Trip number 2 of the season started in style with the arrival of Michelle, Billy, Rauslan, Alex, Cam, Neil and Phillip, who joined our 3 day residents, Ziad, Kutlu, Steve, Thomas, Alfred, Yukshi and Weelee for an adventure to the Komodo National Park.Our guides, Ricky, Syam, Diego and Jo, treated divers to some of Komodo's finest sites including Batu Bolong, Tengah Kecil, The Passage, Sebayor Wall and a night muck dive at Wainilu.
The moon was full and the tidal water change was around 3m, meaning currents were strong and drift dives were the order of the day. It also meant that the marine life was active and varied. White tips and black tips were seen and their elasmobranch cousins, eagle rays, marble rays and the majestic manta ray, were also encountered by some of our lucky divers. Huge Napolean wrasse let divers get up close and personal for an unforgettable experience and bumphead parrotfish cruised in schools, oblivious to their audience.
During the trip, Alfred completed his Advanced Open Water course and, tasked with exercises such as guiding his instructor to and from the boat and deploying SMBs, fully surpassed the course requirements. Billy also took a deep adventure dive, during which he looked for signs of nitrogen narcosis, aka rapture of the deep, and demonstrated pressure changes at 30m.
On the second evening, the team climbed to the viewpoint on Gili Lawa Darat and were rewarded with a glorious sunset . The following night the Jaya arrived at the island of Kabba to witness the jaw-dropping, daily bat migration from the mangroves. Unfortunately Neil found out the answer to the question on everyone's lips, 'do bats poo while flying?'.
On our final night aboard the Komodo Liveaboard new brood of muck diving enthusiasts sampled the wonder of Wainilu, hunting within the sands and algaes for strange critters. Octopus, including a small mimic, pluerobranchs, mushroom coral pipefish, decorator crabs, flatworms prompted a mass dinnertime conversation about the weird and wonderful beasties that were seen.
The final day of the trip was dedicated to a Komodo dragon walk in Rinca. Luckily the full team returned unscathed and the escape/survival strategies that has been devised were not needed!
Another fantastic trip with such a great group of people. All is left now is to meet up for one last meal of pasta, pizza and limoncello. Thanks for joining us guys. Hope see you again soon
Komodo Diving
1 comment:
We enjoyed our selves this trip and we shall return.
Weelee and yukchi
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