a little unsettling but the undercurrent tops it all. Follow your instructor’s instructions carefully or you may find yourself drifting away from the crowd. At certain parts of the route where the current changes course, swim away from the drift for some dive activity. Schools of pelagic fish float by and into a funnel between the large boulders found here. There are plenty of coral trout swimming around the boulders.
On calmer days, take a peek under these boulders and you may find a beautiful golden carpet of cave corals. The resident batfishes often accompany divers on the ascent, circling around at arms length. It’s nice to find that these inhabitants are as curious of us as we are of them!
(Difficulty: open water and above)
Date: 05 September 2000
Dive Site: bay on the eastern side of P.Tenggol
Visibility: 45’ (15m)
Maximum dive depth: 60’ (20m)
Minimum dive depth: 35’ (12m)
Current: gentle
Decompression: 3min @15’ (5m)
An image crossed my mind as we descended to our level-off at 45’….we’ve found an oasis on this vast sea of sand dunes! The sandy bottom of the sea seemed to have sprouted a garden of plenty with large Christmas Tree Worms peeping out of their cubby holes in the coral rock, brightly coloured Nudibranchs sliding over corals….like garden slugs, picture snails that have left their shells behind before taking a dip in the water.
There are large brain corals scattered around the area, playing host to motley guests taking shelter, feeding, sleeping and living on them. Barrel sponges everywhere go about their business of filtering the sea and there is, purportedly a 4’ resident grouper lurking under the table corals….happy searching!
(Difficulty: advance level and above)
Date: 07 September 2000
Dive Site: Steffen’s Highway (other divemasters may name this divesite something else.. it's a diver's ego thing...)
Visibility: 35’ (12m)
Maximum dive depth: 76’ (25m)
Minimum dive depth: 18’ (6m)
Current: none today but has known to have swift currents in the area
Safety stop: 3min @15’ (5m)
There were lots of soft corals but surprisingly not as many grazing coral fish as we had expected. I particularly like peering under boulders and into nooks and crannies and towards the end of the dive, I chanced upon a small cave at the base of a large boulder.Squinting into the dark mouth of the cave , a movement caught me off-guard. I am sure I startled the poor creature as much it did me. A swift flick of its long tail, a giant moray…approximately 5 feet from head to toe, churned up a cloud of sand as it made its rapid exit. A nice find to log into my dive journal!
(difficulty: openwater and higher)
Date: 30th March 2001
Dive Site: Nyirih
Visibility: 60’ (20m)
Maximum dive depth: 45’ (15m)
Minimum dive depth: 15’ (5m)
Current: mild
Safety stop: 3min @15’ (5m)
This site is awesome - soft, hard corals cover large areas of the terrain, feather stars, nudibranchs and a wide variety of reef fishes not to mention a number of hungry free swimmers linger in the area. Watch out for the zebra spotfin lionfish - the beauty with a nasty ‘sting’. We wondered why our dive instructors never breathed a word about this place….hmm. Perhaps it’s just that little secret garden no one else should know about?
| 7. Tokong Timor (white rock) |
(Difficulty: open water and above)
Date: 10 October 2000
Dive Site: south western side of P.Tenggol
Visibility: 55’ (18m)
Maximum dive depth: 60’ (21m)
Minimum dive depth: 48’ (16m)
Current: gentle current towards the end of the dive
Safety stop: 3min @15’ (5m)
This site is approximately 300m off the south western side of the main island. The terrain is generally flat but littered with rocks and boulders. Feather stars of a variety of colours (even white ones) cling on to the surfaces of barrel sponges and anywhere that has good current flow. Sea grass blankets the slopes on the north eastern face giving it a rather familiar landscape. The much-talked about pinnacles are situated here and are two oddly shaped boulders where I found a couple of black groupers hanging around in wait of their next meal. This dive location has a nice display of various soft corals but is surprisingly low on fish varieties. There are however, nice selections on damselfishes, each group guarding their territories.
There was a pod of dolphins playing close to the dive location and there has been sightings of whale sharks in the area during the so-called ’whale shark season’ of August, September and October…but don’t take this too literally, animals are almost as temperamental as people, so you may see a few non-conformers , out of season.
