Immeriswas
Contributor
After the report about Ambon and Banda, now the sum up of the last bit of our "Indo 14 " Trip.
The general decision against a liveaboard was due to the fact, that we had had massive earproblems on several dive vaccations and lost quite some dives. In a resort there are more alternatives to enjoy your holiday without diving, especially when there is a nice housereef for snorkeling or when there are kayaks like at Papua Explorers . Additionally we both are satisfied with two dives a day and rather go snorkelling or on a land trip (like bird watching)
Papua Explorers was choosen because the other two options we had a look at - in the same price range - offered either less value ( Kri Eco with shared bathroom and simpler accomodation ) or are further away from the top spots, which involves a lot more boattime ( Papua Paradise on Batanta )
Papua Explorer is located on Gam opposite Mansuar island within reach of all the great spots in and around Dampier Strait and offers Nitrox , which we believe is a great safty advantage , especially as all the divesites there were above 30 meter. The 10 overwater bungalows are spacy and well equipped. From the great verranda steps are leading directely onto the housereef. My wife loved the warm water shower after the nightdives.
The housereef is great for snorkeling and nightdives . Under the jetty there are Mandarin fishes as well as other critters. I went nearly every second evening after dinner for night-snorkeling. Everytime I encountered one or two bamboo sharks, toad and crocodile fish, differrent nudis, gorgon heads in various colours , mureels, shrimps and crabs etc.weight
The food in the overwater openair restaurant was vey deliciuous and definately tempting to take too much..
The gardener did a great job in this only one year old resort, so that you could watch a lot of different birds and butterflies there. ( One guest - a specialist for butterflies - brought life traps and identified over 100 different species alone on the compound!)
For birdwatching Tunc the turkish owner offers tours to three different sites, where you could see the very pretty Red Bird of Paradise or the Wilson Bird of Paradise, one of the rarest birds and both species endangerd from extinction .
There were four kayaks for rent and the excursions we did into the mangrove areas along the coast were fantastic. For sunset you could paddle into the Dampier Strait with them and enjoy this unique atmosphere.
The dive operation was well organized by Ross an english fellow, who had worked three years on Kri with Max Ammer. We were lucky to be guided by him on many dives, because he knews the sites very well AND is a great spotter. The other guides - some from the area , some from Manado, we had, were very expirienced as well.
They arranged the dives in a way, that we never - let alone Manta Sandy and The Passage - had other dive groups on the spot and always had medium to stronger current, but never ripping conditions, where you would have needed the reef hooks or been blown into the blue.
Some places like Sardines, Cape Kri, Manta Sandy or the Passage have been visited twice in this 14 days, but far from boring !
About the Dampier Strait I mustn`t say a lot. All my expectations were fullfilled and topped. From tiny things like harlekin shrimp, flatworms, nudis or ghost pipe fish to the big like pelargic manta, wobbegong or grey sharks - everything was there and the condition of the soft and hard corall were fantastic. The oft mentioned variety of marine life is definatly true. We have been now the fourth time in different places of Indonesia ( Flores, Bunaken ,Bangka , Lembeh , Banda, Ambon , Bali and Selayar ) but in RA we still saw a lot of " never seen before " stuff.
One of the most impressive divesite in my opinion was the Passage, with the high speed channel and the tranquille bays and caves. Especially the combination between softcorall covered walls and the mangrove roots, with the view from below into the lush foliage was great.
A very recomandable tour was the whole day trip to Fam islands, with two or three wall dives and the trip to Batanta island with a one hour jungle walk up to an impressive waterfall and the P47 spitfire wreck - beautiful covered with softcoralls - on the way.
The weather in Dezember was fine, mostly sunny, 2-3 beaufort and only one rainy day ! Temperature under and over water was arround 29 degree.
RA had made such impression, that we already booked again. Coming November we will visit the just opend Triton Bay resort near Kaimana, with the hope to see the whalesharks, which we missed on the cancelled trip to Cenderawasih Bay.
