Diving cruise reports from Flores to Wakatobi and Flores to Alor aboard Komodo Dancer...
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Wakatobi special with Komodo Dancer - November 2004
Two back to back charters both very different diving, first being mainly walls, the next focusing on critters! In order to arrange this we took 3 of the usual Komodo Dancer trips to relocate and make these two standard trips into 2 very special Diving 4 Images charters...One diver thought he was taking a friends spot on a Komodo trip charter derrr... We made of the most of this situation and gave him plenty of stick when we could, Drew took it very well and seemed to enjoy the trip as best he could. In spite of Drew being a passionate critter lover, one who's not at all into wall diving and on top of this being a fairly jaded and well travelled diver we still managed to show him critters he had never seen before... This in my mind is more than enough to make an excellent trip, especially for someone with so much experience. I thought it would be a good idea to give you his side of this trip, directly as he saw it all... I have made a few notes in bold for your reference!
Flores Sea Expedition:Maumere to Hoga (Part 2) Next cruise 12 full days of diving from Flores to Alor and back... After a quick check through Maumere airport we were on the boat and on our
way. All but two of this group knew the systems and were at their camera's
before they were their cabins luggage, sadly the cruise director was on his last
trip and failed to brief these new divers, sadly I only found this out at the
end of the trip! After a late lunch we arrived at Pulau
Babi (Pig Island) for a dusk check dive. For a check dive it was way better
than average and set a hard standard to follow, we managed to find a cool pair of
tiger shrimps while a very keen eyed Gillian was on the case with an even cooler
pair of brown weedy pigmy sea horses, there were plenty of sea slugs and now
getting dark there were lots of cool crustaceans including the colourful soft coral crabs. The next morning we awoke on the northern shores of Flores at Tanjung Pau,
here a steep sloping reef to wall drop very deep below us, the crevice where we
made our descent was home to orang-utan crabs, bubble coral shrimps and more. Moving
along the wall with large soft corals thought not much in the way of fish life.
The reef top was home to quite a few cool sea slugs and juvenile pavo razorfish
which had a few photographers going round in circles till it had enough and
dived in the sand. We were heading east as fast as we could to get into the
heart of top diving in the Alor Regency stopping off at Lapan island for a wall
dive, I love this crevice on the southern end of this reef, usually there are
plenty of fish around and a few big groupers to be seen too, what makes this
also interesting is the amount of solitary anemones that have taken over
covering various other corals. We managed to see a few different turtles resting
in this reef and a few interesting critters! The we arrived in Alor and dived
the northern most island on a site called The Caverns, here a steep wall drops
off with pristine coral reef scenery, there were quite a few different sea slugs
and keen Yan found a pair of robust ghost pipefish on the reef top! As we needed to report in to the local authorities in Kalabahi we moored here
for our first night in Alor, here we made for our first full on night dive. I
decided to go to The Crinoid Garden in the bay to see how the critter action
here was. We found plenty of interesting sea slugs, quite a few bubble shells a
very odd looking crab we later couldn't get a positive ID, a bright red frogfish
and dwarf cuttlefish galore. Next morning everyone was really geared up fro some critter action, as we had
plenty of time here I decided to go and have a look for a new and hopefully even
better hotspot. As it turned out we came upon a legend site later named Graham's
Goodies by a few of the divers. To go into every dive here will take up too much
time and space, to put it simple we saw: We headed down though the
Alor strait, on the way diving Clown Valley, for this very unique dive with
thousands of anemones covering kilometres of the east side of Pura island. A
great part of this dive is finishing near the village with lots of local
people coming out in their small canoes to greet us and have their photo
taken. We headed straight on to dive Tanjung Elalara for a great reef dive
with thousands of anthias and damsels, here there are lots of great photo
opportunities for great wide angle photography. Next stop was Beangabang for
full on critter diving, another great place with too many great dives to go
through them all, the list goes... Conclusion A great back to back trip for seeing the different aspects of Indonesia
and the variety if dive sites that can be had here. Some of the great wall
diving in Indonesia around the Tukang Besi island group (Wakatobi) along
with outstanding critter diving and more from Flores to Alor.
by scubadrew
Date: 2004-12-10
Location: Indonesia
This special itinerary was a way for me to revisit many of the old sites I
hadn't been to since the 90s. The Wakatobi Marine Park has been earmarked for
stronger conservation efforts and hopefully it will get the same attention as
Komodo has now. Til then, Alor and Komodo still rules in the Flores Seas. Thanks
to Graham Abbott for the use of his maps.