(difficulty: advanced and higher)
Date: 11 October 2000
Dive Site: south western side of
P.Tenggol
Visibility: 35’ (12m)
Maximum dive depth: 75’ (25m)
Minimum dive depth: 54’ (18m)
Current: mild
Safety stop: 3min @15’ (5m)
This location resembles a construction site. Boulders and rocks scattered on the slopes and base of the mound. The sandy bottom is thriving with worms and a few colonies of soft coral beautifies the otherwise barren landscape. Fish life also seems to be absent in the area. Not a wise choice for a dive location.
(difficulty: advanced and higher)
Date: 12 October 2000
Dive Site: P.Tenggol
Visibility: 15’ (5m)
Maximum dive depth: 75’ (25m)
Minimum dive depth: 54’ (18m)
Current: mild
Safety stop: 3min @15’ (5m)
Lots of suspended sediments made us work a little harder when the visibility dropped to about 5m at any time. This site is similar to the coral garden and is thickly blanketed with soft and hard corals alike and plenty of starfishes and even tennis sponges lay at the bottom and in between rocks. A good find!
(difficulty: advanced and higher)
Date: 29th March 2001
Dive Site: P.Tenggol
Visibility: 48’ (16m)
Maximum dive depth: 96’ (32m)
Minimum dive depth: 54’ (18m)
Current: none
Safety stop: 3min @15’ (5m)
We waddled into the water in search of the small wreck, embedded in an area of white sand under about 20’ (7m) of water. The wreck is well marked with a buoy…and after a short while of paddling (…for sometimes it’s good to conserve some of the air for the dive than use the precious ration just for the sake of paddling out to the location….), and having located the dark blot on the seabed, we dived right in. The wreck is of an old Vietnamese boat(sampan) which may have presumably been smashed deliberately by the Vietnamese refugees to avoid having to be sent home by the marine patrols when caught. The bow of the 10’ (3m) boat was smashed into smithereens and there was not much to see there except for a few coral fishes.
 |
But a little less than 30’ (10m) to the south of this wreck is a sunken trawler. The exterior looked very much intact but the inside has pretty much disintegrated. Like a scene from the movie, ‘The Deep’ - a giant moray lives in the hull of this wreck… and no, they don’t usually attack divers unless provoked, so keep your hands to yourself! The soft corals cling onto the skeletal remains of the wreck and this has attracted a fine collection of coral fishes such as the butterflyfishes and the parrotfish. Groups of blue and yellow fin fusiliers were darting in and out of the wreck like kids on the climbing bars. The only sign of the trawler ever having a life was the remnant of an old lorry battery in the captain’s cabin.
Snorkelling
Step out of your chalet and into the warm water. It’s a small step, a giant discovery! Don’t be despondent if you find a strip of bleached corals nearer to shore. Snorkel further out and you will find your treasure. A little tip here: there are disposable underwater cameras for sale in many Kodak and Fuji outlets. It’s a real nice to have.Many kinds of corals can be found here…..brain corals, staghorn corals, fire corals
(Note: a word of caution about touching corals…fire corals are dangerous. The pain scorches, hence the name fire coral. And since many of us have little knowledge about corals, it’s best not to touch any at all).
Large 2’ foot clams are wedged steadfastly in between rocks and the lovely purple max, clams up whenever it senses unfamiliar movements.
However, the water can get a little murky at certain times and visibility can drop to about 20’ - 25’
TIP: Tenggol is generally a diver’s playground and snorkelling is limited to certain areas only as many of the good sites are simply too deep. For a boat ride out to other islands such as Pulau Nyirih, the resort charges RM25 per person for a 45min-1 hour trip. Often the sites are chosen based on divers’ priority.
Trekking
Trekking starts from a trail behind the Resort. A 45min walk takes you to the peak of one of the 3 hills which contribute to the shape of a person perching. Brief encounters with monitor lizards, squirrels, imperial pigeons, macaques are common. There are reticulated pythons and scorpions on the island so be careful when exploring the tiny caves dotted around.
At 800m, I see white-bellied sea eagles and sea gulls swooping into the water. The blistering hot day begins to cool as the sun sizzles into the calm sea. Everything seems a million miles away and the appreciation of nature’s beauty begins to take shape. The perfect hideaway….
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