mantajohn
Contributor
Greetings Thrill Seekers is the cry from Garry (Cruise Director) that marks the start of every dive briefing on the Komodo Dancer and its no hype. What a brilliant way to spend 10 days. If you havent been to Komodo put it on your list & try to get there.
The Diving
Our itinerary was from Komodo back to Bali, with the majority of the time spent in/around the Komodo Marine Park followed by a 2 day dash back to Bali.
The reef is in fantastic condition with only small and infrequent areas of damage. The sheer quantity & variety of fish is breathtaking - from the whale shark through mantas to tiny critters.
The dive sites come in 4 distinct categories:
Open Water Sea Mounts: backward rolling into the blue, often through shoals of fish to explore the walls of the sea mounts, the level of exploration possible being determined by the level of current. The best sites include Castle Rock, Crystal Rock, Batu Balong (exceptionally beautiful site with shoals of fish spilling over the mount top onto the walls. So many fish we could not see the reef at times. We dived this twice. 2nd time the whole food chain seemed to be laid out in its respective shoals waiting for feeding time to kick off), Cannibal Rock (reckoned to be a world class dive, but we caught it in the wrong light & it was a little overcast), W Reef (I think the W must stand for wipe-out. We dived this in a mask ripping current), GPS Point (3 adjoining sea mounts covered with all the usual suspects a great, great dive and Gary judged the current perfectly).
Sloping Coral Shores: consistently world class reefs. It seemed as if every variety & colour of coral and anemone is laid out upon these reefs. I wont list our sightings but the guide books dont lie you really do see a fantastic variety of reef species on almost every dive. No walls however but it would be picky to complain about that! Highlights are Lighthouse Corner (twice inc. a leaf scorpion fish), GLD Passage (20 Jenkins Whip rays greeted us at 0730), Pelican Head (very different colours more greens/oranges in the soft corals/sponges apparently due to local upwelling of nutrients), Siaba Kecil (where Gede took us on a successful Mandarin fish hunt at midday!), Batu Moncho Reef (with a 3m x 1.8m fan), Star Wars (amazing soft corals in the shallows), Deep Purple & Hot Rocks (two mysterious low viz dives on sites that combine black sand & excellent reef. Hot rocks has geo thermal activity producing bubbles through the warm sand)
Sandy Critter sites: day, and especially night dives here are very good for critters but for the true macro enthusiast, the critter sites of Alor (on my previous trip) gave better sightings of e.g. Frog fish, ghost pipe fish & rhinopias. Our highlights were demon stingers, so many scorpion fish, huge cuttle fish, stargazers, zebra eel, white v octopus, free swimming striped morays, decorator crabs, zebra crabs, all sorts of cleaner shrimp, boxer shrimp, extensive varieties of nudibranchs, mantis shrimps, ribbon eels, bobtail squid, shrimp fish etc
Manta Dives: Lankoi (the Alley) dived this at 0730 & again 1100. 6 huge mantas put on a great display both times.
Dive Operations
Garry who diving is probably more interested in the currents than in the creatures that live in them reccies the dive site from a tender before giving a good briefing. The diving is done from a pair of tenders each having 2 tender operators & a DM. Your gear lives on the tenders all week. 32% nitrox no problem. Separate rinse tanks for cameras, computers, wetsuits are well set up & a large camera table. A nice touch is the tray of chilled water brought round as you kit up.
I took 5mm wetsuit, but 3mm would have been easily sufficient.
The dive deck is spacious & has recently been given a new non stick coating which is a much needed improvement. Post dive hot showers available on the deck. Whilst Garry majors on the itinerary/currents etc, his colleague Gede must be one of the best spotters around. Hes really attentive on the dives. They both put a lot of energy into giving you the best possible diving experience.
When I posted a trip report on Komodo Dancer (Alor) in 2009, I was critical of the skill & lack of safety approach of the tender drivers. Im pleased to update that this has now been addressed & the tender guys were excellent.
Boat Operations
Food is good: pre breakfast at around 0630 followed by main breakfast (eggs etc pancakes etc), lunch (always Indonesian buffet), afternoon snacks (e.g. banana fritters) & evening meal (mainly European dishes). Beer, soft drinks & a little local wine (dreadful) are included. Imported wine is available at a price US$40 +. On our trip people majored on the beer (Bintang). Shorts were on sale at $6 for a v generous measure.
All meals are taken outside under the canvas awning which is just great.
Cabins & en suites are fine & well kept. Loads of hot water all day & good air con with individual controls in the cabin.
The boat takes 14 persons, but full marks to PH for running this trip with just 6.
Though I must admit, I preferred the ambience of a full boat on my previous trip.
I should just mention the scenery. For most of the trip you are close to the coast line & get great views of the shore/volcanic uplands.
Shore excursions
There were 4 shore excursions to hike hills, admire the views & check out the dragons. Due to a knee problem, I skipped these. My fellow travellers seemed to really enjoy them, but decent hikes in the middle of a 4 dive day in the baking sun must have been quite strenuous & potentially dehydrating.
Logistics
Internal flight from Bali to Labuan Bajo well, just cross your fingers & hope.
I stayed at the Mercure Sanur for my Bali o/night. It was fine. The deluxe rooms are much nicer than the standard ones. There seemed to be quite a few similar quality hotels along the same strip.
On my previous trip to Indonesia, I flew Malaysian who were fine. This time I flew Singapore - must be one of the best economy class airlines. I actually enjoyed the meal! Transfers in Singapore worked really well. 55 minutes including changing terminal with no probs.
Overall
All in all a great trip, which I thoroughly enjoyed. As I said upfront, put a good quality Komodo lob on your list youll do some memorable diving.
