Bira - Komodo - Bima with Ondina
Click here to go to back to cruise and dive report page...
July 9th - July 15th
I had been waiting a long time to go and check out this new boat, hearing about the boat from friends and the owners, wanting to check it out it for myself. The boat systems are all very well put together, an inside dive deck makes for very comfortable kitting up also meaning your dive gear is always out of the sun. A special room with rinse tank for cleaning and storing wetsuits, also fitted with a hot water shower ahhhh! Deck showers are at hand on either side of the boat for easy rinsing off. A camera table is situated outside on the rear deck while charging stations are found in the dive deck room. Cabins are all spacious with plenty of storage space, lighting for reading is very good, toilets are small though they serve the purpose well enough with water conservation style toilets and showers.
The boat - a detailed description of Ondina and it's services can be found by clicking to go to the Charter vessels page.
Day 1.
A new area of Indonesia was once
more opened up to me. We dived a few sites in south western Sulawesi, very close to where all the
traditional Pinisi styled boats are built - Tanah Beru. I had been hearing about this area
ever since I came to Indonesia though each time I headed here I was diverted, ended up somewhere else. It was a clear pleasure to be able at long last to
dive this area from the comfort of a live aboard. It had been known to me as being a great area of Indonesia for seeing large fish
like sharks, giant reef rays, big pelagic fish like tuna, wahoo, barracuda and
jacks, along with lots of other smaller schooling fish
life.
To my surprise our first dive on the mainland of Sulawesi, Cape
Bira seemed to be somewhat under
briefed. I thought this was an absolutely spectacular dive site, albeit slightly
deep. We dropped down descending into a large school of oceanic triggerfish to a wall that started at around 25m 82' with excellent
coral growth and lots of fish life, large pelagic fish swam by whilst off reef
many large pelagic fish like dogtooth tuna, giant trevally, wahoo and a school
of big eye jacks were to be seen, it was even possible to call in the jacks to surround us. The wall that descended below
us was perfect with large sea fans and an abundance of soft corals with
thousands of anthias and damsels usually seen on shallower reefs, only this
was at 30m 100'. There was more to this as well, moving along the reef there was
excellent deep coral garden with outstanding reef scenery, lots of colourful sea fans, soft corals,
sponges, amongst all this were about 3 grey reef sharks, some white tip sharks
moving around amongst them, even more reef fish around the area
too. Looking over to a sandy patch I noticed a huge black blotched reef ray
resting on the bottom as a grand daddy sized green turtle slowly swam by us.
I had expected this to be a dive with not so much in the way of a reef
top for our safety stop, to my amazement it was awesome. Large coral bommies
were surrounded by colourful sea fans, soft coral and in the overhangs lots of
beautiful colourful invertebrates. This made for an excellent long safety stop
after our deep dive! I have been told though that this site is usually a fairly
awkward site due to the strong currents that usually rip here.
Day 2.
Liukang island, another big surprise dive.
Descending through thousands of small anthias and silversides all shimmering in
the late after sun. Reef scenery here was good with a variety of hard corals, a
sandy lane cut through the reef, this was where we saw the first few sharks
resting. We approached a reef slope down to 30m 100', at this depth we entered a
very thermo cline that dropped more than 5°C though the water clarity was
outstanding. Small pristine coral bommies lay at the bottom edge of the slope
with a few small sea fans, the first I checked out had a tiny Bargibants pigmy
sea horse in it. Giant black blotched rays were next to cruise ahead of us, then
more white tip sharks, at one point I managed to count 8 different sized sharks
around us, with giant reef rays and schools of fusiliers, unicorns and the odd
group of small dogtooth tuna. A green turtle resting on the sandy bottom had 3
huge remoras clinging to its back. While drifting I was taken by surprise when a
small turtle swam directly underneath me. Another excellent dive though the reef
top here had been impacted and was not as pristine, this however didn't detract
from the dive for me as in the rubble areas I found juvenile ribbon eels,
blennies, gobies along with a couple of colour nudibranchs.
Kambing island - a shear wall started from a sparse reef top. The dropped to 40m 130' then sloped off, large sea fans sponges and great scenery with some small caverns along the way. Reaching a point where a mild current starts, the fish life started to pick up with huge schools of unicorns, some yellow tail barracuda, tuna, wahoo, a small group of giant trevally, white tip and the larger grey reef sharks were seen cruising off reef. Moving along the reef the current picked up some more and another huge school of unicorns then a vast school of big eye jacks which were called in to take a closer look at how many where there - lots! Current picked up and took us along a reef crest at 15m 50', I needed to start ascending to shallower depths though the current here was a little too much and the reef was getting no shallower. I drifted over a great reef top and when I reached the end the reef and the current was taking me out. I sent up my submersible marker bouy, very pleased to hear the tender boat very close by me before I had surfaced.
