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From Alor, reversed the flights & ended up on death trap airlines (aka Lion Air), flying to Labuan, Bajo, my jumping off point for Komodo Dive Resort. Nice hotel, visit to grocery for snacks, then off in the ocean going version of a tuk tuk. Reeking diesel fumes, rolling waves, hour trip to Komodo Resort. I could have lapped it snorkeling. Good news, the fumes stopped. Bad news, so did the boat. Halfway to the island.
Komodo Dive Resort an hour south of Komodo Island (the dragon home) & a nice 5 star resort you don't expect near the end of island chain. European bedding, Italian menu, staff that caters to every need. Quite the nice surprise. Lovely house reef but also in the channel leading to Australia..where you can end up if you don't pay close attention to the currents.
AMAZING underwater life & photography there. Full of huge black mantas, seahorses, eels, nudibranchs & just about anything else you'd want to see. For those interested in turtles, I lost count of the number of them we saw at Turtle City, a major dive/snorkel area in this particular section.
One of the scariest things is, though, the incredible whirlpools. First time I saw one, I almost changed my mind about going in the water. The boat, literally would shift to neutral (and this was no small boat), and just skid over them like black ice. We were told STERNLY, do not get caught in the currents or get near the whirlpools. Yeah, I got that.
The pink sand beaches of Komodo are amazing. Indonesia produces a red coral that ends up in the sand. When the light is just right, the beach looks pink.
One of the lower islands, seen from the water.
This guy was sitting on a huge bombe (dome shaped piece of rock or coral), looking out over about 40 others. Let us get within inches of him & didn't even flinch.
While the rest of the world's coral is dying in record pace, the corals of Indonesia seem to be in beautiful shape. You see fans like this in the Caribbean but not often at the surface area in the Pacific.
Fuzzy SeaHorse just hanging out & hanging on.
Fly by of one of the giant black mantas. HUGE span of at least 9 feet. And there were so many, we lost count, probably 30-40 at one time.
Plenty of eels, fall in the water, see an eel.
Huge amounts of anemones, all kinds, bunched together. Just beautiful.
Nice cuttlefish who hung out for quite a while. Occasionally went white, then changed back to brown, swam along, not afraid of being near humans.
Crocodile Flathead. Not winning any beauty awards. Indonesia is the only places I've seen them & I couldn't fall into the water without running across at least one each snorkel.
Another view of a reef & the undamaged corals
This is part 1, have a few more pictures in part 2
This dive resort is AMAZING. I'm trying not only to get back in for early 2020 but take my daughter in late 2020 for her first Indonesian diving experience. Check ANY list, Komodo is always near the very top in the list of the holy grails of where to dive/snorkel.
Komodo Dive Resort an hour south of Komodo Island (the dragon home) & a nice 5 star resort you don't expect near the end of island chain. European bedding, Italian menu, staff that caters to every need. Quite the nice surprise. Lovely house reef but also in the channel leading to Australia..where you can end up if you don't pay close attention to the currents.
AMAZING underwater life & photography there. Full of huge black mantas, seahorses, eels, nudibranchs & just about anything else you'd want to see. For those interested in turtles, I lost count of the number of them we saw at Turtle City, a major dive/snorkel area in this particular section.
One of the scariest things is, though, the incredible whirlpools. First time I saw one, I almost changed my mind about going in the water. The boat, literally would shift to neutral (and this was no small boat), and just skid over them like black ice. We were told STERNLY, do not get caught in the currents or get near the whirlpools. Yeah, I got that.
The pink sand beaches of Komodo are amazing. Indonesia produces a red coral that ends up in the sand. When the light is just right, the beach looks pink.
One of the lower islands, seen from the water.
This guy was sitting on a huge bombe (dome shaped piece of rock or coral), looking out over about 40 others. Let us get within inches of him & didn't even flinch.
While the rest of the world's coral is dying in record pace, the corals of Indonesia seem to be in beautiful shape. You see fans like this in the Caribbean but not often at the surface area in the Pacific.
Fuzzy SeaHorse just hanging out & hanging on.
Fly by of one of the giant black mantas. HUGE span of at least 9 feet. And there were so many, we lost count, probably 30-40 at one time.
Plenty of eels, fall in the water, see an eel.
Huge amounts of anemones, all kinds, bunched together. Just beautiful.
Nice cuttlefish who hung out for quite a while. Occasionally went white, then changed back to brown, swam along, not afraid of being near humans.
Crocodile Flathead. Not winning any beauty awards. Indonesia is the only places I've seen them & I couldn't fall into the water without running across at least one each snorkel.
Another view of a reef & the undamaged corals
This is part 1, have a few more pictures in part 2
This dive resort is AMAZING. I'm trying not only to get back in for early 2020 but take my daughter in late 2020 for her first Indonesian diving experience. Check ANY list, Komodo is always near the very top in the list of the holy grails of where to dive/snorkel.
