It is the last dive today, and of course instead of doing the manta dive in the morning we did a dive under the jetty at the Arborek island village. Being my last dive and disappointed to not be seeing the mantas I thought it was going to be rather borIng, but it turned out to be okay.
As usual, after leaving the boat Daniel turned right when he told us we were going left and then we swam along the reef bottom for a while looking for fish
. There wasn't much there so we turned and drifted along in the current. There were a few little outcrops but nothing much on them and then we saw a school of large Bumphead parrotfish that were swirling around and stopping occasionally to munch on the coral.
We continued on along the reef until we came to the jetty where there was a large school of Trevally swirling around the jetty pylons. It made for nice photos looking up into the light.
It is raining and completely overcast today and a bit of sun would have been good but the contrast was interesting all the same.
There were three Batfish near the pylons as well and they posed in a line for me and then swam slowly straight past my face. Batfish really are the models of the sea!
A bit further on from the jetty we went in search of giant clams. They looked very healthy and there were several of them in a clearing. Some with coral trees behind them.
Gun, who always seems to find something interesting, showed us another weird little decorator crab that he had coaxed out onto a hard coral
.
Even though the visibility wasn't great it was still an okay dive and I got some good shots.
The photos from the dives have been excellent and I am pleased with the way the camera has performed. Having the underwater setting that puts back some of the colour into the photos means I won't have to do much editing.
Everyone returned from their manta dive rather disappointed as they only saw one little one in the murky distance so I didn't miss out in anything.
It would have been pretty annoying if, after missing out on the manta station after wanting to see it for the whole trip, there had been lots of mantas there.
Anyway I did see the big one at the beginning of the trip so it wasn't a total loss in that respect.
The trip has been fun, with an excellent bunch of people who are interesting and very easy to get on with and the crew have been terrific with friendly kitchen staff and very efficient tender boat crews
. The tenders knew where we were at all times and picked us up as soon as we surfaced and helped us with our gear.
The dive guides, although a little shell shocked after the accident kept us on track on the dive sites and Gun, in particular was brilliant in spotting all the unusual little creatures.
The dives at the beginning of the trip had the best visibility but they were nearly all interesting and I think I photographed something different on every dive. There was a lot of diversity in critters although not a lot of Pelagics.
Probably the best thing about the dive sites was the beautiful and brightly coloured soft and hard corals. They were the best I have seen anywhere in the world and really were spectacular.
Our cabin on the boat was not the best we have stayed in and was very noisy being close to the engines but at least the air conditioning was efficient and we had a bit of space for storage.
I was glad we had chosen the bigger cabin as at least we could come in here to read and rest between dives since at times it was either too hot or (mostly) a bit wet to sit outside on the upper deck. That was a bit of a shame though because they had comfortable bean bag lounges and sun lounges up there and it was nice to sit up there and look at the lovely island scenery passing by.
It really is a beautiful part of the world with the calm seas and little jungle covered islands everywhere. There were picturesque villages and stilt houses dotted along the shores of the bigger islands and I will miss the gorgeous views.
Day 10 - Arborek
Tuesday, April 19, 2016
Raja Ampat, West Papua, Indonesia
Other Entries
-
1On the way to Sorong
Apr 0613 days priorKota Denpasar, Indonesiaphoto_camera0videocam 0comment 0 -
2From Macassar to Sorong
Apr 0811 days priorKabupaten Maros, Indonesiaphoto_camera0videocam 0comment 0 -
3First day of diving at Misool
Apr 109 days priorSorong, Indonesiaphoto_camera18videocam 0comment 0 -
4Day 2
Apr 118 days priorRaja Ampat, Indonesiaphoto_camera29videocam 0comment 0 -
5Day 3
Apr 127 days priorRaja Ampat, Indonesiaphoto_camera35videocam 0comment 0 -
6Day 4
Apr 136 days priorRaja Ampat, Indonesiaphoto_camera23videocam 0comment 0 -
7Day 5
Apr 145 days priorRaja Ampat, Indonesiaphoto_camera39videocam 0comment 0 -
8Day 6
Apr 154 days priorRaja Ampat, Indonesiaphoto_camera11videocam 0comment 0 -
9Day 7 - Dampier Strait
Apr 163 days priorRaja Ampat, Indonesiaphoto_camera19videocam 0comment 0 -
10Day 8
Apr 172 days priorRaja Ampat, Indonesiaphoto_camera42videocam 0comment 0 -
11Day 9
Apr 181 day priorRaja Ampat, Indonesiaphoto_camera44videocam 0comment 0 -
12Day 10 - Arborek
Apr 19Raja Ampat, Indonesiaphoto_camera21videocam 0comment 0 -
13Leaving the boat
Apr 201 day laterKabupaten Maros, Indonesiaphoto_camera8videocam 0comment 0 -
14In Bali
Apr 212 days laterKabupaten Badung, Indonesiaphoto_camera0videocam 0comment 0 -
15Last day of holidays
Apr 223 days laterKabupaten Badung, Indonesiaphoto_camera4videocam 0comment 0
2025-02-14