The shipwreck of a wooden cargo vessel had sank in 1994 with its cargo of cement, it lay in 30m 100'. Not being much of a wreck diver I was just looking at the marine life, many nudibranchs had settled here along with some sea cucumbers with huge emperor shrimps, quite a few lion and scorpion fish where found all over the wreck too. Pasi island, I headed for the sheltered side of a shear wall with no current. An excellent dive with pristine marine life, some small caverns, a huge overhang, as always an excellent area for fish life with a giant Napolean wrasse, more white tip sharks below, some giant dogtooth tuna cruising by and schools of mixed colourful reef fish. Amazed once more to be enjoying a safety stop along a great reef crest with some interesting marine life and good coral scenery on the reef top.
Day 3.
Takabonerate atoll south side - Ricardo
wanted to explore this are for new sites. The maps looked like slopes with lots
of sand, our dive was not too spectacular with many areas of rubble. We did come
across orangutan crabs, large cuttlefish and some interesting nudibranchs.
We arrived at Kalao island picked a point that looked promising
and off we went. A white sand slope with many great coral bommies descending
beyond our safety level. We came to a shear wall with some nice areas of reef
scenery though nothing outstanding, minimal fish life here with a good reef
crest in places with some interesting marine life. Moving east of
Kalao, we lucked out with our entry point,
descending down a beautiful large ravine where thousands of small anthias
surrounded the reef crests. It looked so clear and beautiful so I descended down
to check out the deeper reef where ledges had giant sea fans. A gentle drift
took us along a fantastic wall where a giant black blotched ray came up close as
if to check me out, dogtooth tuna cruised by and great schooling fish life. The
reef crest was perfect with huge formations of hard coral, with bommies covered
in soft corals, sea fans with a whole array of small colourful reef fish
surrounding each. The current changed so we could drift back over the same
portion of reef, the whole reef crest & top was one of the best I had seen.
Day 4.
Flores - diving Sabolan Kecil, another
favourite site for me. A big sea mount here juts out from the main reef, it is outstanding
with incredible reef scenery, giant sea fans and whip bushes are abundant,
surrounded by many juvenile reef fish. Bigger fish like dogtooth tuna cruise by,
with a large school of
batfish and many fusiliers. An excellent coral slope awaits for the slow ascent,
lots of small vibrantly coloured soft coral covering bommies, then the reef top
is worth a dive in itself being home to lots of great small reef fish,
nudibranchs and colourful scenery.
A great treat was visiting a very welcoming and friendly Bajo (sea gypsy) village, on an island near Labuan Bajo. Here the children overwhelmed us, holding our hands as they proudly escorted us through their village. On our way, many hello's coming out all the while from the houses on stilts as we passed on our tour of the village.
We moored over near Sabayor island, I opted to stay near the mooring where there were many shrimp gobies with their busy cleaner shrimps, lots of interesting nudibranchs. Though this site is best at night, Keith had been asking about the chances of seeing ghost pipefish. As I had seen them here before I mentioned where to look and to Keith's joy he found one straight on descent next to a small coral bommie. There were lots of interesting decorator crabs, nudibranchs galore very well camouflaged in the soft corals. Searching in the sand as Ricardo wanted to see a stargazer, I had found one and was showing Keith when Ricardo starting signalling, he had also found a stargazer doing its best to avoid being seen in the sand. Hiding within the coral bommies were twin spot lion fish and more nudibranchs.
Day 5.
Batu Bolong with its usual
strong current, though it is possible to avoid the worst of this. Here we
instantly saw thousands of small anthias and damsels schooling all over the reef
in the shallows, small white tip sharks, Napoleon wrasse, lots of surgeons and
many other come in here to be cleaned by very busy cleaner wrasse on cleaning
stations. Lots of brightly coloured nembrotha nudibranchs were seen here
along with many camouflaged scorpion fish and lion fish cruising around hunting
for food.
Gili Lawa Laut we dived one of the sea mounts here. These are both excellent for schooling fish. Many grey reef sharks and vast amounts of schooling surgeons, long fin bannerfish, fusiliers, barracudas, jacks and a whole array of smaller fish flitting above the hard corals. This site just gets better an better each time I dive it with more fish. Then another one of my favourites here, a drift dive along a beautiful reef slope When the current runs right, fish life here is also excellent. A few resident reef sharks seem to be getting more used to seeing divers. Current picked up as we approached the corner of the reef. Here we saw some very large groupers, more schooling fish hanging in the current and hundreds of batfish. Ascending I waited in the right place for a while and sure enough, a huge manta ray came by. I had over 2 minutes with the manta as it kept circling, coming back to check me out. The others came over to see as it slowly left heading away off reef. This unfortunately was to be my last dive as I had to fly the next day, what a way to end a great dive trip.
Conclusion
After hearing many mixed reports about this
area, I now think that Bira and the nearby islands (from what I hear the large
island of Selayar) may very well be the best place in Indonesia to dive, for
those who are after the big fish diving. Diving in the right places to avoid
currents would make this area an excellent place for the reef scenery alone.
From the very few dives I had here I would say this is as good an area as any I
have seen for top wall dives and certainly as good or better than most for it's
big fish diving.
Caution
This area has very strong currents, in fact it
has been known to take away stray divers diving with some of the
non-professional operators here. After diving nearly all over Indonesia this
area certainly had the best and most consistent big fish life "when I dived
there". I will be looking forward to my next trip out there to see if this
really is consistently good for this kind of diving.
Interested? Click here to inquire for more information on this area.
top