Off the beaten track: Rinca Island

The diving was behind us and we decided to book a hike tour on Rinca Island to see some Komodo dragons.



We had a bit of bad luck with local agency. The manager tried to rip us off by saying that there is no available tours from Flores Island and he wanted to charge us a lot of money for it. We cancelled the reservation and found another agency, where everything went smoother.

The travel from Flores Island to Rinca Island was by an old boat.

The boat wouldn't start, so the captain had to jump in the water and solve the problem.

We met a fisherman on the way.

We were very happy, when we arrived on Rinca Island. We hoped to spot some dragons.

After arrival on the Island, we had to register in tourist office. The island and the Komodo dragon are UNICEF heritage, so we had to book a guide and a tour in hope to see the dragons. Komodo dragon is extremely dangerous and can attack a human. The guides had wooden sticks, which is split at the end. This helps to maintain a dragon, if attacked. The dragon has more than 50 different bacteria in his mouth and can attack even a large animal like buffalo. After the bite, the pray gets blood poisoning, which causes slow and painful death.

The guide explaining us the tour.

Baby Komodo dragon spotted in the village.

More Komodo dragons enjoying the shadow in the village.

We went on a hike around the village. The guide showed us the place, where female laid the eggs.

Baby dragons hatched just a few weeks ago.

On our hike we finally spotted a real Komodo dragon in the nature. It is truly a beautiful creature!

Beautiful Komodo dragon

The tour took us up the hill, where the view was spectacular!

Greetings from Rinca Island,

Jerneja & Boris

Komodo Island

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.

Saying goodbye to the sea.

Best regards from Flores,

Jerneja & Boris

Some more underwater adventures

Now that we saw mantas, we wanted more. Soon we were back in the water discovering new underwater treasures.

Triggerfish

Trumpet fish

Nudibranch.

Trumpet fish

Pufferfish

Anemonefish

Lionfish

Phil-fish

Boris-fish

Moren

Sea snake

Nothing makes a diver more happy than some delicious local cousine.

Greetings from Lembongan Island,

Jerneja & Boris

Manta Point

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. :-)

Best regards,

Jerneja & Boris

Lembongan Island

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.

Greetings from Lembongan Island,

Jerneja and Boris

On the road again: Bali

This destination was anticipated by both of us for quite some time. We were very excited, when the plane finally reached its destination - Bali.

This beautiful island is just one of many islands in Indonesia. The weather was nice and sunny and the atmosphere was laid back. It was the beginning of yet another amazing vacation.

We arrived tired and hungry at Denpasar airport. We headed directly to the hotel, where we left our stuff and decided to try some tipical indonesian food. 

Nasi goreng (left) and chicken satay (right).

Now that our bellies were full and happy, we decided to check out the beach. On the way to the beach we saw a funny surprise, that reminded us of home.

The beach was really nice: sandy beach, blue sea full of surfers, palm trees everywhere and unfortunatelly full of tourist and locals eager to make some quick money on tourists. We had our fun, but we knew this is not how we want to spend our vacation. So, we headed on the next island.

Best regards from Bali,

Jerneja & Boris