The Diving
Our itinerary was from Komodo back to Bali, with the majority of the time spent in/around the Komodo Marine Park followed by a 2 day dash back to Bali.
The reef is in fantastic condition with only small and infrequent areas of damage. The sheer quantity & variety of fish is breathtaking - from the whale shark through mantas to tiny critters.
The dive sites come in 4 distinct categories:
Open Water Sea Mounts: backward rolling into the blue, often through shoals of fish to explore the walls of the sea mounts, the level of exploration possible being determined by the level of current. The best sites include Castle Rock, Crystal Rock, Batu Balong (exceptionally beautiful site with shoals of fish spilling over the mount top onto the walls. So many fish we could not see the reef at times. We dived this twice. 2nd time the whole food chain seemed to be laid out in its respective shoals waiting for feeding time to kick off), Cannibal Rock (reckoned to be a world class dive, but we caught it in the wrong light & it was a little overcast), W Reef (I think the W must stand for wipe-out. We dived this in a mask ripping current), GPS Point (3 adjoining sea mounts covered with all the usual suspects a great, great dive and Gary judged the current perfectly).
Sloping Coral Shores: consistently world class reefs. It seemed as if every variety & colour of coral and anemone is laid out upon these reefs. I wont list our sightings but the guide books dont lie you really do see a fantastic variety of reef species on almost every dive. No walls however but it would be picky to complain about that! Highlights are Lighthouse Corner (twice inc. a leaf scorpion fish), GLD Passage (20 Jenkins Whip rays greeted us at 0730), Pelican Head (very different colours more greens/oranges in the soft corals/sponges apparently due to local upwelling of nutrients), Siaba Kecil (where Gede took us on a successful Mandarin fish hunt at midday!), Batu Moncho Reef (with a 3m x 1.8m fan), Star Wars (amazing soft corals in the shallows), Deep Purple & Hot Rocks (two mysterious low viz dives on sites that combine black sand & excellent reef. Hot rocks has geo thermal activity producing bubbles through the warm sand)
Sandy Critter sites: day, and especially night dives here are very good for critters but for the true macro enthusiast, the critter sites of Alor (on my previous trip) gave better sightings of e.g. Frog fish, ghost pipe fish & rhinopias. Our highlights were demon stingers, so many scorpion fish, huge cuttle fish, stargazers, zebra eel, white v octopus, free swimming striped morays, decorator crabs, zebra crabs, all sorts of cleaner shrimp, boxer shrimp, extensive varieties of nudibranchs, mantis shrimps, ribbon eels, bobtail squid, shrimp fish etc
Manta Dives: Lankoi (the Alley) dived this at 0730 & again 1100. 6 huge mantas put on a great display both times.
Dive Operations
Garry who diving is probably more interested in the currents than in the creatures that live in them reccies the dive site from a tender before giving a good briefing. The diving is done from a pair of tenders each having 2 tender operators & a DM. Your gear lives on the tenders all week. 32% nitrox no problem. Separate rinse tanks for cameras, computers, wetsuits are well set up & a large camera table. A nice touch is the tray of chilled water brought round as you kit up.
I took 5mm wetsuit, but 3mm would have been easily sufficient.
The dive deck is spacious & has recently been given a new non stick coating which is a much needed improvement. Post dive hot showers available on the deck. Whilst Garry majors on the itinerary/currents etc, his colleague Gede must be one of the best spotters around. Hes really attentive on the dives. They both put a lot of energy into giving you the best possible diving experience.
When I posted a trip report on Komodo Dancer (Alor) in 2009, I was critical of the skill & lack of safety approach of the tender drivers. Im pleased to update that this has now been addressed & the tender guys were excellent.
Boat Operations
Food is good: pre breakfast at around 0630 followed by main breakfast (eggs etc pancakes etc), lunch (always Indonesian buffet), afternoon snacks (e.g. banana fritters) & evening meal (mainly European dishes). Beer, soft drinks & a little local wine (dreadful) are included. Imported wine is available at a price US$40 +. On our trip people majored on the beer (Bintang). Shorts were on sale at $6 for a v generous measure.
All meals are taken outside under the canvas awning which is just great.
Cabins & en suites are fine & well kept. Loads of hot water all day & good air con with individual controls in the cabin.
The boat takes 14 persons, but full marks to PH for running this trip with just 6.
Though I must admit, I preferred the ambience of a full boat on my previous trip.
I should just mention the scenery. For most of the trip you are close to the coast line & get great views of the shore/volcanic uplands.
Shore excursions
There were 4 shore excursions to hike hills, admire the views & check out the dragons. Due to a knee problem, I skipped these. My fellow travellers seemed to really enjoy them, but decent hikes in the middle of a 4 dive day in the baking sun must have been quite strenuous & potentially dehydrating.
Logistics
Internal flight from Bali to Labuan Bajo well, just cross your fingers & hope.
I stayed at the Mercure Sanur for my Bali o/night. It was fine. The deluxe rooms are much nicer than the standard ones. There seemed to be quite a few similar quality hotels along the same strip.
On my previous trip to Indonesia, I flew Malaysian who were fine. This time I flew Singapore - must be one of the best economy class airlines. I actually enjoyed the meal! Transfers in Singapore worked really well. 55 minutes including changing terminal with no probs.
Overall
All in all a great trip, which I thoroughly enjoyed. As I said upfront, put a good quality Komodo lob on your list youll do some memorable diving.
Also, I'm glad to to know that you found a 3mm suit to be sufficient. I'm on the verge of buying a 5mm for November. Gotta find out if the temp drops dramatically during that month.
