Walrus's dive trip to Komodo, June 2008

[walrus]

It was time for the walrus and his crew of goons to go wandering again and the festivities on this vacation would be taking place in Indonesia.

The plan was to fly into Bali where we would all rendezvous (there were 15 of us altogether) and then fly down to the Komdodo national park area for 10 days of diving on a liveaboard yacht before returning to Bali for a few extra cheeky days R and R and then back to our respective destinations.

We landed in Bali in good spirits to the open arms of the majority that had already arrived ... bintangs were quaffed in abundance and we headed to Kuta beach to check out the view -




After a night celebrating we were up early for the morning flight from Bali to Bima on the island of Sumbawa and had a cracking view as we came in over the flooded paddy fields -




Safe and sound in Bima -






We had a few hours to kill in Bima before embarking onto the dive boat so checking out the local area was in order, heres a local noodle soup seller -




Da Bima boyz -




Local weavers -




The local transport -




The local market -








The locals were very friendly and after an interesting few hours in Bima we headed to the port -






This is the boat we were going to live on for the next 10 days, her name is SY Siren and she is 34 metres long and is a truly beautiful beast.
She's owned and run by the guys at Worldwide dive and sail and is fully equipped for long diving and sailing trips -




Our dive trip was to take us all around the Komodo national park area including the Sunda and Rinca island groups.
In fact there were shit loads of islands all over the place so the only thing to do was to get stuck into the local grog, raise the sails and ahoy mateys, yo ho ho and a bottle of rum ... and with all that we sailed off into the horizon.
Here are some different views of the 'SY Siren' -

[English Noodles]

Looks like good stuff mate, look forward to having a few beers when I get back in to Bangkok.

[walrus]

The food on the 'Siren' was fantastic -






We were hungry with all the diving and other activities -




What better way to let the food digest in between dives than stretch out under the sun -




As I mentioned earlier there are lots and lots of islands and the whole area is very remote with spectacular scenery -






















Komodo is notorious for its strong and unpredictable currents and here we can see the water churning between the islands -






Whilst we were there 5 divers on another boat got swept away by strong surface currents and were found 2 days later on a remote island in the south of the area, here's their very worried compatriots informing us of their disappearance a few hours after they had gone missing -



Luckily a very happy ending for all involved as they were located 2 days later on a remote island 20 miles to the south of where they had gone missing.

We popped onto some of the islands and with a bit of effort were rewarded with some cracking views -

[kingwilly]

bladdy awesome pics mate, looks great.

[walrus]

Of course we jumped off on Komodo island itself -




We heard rumours that the locals bite was worse than their bark.
This big bad boy was about 2 metres in length but luckily for us it was his siesta time -










His mate nearby was a tad venomous too but this green viper had just eaten a mouse or rat -




Here are some views from Komodo island -








Even in the middle of nowhere you can't escape the tourist trap -




We didn't run into many boats during our trip and when we did they were usually local fishing skiffs selling us their local produce -














These boys were getting a bollocking from the local BIB for trying to sell us shells and illegal wood carvings -




One of the few other dive boats we did run into -




We had 2 dinghys that took us to our dive sites -

[walrus]

Now for the main event, the reason we came to Komodo, the diving...

Lets get ready to rumble -




Heres some pics of some of the stuff we saw under the water.

Nemo and his relative the Anemonefish -






A shoal of batfish -




There were sheer walls plummetting to the depths and rocky pinnacles covered in lovely soft and hard corals.
Everywhere was teeming with marine life -








A small chunk of brain coral ...




Soft red coral -




Lionfish -




Moray eel -




Shoal of Jacks -




Shoal of Surgeonfish -




Shoal of Sweetlips -




Komodo is famous for its small stuff so heres some pics of some nudibranches which are like slugs on acid -










Whitetip reef shark -




There were often strong currents and strong surges, here we are hanging onto rocks near the end of a dive whilst we make our safety stops before ascending -

[Wayne Kerr]

Wow ... friggin awesome dude

[walrus]

Within 10 seconds of jumping into a dive site called 'Manta alley' we had already encountered one of these graceful giants of the underwater world.
There must have been about 20 mantas in total as the dive site was loaded with plankton and they were having a feast, there was also a cleaning station where they were getting manta massages from the cleanerwrasses.
Check this out -
















Heres a small mobular ray which was feeding by the dive boat one night (now these guys are quick) -




We saw loads of cheeky turtles wherever we dived -








The excitement was just too much -




This is a Sea apple -




This is an Octopus -




This big bad boy is a Napolean wrasse and was about a meter and a half long -




A happy walrus -




As you can see the diving around Komodo was fantastic and we had a brilliant trip but alas all good things must come to an end and after 10 thrilling days it was time to sail back to Sumbawa to return to Bali.

[friscofrankie]

Fantastic stuff!

[kingwilly]

Originally Posted by walrus

and after 10 thrilling days it was time to sail back to Sumbawa to return to Bali.

notice that nobody want to visit KW,. do I smell or summthink?

[walrus]

After returning to Bali we went inland to the town of Ubud for a few days relaxing after all the stress of the dive trip ...

Ubud is famous for all the rice paddy fields in the area and also its local art and craftwork.

Here's some of those paddy fields and rice terraces -












We met up with KW at the monkey forest -








These 2 local shop names made the walrus chuckle -






We found a local restaurant which served stuffed roasted pig called babi guling and it was delicious -






Here's an Indo feast which was washed down with copious amounts of bintang and finished off with arak ... happy dayz indeed -




Here's some of the local lasses -








How quickly time flies and soon we were on our way back for a last night in Seminyak (down the beach from Kuta).

The holiday had come to an end and sadly we said our goodbyes and bid each other farewell until the next trip.

Indonesia's a fantastic place and everyone had a brilliant time there is no doubt we will be back ...

[Propagator]

Fantastic photos - think that the photo comp will have some good uns in it. Great picture of the lion fish. Really wish I had taken up diving years ago when I had the opportunity

[friscofrankie]

I went to Fiji a few years ago. Learned to dive there. After that I dove every chance I got. I lived on an island off the coast of Viti Levu Near that Place named after that dude that had his ship took away from him.

Consistently name on of the "Top 10" diving spots in world I never saw an sea turtle except one time on the long boat coming from the mainland after a shoppin expedition. The reef surrounding our lagoon was a fantastic dive spot. This one trip of yours, in photographs, out strips my eight months of Diving twice a week.

As much as I love Chiangmai - I've just gotta get back to the sea.
If yo don;t mind what did you use to take these pictures? With all the variable involved in underwater photography you got some world class shots, man. Care to share?

[JoGeAr]

Wow, great thread Walrus. Thanks for sharing. You definitely have a few contenders for the photo competition in amongst that lot . Well done !!

[walrus]

Thanks for the feedback guys

You're never too old to learn to dive propagator !

Frankie, the underwater pics came from 2 friends cameras one was a bog standard canon and the other was a small digital fuji but Im not sure of the models, the fuji had a bigger wide angle macro lens added to the housing hence the detail on some of the pics.

[artist]

Great photos the gulf of Thailand could be the same but over fishing and pollution has raped all areas so most is left barren. Was out on a boat when all trawling was banned because of spawning season and there were many many trawlers fishing just out of site of land.

[terry57]

Very nice thread in deed Walrus. The dive boat was very flash topped of with excellent diving.

Cracker stuff mate.

[Marmite the Dog]

Originally Posted by kingwilly

notice that nobody want to visit KW,. do I smell or summthink?

I did and yes, you do.

Great photos - thanks for sharing.