As one of Indonesia’s top areas for scuba diving and a reputation for being the ‘turtle capital of the world’, with year round water temperatures about 28 degrees Celsius, the Gili islands have become popular for beginners and experienced divers alike. There are about 18 dive sites around the three islands, with a variety of topography (slopes, walls, ridges and canyons) and an enormous amount of diverse marine life. This includes black – and white tip reef sharks, lots of turtles (hawks bill and olive ridley), lionfish, scorpion fish, cuttle fish and octopus, moray eels, sea snakes, different types of rays (blue – spotted, eagle and, from December to March, manta rays)not to mention schools of bump - head parrot fish every full moon and the occasional whale shark…plus countless varieties of hard and soft corals. Hana Reef on Gili Air is fast becoming renowned for excellent “muck diving” where divers can see rare critters like frog fish, pink - leafed scorpion fish, flying guard, mantis shrimp, nudibranchs, pygmy seahorses, robust ghost pipefish, blue ringed octopus and ringed pipe fish.

Photographs courtesy of James White