Diving Flores, Diving Alor - Area information
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 "Always welcomed into Alor region with friendly children!")
by Michael Topolovac
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Flores, Maumere & Alor diving information
Clear water diving, great variety and diversity, this cruise takes us into areas that are not so often visited by tourists. It is not just the diving in Alor that makes this a special place, here the locals guard the reefs for their future, keeping all reefs in pristine condition. This area is also becoming one of my tip areas for its outstanding critter diving. A few small bays are consistently surprising groups I have taken here with lots of very rare, unique and unusual marine life. Different species of mimic octopus, rhinopias, frogfishes and also some chances to see some larger marine life here too! Click here to view a photo gallery from one trip.
The Essence or Alor
Many go to Alor in search of the so called BIG fish dives, at times a few reefs here
can be very good for BIg fish sightings. However, these are certainly not so good for
serious photographers wanting to get images of the Big fish here. Alor is quickly becoming
one of if not my favourite cruise for critters, Komodo yes, it's great, it's also becomign
busy! The critter diving is consistantly better for rare and unique animals on the Flores -
Alor route than Komodo routes. Alor also has the friendliest and most welcoming people in
all of Indonesia. Where else can you have children swimming above you on dives wanting you
to take their picture, this is what also makes Alor such a special place!
Northern Flores
After the
tsunami of December 1992 reefs here were impacted. However there are still
world-class dives in front of the bay of Maumere. Outstanding walls covered
in sea fans, soft corals and invertebrate covered overhangs along with
some pristine hard coral gardens. The deeper areas can be home to some
larger fish while in the shallows many small fish and critters are to
be seen when taking a closer look. Reef tops here are also outstanding
in places with huge hard coral formations and large bommies, of course
plenty of great small things to go in search as well. For those really
into critters, right in the heart of the bay of Maumere lies plenty of really excellent
muck dives too!
Adunara Island
A fantastic
wall here is lined with many sea fans, sponges, soft corals, overhangs and crevices.
Great fish life too with schooling bannerfish, jobfish, tuna, jacks and many more
colourful reef fish, we had the joy on our dive here to have a whaleshark swim by
and then circle around us for what seemed like a long time, maybe only a few
moments. The large site is best split into with an excellent coral covered ridge
coming away from the wall, more sea fans, sponges and many schooling fusiliers line
one side, the other side having a very mild sand slope with scattered rocks. The
shallower area here is complete with a vast garden of pristine hard corals, many
anthias and other smaller reef fishes darting in and out of the corals.
Kawula Island
Walls span
the northern coast here, there is one small area where a net hangs from around 18m.
The wall itself has many large sea fans, giant soft corals, black corals
and impressive overhangs/caverns from around 16m and deeper. The net itself
is covered in small invertebrates that seem to have attracted many small
creatures living within its safety. In the shallower depths a very interesting reef
crest and reef top is home to many other smaller critters, at night many
unusual opistobranchs come out including the giant Spanish dancer.
 "Pigmy sea horse are regular finds in Alor")
the well hidden pigmy sea horse
by Michael Topolovac
The variety of sites here ranges from excellent topographical shear drop offs with the most amazing coral reef scenery and great fish life. Spurs jut out from the shore with giant pinnacles in-between, all covered in the most beautiful corals. Shallows here are filled with thousands of colourful anthias and damsels. There are often surprise sightings of larger animals here too. One of the most famous sites here is renowned for it being a large pelagic fish site, fairly temperamental and it needs to be checked before diving to make sure the marine life is all there, still sharks can often be called in here when waiting in the right place. When it is good it has to be one of the best dives in all of Indonesia for big fish "I thought so"! Of the other many sites to check out, there are amazing sites for macro with allsorts of weird and wonderful critters that are very rare throughout most of the world. On one black sand site on a recent cruise we had frogfish, rhinopias (weedy scorpionfish), nudibranchs galore, snake eels, leaf scorpion fish, ribbon eels in all colour phases, groups of pegasus sea moths, sand divers and many other cool critters. Night dives, if you like night dives every night dive here is just amazing with many different creatures you may not have thought existed.
Conclusion
Interested? Click here to inquire for more
information about Flores & Alor diving!
In all this area offers great diversity of dive sites and marine life,
ranging from beautiful coral reef scenery, great critters to larger fish
life and the chance of experiencing one of Indonesia's best big fish sites.
The topography in this area also makes it an outstanding destination.
This is one of, if not my favourite cruise destination for critters, it has much
more to offer than the usual Bali to Komodo cruise.
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