Komodo National park, March 21st-24th
On the trip, Nick and Ellie from Dive Komodo, Helen and Peter from Aquatic Alliance, Andy from Manta Watch. Henna tourist from Finnland that just finniched her Dive Master in the Philippines, Erik (The Escape) from Sweeden, doing his dive master interntship at Dive Komodo and bicycled from Sweden to Singapore. Stuart from Australia, doing his Dive master internship outside Bali and me, and off course some excelent crew on the boat take take very well care of us, get us where we want to dive and feed us. For the dive photos you can go to my Flickr page to see all of them, it is many. :)
We are a safari that have a focus on mantas rays since we have 3 experts on those great big fishes on the boat, but we have also been looking for other interesting stuff on sites where one not normally find manta rays. The boat is nice, lots of space since we are so few people on the boat, and I think that only 3 of us are paying costumers, and we are all experienced divers.
March 21st
We left the harbour first around 11 h in the morning, a bit later than planned. We have 3 dives on this day, but we start the trip with a good lunch, so food is looking promising, and as it turnes out is is great to all meals. Good "boatcooked" meals. :)
The dive of the day is 3 well known divesites, Tatawa Basar, Manta Point and Waenilu as a night dive. Unfortunatly we do not see many mantas on Manta Point on this dive, only 2 comes by, and I am not getting close to any of them, or, say it an other way, non of the mantas comes close to me. But we are passing a eagle ray on the dive, coming toward us looking for food at the sea botten. On Tattawa Besar the highligts is a close photo encounter with a pretty big cuttle fish that are showing off and flipping me off with one of his/her arms :) I also manage to find a baby Scorpion fish, so small that I am not even sure if I see a fish there, just take a photo to be sure, and get it on film. The night dive on Waenilu is cool, find lots of cool fish and crabs, flying gunnard, mini lionfish, crabs, 2 frogfish and more, fun and calm dive in the dark only seeing what comes into the light of the torch.
First day on the boat and the dives is great, the food is amazing and I eat to much I guess, but food is so good after some dives. I am bunked up with Stuert, but he sleep on the deck instead of inside, so I have the room for myself. It is extreamly hot, and I do not sleep very well. After a couple of beer for dinner, I go to bed around 21.30, good and tired after the day.
March 22nd
On the the second day of the Safari, we are up around 6, and 07.21 we jump in the water at Batu Bolong. I am trying out some manual setting on the camera on this dive, not easy. Ends up with that I almost only look at the camera on not on what is around me. So I go back to autmating setting a bit, and manual again. We see 1 shark and 1 turtle, 1 murene eel, lots of nudibranchs, and the corrals are as always when you dive here amazingly colorful. A good start of the day.
After a good breakfast we go back to Manta Point, not much luck with the Manta rays this time either, I see 2, none of them close, just a short look, a black tip shart pass under us when we drift on the small current that is on the this dive.
For the third dive we go south on Komodo NP and do a dive on 3 sisters, 3 pinnacles that we explore. A great dive, sees 2 giant frogfish, a sea apple, murene eel, lionfishes and lots and lots of amazing corrals.
Since we are so lucky to have Helen and Peter on the boat, and that they are invited guest we have severals "classes" with them over the days on the sea, teaching us about Manta Rays, Mule Mule, Whalesharks and other fishes and corrals that we see on a dive. Really great to get some more knowledge about what we see during a dive.
We do not do any nightdive on this day. Wich meen that we finnish the diving at 15:00, and get some time to enjoy some beers on the deck when we continue our journey south in Komodo NP. We spend the night somewhere close to Manta Alley, which is a promising name for the morning dive the next day.
Not a late night this night either, in bed around 21:00. Is is hard work to be out diving... :)
March 23rd
An other early morning, up a bit before 6. Have slept pretty good this night, found the perfect possision for the fan, so it do not blow direct on me, but sirkulate the air perfectly.
After a short boatride and some checking of the condition at the dive site, we jump into the water at Manta Alley at 7.30. There is not many Mantas at Manta Alley either, strange, we only see 2 mantas here too. Still, it is a good dive and I enjoy it, but must admit that I am a bit disapointed that the manta rays do not know their visiting hours. But there is nothing to do about that, they are wild fish, and one have to know that one might see them on a dive.
2nd dive on the day is a challenge. It is called Fisherman rock, a pilar in the middle of the sea only found with exact gps data. We are not allowed to bring the camera on this dive, it is expected to be to challenging. Anyway, I bring the Go Pro camera for some filming around, the pillar is nice, not a lot of current. We do not see any big fish, but the corrals are bloming and we get to see a big octopus at the end of the dive. Great and fun dive!
