Return from Komodo Dancer

Back from the Komodo Dancer trip from Bali out to Komodo.

I'll write a trip report but a quick report to say Wow, the whole trip was pretty amazing. We only did one dive off Bali itself and it was a very good one, but the rest of the diving around Komodo was pretty amazing. We caught Cannibal Rock at a peak, and there were numerous other dives that were great. Not all were prize winners but I got 3 out of my top 5 dives there. Vis probably averaged about 40 feet most of the time with a few times quite bad. "Run into the bottom because you couldn't see it" kind of bad once. A few times, extremely good. With the prolific fish life and endless corals, it blew away all but a few very best Carribean diving we've done, and many Pacific dives we've done including Palau. Not the big animal encounters, but the schools and coral. The walls in Palau are amazing but not nearly as covered in life. A few pass dives had soft corals as big around as barrels. Big current sometimes, with the biggest problem IMHO being pushing you down around seamounts, but that's where the good stuff is.

Bali itself was better after we got out of the city itself. The city itself is a major experience but visiting natural sites and people outside really put the icing on the cake.

Thanks Indonesia for an amazing experience.

Look forward to your trip report. Once you get the Indonesia "bug" its hard not to keep going back. Last year we said (after our 3rd year in a row), "next year somewhere new". Well, new it was, Raja Ampat. Now 4 years in a row. It could be worse.

I'm happy to hear you had such a good time ! I'm going to Komodo National Park in September for the first time and I am very excited ! I'm looking forward to your trip report !

THis is going to be such a special trip for me !

Would you characterize the water as blue (like Caribbean) or more green (like Sea of Cortez) ??? Question concerns which colour correcting filters I may take.

Oh - if you did night dives, I love to hear about that as well

Best wishes
NAIBDiver1

Interesting you mention that. It seems the answer is "both". Unfortunately for me.

I do use video but MWB is a pain and doesn't work well in low light. So I've been sticking with AWB, and using a red filter. I'm using a particular filter which is supposed to be for blue tropical water rather than the greenish water we have here in Northern CA.

In Komodo, AWB was mostly pretty good but there are color problems here and there. If there is direct sun, then it does a very good job, if not, it gets more muddy.

However, I noted that on some dives, it was noticeably green. For the videos so far (still reviewing), when we were on muck diving and bottom was either relatively dark sand almost black, then it comes back looking very green.

On some other dives, particularly in sun, it came out beautiful and great color.

I have yet to try to correlate to location, as to Indian or Pacific ocean or just bottom composition as to putting particulate in the water.

Night dives were OK, not always good, with one particularly good but based on our experience, we just happened to hit a good combination of vis, critters, current, etc. On one dusk dive off a black sand beach, vis was awful from about 5 feet down almost to the very bottom. In fact, I literally ran into the bottom, at ~35 feet, as I descended because I couldn't tell it was the bottom until I was on it. I could then see a layer of clear water just off the bottom. I could just make out the silver tank of the rest of the group probably only about 20 feet away so I assembled with the group after initial descent. I ended up being last to video a cuttlefish. After about 90 seconds of videoing, I looked up in the direction I thought they went. Nothing. I couldn't see anything. No tanks, no lights at all. I circled a little looking for them, but decided that I would have to ascend into the gloom since it wasn't yet dark and would only get worse and I only had one working light after another flooded. I went to my safety stop with about five foot vis, but could make out the surface light. Sitting on the safety stop hoping I was alone, . Then back to the boat.

My experience was night dives on coral bommies was best because they are isolated and easier to search then an expanse of solid reef. Always saw more on bommies than "all reef" dives.

It was nearly always the same schedule, morning, great vis or very good vis, later morning, still pretty good, afternoon, poor to very poor vis. Tons of particulate in the water.

Now that I think about, tighten your seatbelt because you ought to have an awesome trip. September should be still good for mantas as well as possible mola molas according to the guides comments. We went to some awesome places I wish we'd had more time for and skipped some of the muck dive locations. Places with pretty big current and surge, pushed around say 6 feet side to side as you go around big islands or seamounts. Currents wanting to push you down running down the side of the island. That's where some big stuff was. We ended one of those dives looking at a big bumphead wrasse. Oh there's another one, and two over there, and another one and .... there was about 8-10 of them swimming around for some reason. It was end of the dive for me but those places had like fish soup. My video shows just solid fish. Not all huge fish but fish of all descriptions just everywhere. The entire view. And the ground is just covered in coral and anenomes and... stuff just everywhere. A good experience requires very good bounancy and ability to swim into a bit of current without breathing all your air down. Current is so bad in places, you can't swim into it, but you will have places you will swim into a very mild current.

Could you please comment on your air transport there ? Which airline - happy not happy. Luggage problems ?

I've been researching airfares and around $14 - $15 hundred seems to be the number. I'm going to wait a bit and see what the economy does and hopefully I can find a better fare a bit later

Thanks
NAIBDiver1

We flew Singapore Air all the way, through Seoul on the way out and Hong Kong on the way back. I would recommend a more direct route than Seoul if possible. It made for some interesting sights of the frozen North but also added about 6 hours of flying time. As they were continuing flights, there were no problems with making the connections.

See my message SFO -> Bali in this forum for my air experience.

As far as I know by far the best airline to take for such a long flight. All the luggage made it on every segment, and based on the extreme length of the flights and each and every flight being exactly on time, our domestic flights could learn something from them.

We paid $1550 each with about 2 month advance purchase. It's definitely date dependent. I'd guess you won't get much lower fare than you already have.

Singapore is one of the more comfortable airlines; for some alternatives try:

Cheap Flight Deals - Asia.com - Travel, Asia Flights, Asia Hotels, Asia Domains NewzzCA








Surf and Dive Charters to North Sumatra, Simeulue, and Banyak Islands.

Let me repeat that: 12 hour flight

Thats so cool Shasta_Man ..12hrs...I once flew Bangkok-LA (Thai Air) direct 12 hours...Long time ago....its a shame they don't offer that more....nothing worse than seeing frozen tundra for hours on end...especially when your going diving in blue water instead of green water...or is that the other way around....

Cheers




Surf and Dive Charters to North Sumatra, Simeulue, and Banyak Islands.
IOAdventures Thai Diving to Richelieu Rock, Tachai and Surin Island