Indonesia has always had a special place in my heart, especially the diving.
Being the marine biodiversity capital of the world, this archipelago should be
the ultimate dive mecca. However with over 200 million people spread out over
17000 islands, poverty and non-education has put a devastating toll on the
reefs. The aquarium trade, overseas fish demand(mainly north eastern Asian
countries like Hongkong and Japan) and the domestic need to feed has killed or
damaged almost 70% of the reef systems due to bomb fishing, cyanide, drift
netting and other very permanent effect methods.
Before you get too depressed, remember this is a cheery trip report so there is
some good news. An unfortunate cancellation by a friend at the last minute gave
Scubaskeeter and myself an opporunity to revisit my old stomping grounds in
Flores, the Tukang Besi archipelago and Take Bone Rate islands, all in the
Flores sea. Organizing everything and getting the flights in just 6 days before
the trip, we packed our bags and headed for Bali for our flight to Maumere to
board the Ombak Biru (aka the Komodo Dancer) with Diving 4 Image's Graham
"Abbey" Abbott.
Maumere is a city port on the northern central coast of Flores. It was there
that Gerald Allen did his famous 1111 species fish count in one area with Rudie
Kuiter. I dove there in 91 and early 92 and it was beyond amazing for fish and
fauna. Unfortunately on Dec 12 1992, a 7.2 earthquake spawned numerous tsunami
(tidal waves) which destroyed lives both on land and in the sea. I returned to
Maumere in 1994 and saw the devastation still hadn't recovered due to the
increasing stress on the population on the reefs. That was 10 years ago. During
my overnight in Bali, I brought out my old notes on the area and reading them
brought back vivid memories of the reefs and a certain amount of trepidation on
what I was going to see. 15 years of diving in Indonesia and I haven't seen one
area which has lived up to its former glory (Komodo is getting there quickly but
still not like in the hey days).
As usual, catching most domestic flights out of Bali meant an overnight stay.
Most times I would arrive 3-4 days before, dive locally (Bali has a lot of very
good dive sites(check part II)) and get the kinks out of the equipment,
especially in preparation for a long 12 day trip. One big tip about travelling
in Bali: Liveaboard companies tend to want to bring you to the airport 3 hours
before takeoff. This is unnecessary and waiting at the airport in Bali is not
all that nice. If they say 8, tell them you want 9.30. Check in is relatively
easy if you are there about 1.5 hrs earlier. Don't try to get there an hour
before if you don't like crowds. Ngurah Rai Airport security is not the best
planned system. They check your luggage at the entrance of the airport before
check-in. This leads to a bottleneck jam and then a mad scramble to get your
bags together to the airline counter without a trolley (which is not allowed in
the check in area unless you have a porter). Also be warned that domestic
airlines use old and crickety jets like Fokkers and various eastern bloc designs
with basic minimum service. Don't be surprised if you see duct tape holding the
toilet together!
Arriving in Maumere, we were met by the Ombak group's representatives at the
airport where we had a long hot wait for luggage. We had a few "where's my
bag?!" scares but everyone's luggage arrived eventually and we were on our way
to the pier where the Ombak Biru was moored. The Biru is a phinisi/schooner
design, measuring 125 ft long and 30 ft wide, a very spacious boat. It can
comfortably accomodate 14 passengers but there are many idiosyncracies on the
boat design. The biggest complaint I have is that the deck is covered partially
with honey combed rubber mats to prevent slipping. These mats turn the soles of
feet black and it takes a serious pedicure to get rid of the stains(fortunately
Bali has great spas!). However there are many areas where the floor isn't
covered and when they water down the deck (a few times a day), combined with the
little steps left by the rubber mats, it can be hazardrous. 4 people fell and
one passenger has probably fractured her toe when she slipped into the big
dining table that's right in the middle of the dive deck. Rubber mats
are being changed. This table can comfortably sit 12 but we had 14 and the
seating was cramped and awkward with the mats causing odd angles for 4 seats.
The blue tarp over the table turns into a radiator of heat during the day. The
shaded deck on the top deck is much better but also smaller. There isn't an
exposed sundeck either but there is a deck on top of the wheelhouse, where they
store stuff and one has to climb a ladder to reach. The crew are always more
than willing to open the sun shade for anyone who wishes to sun bathe.
