Bira Selayar Diving Indonesia Archipelago

BIRA & SELAYAR

Tanjung (cape) Bira lies at the southeastern tip of the leg of Sulawesi, and below it, the long narrow island of Selayar. This area, which has been slated for major tourism development, offers enthusiast some excellent exploratory diving. Tanjung Bira is very dry peninsula of uplifted fossil coral, with no freshwater river input.

The diving around Bira itself is on nice fringing reefs, but most outstanding by far are the Sheer walls of Kambing island, a stark slab of rock rising out of the ocean between Bira and Selayar Island, where the coral cover and fish life are fantastic.

Selayar Island, just south of the most southern tip of South Sulawesi, has for many years been ignored by both the land-based traveler and the dive holiday-maker. This island is covered with rich primary rain forest and is for the most part only populated on its western coast. The eastern spine of Selayar is a 75km long mountain range that reaches up to 600m and falls directly into the sea, continuing to depths of 2-3,000 meters. This formation has created some of Indonesia’s best wall dives. Selayar’s thick primary jungles hide two massive 7 tiered waterfalls that tumble to the coast from one 500 meter mountain peak. This fresh water source enters the sea at a small village and lagoon and is home to several sea cows that enjoy the brackish water created by the mixing of the fresh spring-fed water source and the pristine blue sea only 25 km from the 3rd largest coral atoll in the world, Takabonerate.

However, since this island stretches North to South, the prevailing winds of the region make the East coast of Selayar accessible only in the months of October through March, when Selayar’s mountain range shelters these East Coast walls and reefs from the winds coming directly out of the west.

In the months of April through September, when the prevailing winds come from the East, the wave activity on this eastern coast make it absolutely impossible for fishermen to exploit this area. For this reason, these walls have seen very little of the destruction often associated with Indonesia. The local Selayar Government has recently given special conservation area status to the reefs at the Southern tip of Selayar. Access fees are levied on divers visiting this area, which cover the cost of regular police patrol boats, ensuring continued preservation of this special area.

Now all this technical wind information does not mean that the West side of Selayar should be avoided. Over the months of May-September, the vessel KLM Duyungcan bring you to some fine dive sites located that the South extremes of the island and the pristine beaches that dot the full length of the West Coast of Pulau Selayar.

The east coast of Selayar is said to have some of the most stunning beaches in Indonesia, with diving to match. The island of Selayar a narrow island rising 4000 m from the bottom of Banda sea, full caves waterfalls and untouched nature.

The dive sites here it is 3 km long house reef is in pristine condition, with steep walls thickly covered in hard and soft corals. Fast speedboats allow you to reach a wide variety of other sites, and follow you during drift dives. There are mostly wall dives;the marine life includes nudibranch, reef-fish, schools of jacks and barracudas, turtles, pelagic, groupers, eagle and manta rays, reef sharks and even hammerhead-sharks. Dolphins, whales and dugongs have been spotted during your boat trips.

How to get there
Fly to Makassar the capital of South Sulawesi. Then you can take a local flight to Selayar island. Selayar can also reached by boat from Bira, which Bira can reached 4 hours by car from Makassar.

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