As the town of Labuan Bajo celebrated Eid el Fitr, the end of Ramandan, a festive, sleepy feel descended upon us, but not for the Jaya and its crew, who welcomed 5 new guests to join the 7 returning guests for the 24th trip of the Komodo season.
Andreas, Daniela, Mitch, Tara, Ryan, Yuet and Victor all returned after the 3 day manta education trip and were joined by guests Andreas, Nick, Sze Lynn, Owain and Tina; instructors Jo, Scott, Vinnty and crew Cap’n Surafudi, Heri, Marwan, Dullah, Sulaman, Joss and Adry.
As with anywhere in the world, holiday periods see towns slow down, people eating more, more time spent with the family and less time at work. The end of Ramadan was no different in LBJ. This presented a couple of hurdles for the Wicked team in ensuring we had the necessary supplies for our trip, but as always our imaginative and hard working crew pulled it off.
One stumbling block presented was the availability of fresh water for the trip. There were numerous options, all of which would possibly take longer than preferred, so while the crew deliberated on how we would keep our guests clean, we headed to the islands of Bidadari for sunset snorkelling with cuttlefish and juvenile batfish and hoisting sail to display the full beauty of the Jaya. As with all industries it pays to have friends in many places and our tireless crew negotiated a water fill with nearby liveaboard. When satisfied we had the necessary supplies we set of on course for Sabayor for our morning check dive.
Eid el Fitr’s date is decided by the appearance of the new moon, so while the end of Ramadan was significant above the water, below the water there were possible implications too. Around new and full moons, tidal changes increase and the water in the Komodo national park can behave quite differently, particularly in relation to the currents. Currents can become stronger, with less time between slack tides and the change between rising and falling tides and water temperatures can drop too. This is great in terms of marine life, flooding the dive sites with nutrient rich waters, but it means that we have to be extra vigilant regarding the safety of our guests. Dive sites are carefully selected and checked to ensure suitability for all level of divers on board. In addition, the best action for us is to give all divers detailed briefings help them know what to expect and how we dive in these currents.
After our check dive we headed to the north of the National Park to dive The Passage. This is great drift dive between Komodo and Gili Lawa Darat and we had a fantastic drift through the passage encountering black tip and white tips sharks, turtles, schools of batfish and bumphead parrotfish en route. The next dive of the day was at pinnacle dive site, Castle Rock. The current was relatively strong, bringing out the giant trevally, dogtooth tuna, huge naoplean wrasse and many white tips cruising around.
That evening the guys headed to Gili Lawa Laut for a sunset walk to the view point, led by Vinnty. They were rewarded with views of the many islands in the park and sunset over the volcanic island of Sangeang. Games were the theme of the night, from Rummikub to a mime, team game, called Celebrity, which brought out the amateur dramatists onboard.
The next day started at dive site, the Cauldron, where divers saw mantas, sharks and turtles, not to mention huge amounts of trevally, surgeonfish and sweetlips in the area we call ‘the fish bowl’. Crystal Rock was the next choice with a fairly easy and relaxed dive on near slack tide. All divers saw bargabanti pygmy seahorses, on a small sea fan which is the home for 3 of these tiny creatures, in addition to the normal pelagics and schooling fish which patrol this site.
We then headed over to check out Karang Makassar where we spotted mantas on the surface. Snorkel time commenced and chef’s assistant, Dullah, was first to jump in, leading everyone to these huge, graceful beasts. After seeing mantas, divers voted to get underwater here for the opportunity of more sightings. We jumped on the rising tide and drifted north where we were lucky to be greeted by mantas.
After the dive we travelled to Wainilu near the island of Rinca. Dolphins were also heading that direction and we were escorted by a small pod, playing in the bow waves. When we arrived, everyone was given an intro to muck diving briefing. Wainilu is a top class muck dive site which introduces people to the weird and wonderful world of muck diving. Among the critters sighted were numerous Papuan and stumpy spine cuttlefish, 2 painted frogfish and 1 giant frogfish, a starry night octopus, ornate ghost pipefish, many nudis and flatworms of different shapes and colours, crustaceans aplenty, an unusual blue decorator crab and the very rare and extremely beautiful boxer crab!!
That evening, everyone pored over the books and chatted about what they’d seen in this bizarre and mucky place. Mitch shared some of his photos with the group and has been kind enough to provide some to illustrate this post.
The final day took in a dive at Tengah Kecil where divers saw leaf fish, orangutan crabs, sponge snails, turtles, schools of batfish and water temperature dropped to a gasp inducing 24 C in places! To warm up, the final stop was a trek around Rinca in search of dragons. Not to disappoint, the dragons displayed their ferocious selves to our guests and they were even treated to a wild water buffalo on the trek.
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