Now we don’t have many photos from here as it’s not exactly the most happening place to be….on land that is. Under the ocean is another story all together. Labuanbajo is the base at which you situate yourself if you want to explore the Komodo National Park from Flores. Now, we had already got in some dragon action in so our new mates Jose and Maria from Chile were keen on doing some diving and convinced us that we should all go on a trip whilst we were there. We got booked into a hotel and went to the dive shop that Dipi had done a recci on earlier and booked in for a trip out into the Komodo Marine Park which has, allegedly, some of the best diving in the world! (Mind you I was snorkelling so I didn’t expect to see much, but I was told that I would probably see a shark and some big fish, so I was happy with that. We will insert some fishy photos that were very kindly given to us by Harold Nahmias, a dive instructor/ photographer, just so it gives you an idea of what we had seen, (although the photos are taken from other sites).
Just to summarise before I go head on into the diving day, we just spent a few days here and the highlight was the day out on the boat as well as spending some quality time with our new found friends (Jose, Maria and Miguel).
Right, now for the boat trip! We had spent some time the previous day getting suited up in all the right sized gear (Dipi had the brightest yellow wetsuit you have ever seen!) so that in the morning all we had to do was turn up (at 7am) and jump on the boat. We turned up to be warmly greeted by Greg the Instructor and Adrienne the Dive master for Dive Komodo). With the initial introductions done we headed off on the two hour trip to a couple of sites off the north coast of Komodo.
The sites that we were to dive were called Castle Rock, Crystal Rock and the North passage. Now I can only describe things from my point view due to me bobbing around on the top (on me tod) and Dipi being with other divers down in the depths.
The first snorkel was a bit lame due to me not knowing where to go and getting pulled right out by currents so I ended up right out in the blue (i.e. when you look down it is infinitely blue!) with the boat miles away and with very strong currents ripping around the place, which was a little unnerving to say the least! So apart from seeing some small fish and a glimpse of my first shark and also some big trevally that was about it. (Hang on, that sounds pretty good reading at it; maybe it’s because the rest was so very different!) Anyway, the dive was apparently very good for Dipi’s group, but the other group got pushed off the site by big currents so they aborted the first dive (this was also why the boat was so far away from me as they had to pick up the divers). So the other group tried again and completed the first dive. It sounded like they had a good one with reports of all sorts of incredible creatures, including several sharks. Dipi and I attempted the snorkel again with more success this time round after a few pointers from Greg.
So, onto dive site number two.
Greg had a little look about as we came close to Crystal Rock which protrudes out of the ocean by a few feet. The visibility seemed great and we could see many fish right under the boat. The decision was taken to do this dive, which a few took up including Dipi (I get to snorkel wherever they go basically and it doesn’t cost any extra) so in we dropped, this time there was no mad current running so I could just take my time and follow the divers so that I didn’t get it wrong again! Anyway, I followed the guys round, spotted a few nice sized fish and saw my first swimming white tip reef shark which was all rather cool. It then got a bit deep for snorkelling so I just headed back to the big rock where I was met by the most amazing array of fish, some small, some very large indeed! I got to the shallower side of the rock (with visibility so good it felt like I was flying) and it was then I started to notice more sharks and some monster giant trevally!! These things really have a presence about them as they nonchalantly / menacingly swagger past! So there I was flying, with monster fish coming from each and every direction (along with many small fish) with, not knowing really which way to look, my eyes darting around all over the place. Then I settled on the sharks, four in total swimming around below me, three white tips and one black tip (the black tips look way sharkier than the white tips), and four white tips resting up in some slightly deeper water (white tips usually rest up during the day and feed at night). They were so cool to look at and follow around, the biggest white tip (about 1.5m long) swam up off the bottom and came really close (about 2 or 3 meters away) checking me out and then the black tip did the same thing! This was all very exciting when I turned with my right side pointing away from the rock and into my field of vision came a much larger shark, a grey reef shark of around 2.5m long!! I do remember thinking, crickey now you are a proper shark! And made sure I had my arms by my side! He got fairly close, turned off and cruised on through with a thrilled snorkeller trying to keep up with him. All this time I still had all of the other things going on around, the marine life was just spectacular!
I was all on my own and all this was just being played out in front of me! I then spotted the divers (or bubbles more to the point) coming round the reef (the five mobile sharks had gone since), so I tried to get Dipi’s attention (not before I followed her as she had spotted a Napoleon wrasse, so I wanted to see that too). Once I caught her eye (not for the first time ha ha) I managed to direct the divers over to where the four sharks were resting up which was appreciated as I don’t think they had seen any until then. So up we went, all happy as Larry!!
So onto dive three (hope I am not boring you by now!!). We approached the north passage which is a small piece of water between Komodo and a small island. This causes a bit of a current running through the two masses of land. Usually big currents = big fish, or that’s what Dipi always says anyway. You could see the water tearing through this passage, it looks basically like deep rapids on the surface, and we were to jump into it?? They even have a part of the dive called the cauldron! To cut a long story short (I know I can go on!) I could snorkel at my leisure this time as my confidence was up and I could see where I was at when in the water, so I was the first to leap off the boat and get into the water! The area where I started was quite slack current wise (the currents get stronger closer to the passage) so I spent quite a while just going round an amazing coral garden surrounded by many, many different types of fish (lots of snapper, grouper, bump head parrot fish, trigger fish, angel fish, Moorish idols, a few turtles and many more that I don’t even have a clue what they are) and some stunning corals. Then I figured I should head towards the cauldron and the current started to pick up a bit and the fish got bigger and bigger! It was a torrent and you had to work quite hard in the current, but again I saw many fish in the depths of the cauldron as did the divers. On coming out though, still headed into the current I was flanked by two manta rays right out of nowhere!!! I turned to my right and there they were... they sailed past me and dropped in front of me stationary in the current just beating their wings and sweeping from left to right in the torrent of water, there was so much energy and life about it!! I could have reached out and touched them they were soooo close! My god I thought, I hope everyone else sees these! I would love to describe in finite details everything but we will save that for another time as its too much to convey in writing alone (arms need to be waved around for this stuff) In short, on that last dive I got to swim on my own, very close and literally with three manta rays, saw four turtles and just a stupid array of fish species from cute and small, huge and scary, and the down right spectacular and graceful! In the end we all got to see the mantas and everyone came up once again so very happy with the dive.
Once we all calmed down a little bit and gathered our thoughts we headed back under cover of a sunset and eventually the stars which themselves are a sight. Talk about brain overload!!
Dipi put this right up there with the Maldives, and those of you who know understand what that means! It really did top off what was already a pretty impressive visit to the Komodo National Park.
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