Northern Iceland
Bira, South SulawesiBUDGET DIVING BIRA, SOUTH SULAWESI by Andrew Falconer
BIRA, SOUTH SULAWESI: Bira Dive Camp http://www.biradivecamp.com
Bira is a small town located on the southwestern tip of Sulawesi, and can only be reached by a five-hour road trip (taxi) from Makassar airport. Despite this, it is worth visiting as it is laid back, with good diving, and a nice white sand beach.
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The location of Bira in relation to Sulawesi |
All the diving is by boat and is mostly centered around Kamping island, which is about 30 minutes away, and other closer sites, including a house reef. There are about eight main dive sites, so as the boat trips involve double dives the area can be covered in four days.
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White tip reef shark at Bira |
A scorpion fish close up at Bira |
Although the sites have suffered the usual fate of over fishing in Indonesia, I managed to see a number of white tip reef sharks around Kamping island. At certain times of the year pelagic species can be seen, but not when I was there.
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A white spotted moray eel |
An inquisitive blue puffer fish |
There were also quite a lot of other interesting reef inhabitants, such as scorpion fish, moray eels, along with the usual reef fishes, such as blue tooth triggerfish
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The visibility was around 10-15 metres, and the sponges and corals were quite good |
The sea temperature was around 28 degrees, with very little current, making diving relaxing. Visibility was average, coral mostly in good condition around Kamping island, and the house reef.
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Nudibranche close up |
A flatworm swimming gracefully by |
There were plenty of macro opportunities both during the day and on the house reef night dive.
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Looking up at a diver from a swim through |
The beach at Bira with dive boat |
The Bira dive camp was located next to the beach; the bungalow accommodation was good (there is also a dormitory), the food rather basic (although there was a very good restaurant nearby) and the staff friendly and professional. There are also opportunities for a few land excursions nearby. The trip and diving Bira was combined with a trip and diving at Palu (separate article) with the overall cost of this two week trip from Perth including 17 dives, accommodation and transportation being $AUD2,500.
NOVEMBER 2017