The rooms are typically liveaboard not so spacious and our room had 4 big
cockcroaches as guests under my bed as I discovered sometime during the trip.
The food was good but a few guests complained about the tough local meat. I
gently reminded them this is what animals grown in the open fields taste like.
The catering crew (Dewa and Ari in particular) were exemplary in service and
kept everyone happily fed, including me which is a hard thing to do. The food
isn't exactly super healthy but they did cater to my dietary needs (non-seafood)
well. Sadly I've yet to go aboard a vessel in Indonesia without a few bugs
and I've been aboard most of them more than once.
EAN32 is optional on the boat for a fee. I am still amazed that liveaboards
charge for nitrox even though the fills cost them only a few cents more than air
fills with the dnax membrane system. They don't do is make it easy to analyse
your tanks. I asked for an analyser twice and was told it was "around." They run
by the assumption that membranes only vary by 1% and so would be safe. That's 1%
more than I care for. So I went to check the fills at the machine after every
dive for the first few days to ensure the mix was right. The boat policy
expected me to sign that I analysed the tank, which I did not( this special trip
required signatures for 2 things which I refused, one of which will be discussed
later). The tanks are filled at a station after every dive so they have to
change tanks, unlike the air hose which can extend to the skiffs by the side of
the boat. All tanks are setup and put back on the assigned boat. Which is great
for a few of the elderly ladies (the self named grandma brigade) on the boat.
However for those who like their gear a certain way, they never did get it right
for me. The problem is 2 fold. I have a certain bp/wing setup they don't often
see and they rotate crew on the skiffs which means the gear is not set up by the
same guy. That said, the crew were very hardworking and thoroughly enjoyable. I
just had to adjust my gear constantly before a dive(which to me is the way it
should be, you setup your own gear!), sometimes holding up the group.
Diving on the Biru is off skiffs (tenders for the brits). There are 2 of them,
fiberglass with high sides which requires a ladder to get in. It also causes
another problem with damaging gear as the boat crew pulls the rig out of the
water. As careful as they were, they needed the support of the side of the skiff
to pull and thus pockets and some equipment fell off. I had my smb pocket ripped
accidently. I do not blame the boat crew as it's not easy to pull a wet rig up
2+ feet without support. Rather I blame the design of the skiff. One of the
skiffs had engine shafts that were too short and it really didn't go any way
very quickly. Divers are divided into 2 groups (color coded red and black) to
the boats. Each day the boats alternated loading passengers first, but if you
got the slow "red" boat, even if you load up and get on the way, the black boat
would often catch up and get to the site first anyways.
The itinerary was to go from Maumere to Tukang Besi and swing round to explore
some new sites in Take Bone Rate islands on the way back. The trip was organized
by Graham "Abbey" Abbott, whose speciality is critters. His knowledge of Tukang
Besi (Wakatobi national park) comes from having worked at Project Wallacea and
Wakatobi resort. This was a combination exploratory trip with critters and reef
scenes on the menu. Which sort of came as a shock as my friend had told me he
was going to Komodo. So I thought I was going to Komodo and I only found out
when I arrived in Bali. This misunderstanding began a daily good natured ribbing
of Graham's dive site briefings with my writing things like " are we in Komodo
yet? Which way is Crystal Bommie? I can't see Batu Bolong" on the dive board.
The others started calling me the lost boy since I was the youngest guest on the
boat.
Day One: Departure
As we left the pier, I quickly occupied a spot on the camera table's corner to
set up my housing. This proved to be unnecessary as the crew will take your
housings down to the boat for you when you've set it up. But when they bring it
back, they return it to a different spot, which made it slight difficult to work
on the cameras since everyone just started working on their cameras wherever it
lay. This is not the crew's fault as they were not trained to have an organized
camera table, it would just be nice to have a "system."
The "check out" dive was off a small beach near Maumere called Wodong where
ScubaSkeeter was introduced to his first Indonesian muck dive in the black silty
sand. Then again since it was his first Indo trip, this was a first indo
everything. The dive site showed wonderful delights like cockatoo waspfish,
pegasus seamoths and mimic octopus,my 3rd favorite cephalapod after the
wunderpus and flambouyant cuttlefish. In fact there were 2 mimics so some of the
divers didn't think they were anything special! I was quite surprised that there
were a group of 4 divers who were new in Indonesia on an exploratory trip. They
were probably the most enthusiastic divers I'd ever met, so much so they were
even over the moon on seeing big volitans. I warned them to take tranquillizers
if they ever went to Komodo or Papua. It's always nice to see divers be that
enthusiastic like that. It's almost infectious. I was very happy this great
group of divers were aboard, hopefully they taught a few jaded divers how to enjoy
diving for what it is...
