Menjangan Island Snorkelling Trip

Report by:    Ben Keenan

On Friday the 25th of September we went to Menjangan Island in North West Bali for a snorkelling trip. Menjangan Island is one of the best places to go snorkelling in the world it also has some of the best coral reef and many different types of fish.

While we were there we met professional paralympian Dutch women’s basketball player Barbara van Bergen and her husband Johan. Barbara is also an Olympic bronze medallist in London 2012 and is going to her 3rd Olympics next year in Rio De Janeiro . We were doing the snorkelling trip together and they were a nice, friendly couple - who spoke good English!

We were picked up in a seven seater at about 9 in the morning and drove for about an hour to a small place where you get a boat to the island. It was an old local fishing boat but good fun. It took about 30 minutes to get to the snorkelling place. We had our own masks and snorkels but the guide gave us some flippers to make swimming easier.

Local Boats         

The sea was amazing, when you got in there was so many types of fish and coral it was just amazing. We swam for about 1 hour along the coral reef looking at the corals and the fish.

      Us with Barbara and Johan

After our first session of snorkelling we had lunch on a boat and went across to somewhere else for our next session. The second one wasn't as good but still 1000000x better than anything you would find in Belfast hahaha.

The worst part of the day was when we came back and everyone needed the toilet(this never ends well.) The toilets were absolutely terrible, the smell was sooooo bad. It was by far one the worst smells I have ever smelt.

When we were heading back to the villa Johan needed to buy some things in the shop. When he came out he handed us a bag of these weird looking sweets. The sweets were made out of vanilla and chocolate and they looked like it was creating an optical illusion.

When we got to Barbara and Johan’s villa we said goodbye and wished Barbara good luck in Rio.

Altogether Menjangan island i s a great place to go and I would definitely recommend going if you ever get the chance. We made a video - I hope you enjoy it.

Thank you to Johan and Barbara for making it a great day to remember xxxx.