For some picture
https://www.flickr.com/photos/130865049@N05/sets/
The general decision against a liveaboard was due to the fact, that we had had massive earproblems on several dive vaccations and lost quite some dives. In a resort there are more alternatives to enjoy your holiday without diving, especially when there is a nice housereef for snorkeling or when there are kayaks like at Papua Explorers . Additionally we both are satisfied with two dives a day and rather go snorkelling or on a land trip (like bird watching)
Papua Explorers was choosen because the other two options we had a look at - in the same price range - offered either less value ( Kri Eco with shared bathroom and simpler accomodation ) or are further away from the top spots, which involves a lot more boattime ( Papua Paradise on Batanta )
Papua Explorer is located on Gam opposite Mansuar island within reach of all the great spots in and around Dampier Strait and offers Nitrox , which we believe is a great safty advantage , especially as all the divesites there were above 30 meter. The 10 overwater bungalows are spacy and well equipped. From the great verranda steps are leading directely onto the housereef. My wife loved the warm water shower after the nightdives.
The housereef is great for snorkeling and nightdives . Under the jetty there are Mandarin fishes as well as other critters. I went nearly every second evening after dinner for night-snorkeling. Everytime I encountered one or two bamboo sharks, toad and crocodile fish, differrent nudis, gorgon heads in various colours , mureels, shrimps and crabs etc.weight
The food in the overwater openair restaurant was vey deliciuous and definately tempting to take too much..
The gardener did a great job in this only one year old resort, so that you could watch a lot of different birds and butterflies there. ( One guest - a specialist for butterflies - brought life traps and identified over 100 different species alone on the compound!)
For birdwatching Tunc the turkish owner offers tours to three different sites, where you could see the very pretty Red Bird of Paradise or the Wilson Bird of Paradise, one of the rarest birds and both species endangerd from extinction .
There were four kayaks for rent and the excursions we did into the mangrove areas along the coast were fantastic. For sunset you could paddle into the Dampier Strait with them and enjoy this unique atmosphere.
The dive operation was well organized by Ross an english fellow, who had worked three years on Kri with Max Ammer. We were lucky to be guided by him on many dives, because he knews the sites very well AND is a great spotter. The other guides - some from the area , some from Manado, we had, were very expirienced as well.
They arranged the dives in a way, that we never - let alone Manta Sandy and The Passage - had other dive groups on the spot and always had medium to stronger current, but never ripping conditions, where you would have needed the reef hooks or been blown into the blue.
Some places like Sardines, Cape Kri, Manta Sandy or the Passage have been visited twice in this 14 days, but far from boring !
About the Dampier Strait I mustn`t say a lot. All my expectations were fullfilled and topped. From tiny things like harlekin shrimp, flatworms, nudis or ghost pipe fish to the big like pelargic manta, wobbegong or grey sharks - everything was there and the condition of the soft and hard corall were fantastic. The oft mentioned variety of marine life is definatly true. We have been now the fourth time in different places of Indonesia ( Flores, Bunaken ,Bangka , Lembeh , Banda, Ambon , Bali and Selayar ) but in RA we still saw a lot of " never seen before " stuff.
One of the most impressive divesite in my opinion was the Passage, with the high speed channel and the tranquille bays and caves. Especially the combination between softcorall covered walls and the mangrove roots, with the view from below into the lush foliage was great.
A very recomandable tour was the whole day trip to Fam islands, with two or three wall dives and the trip to Batanta island with a one hour jungle walk up to an impressive waterfall and the P47 spitfire wreck - beautiful covered with softcoralls - on the way.
The weather in Dezember was fine, mostly sunny, 2-3 beaufort and only one rainy day ! Temperature under and over water was arround 29 degree.
RA had made such impression, that we already booked again. Coming November we will visit the just opend Triton Bay resort near Kaimana, with the hope to see the whalesharks, which we missed on the cancelled trip to Cenderawasih Bay.
For some picture
https://www.flickr.com/photos/130865049@N05/sets/