Day Two:
The next stop was an overnight steam to Kakabia Island, which is halfway between
Flores and Sulawesi. This is perched on a shallow lagoon which suddenly drops
off a wall to about 200m. The wall dives here are pretty but not too full of
fishlife as I thought it would. My last trip here was in 2000 on the now defunct
Evening Star and it was a little better than before in terms of life but you
knew the place was fished heavily since even the schools of fusiliers aren't
thick as eg Komodo and the odd pelagic we saw was a dogtooth tuna and several
mackerel. The island is quite gorgeous with a fishermen's outpost there too.
Still some nice coral growth including big fields of cabbage and elkhorn with
the requisite anthia population. Sponges off the wall were good sized as were
fans. Spotted a few fans with hippocampus Denise and Bargibanti (pygmy
seahorses) and even ghost pipefish along the wall.
Day Three:
Our overnight cruise over to the south eastern tip of Sulawesi's islands, namely
the Tukang Besi Archipelago and the Wakatobi National Marine Park. The name
Wakatobi comes from the first 2 letters of the 4 biggest islands, WAnci,
KAledupa,TOmia & BInongko. The big island of Buton was where we would have to
check in and register with the local authorities (National Park and local
governors) before we could start diving in the area. The registry has become a
contentious issue of late due to renewed interest of liveaboards in coming out
to this area. The Nature Conservancy has earmarked the islands for conservation
and the owner of the Wakatobi resort has appointed himself as the grand overseer
of the area independently, requiring guests on liveaboards to register as guests
at his resort as a "formality". I don't care for local politics, but I do
believe Indonesia should be left to Indonesians. We can offer help and assist in
technology and knowledge but not take over! Furthermore when someone wants me to
register as a guest for a resort where I'm not a guest, well they can forget it.
That move is more like he's trying to make sure his resort business is not too
affected by the liveboards, which offer a much bigger range of dive sites.
Buton is a busy port town where they export granite from the mountains. Tukang
Besi archipelago is more known for blacksmithing (apropos Tukang Besi means
blacksmith in Bahasa Indonesian) swords from recycles scrap mentals. Apparently
even the Bugis traded with the people here for weapons for their wars and
piracy. I could've really used a blacksmith myself since my dive knife was
constantly falling out from the sheath (I bought it in LA in a hurry and didn't
really choose well!). The good news was that we were going to dive in the muck
of the pier of Buton. I've always liked pier dives, especially the Maumere pier
where you see so many things. They had a cargo boat moored to the pier so diving
under it was not too bright. I'd spoken with Graham about having an open dive
platform... where you come and go as you please since we were anchored for the
night. That idea was nixed because Ombak Biru works to Peter Hughes standard so
all diving is off the skiffs. Thus we were limited to 4 dives in the area. There
was a village tour for the guests and the american women had to be reminded
repeatedly to cover their knees and shoulders, in deference to the islamic laws
here. The europeans were more saavy about the local customs on this trip, they
didn't have to be asked at all. The open deck was axed due to my safety
standards, we have to use tender boats so there are always crew above divers,
this jetty does get used after all...
We had a group of people who'd not been to Indonesia or even muck diving before.
Oh boy I thought, this ought to be fun. The pier bottom slopes off gently to
about 50m and suddenly drops to 170m. There are numerous patches of rubble and
garbage where critters could hide. The first dive produced 1 frogfish at about
27m and numerous pipefish, different scorpionfish including waspfish and
inimicus, varies nudibranchs and cephalopods like red octopus and cuttlefish.
For the 3rd dive, we went to a quarry shipyard where the visibility was so bad
it reminded me of diving in the North Sea. Still we had loads of critters for
those we bothered to look. A few people bailed on the dive due to visibility.
The night dive back at the pier proved very productive and the newbies came up
shouting everlasting love for muck diving and the critters they found. One guy
had a video housing but was having trouble getting close enough to the macro
critters like pygmy seahorses and crinoid shrimp. I started call him Mister Need
An Upgrade... upgrade became a keyword on the trip.
Day Four:
After the night dive, we lifted anchor to head for Hoga, where I'd been for
Project Wallacea, which has become a glorified reef research institute charging
exhorbitant amounts of money so people from europe predominantly could live in
basic accomodations, learn to dive and do a few reef surveys. I'd been there at
the beginning in 96 and it was interesting for me to be back to see the changes.
