Today we got up early to head to Tulamben to scuba dive the USAT Liberty Shipwreck. It’s a 4 hour drive and along the way we stopped to have Kopi luwak or as I like to call it “weasel poop coffee” 🤣.
Kopi luwak is a coffee that consists of partially digested coffee cherries, which have been eaten and defecated by the Asian palm civet. It is also called civet coffee.
From the internets
We also tasted a large number of coffees and teas while at the rest stop and Jacob’s liked the coffee enough to buy a bag of beans.
Once we arrived in Tulamben, we met with the dive team and got ready for our dive. The dive was a walk-in and the water was warm.
Liberty ship was torpedoed on January 11, 1942 at 4:15 a.m. by a Japanese submarine while crossing the Lombok Strait carrying material (rubber and railway parts) from Australia to the Philippines. Two US destroyers hitched up to the ship and tried to tow it to the port of Singaraja. The damage was immense and the Liberty was taking too much water. The Liberty ship’s captain ran the vessel up onto the beach of Tulamben. In 1963, the Liberty shipwreck was pushed to its present location by the fatal eruption of Bali’s Gunung Agung volcano. During this process, the Liberty’s hull broke into two pieces and now is laying on a sandy slope parallel to the shore.
From the internets
The first dive was a intro to the area and we circled around the outer area of the ship. We slowly swam around the ship and were both shocked at the scale of the ship. It felt mammoth.
The second dive was a wreck swim thru and we got to explore the ship.
After the long drive back to our hotel, we took our laundry to a shop nearby the hotel and headed for dinner.
We had some drinks and then wandered around a bit before Jacob found a McDonald’s and continued his quest to eat McDonald’s in every country we visit.
