Here we are in the middle of August and guess what? We’ve got another Komodo Liveaboard trip lined up for an exciting six days worth of diving in paradise!! Joining us for this adventure were Gabby from Spain, Eric from the USA, Pariya, Paymon, Stelios, Alex, Chris and Louis from Cyprus, Sandra and Thomas from Germany, Sabine from France, Marco from Italy and Ravi from India. Joining the guests were dive guides Carl, Martyn, Pit and Marsel as well as our super friendly and helpful Jaya crew.
After a boat briefing, safety briefing and a dive briefing (so many briefings!), everybody was extra keen to jump in the water and see what the diving in Komodo had to offer. We carried out our check dive at Sebayor Kecil, a perfect spot for everyone to get comfortable in the water, try out the dive equipment and get snapping with the cameras before we headed out into more challenging conditions. Even on our check dive we were amazed at what we spotted underwater – an eagle ray, cuttlefish, leaf scorpionfish, the shy twinspot lionfish and a rare octopus as found by Marsel. Not a bad start to the trip!We then journeyed to the north of the Park whilst the sun set, guests got to know each other and we all enjoyed our first of many tasty meals onboard the boat. After a good nights sleep we were ready to dive Castle Rock, perhaps the most famous dive site in the Park and one which is never forgotten. Castle Rock gives divers the best opportunity to see sharks in Komodo and it certainly lived up to its reputation this time. White tipped reef sharks circled the divers as we hovered above the drop off whilst neon fusiliers, surgeonfish and long fin bannerfish schooled in huge numbers out in the blue.
Up next was The Lighthouse, a beautiful sloping coral reef where it is possible to see creatures both great and small. White tips could be seen resting on the sandy bottom and the reef itself was combed for some special critters. Groups were lucky enough to see the tiny and elusive pygmy seahorse which nestled itself amongst the leaves of a sea fan. It also started to hop around from branch to branch giving the guides a hard time pointing it out to each diver in turn! But this wasn’t all. Marsel and his group saw a brief glimpse of a manta ray on their safety stop. Maybe this was a sign of things to come…
The final dive of the day was scheduled for The Cauldron, normally a fast drift as the tides force the water through a narrow passage between two islands causing a strong current towards the end of the dive. Today was not that day however. A complete lack of current meant that we could explore the areas of the dive site which normally pass by in a blur. The soft coral covered wall was examined inch by inch whilst the cut-out we refer to as the ‘Fishbowl’ was scanned for macro life including moray eels and different species of shrimp. A further swim around the Cauldron also revealed huge schools of midnight snapper and giant trevally and the stunning coral garden at the end of the dive was host to a number of turtles resting their weary shells. The day was rounded off with another of our special Wicked Diving beach cleans and an incredible sunset over the volcanic peaks of Sangeang.
Day three started off with a great drift dive at the Golden Passage where each group encountered sharks and turtles as well as a school of chevron barracuda who gracefully swam in the current. Unlike our divers who were holding onto rocks as if their lives depended on it! A swim across the current led us to a protected reef where we had the chance to check the rocks for smaller animals such as flatworms, nudis, scorpionfish and painted spiny lobsters.
Temporarily leaving the north of the Park for some diving in the centre, we decided that it was time to introduce our guests to a real staff favourite…Batu Bolong. Batu Bolong is a rocky pinnacle directly situated in the middle of the Park and is commonly referred to as ‘diving in fish soup’ due to its sheer concentration of our fishy friends at the site! Not only is the reef surrounded by small anthias, rainbow wrasse and scissortail damselfish, a quick glance out into the deeper waters rewarded divers with napoleon wrasse, giant trevally, bluefin trevally plus a couple of hawksbill turtles surfing the currents. Batu Bolong is also a great site for seeing some cool nudibranchs and amongst us we managed to see both the colourful ‘raver nudi’ as well as the beautiful ‘dragon nudi’.
Another dive…another staff favourite. This time we took the guests to Tatawa Besar, a stunning reef which astounds divers with its variety, quantity and condition of the corals. The start of the dive was a relaxed affair which allowed us to use our ‘macro eyes’ and find critters such as the minute hairy squat lobster which hides within the folds of a barrel sponge. See if you can find one next time you go diving! The current picked up and we drifted along the length of the reef occasionally spotting hawksbill turtles and napoleon wrasse whilst being constantly surrounded by red tooth triggerfish and neon fusiliers out in the blue. Eventually ending up on the protected side of the reef, eagle eyed guides managed to find a colony of mandarin fish who are only usually seen at sunset when they perform a flamboyant mating ritual. Fantastic!
The final dive of the day took place at Siaba Besar where we were hoping to see some of the unusual creatures that can only be seen on a night dive. For a change we decided to spend most of the dive on the sand which can play host to a surprising amount of life. One group was lucky enough to see a huge porcupine ray which was over one metre across with spines covering its entire dorsal surface. Wow! Quite often we also get fish hunting in the beams of our torches and tonight was no exception with both hungry cornetfish and lionfish grabbing an illuminated meal. Plenty of blue spotted stingrays were also seen feeding in the sand and a sleeping turtle rested on a coral bommie. Perhaps the most interesting spot of the night was a Sulu velvetfish, a 5 centimetre long bright orange fish related to the scorpionfish that was resting on the sandy bottom. What a find!