Hoga was now part of the Wakatobi Marine Park and our 2 dives at Karang Gurita
proves marine parks are useful in conservation. The coral was as good or even
better than I remembered it to be. I've always been terrible at dive site names
but somehow the memory of sites are pretty decent. Scuba Skeeter decided to tag
along with me. We swam over wonderful coral fields, replete with hard and soft
corals in excellent health. It wasn't as fishy as say the coral fields in Misool
and Kofiau but very healthy and the variety was mind boggling. As the memory of
the site came back I remembered the pelagic corridor where I'd spent a few dives
watching big fish like yellowfin tuna and giant trevally swing by and pick off a
few reef dwellers. A small school of chevron barracuda patrolled the top of the
sea mount and they were leaf scorpionfish everywhere. As we approached the wall,
we saw a whitetip shark followed by a grey reef. In places like Crystal Bommie
or Batu Bolong, that'd be nothing extraordinary, but a place like Karang Gurita
which was bombed and fished almost uncontrolled not so long ago, the return of
the sharks was a good sign. But indicator species like potato cod and napaleon
wrasse were not seen during the dives here so there's still a steep hill to
climb. We did see 4 mobular rays patrol as well as hawksbill turtles, which was
expected as there were hatcheries in the area. The island is also a refuge for
the brown footed boobie and other seabirds. We went on the island and found the
forest bed "soft" with guano. There were many juvenile birds of various species
including the boobies. Unfortunately, the fishermen who use the island as a
stopover also brought along rats and without predators, it'll be interesting to
see how things develop.
Day Five:
We'd spent the night moored next to the island of Hoga, Project Wallacea's base
camp and the plan was to dive around the island's premier spots. The visibility
was not so good but the years of non-destructive fishing has had a postivie
effect on the area. We saw our first real pelagics in the form of Giant
Trevallies on the outer pinnacle where there's a cleaning station for them.The
reefs around the area was very healthy indeed and quite fishy, one of the few
places that hadn't degraded over the years. The outer pinnacle had to be done on
an incoming tide so that the pelagics would come in. There was a mooring line
and around it were dead areas made for divers to hang on and watch the pelagic
show. We liked the site so much we returned when the tide was outgoing. The
night dive was spent in Lahoya Channel between Hoga and Kadelupa.
Day Six:
Our boat took off in the wee hours of the morning so we would arrive at Anano
Island for our first dive. I remembered doing a fish survey there with a manta
board along the wall this place had been bombed before on the reef top and we
surveyed the damage. The wall was a typical flores sea style wall with big
sponges and fans but not much fish due to the fishing. What was of note here was
that we heard rumbling, very loud rumbling but it didn't sound like a boat or
even a ship's engine. It grew to a growl and then it faded. The consensus was an
underwater volcano movement. We were close because near the end of the trip, we
found out that there was an earthquake in Alor at the same time. Alor (which
incidentally has some of the best diving in Indonesia for me) was about 300
miles away. Quite a few people lost their lives in the quake.
Graham had originally wanted to do the deep reefs of Runduma, but with the mix
of divers we had on board, he decided to drop that site. Which was a pity since
it was one of the best dive sites around and the closest thing to real pelagic
diving in the area. Instead we did the ridge of Anano, which wasn't all that
nice for me. However I did see one small Napoleon Wrasse.
Immediately after the dive, we raised anchor and sped toward Karang Koromaha, a
semi submerged atoll that was about 6km in diameter. There are 2 entrances to
the atoll, both near the north wall but the captain went the wrong way and we
had to circle round the atoll to get to the entrance where we would anchor
inside the calm atoll. It was here that I discovered that the Ombak Biru didn't
have a navigation/depth sonar. The captain had to be very careful because of
that and navigating through the entrance probably gave him a few white hairs. I
thought it to be outrageous that such equipment wasn't available. Then again the
boat was designed and outfitted to do Komodo where there are plenty of moorings
and usually they keep the engine running live. The boat is and always has
been fitted with every navigational aid, this was the skippers first time here
and he was, quite rightly being cautious!
