Question Banda Sea in April?

[JakeyH]

Hi all,

Planning a big trip for the first half of this year and various places are on the cards. Banda Sea looks like a perfect mix of Indonesia's incredibly healthy reefs paired with some great big fish action (hammerheads etc). From what I understand there are two seasons for the Banda Sea, March/April and September/October. Seems that most people go later in the year and I haven't heard anything about the March/April season. Ideally I'd want to go when I have a chance to see Hammerheads to get the most complete experience so was wondering if they are absent in March/April and if so, would it actually offer anything over somewhere like Raja or Komodo?

Cheers

 

[dirtfarmer]

Typically the Hammerheads are seen in the September-November timeframe and not the March-April months. There is lots of good diving in the Banda Sea but I certainly wouldnt have enjoyed my trip as much without the Hammerheads. You also have to check the diiference in routes, some go from Ambon thru Banda to Raja Ampat others from Maumere thru Banda to Raja Ampat. I've done the Ambon route only but have read the Maumere route is not as good. On the Southern route there used to be a volcano that would erupt frequently and a friend told me of surfacing on a night dive to seeing lava being sent into the sky, which would be truely epic but it is no longer sending up lava just gasses.