Gregg A. Hollomon part in the exhilarating diving, high-current to the Komodo National Park to photograph the great and the small pleasures of this area has to offer.
The archipelago of Komodo is really an adventure trip, but more importantly the people are lovely, and diving is straight out of a Jules Verne episode. My wife and I decided to make a last minute trip to the Komodo National Park, before our final departure of Indonesia as permanent residents. In the planning phase, I quickly found that last minute booking a dive boat is an adventure in itself. My advice is to start at least six months as Komodo is almost as popular with the international crowd Raja Ampat (especially during the high season from September to November).
Fortunately, a newly built airport Labuan Bajo, Flores now serves daily flights that significantly shorten the trip out of Bali and other Indonesian locations. The city has a small port that is loaded with dive operators, light industry, homestays and restaurants. Once you land, it is very easy to move with transport available. Many of the hotels two stars-and-up offer free shuttle into town.
During our week of diving, I really don 't have a chance to reflect on the beauty, the diversity and excitement of northern waters of Komodo have to offer. Most diving days were followed with a night dive even though we were exhausted by the time of day. It was really a situation where you felt that you did not want to miss experience something exciting just around the corner. During the week, we managed 16 dives, which were all varying in topography, currents, special creatures and large pelagic feeding. The best dive sites (personal opinion) are Castle Rock, Crystal Rock, Manta Point, and Batu Bulong (hole in the rock).
Check Dive
Our first dive was a shallow slope and wall off Sebayur Kecil Island. In 2013, a rogue wave hit the beach and waves of six meters destroyed the upper reef mainly large table corals. Below the mark of five meters, life abounds. It was very exciting to see a great locate squid egg which two men (or women?) Spar it out for dominance. Further, we found fish unicorn hunting small sardines while on the upper bommies, thousands of spectacular glass fish fill water. Masked rabbitfish mill around during that show.
After an absolutely amazing sunset we headed down for a night dive at the same site. We descend a sandy slope in search of gannets then directed to another wall is beautiful virgin fly. Purple glowing bioluminescence was everywhere. Jimmy, our guide Flores, is a very good night watcher. Hidden in a crevice of the wall was a large solar nudibranch over 20cm. As if that were not enough, a companion shrimp was lurking on the back of cleaning out parasites. Just up a meter is a green turtle sleeping. As my wife states, the dive was a thousand eyes made of cleaner shrimps, banded boxer shrimp, crab decorator glass shrimps, flatworms and laying of soft corals.
Favourite Dive site
My favorite dive of the week was Crystal Rock, north of Gili Lawa Laut. The top of this rock is the wave-based and can be difficult to spot. The base of the monolith falls over 35 meters, but most of the fish action is at least 27 meters. This site is known for the large currents and must be immersed in soft water, which means that you can get in depth before being swept off site. Jump into the water and descend quickly. water temperatures are from 28 degree centigrade near the surface to 19 degrees of upwelling.
Fantastic fish bowl menagerie, the site offers the giant cod and sweetlips in cleaning stations while huge yellow benches lined surgeonfish sweetlips and allow you to join their ranks.
jacks Surrounding all this action is dispersed, jacks and white tip sharks circling.
Encounter Manta a third type
At Manta Point (Karang Makassar), we jumped in the water and high churn began to drift-rip the along the bottom at 17 meters. Five minutes later, we find a huge manta which later explained Jimmy was a pregnant woman. She was a small cleaning station floating in the stream about 60cm above a small set of rocky coral.
I came upstream and locked my crochet reef on a rock to start the photography session. Before I knew it, it had made further progress in my direction and settled about 30cm right on me. I've never heard of a person who was crushed by a manta but the thought crossed my mind as the game played. After a while, she moved laterally to my relief. More current down we met five mantas with black completely, known as Darth Vader.
The scariest dive trip happened to be a simple dive Seiba Kecil Island. Jimmy checks on local conditions, but does not know which direction the current takes us so he jumps into the water to watch the orientation of the fish. After he is satisfied, we descend 18 meters and go with the flow. Almost immediately, we are struck with a very strong current down. All this happened so fast we had no chance of getting a reef hooks outside and were mainly due to small floor rubble that hopefully will not move.
The four of us were first separated by a number of meters and it took some time for each of us to alternately move forward. I had my BCD completely full of air and each time I made a move, I am swept lower. We crawled slowly along the side of the slope hoping the current would give way. Once he did, we moved shallower, then abandoned soon after diving safe stop. This dive has taught me a new level of respect for the unexpected; by the end of this 23-minute shallow dive we were all less than half an air tank.
Caution
Some people say that the Komodo diving is not for the faint hearted. I do not agree with this general statement, but certainly every diver should establish an action plan in case of separation of the guide or diving partner. This plan must be fully discussed and understood by the guide and others in the diving group. In addition, I recommend everyone wear a safety sausage, crochet reef and emergency strobe with you on all dives -. Even "dives beginners" simple
What makes underwater Komodo so vibrant is the current introduction flow in abundant supply of nutrients to allow divers just have to live with it. Live is the key word here
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In short
Location: Lesser Sunda islands
Size: square 1733 km
How there: Garuda and Air Wings are the main airlines flying to Labuan Bajo now. These flights are non-stop from Jakarta and may have a short stop in Bali and Makassar.
What to bring: Your own scuba diving equipment, or at least bring your own diving watch, sunblock and camera
What to do: diving, snorkelling, visit the Komodo sanctuary on the island of Rinca
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