The diving along the the north wall was nice, with a gentle current pushing us
along. Gary(the soon to retire cruise director) finally joined us on a dive and
we both joked that the wall diving however nice, was beginning to look the same,
especially if you had a wide-angle lense on and there's nothing to shoot but
little critters on the wall. We dubbed these dives Mimic Menjangan dives, after
the wall dive on Menjangan Island, north west of Bali. I heard 3 fish bombs go
off too. It's said these bombs could be heard as far as 12km away and
Indonesians use bigger bombs than Philippinos. The bombs, a simple mixture of
fertilizer and fuel, are very destructive on the coral and their effects were
very obvious on some parts of the atoll, even though in the national park, they
are prohibited! Graham managed to find the weedy pygmy seahorse, hippocampus
(yet to be named) and set his safety sausage to mark the spot. I was on the
skiff when he did that and the boat boys and I were wondering why he sent it up
but the bubbles were moving away from the sausage. On top of the reef, we found
a small pictus frogfish ( a first since Buton). We had been commenting how few
frogfish we'd seen so far. It was here I saw some giant trevally go after some
fish against the wall and also another napoleon wrasse
On the night dive, we went back to look for the pygmies, trying to find the
safety sausage. We had a bit of problem locating it and we thought it had gotten
loose and floated off. Then the boat boys spotted the sausage about 1.5m deep.
The tide had come in and actually submerged the sausage. It was also
during that dive I remembered how fragile sea creatures were. With about 9
divers with all sorts of halogen and HID lights shining on it, the poor pygmies
were overwhelmed with bright light and one actually fell on the hand of Graham
and clinged onto his hairs on his fingers. I cracked up as Graham tried to
encourage the poor thing to go back to the wall. A certain mad keen
videographer and the rest of the group were told about was told about pigmy's
being blinded at night by powerful video and camera lights and then falling off
sea fans. There was only 1 diver with 2 big, powerful video lights on these poor
little critters for a wee bit too long, ah poor things! We also found a "yogi" bumphead
parrotfish sleeping in a crevice smaller than it for sure. Amazing flexibility
these fish have. Teresa Zubi also mentions the yogi parrotfish on her website,
starfish.ch
Day Seven:
The next day we were to Karang Koka, probably one of the fishiest sites on the
trip. Another wall dive with deep overhangs. There were plenty of hard coral on
the top of the wall where most of the fish were. Small packs of rainbow runners
and fusiliers would run round and there were still the resident bluelined
barracuda. The topography of this dive was interesting. We swam along the wall
until we reached an opening which lead into a lagoon where all sorts of hard
coral fields in islets lay. Here the redtoothed triggerfish ruled in sheer
numbers along with assortments of butterfly, unicorn and other reef fish. We
even saw 5-6 mackerel patrol the top of the reef in search of food.
After Karang Koka, we moved to Moromaha island, with more walls to dive. By now
I'd decided to dive with the macro lens only, even on walls, since I was missing
out on some of the best skeleton shrimp action I'd ever seen. I'd seen about 5
fans covered with the skeleton shrimps (caprella sp). These anthropods basically
keep the fans from opening the buds and slowly starve the fans to death. Of
course this was when all the napoleon wrasse started showing in force, 2 in one
dive coming up close to check the divers out....ARRGGGHH!! We did 3 "mimic
menjangans" then went back to Koromaha to anchor for the night.
Day Eight:
The morning drift dive at Koromaha was nothing special, another menjangan where
I had the wrong lens and the fish were on strike. So we picked up and went to
Ndaa Island for 2 dives. 14 out of 16 wall dives so far we'd found pygmy
seahorses and softcoral crabs, and there were more here. I personally didn't
like shooting macro on walls because of the nature of video is you had to be
supported by something and with such healthy walls, there was very little space
to hold on while you zoom in on a creature 1cm or less long. I usually abstain
from shooting macro because of the potential damage done on the wall. I thought
I was being careful but the current swung me round and I clipped a table coral.
My own rule is I don't get to dive the rest of the day if I break something. So
I had to skip the night dive on the wreck off Tomia island. I almost wished I
didn't miss it.
When we anchored in Tomia, there were a few fishing boats next to us and the
captain of the Ombak parked us very close to them. I assumed since we had bow
and stern anchors we wouldn't swing but the combination of wind and tide turned
us and the bow swung into the fishing boat, clipping it with the tip. The boat
was unable to reverse because of the reef behind us so they had the skiffs go
round to push the Biru round and then we managed to avoid disaster... all this
while most of the divers were on the night dive. I didn't check but I'm sure at
the end of the trip, the captain had a few more white hairs.
