Komodo
I went for a 10-night liveaboard which departed from Bima Bay and combined diving in North and South Komodo.
Day 1 – flight from Bali to Bima was delayed so we boarded the liveaboard around 4pm had briefings and orientation, dinner and bintangs
Day 2 – Sangeang Island & Gili Banta (blue water, temp 28C, viz 15-25m)
Bonto Reef &Techno Reef; both have black volcanic sand with small reef outcroppings, black coral bushes, soft corals. Great for critters. Some disturbance at Bonto Reef could be seen from the recent eruption of Sangeang Api but there appeared little affect to the marine life.
Marine Life: Nudibranchs (about 20 different species spotted), ornate ghost pipefish, cuttlefish, snake eels, leaf fish
Stargazer Reef (AKA Circus / Star Wars) (night)– large sandy area with a few coral bommies
Marine Life: Stargazers!
Day 3 – North Komodo & Gili Lawa Laut – (blue water, temp 28C, viz 25-30m)
Coral Garden – White sand with coral bommies – little if no current – we used the dive to practice with reef hooks and smb deployment for later in the trip. Marine Life leaf fish, nudibranchs, ribbon eel, moray eels.
Castle Rock – large submerged coral pinnacle, strong current, negative entry and fast descent to cleaning station (20-30m). Reef hooks required. Shelter behind the pinnacle when making safety stop. Marine Life: white tips, schools of jacks, snappers, schools of bannerfish & surgeon fish, turtles, Napoleon wrasse
Crystal Rock – large coral pinnacle which breaks the surface, secondary smaller pinnacle approx. 50m across a narrow channel. Marine Life: Pygmy seahorse, ladybugs, turtles, school of jacks, white tips, Napoleon wrasse
Spanish Dancer Heaven (night)– Reef wall descending to 18m followed by white sand sloping reef. Marine Life: nudibranchs, flat worms, decorator crabs, commensal shrimps, lobster, sponge snail
Day 4 – Gili Lawa Laut, Current City & Rinca (blue water, temp 28C, viz 25-30m)
Golden Passage – wide channel with reef wall and sandy bottom at approx. 30m. Numerous whip corals. Current was mild but picked up during the dive to medium strength – the drift was fun and easy going. Marine Life: Bumphad parrot fish, Xeno crabs, turtles, candy crabs, blue spotted sting rays
Shot Gun! (AKA Cauldron) – Sloping reef / coral garden with a large “fish bowl”/ “cauldron” with white sandy bottom at approx. 25m.Gentle drift until the Cauldron lip when we were “shot” over the reef (8m) – fun drift and we managed to keep our group together by kicking slightly to the left and finished up the dive on the other side of the passage in apretty coral garden. Marine Life: pygmy seahorse, leaf fish, turtles, schooling snappers (2 people saw a manta and 1 a dugong!)
Makassar Reef – long rubble reef with coral bommies. Mantas come to be cleaned / feed here but we didn’t have any luck. The reef itself is quite dull as you simply drift along keeping a look out for the big stuff. Marine life: white tip, eagle rays, sting ray.
Wainlioo (AKA Dragon Besar) Sunset / Night dive – shallow rubble / broken corals followed by a slope with seagrass & coral bommies. Sunset / Night dive. Marine Life: mandarin fish, picturesque dragonets, hairy bat crab (took some time to id that one!), frogfish, pygmy cuttlefish
Day 5 – Guided Dragon walk on Rinca, Padar Bay (Greenish & cooler water -25C, viz 10-20m)
Dragon Walk was awesome – we saw 5 dragons out and about, some lazing close to the trail others prowling around near to the ranger’s station. Better experience than previous visits to Komodo the guides were informative and helpful.
Secret Bay – relatively small site with reef wall starting at 18m – 30m. Plenty of corals, black coral bushes, anemones and barrel sponges. Viz was very poor. Marine Life: hairy squat lobster, mobula rays (just)! Thought the dive site a little lacking in event but if viz better then mobula rays would make it worthwhile.
Tiga Dara (AKA3 Sisters)-3 pinnacles fairly close to each other, each covered in corals, loads of crinoids, whip corals. Mild current made it easy to cruise between the pinnacles, viz poor (10m). Marine Life: giant frogfish, xeno crab, devil scorpionfish, nudibranchs, cowries, porcelain crabs
Sunset on the beach with a few bintangs
Day 6 – Nusa Kode, South Rinca (all dives greenish water with 10-15m viz and water temp 24C)
Boulders – reef slope with large coral “boulders”. We’d been told there was a rhinopia spotted here so our dive focused on that and we found it at 30m. Medium current. Marine Life: Rhinopia, mobula rays, ribbon eels, nudibranchs, whip coral shrimps, crinoid cuttlefish
Cannibal Rock- large submerged pinnacle with soft corals,hard corals, sea fans, black corals and whip corals. Marine Life: turtle, frogfish, sea apples, zebra crabs
Rhino Rocks – sloping dark sand reef with small coral bommies, sea grass and sea fans. Marine Life: frogfish, soft coral cowries, mantis shrimp, pygmy seahorse, cuttlefish, plakobranchs, nudibranchs, zebra crabs, crinoid clingfish, Pegasus seamoths, bobbit worm.
Torpedo Alley (night)- sloping dark sand with tiny sponges, corals and seagrass. Marine Life: all manner of decorator crab, octopus, skeleton shrimp, nudibranchs, sea pens
Day 7 – 3 dives in Nusa Kode and dragon watching at the beach from the dinghies. We crossed from there to South Komodo and a late night dive was offered at Phinisi Wreck.
Day 8 – South Komodo (viz 15-20m, water temp 22-24C)
Manta Alley- reef wall with coral outcroppings. Cleaning station at 24m. Channels run between the rocks at 10-15m where mantas can be seen feeding. We made 3 dives and had success each time at the cleaning station, watching the mantas for 20-30 minutes then moving shallower up the reef. We think there were at least 15 different mantas including 2 all black ones. A late night dive was also offered at Pink Beach (Pantai Merah). Dive 2 was the best of the day
Day 9 – Current City & Gili Lawa Laut (blue water, temp 28C, viz 30-40m)
Pink Beach – sloping coral garden with numerous bommies and white sand. Large patch of staghorn corals. Marine Life: leaf fish, ribbon eels, common octopus,
Batu Bolong – coral pinnacle which breaks the surface has stunning hard and soft corals, a few overhangs and crevices. Need to watch out on the edges as the current can get very strong & turbulent. Marine Life: numerous fish species including puffers, snappers, lionfish, angel fish, nudibranchs, sea spider
Castle Rock – as above though the current was a little stronger and most of the divers were in a “ashing machine” style current during the safety stop – there isn’t much place to hang on, smbs were only deployed when stop was complete. Our guide Dince (who is tiny) had 1 guest hanging off her leg!
Crystal Rock / sunset “booze cruise”
Day 10- Bima Bay (muck diving, water temp 28C, viz 15-20m)
Nudibranch Reef – silty sandy slope with a coral bommies & sponges. Marine Life: many different species of nudibranchs
The Unusual Suspects – sandy slope with coral bommies, shallow sandy area great for extending the dive time (I made a 103minute dive). Marine life: colemani shrimp, zebra crabs, crocodile fish, spiny devilfish, lionfish many types, seahorses, wonderpus, hairy filefish, juv. Barramundi, nudibranchs, frogfish,stone fish, Pegasus seamoths