3rd dive of the day, after one good lunch is at German Flag, which is expected to be a drift dive, but as it turned out, it is not. It is a nice dive in a around in a bit caotic uw landscape. Sees 1 lobster, 1 manta scrimp and several nudi´s.
We are ancoring up at south Rincha after a 3 hours boatride from German Flag. When we are there we jump into the small boat and go close up to the beach to have a look at the Komodo Dragons. Teasing them with some fish, and they are pretty active and agressive to get the bite. Exciting and fun, and a tiny bit scary, spesially when the engine of the boat stops and do not start again straight away. We are gettting really close to them, a lot closer than last year in the park. Cool!
I am a little bit aware of diving after I have seen the dragons swim, but I guess they do not dive, at least I hope not.
We do the 4th dive, the night dive at Cannibal rock, that got the name after someone saw a dragon eating an other dragon on the rock. We go in the water at 18:59, I sneeze several times before the dives, and have some more during the dive. I do not know it yet, but it is the start of me getting sick. Just a cold, but anyway. The dive is amazing big time, so much colors, that one get blown away in all the beauty on the rock. It is so much color that I hardly see any interesting to take photos of, but I manage to find a sea apple, a blue spotted ray and are in line to get a photo of a slippery lobster, but do not get an good photo of it. The others are finding lots of nice stuff, so I should have stayed closer to them I guess, instead looking around close to them.
Starting to have a dripping nose during the night, hit the bed around 22 after some beers on the deck and chat with the others.
March 24th
I have a bad night, not much sleep at all, 3-4 hours, and keep on sneezing on a regular basis. Make the decision during the night that I want do the morning dive, not smart to dive with a cold. Better to wait it out and be fit for more diving when I get to the Palawan, Philippines.
I am not diving this day, sad, but the way it is, and I am sure it is the smart thing to do. Spending the dives reading and wiping my dripping nose, not feeling well at all. But the nose and troat condition is changing during the day, to the better.
We are back in Labuan Bajo around 17:00, and meet each other again for dinner at the Italian resturant at 19:30. I am very tired when we meet up, not feeling to well, mostly from the lack of sleep, the health is a little bit improved. Food is nice. Back home at Golo a bit to 22:00, going straight to bed.
Even if I got sick the last night/day, it has been a great trip together with some very nice people. Thank you all for making it a great experience!
On the trip, Nick and Ellie from Dive Komodo, Helen and Peter from Aquatic Alliance, Andy from Manta Watch. Henna tourist from Finnland that just finniched her Dive Master in the Philippines, Erik (The Escape) from Sweeden, doing his dive master interntship at Dive Komodo and bicycled from Sweden to Singapore. Stuart from Australia, doing his Dive master internship outside Bali and me, and off course some excelent crew on the boat take take very well care of us, get us where we want to dive and feed us. For the dive photos you can go to my Flickr page to see all of them, it is many. :)
We are a safari that have a focus on mantas rays since we have 3 experts on those great big fishes on the boat, but we have also been looking for other interesting stuff on sites where one not normally find manta rays. The boat is nice, lots of space since we are so few people on the boat, and I think that only 3 of us are paying costumers, and we are all experienced divers.
We left the harbour first around 11 h in the morning, a bit later than planned. We have 3 dives on this day, but we start the trip with a good lunch, so food is looking promising, and as it turnes out is is great to all meals. Good "boatcooked" meals. :)
The dive of the day is 3 well known divesites, Tatawa Basar, Manta Point and Waenilu as a night dive. Unfortunatly we do not see many mantas on Manta Point on this dive, only 2 comes by, and I am not getting close to any of them, or, say it an other way, non of the mantas comes close to me. But we are passing a eagle ray on the dive, coming toward us looking for food at the sea botten. On Tattawa Besar the highligts is a close photo encounter with a pretty big cuttle fish that are showing off and flipping me off with one of his/her arms :) I also manage to find a baby Scorpion fish, so small that I am not even sure if I see a fish there, just take a photo to be sure, and get it on film. The night dive on Waenilu is cool, find lots of cool fish and crabs, flying gunnard, mini lionfish, crabs, 2 frogfish and more, fun and calm dive in the dark only seeing what comes into the light of the torch.