Day Nine:
The next morning we dived on the north west end of Binongko, another "menjangan"
site. It was an interesting site where I saw 2 more Napoleon Wrasse and Graham
rescued a poor turtle from a discarded fishing net. It seemed to have been
caught for a few days and didn't have the strength to even swim down, since the
rear right fin was gone and the front right was mangled by the net. We didn't
expect it to survive. Some damned fishermen are just so irresponsible. It was
also here we found more weedy pygmies and I broke another soft sponge trying to
hold on against the current. 2 days in a row I cut my diving in half. And the
next site was probably my favorite of the Tomia area. Just off Tomia, Roma is a
large mound that is only worth diving just after slack on incoming current where
the fish start aggregating for the currents. It is a very fishy dive when done
at the right time, with plenty of the usual reef suspects. It also had very big
lettuce and cabbage coral patches. I, of course, sat out the dive but heard all
about it from the others who kept chiding me to stop self-flagellating and dive
Roma since it was so popular with others, they requested it again.
Day Ten:
Several of the guest voted to do Roma again for the morning dive. Graham looked
at the tide charts and said it wouldn't be good but when the guests request and
do not want to heed experience, well the customer is always right! So we had to
occupy ourselves with watching the flasher wrasse flash (the sign for which is a
bit complicated and involves 2 extremities) and look at the coral. Then suddenly
the current came and blew us off the rock. But some of the guests who didn't
like the critter hunting were happy with that.
We then travelled toward the outlying atolls and islands of Tomia for one of the
mosting interesting topographic dives of the area, the Blade, which were a group
of bommies connected by a series of deep ridges and saddles. There were plenty
of unicorn fish and other reef fish on the top, with pygmies (again!) and other
little critters on the ridges and saddles. On the way there, we spotted over a
hundred spotted dolphins and some seabirds about 1km away. I thought baitball! I
begged and pleaded for the boat to stop and all I got in response was the
standard dolphins disappear when people get in the water. I thought otherwise
but I was in the minority. Only Mr Need an Upgrade backed me up. The last dive
of the day was at the Channel near the Blade where I saw the biggest school of
bluefin trevally (about 100) ever. Of course I had my macro lens on.
Day Eleven:
The day was spent exploring a little known island called Kaunadi. No one on the
boat had been here before so it'd be a first for everyone. There were signs of
bombing but the regeneration was good and there were potatoe cod and napoleon
wrasse here, 2 indicator species in one spot. There was a little hope afterall.
My favorite moment came when we spotted dolphins again. This time I decided to
hijack the boat crew and skiff and go out. Most of the guests didn't believe I
could get near. My experience with dolphins over the years taught me many
things, including how to get them curious. I stopped the skiff about 200 yards
away from the dolphins and slipped into the water. I swam out not directly at
the dolphins but parallel. I could hear the dolphin clicking and whistling so I
started tapping on my video housing. The light was terrible since it was near
sunset but I had 4 passes by inquisitive dolphins. They hang around when you
have the right body language that's not threatening. I knew they were hunted
here in the Flores sea so I didn't want them to get too close, I just wanted to
be clicked at (dolphins send a sonic click to check you out and you can
sometimes feel it in your organs). It was then I realized I had the macro lens
on!
Day Twelve:
On the last full day of the trip, we went to Pulau Rajah (Island King) in the
Paloe area for a mix of coral and muck diving. It was a crustacean fest as we
found all sorts of crinoid shrimps, squat lobsters, cling shrimps on urchins,
sauron shrimps and of course about 4 bombs going off just around the other side
of the island (this is why I miss Komodo... no more bombs in the park!!). The
coral garden was about 1/4 of a foot field big but it had very nice growth and
quite decent fish life (and amazingly not bombed to hell!) Funny thing was we
violated the local chief's rules and dived before we had paid our respects. We
had to pay a fine of one million rupiah and a pig(The small island dwellers
aren't all islamic). We had a visit to the village to buy their handicrafts and
the kids from the village came on their dug outs to check us out. Again, the
american women had to be reminded shorts and tank tops were not "in" around
here. But everyone changed to more conservative wear without complaining.
