Hi!
As I could not find much about Selayar here, I post my report. Selayar is an island in South Sulawesi reached by ferry from Pantai Bira (about 4-5hours from Makassar) or by plane (Avia Star, a small plane). They build a larger airport, then Merpati will fly on this route.
On Selayar, there are two resorts, Selayar Island Resort (advertising diving, but not getting people to the best places) and Selayar Dive Resort, right next to the best dive spots, but only accessible by boat.
Selayar Dive Resort is a German resort with 16 beds in 8 some bungalows with incredible views of the small deserted beach through the front wall made of glass, with hammock, veranda, mostly fan-cooled, European bath-rooms with hot water. However in many months of low-budget backpacking in Asia, I have not found such unpleasant insects in the bathroom, and it was not low budget (120/day for sharing a double room, full board, drinking water, 2 guided boat dives, unlimited house-reef diving). however, rooms are cleaned twice daily.
The (English-speaking) owner Jochen and a Swiss dive guide, both very seasoned instructors, guide the dives. The waiter an receptionist speaks German rather than English. When the dive stuff disappears after dives and the waiter is not there, boat or restaurant stuff speak only Indonesian... Food was European and Indonesian, quite tasty.
Jochen manages a local marine reserves just comprising the reefs nearby. You can see turtles, Napoleons, batfish, blue-spotted rays while just snorkelling on the house reef (easily accessible for divers also because of the jetty). Night dives were quite good.
Diving is done with 12 liter tanks, no Nitrox, along the walks covered with gorgonians and colourful soft coral. Jochen advertises diving with big stuff, but this requires deco dives around 40-60m and some current. Down there are also giant gorgonians, barracudas, groupers, maybe grey reef sharks, bigger rays, but I did not see anything and did not go so deep so often. Jochen keeps explaining that it is safe. The Swiss guy guides a group preferring shallow dives (30m). Both have good eyes for macro. I saw leaf fish, nudibranchs, rare kinds of scorpionfish, stonefish, kind of mantis shrimp etc., turtels aboudn. Other than that, we saw a big leopard stingray, schools of reef fish, some giant trevallies and tunas, but no shark in 13 dives (depth mostly 28 - 42m).
The resort seems to gear to Germans who are made to feel like at home, and that includes prices for beverages and high transfer cost. The 2,5-hour speed-boat transfer to Bira costs 600 for the boat etc.
Conclusion: I liked the bungalows for the secluded beach setting. The diving is quite good, but not worth the hassle of getting there. There are plenty of places with more colourful walls, more variety and more sharks etc. in Asia and where sharks are resting on a sandy bottom at less than 30m, not at 50m!
Cheers,
Liberty
As I could not find much about Selayar here, I post my report. Selayar is an island in South Sulawesi reached by ferry from Pantai Bira (about 4-5hours from Makassar) or by plane (Avia Star, a small plane). They build a larger airport, then Merpati will fly on this route.
On Selayar, there are two resorts, Selayar Island Resort (advertising diving, but not getting people to the best places) and Selayar Dive Resort, right next to the best dive spots, but only accessible by boat.
Selayar Dive Resort is a German resort with 16 beds in 8 some bungalows with incredible views of the small deserted beach through the front wall made of glass, with hammock, veranda, mostly fan-cooled, European bath-rooms with hot water. However in many months of low-budget backpacking in Asia, I have not found such unpleasant insects in the bathroom, and it was not low budget (120/day for sharing a double room, full board, drinking water, 2 guided boat dives, unlimited house-reef diving). however, rooms are cleaned twice daily.
The (English-speaking) owner Jochen and a Swiss dive guide, both very seasoned instructors, guide the dives. The waiter an receptionist speaks German rather than English. When the dive stuff disappears after dives and the waiter is not there, boat or restaurant stuff speak only Indonesian... Food was European and Indonesian, quite tasty.
Jochen manages a local marine reserves just comprising the reefs nearby. You can see turtles, Napoleons, batfish, blue-spotted rays while just snorkelling on the house reef (easily accessible for divers also because of the jetty). Night dives were quite good.
Diving is done with 12 liter tanks, no Nitrox, along the walks covered with gorgonians and colourful soft coral. Jochen advertises diving with big stuff, but this requires deco dives around 40-60m and some current. Down there are also giant gorgonians, barracudas, groupers, maybe grey reef sharks, bigger rays, but I did not see anything and did not go so deep so often. Jochen keeps explaining that it is safe. The Swiss guy guides a group preferring shallow dives (30m). Both have good eyes for macro. I saw leaf fish, nudibranchs, rare kinds of scorpionfish, stonefish, kind of mantis shrimp etc., turtels aboudn. Other than that, we saw a big leopard stingray, schools of reef fish, some giant trevallies and tunas, but no shark in 13 dives (depth mostly 28 - 42m).
The resort seems to gear to Germans who are made to feel like at home, and that includes prices for beverages and high transfer cost. The 2,5-hour speed-boat transfer to Bira costs 600 for the boat etc.
Conclusion: I liked the bungalows for the secluded beach setting. The diving is quite good, but not worth the hassle of getting there. There are plenty of places with more colourful walls, more variety and more sharks etc. in Asia and where sharks are resting on a sandy bottom at less than 30m, not at 50m!
Cheers,
Liberty