It was time to continue our travel. We decided to fly to Komodo Islands.
Komodo Islands are known for exquisite dive sites and of course, Komodo dragon. We wanted to experience both. We arrived to Flores Island, one of the islands in Komodo. Firstly we visited Wicked diving and booked our dives. They also promised to see a lot of mantas and of course, we were very excited. We were surprised how good and preserved their equipment was.
Banana pancakes for breakfast.
Once the diving was booked, we looked for accommodation and some good dining. We found a very good Italian restaurant Made in Italy. It is owned by Italian guy, who makes everything from scratch and uses only fresh ingredients. He also imports more than 80% ingredients from Italy, just to make his food authentic. Needless to say, it was our favorite place on the island.
Made in Italy
The next day we started with our dives. We had a very good guide Sarah from France, who made sure that we saw a lot of diverse underwater life. We visited several dive sites, like Siaba Besar, also known as Turtle city, where we saw 2,5 m long white tip reef shark and lots of turtles. We were very lucky and saw a barracuda, which came very close. At Makassar we dived in to only 12 m, where we saw schools of manta rays. Tatawa Besar had a very strong current, which Sarah described as medium. We jokingly called it a Medium French. We had a drift dive, where we saw a lot nudis and trigger fish. We also went to Mini Wall and Mauan, where we encountered manta rays again. At Sebayur Kecil we saw a black tip reef shark, humphead wrasse, mantis shrimp, box fish, baby box fish and a lobster. Unfortunately we didn't have an underwater camera to capture these beauties.
Emma explaining the sites.
Preparing the picture of the dive site.
Celia making the briefing before we jump in the water.
Our gear.
Happy diver enjoying his coffee before he goes diving with mantas.
Chillaxing...
Wicked diving made sure, that our bellies were always full.
We woke up early. The boat towards Manta Point left at 8:30, so we had to hurry. We had our breakfast and quickly went to Blue Corner Dive.
It was definetely too early for Jerneja.
We assembled our gear and eagerly waited for our giude to give us a sign to leave. What happened on this particular day is hard to describe with words. They promised us to see a lot mantas, because this location is full of plancton and they come in schools to feed through the whole year. We have only see manta ray once before on the Similan Islands and we were very lucky, so we were not sure, if this encounter is actually going to happen. But we were hoping....
The jeep picked us up and we were on the road again. Eventually we came to the boat and we were heading to our diving destination. This boat was a lot smaller that what we are used to. It had no toilet, no kitchen, well... just a covered deck, where we had our gear. We were wondering, how are they going to prepared our lunch in there??
Since the boat was so small, we had to put on the dive suits before.
Always happy crew.
The gear is assembled and ready to dive in.
Ready, set, go! We were in the water on the way to see mantas. The currents were very strong and we also got caught in the surge. But the currents bring plancton and plancton attracts mantas. It was totally worth the fight with the currents, because the view was spectacular. We saw everything, that they promised and more.
We also saw this beautiful turtle...
...and some very photogenic stingrays.
Delicious and versatile lunch for a hungry diver after fighting all those currents. :-)
Indonesia is commonly described as paradise for scuba dive enthusiasts. We wanted to jump in to our dive suits and in to the blue as soon as possible and make sure on our own that the glory of this country's underwater world is justified. That is why our next destination was Lembongan Island.
We soon found out, that traveling along Indonesia was not going to be easy. Lembongan Island is very close to Bali and know for its Manta point. This is why it is very popular with scuba divers. It took us 2 hours by taxi, some waiting, and another hour by boat and we arrived.
As we waited for the boat, we decided to try some curry and fresh juice.
Still waiting for the boat.
Boarding our luggage on the boat.
Finally on the boat and headed towards Lembongan island.
Last view of Bali and the fishermen.
We finally arrived. We liked this island a lot more than Bali. It was more quiet - without annoying locals - and yet full of people like us - either surfers or scuba divers. We went directly to Blue corner dive and reserve our dives. The people at the dive center were nice and helpful and they even helps us with accomodation and recommondations for best restaurants.
Blue corner dive, our diving center at Lembongan island.
We were in luck. The very next day they were headed to Manta Point - very famous destination, where manta ray encounter is guaranteed. We wanted more, so we booked 3 days of diving with them.
The diving of the first day was awesome. Let's see if our next days will be awesome as well. We started with a morning dive in location called North point.
Priceless
Not much to see on the first dive of the day. In between first and second dive we had some free time to explore the main island with a significant rock on top of the hill.
A break from the moving boat
Time to enjoy!
On diving spot called Christmas point we witnessed couple of White Tip Reef Sharks cruising around. Since sharks are considered as shy animals (surprisingly), it is hard to spot them. Hence there is a 2 meters long shark one on the following video.
Before the last dive of the day Joe warned us of possibility to witness so called Green Monster. We were ready to jump into the water therefore there was no time to actually clarify what Green Monster is. We were diving and suddenly all fish started to rapidly swim towards rocks and corals to hide. We looked in the deep blue and suddenly green wave of cold and murky water reached us. We grabbed each other for hands and try to find safe spot somewhere. Most of the times we were able to find nice spot to wait for Green Monster to pass by. Due to strong currents in that area, Green Monsters are quite common. Our diving guides knew what to do in such situations but it was freezing cold!! Nevertheless experience was priceless and we now know what Green Monster is.
Boris with a puffer fish in the background
Giant Moray Eel
Breathing real air with the wet equipment on
Stars are not only on the sky!
It was time to call it a day. We locked ourselves in the cabin and take a good night rest to recover our strengths for upcoming two days of diving.
Next morning we heard: "It is a beautiful morning in Similan Islands! Rise and shine!" from Joe which was the sign to wake up, prepare our equipment and get ready to jump into the crystal clear water.
Beautiful morning dive
Octopus
Same octopus...
We finished the first dive of the day in the early morning. We had enough time to do another dive on the same location, Tachai pinnacle at Koh Tachai. We jumped into the water and quickly reached out final depth of the dive. We swam around the corals and suddenly it got darker under the water. We looked up and became breathless. Above us was swimming 5 meter wide Manta Ray. This magnificent animal danced around us for couple of minutes. The feeling was outstanding.
The star of the day: Manta Ray
Manta Ray still dancing around us as well as a group of barracudas - Priceless!
Lost in yellowness
Sea horse
Among the animals on the pictures we also saw some tunas, mantis shrimp and bay box fish.
Our captain turned the boat around and we headed back towards mainland. The last day of liveaboard we stopped at Hin Laung, where we spotted a stone fish. Before the last dive location was well known Koh Bon, West Ridge where 2 meters wide Eagle Ray came to say hello.
The last location was Boonsung Wreck near to Khao Lak mainland where we saw a lot of baby fish, all sorts.
Bat fish
Box fish
Giant Squid
One of the most dangerous animals in the world, Stone Fish
Baby Moray Eel
We concluded our diving with awesome feelings and crazy good experiences. Some of the highlights: Manta Ray, White Tip Reef Sharks, Hawksbill Turtle, Green Monster.
All and all well balanced trip. More to come. Stay tuned.
