Diving in Southeast Asia. David Espinosa
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Ron and Valerie Taylor pioneered diving in Komodo and the site they first discovered was Pantai Merah, at the entrance to Slawi Bay. Pantai Merah (or Val’s Rock) extends from the surface down to 20 plus meters and is richly adorned in all manner of colorful sea life. Pantai Merah represents a transition between tropical and temperate water habitats, north and south, and with its fabulous fish and corals is a good introduction to Komodo.
Considered by some as the best dive in the north, GPS Point is a submerged rock to the northwest of Banta Island’s largest bay. This is one of the sites where sharks can be regularly found, and different species can be identified in a single dive. Invariably, divers encounter strong currents here, which is why GPS Point is swarming with jackfish, tuna and schools of barracuda and surgeonfish. In addition to sharks, be prepared to scan the gorgonian fans for pygmy seahorses and the deep blue for eagle rays and even passing mantas.
If the currents are running too strong on GPS Point, operators have other options only minutes away. Star Wars is a gentle slope that bottoms out in a sandy floor at 30 meters. The currents, which can range from calm to raging, typically flow eastward, away from the shallow point. There are several gorgonian fans, which have been known to host the ubiquitous pygmy seahorse, invertebrates and sharks. The myriad smaller schooling fish like anthias, basslets and fusiliers that swim amongst each other look like they are playing out an outer space battle of epic proportions, hence the name. Highway to Heaven on the opposite point is a wild ride that must only be done on slack tide or during gentle currents. A vertiginous wall extends around the point and is covered in soft corals, fans and sea whips, home to countless juvenile angelfish. But the highlight of the dive is the 40 meter plus deep bommies, around which schools of snappers, two different species of barracuda, sharks and rays are known to swarm. Continuing on to the backside, mantas and eagle rays play off in the blue. For end of the day muck dives with no current, It’s a Small World, a sand slope fringed by a healthy reef, has resident stargazers, frogfish, leaf scorpionfish and a host of invertebrate life. It is no small wonder that Banta is a must stop for live-aboards visiting Komodo.
A pair of Coleman shrimp (Periclimenes colemani) living in their host fire urchin.
Sabolan Kecil, north of Labuanbajo, is a site regularly visited by land-based operators. To the east of the island are two sea mounds at 20 meters, a site called Shark Bank. The hard coral cover is minimal but the soft corals and large gorgonians are excellent. The fish life, particularly sharks, makes this site well worth visiting. Work your way down the valley between the two mounds as you pause to view the pelagics.
Tatawa Kecil and Batu Bolong are two bare rocks in close proximity that are exposed to the full force of the currents that rage through the Linta Strait. On a high slack tide, when currents abate and the diving is less stressful, these are two more popular sites for land-based operators. Giant trevally, mantas and dugongs have been encountered here.
Diving around Komodo offers seasonal exceptional visibility and an abundance of Moorish idols at all sites.
Nusa Tenggara dive sites are famous for their diversity of both hard and soft corals and sheer biomass of fish.
There are three great dives to the north of the island of Gili Lawa Laut: Crystal Bommie, Castle Rock and Lighthouse. All sites have good hard and soft coral cover and swarms of schooling fish. Lighthouse has a “honey hole” on the point, which is home to schools of sweetlips and batfish, while Crystal Bommie and Castle Rock are excellent deep dives in which divers hang on with reef hooks and watch for the white tip sharks patrolling in the blue.
—David Espinosa/Cody Shwaiko/Sarah Ann Wormald
Alor
The East’s Dream Destination
Access 5 minutes by speedboat from liveaboard; 1–2 hours from Kupang
Current 5–50 meters
Reef type Varies up to 5 knots
Highlights Excellent
Visibility Walls, sloping reefs, pinnacles
Coral Excellent
Fish Pertamina Pier and Kal’s Dream, as different as two sites can be
Alor is a small island lying at the end of the Nusa Tenggara chain, north of West Timor. The numerous dive sites center mainly around the three islands framed by Alor and Pantar: Buaya, Ternate and Pura. The diving here, with much of the topography dominated by steep walls, ledges and caves, is world-class and its relative remoteness guarantees the type of diving that most only dream of. Alor is a popular liveaboard destination but there are a number of shore-based operators in the area now who offer dive and stay packages.
Graeme and Donovan Whitford, a father and son team, pioneered this magnificent group of islands in the early 1990s. Today they operate both Kupang-based DiveAlorDive and DiveKupang-Dive and have developed many of the more than 40 sites that are dived today. This list begins, and for many divers ends, with Kal’s Dream.
Large schools of barracuda are not uncommon in Alor when the currents are running.
A DREAM COME TRUE
“I [David Espinosa] first experienced Kal’s Dream in 1995, at the tender age of 18. At that time I was still a rank amateur with only a handful of dives under my belt. Graeme’s son Donovan took me under his wing, and for the first two days we experienced superlative dives at The Arch, where we were buzzed by eagle rays and sharks, the Fish Bowl, the Boardroom and Cave Point, where the steep walls covered in a profusion of colors dizzied me. These, however, were only a prelude to the real show.
On the morning of the third day, Donovan felt I was ready for Kal’s Dream, a small pinnacle that rises from the deep and sits in the middle of the strait. I can still remember that dive as if it was yesterday. The Dream is marked by a vertiginous wall on the south side and a rather gentle slope on the north. We perched ourselves on a small outcropping on the north side at 30 meters and watched the show unfold.
Numbers of grey sharks swam up from the abyssal depths and began circling our roost. One particularly frisky shark passed a few times, getting nearer with each pass. Down in the depths, bus-sized groupers slowly swam about, while schools of enormous tuna patrolled the reef top. The visibility was gin-clear, and we could see as barracuda swarmed a tip opposite our ledge.
Suddenly, a large, indistinguishable figure loomed from the dark. The ever-nearer and increasingly worrying grey shark quickly scattered, and before it disappeared back into the shadows I caught a brief glimpse of my patron saint and protector—a giant 3.5-meter hammerhead.
To this day, not one dive on the Dream has equaled that first experience, but they come close. It is without a doubt a dive to dream about.…”
IN AND AROUND ALOR
Because Kal’s Dream must be dived at slack tide—any other time would be insanity—operators there have looked to the many other walls and reefs in the area as alternatives.
On Pulau Pura’s southwest tip lies a marine anomaly that few divers have ever been able to comprehend. Clownfish Alley is an unremarkable slope, but what it lacks in topography it makes up for in marine life. From 2 meters down to 30 meters, and for 1 km, every boulder and rock and pebble is covered in anemones, a remarkable sight.
Mandarin House is situated in front of the north village on Pura. It is a rather unprepossessing though healthy reef slope on which mandarinfish can be seen cavorting—during the day! If currents are minimal, divers can also gather there at dusk to witness the mating of these magnificent dragonets.