It rained last night and continued to drizzle this morning as we set off for the first dive of the day at 7.30am. There was little current as we swam around a small island adorned with large gorgonian fans and barrel sponges. The dive site was called Barracuda rock, but we only saw one barracuda and apparently it was not really known for its barracuda anyway. Go figure! There were however dozens of curious and very large Batfish that came very close to us. Two I saw were having a fight over who was to take advantage of the little cleaner Wrasses that were at the cleaning station. We also saw a couple of moray eels out foraging among the rocks.
The top of the reef was spectacular with a myriad of colourful corals and there was a turtle feeding on the hard coral in a little culvert which made for a lovely photo
.
After the hour long dive it was back to the boat for breakfast and then off to the next dive site which was at another island called Dunia Kecil.
This was another pretty atoll with lots of unusual corals. The shallow reef tops here are beautiful and are very similar to the diving we did in Kavieng with lots of colour and sea anemones swarming with clownfish. Unfortunately the grey conditions kept up all day which made it hard to get decent photos any deeper than 5 metres and it made for a cold and wet trip back to the boat.
It also made it very difficult to get bathers dry in between dives, not to mention the towels so I am hoping for some sun tomorrow.
After our lunch of spaghetti bolognase we had a bit of a rest and then headed out to the 3rd dive site of the day which was a bommie with a large overhang called 'Wedding cake'.
From the beginning we seemed to be going against the current and then the dive guide kept turning around and going back into it when it changed so I was getting rather tired from fighting against it
. Every time I stopped finning I seemed to be going backwards. It was not an overly interesting site and there didn't seem to be much down deeper although it was quite nice up on top of the reef. There was a large Titan trigger fish with a lure trailing from its mouth. I never thought I would feel sorry for a Titan as they can be very aggressive towards divers but it was sad to see this poor fellow.
Back to the boat again and Daniel, the head dive master announced that we could go in the tender boat to explore around the lagoons. So we all got changed out of our dive gear and got back on the tender with our cameras and the captain drove us around the beautiful towering islands that number in their hundreds.
The scenery is just stunning, with jungle covered stone monoliths and clear blue water. There were Pitcher plants hanging from them and little square shaped flowers.
One of the volcanic cliffs was the setting for a documentary on cliff jumping by the Red Bull people. They had also done some diving from the masts on our boat and the footage was shown to us this evening by one of the crew. Very impressive !
On the way back to the boat we saw sea eagles soaring the cliffs and a turtle swimming in the lagoon. It would have been a lovely spot for a swim and a snorkel but we were all a bit waterlogged at that stage.
Day 2
Monday, April 11, 2016
Raja Ampat, West Papua, Indonesia
Other Entries
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1On the way to Sorong
Apr 065 days priorKota Denpasar, Indonesiaphoto_camera0videocam 0comment 0 -
2From Macassar to Sorong
Apr 083 days priorKabupaten Maros, Indonesiaphoto_camera0videocam 0comment 0 -
3First day of diving at Misool
Apr 101 day priorSorong, Indonesiaphoto_camera18videocam 0comment 0 -
4Day 2
Apr 11Raja Ampat, Indonesiaphoto_camera29videocam 0comment 0 -
5Day 3
Apr 121 day laterRaja Ampat, Indonesiaphoto_camera35videocam 0comment 0 -
6Day 4
Apr 132 days laterRaja Ampat, Indonesiaphoto_camera23videocam 0comment 0 -
7Day 5
Apr 143 days laterRaja Ampat, Indonesiaphoto_camera39videocam 0comment 0 -
8Day 6
Apr 154 days laterRaja Ampat, Indonesiaphoto_camera11videocam 0comment 0 -
9Day 7 - Dampier Strait
Apr 165 days laterRaja Ampat, Indonesiaphoto_camera19videocam 0comment 0 -
10Day 8
Apr 176 days laterRaja Ampat, Indonesiaphoto_camera42videocam 0comment 0 -
11Day 9
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12Day 10 - Arborek
Apr 198 days laterRaja Ampat, Indonesiaphoto_camera21videocam 0comment 0 -
13Leaving the boat
Apr 209 days laterKabupaten Maros, Indonesiaphoto_camera8videocam 0comment 0 -
14In Bali
Apr 2110 days laterKabupaten Badung, Indonesiaphoto_camera0videocam 0comment 0 -
15Last day of holidays
Apr 2211 days laterKabupaten Badung, Indonesiaphoto_camera4videocam 0comment 0
2025-02-14