The Last Day:
Our last day was spent at Wodong for 2 dives, where we did our first dive, back
in the muck. Again we spotted the mimics, 2 species of frogfish and loads of
ghost pipefish and a very beautiful Pterosis species which I'd never seen
before. Needless to say we had very long dives. There was also a Japanese barge
sunk during WWII that sheltered a large potato cod. This place was indeed a rich
place to dive. The most fun was trying to find frogfish since they had all sorts
of rubble to hide in. There were 3 that weren't all that hard to find. One white
warty stood right out in the dark volcanic sand and on another old wooden boat
wreck, 2 hispidus frogfish made their home with about 10 P. Volitans of various
sizes. I don't know how anyone could not like muck diving of this caliber. We
spent the night in Maumere harbor and packing for the trip home the next day.
The trip ended on the 14th day with the Ombak Biru crew being very helpful and
cheery. I was especially impressed with the local dive guide, Yan, who knew
exactly where I was even thought I was not diving with the main group. He knew
I'd gone deep or the other direction. I didn't even notice he was watching til
he mentioned it in conversations. That's the type of dive guide I like,
unintrusive but aware of my prescence. As we waited for the transport to come,
the american ladies were dressed in their shorts and tank tops again. I tried to
remind them that this was still an islamic local culture and exposed knees and
shoulders were not accepted. But the ladies were too hot to care.
Graham's point here:
Maumere and most of Flores are mainly Christian, this is not such a big deal on
these eastern islands! The cultural insensitivity annoyed me slightly but
the Ombak Biru who were kicking us off the boat 3 hours before the plane was
scheduled to depart and only gave us breakfast when our flight was at 1335,
definitely annoyed me. I understood the need to clean up but new guests weren't
arriving til the next day and it wouldn't have caused a lot of work to cook up
something for the road. The airport was only 15
mins away and we had to wait outside the airport terminal for 1 hour. The crew
who followed us dutifully waited with us in the hot terminal with dubious
bathrooms and when we finally checked in, we were sent into an even warmer
departure lounge to wait for another hour and more. It was not the most
efficient or customer oriented way to organize the logistics.
Graham's point here:
Beware flights in Indonesia can be late, they can also be early... I've personally
been on a l iveaboard charter where the cruise director was very casual about this,
a whole group missed their flight and had to wait a day for another, one guest missed
a connecting flight which really messed things up for him! Unless you would prefer this
I highly recomend being a little more cautious! I do take note and since this trip I
now arrange baggage to go ahead of the divers so the group does not have to wait so long!
Revisiting Tukang Besi and parts of Take Bone Rate showed me 2 things. First,
the marine parks do help tremendously with protecting the reefs and marine life.
The number of napoleon wrasse are on the increase in the area. The coral looked
healthy despite the higher water temperatures (which was a constant 28-29°C
throughout the dive with the exception of a few thermoclines) and the fish
population was on the increase in a few areas. However, the 2nd thing was that
more help is needed to ensure the world's most biodiverse area is protected.The
number of bombs and fishing nets etc show that the area isn't secure. Overall
I'd rate the diving to be around 5 out of 10 for Indonesian standards just for
the lack of fish on the reefs. I can't wait for it to go to a 8 or 9, hopefully
in my lifetime. The muck was an 8 overall. Not even in Lembeh did I see that
many Mimic octopus pop in and out, then again Lembeh has other things to
distract you with. All things considered, if you've been to Komodo,Derawan, Alor
and/or Papua Barat, the area covered here will probably not interest you. For
newcomers, money would be better spent going to Komodo, Derawan or even Bali.
Komodo especially has better and more marquee sites in closer proximity to each
other. It also has a better variety of diving. This itinerary is very much a
specialized one concentrating on macro critters and scenery (coral and
topography) without much in between.
Graham's final note:
I don't always give my own personal views in trip reports, what you have just read
is the way one diver aboard saw this trip... Funny thing is... Drew thought he was
going to Komodo, which tells it's own story you more really - hehehe!. For more
information about this trip or the area
click here to mail me for any more info' If you want to read more
guest testimonials from this trip click here.
To read another divers, the group leader - Jesse Cancelmo's, view of his trip aboard
Ombak Biru (Komodo Dancer) with Diving 4 Images click here.
Flores - Alor special with Komodo Dancer
For critters this is one of my favourite trips, keep reading and you'll see
why...
Then in the same area Rex, decided to go a little ways from the main site
looking for more, sure enough he found what we later named Rex's Rocks, he
had gone a short way from the first little hotspot and found a great place
for fish life with lots of anthias and other colourful reef fish ideal for
the photographers. He had found a few giant frogfish and on 1 dive Yan and
Rex came up all excited, and rightly so, they had seen a hairy octopus, we
tried to find it again though with no joy...