First day on the boat and the dives is great, the food is amazing and I eat to much I guess, but food is so good after some dives. I am bunked up with Stuert, but he sleep on the deck instead of inside, so I have the room for myself. It is extreamly hot, and I do not sleep very well. After a couple of beer for dinner, I go to bed around 21.30, good and tired after the day.
 |
| Baby scorpion fish. |
March 22nd
On the the second day of the Safari, we are up around 6, and 07.21 we jump in the water at Batu Bolong. I am trying out some manual setting on the camera on this dive, not easy. Ends up with that I almost only look at the camera on not on what is around me. So I go back to autmating setting a bit, and manual again. We see 1 shark and 1 turtle, 1 murene eel, lots of nudibranchs, and the corrals are as always when you dive here amazingly colorful. A good start of the day.
After a good breakfast we go back to Manta Point, not much luck with the Manta rays this time either, I see 2, none of them close, just a short look, a black tip shart pass under us when we drift on the small current that is on the this dive.
For the third dive we go south on Komodo NP and do a dive on 3 sisters, 3 pinnacles that we explore. A great dive, sees 2 giant frogfish, a sea apple, murene eel, lionfishes and lots and lots of amazing corrals.
 |
| 2 Giant Frogfish |
We do not do any nightdive on this day. Wich meen that we finnish the diving at 15:00, and get some time to enjoy some beers on the deck when we continue our journey south in Komodo NP. We spend the night somewhere close to Manta Alley, which is a promising name for the morning dive the next day.
Not a late night this night either, in bed around 21:00. Is is hard work to be out diving... :)
March 23rd
An other early morning, up a bit before 6. Have slept pretty good this night, found the perfect possision for the fan, so it do not blow direct on me, but sirkulate the air perfectly.
After a short boatride and some checking of the condition at the dive site, we jump into the water at Manta Alley at 7.30. There is not many Mantas at Manta Alley either, strange, we only see 2 mantas here too. Still, it is a good dive and I enjoy it, but must admit that I am a bit disapointed that the manta rays do not know their visiting hours. But there is nothing to do about that, they are wild fish, and one have to know that one might see them on a dive.
2nd dive on the day is a challenge. It is called Fisherman rock, a pilar in the middle of the sea only found with exact gps data. We are not allowed to bring the camera on this dive, it is expected to be to challenging. Anyway, I bring the Go Pro camera for some filming around, the pillar is nice, not a lot of current. We do not see any big fish, but the corrals are bloming and we get to see a big octopus at the end of the dive. Great and fun dive!
3rd dive of the day, after one good lunch is at German Flag, which is expected to be a drift dive, but as it turned out, it is not. It is a nice dive in a around in a bit caotic uw landscape. Sees 1 lobster, 1 manta scrimp and several nudi´s.
 |
| Komodo dragons at south Rinca |
I am a little bit aware of diving after I have seen the dragons swim, but I guess they do not dive, at least I hope not.
We do the 4th dive, the night dive at Cannibal rock, that got the name after someone saw a dragon eating an other dragon on the rock. We go in the water at 18:59, I sneeze several times before the dives, and have some more during the dive. I do not know it yet, but it is the start of me getting sick. Just a cold, but anyway. The dive is amazing big time, so much colors, that one get blown away in all the beauty on the rock. It is so much color that I hardly see any interesting to take photos of, but I manage to find a sea apple, a blue spotted ray and are in line to get a photo of a slippery lobster, but do not get an good photo of it. The others are finding lots of nice stuff, so I should have stayed closer to them I guess, instead looking around close to them.
 |
| Feeding corals |
Starting to have a dripping nose during the night, hit the bed around 22 after some beers on the deck and chat with the others.
March 24th
I have a bad night, not much sleep at all, 3-4 hours, and keep on sneezing on a regular basis. Make the decision during the night that I want do the morning dive, not smart to dive with a cold. Better to wait it out and be fit for more diving when I get to the Palawan, Philippines.
I am not diving this day, sad, but the way it is, and I am sure it is the smart thing to do. Spending the dives reading and wiping my dripping nose, not feeling well at all. But the nose and troat condition is changing during the day, to the better.
We are back in Labuan Bajo around 17:00, and meet each other again for dinner at the Italian resturant at 19:30. I am very tired when we meet up, not feeling to well, mostly from the lack of sleep, the health is a little bit improved. Food is nice. Back home at Golo a bit to 22:00, going straight to bed.
Even if I got sick the last night/day, it has been a great trip together with some very nice people. Thank you all for making it a great experience!
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1 comment:
Thank you. I am heading back for more diving with the mantas this year.
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