Coming to the halfway point of the trip we decided it was time to dive Karang Makassar, typically referred to as Manta Point and the best site in the Park to see these majestic creatures. We dropped in and immediately saw our first manta meaning that the signs were good for the rest of the dive. A few minutes later and then the second cruised by. We continued drifting and then we saw a third and final manta at a cleaning station where we were able to stop and witness this behaviour for a whole five minutes. We were even lucky enough for the ray to fly directly over our heads making for some amazing photos!
We bid goodbye to Gabby and Eric as the Jaya returned to Labuan Bajo to pick up new guests Ben and Mehul from England. After a tasty lunch, beach time and a quick snorkel on Kanawa island we were ready for our next dive of the trip at the northernmost tip of the island. Typically regarded as a macro site, we were able to find lionfish, sponge snails, nudis and everybody’s favourite cephalopod – the cuttlefish! But it wasn’t only macro that we saw with some groups seeing a flying eagle ray as well as a school of huge bumphead parrotfish cruising by. The sunset upon surfacing was incredible and we all got to know the new guests as we travelled to the north of the Park for some more amazing diving.
No trip to the north of the Park is complete without a visit to Crystal Rock so we decided an early morning dive was best to see the site at its finest. With the current being fairly mild we were able to explore much of the site including the stunning coral encrusted pinnacles. It was around these pinnacles that large schools of sweetlips and snapper were hanging out and and just beyond several white tipped reef sharks were seen cruising across the plateau. A final icing on the cake was a baby white tip shark taking refuge under a table coral towards the end of the dive, Awesome!
As we had new guests onboard we scheduled a second dive at Castle Rock. And who wouldn’t want to dive this site twice? We at Wicked Diving have been there many times and each time we can’t say enough good things about the dive! This time we had even more white tips, napoleon wrasse and baby sharks underneath table corals. We had to be especially careful on our safety stop as there were several scorpionfish lurking on top of the main rock. You don’t want to be touching one of those guys! Soon after we surfaced we had the amazing sight of dolphins playing on the surface. Could this day get any better?!
So for the next dive we were going to go flying. But flying underwater as we went to Siaba Kecil which has perhaps the fastest drift in the entire Park. We all zoomed along the dive site taking in the blur of coral and fish whilst taking care with our buoyancy in the strong currents. After a short time we kicked over to the protected side of the reef where we lazing spent the rest of the dive looking for turtles amongst the coral gardens. And guess what Steve’s fortunate group saw? A manta! Lucky lucky divers!With the thought of manta rays foremost in everybody’s minds, we once again visited Karang Makassar with a hope to see some more of the big fellas. We had timed the dive so it was just after the full moon which historically has been the time when we have the most success with manta sightings. And to say the dive was a success is an understatement! In total we saw ten mantas including the scarce black manta, an unusual colour morph which we only see on rare occasions. Once back on the boat the guests excitedly chatted about one of the best dives they had ever done!
With everyone still on a manta high, we chose to dive Mauan our ‘secret’ manta spot and one where we could hopefully blow the divers minds even further! Dropping from the dinghy and looking down from the surface we could see another manta just below us! Choosing the right spot to descend away from the cleaning station we managed to find a perfect space on the sand where we could kneel and watch the ray in all its splendour whilst the photographers onboard could take all the photos they had dreamed of. The manta moved on and we explored the sandy slope a little further managing to find cuttlefish and a turtle before another manta cruised by. After spending some time with us it decided to move off and we could look for some macro life along the reef. We found some great stuff including a juvenile ribbon eel, whip coral shrimp, orang utan crab and small polka dotted cowrie. A quick look up and the mantas were back! They didn’t seem to want to leave us alone!With mantas now checked off the diver’s wishlists, we had our final day dive at Tatawa Kecil which is famous for its caves, overhangs and…unpredictable currents. There is a reason why this dive site is also known as ‘current city’! Descending down the reef we saw huge schools of humphead and midnight snapper and exploration of the caves and overhangs revealed batfish and sweetlips hiding from the currents. The current picked up and we drifted along the reef to the lee side of the island along the way spotting a banded sea snake amongst the coral. Marsel managed to spot a white tip shark on the coral plateau and we all took some time to watch the big eye trevally playing in the currents at the edge of the island before making our way to our safety stops in the shallower waters.
And so it came. The final dive of the trip. For those keen on macro and muck diving the night dive at Wainilu ranks high on the favourites list. The sheer number of unusual creatures that can be found here fills logbooks many pages over! Divers managed to see such species as frogfish, stumpy spine cuttlefish, barred moray eels, barchin scorpionfish, dwarf lionfish, bobtail squid, banded pipefish, starry night octopus, pleurobranchs and anemone crabs to name but a few! Everyone is always amazed at the small critters that can be found here especially after all the ‘big fish’ action we had experience on the trip so far.
No trip to Komodo is complete without a visit to see one of the Komodo dragons, an endemic and iconic image of Indonesia. Leaving early in the morning gives us the greatest opportunity to see the dragons in the wild before they seek shelter from the midday sun. Several of the larger dragons were seen as well as two younger ones walking out and about in the bush plus other local inhabitants including Timor deer, macaque monkeys and the megapode, a type of scrub fowl in whose nest the Komodo dragon lays her eggs.And so the adventure was over. Everyone was happy that they had seen both mantas and dragons, the most famous residents of Komodo and excitedly swapped photos and contact details on the way back to the mainland. The sails were hoisted and the Jaya leisurely made her trip home, ready to pick up more intrepid explorers for the next part of their journeys…
-Diving Komodo
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