Luko
Contributor
Time for a quick illustrated report on my last dives in Indonesia / august 2023.
First part : Raja Ampat Cove Eco resort
This time we selected Cove Eco resort, which is primarily targeted to european customers (french owned) and a little under the radar, located west of Dampier almost halfway between Penemu and Gam. This area is less dived than the central Dampier zone as there are only a few homestays and only two resorts Raja4divers and Cove Eco, except for Penemu and Piaynemo area we almost had the dive sites for ourselves. August might not be the best time although quite enjoyable as there are NO liveaboards around, we mostly had grey skies part of the each day (less cloudy than Sorong), sometimes rain (not so much) more often bumpy rides on the speedboats, be prepared for trips standing up on the boat if you want to protect your backbone.
Cove is located on its own island Yeben island, it takes 2:30 hrs ride from Sorong to Waisai then 1:30hrs speedboat ride west, approx 30 minutes past Raja4divers. problem is that the ferry departs from Sorong at 9AM, hence you have to take a redeye flight (which I despise) or overnight in Sorong (which we did)... or both...
We stayed at Swiss Belotel for the night, which was nice located quite near to the ferry harbour, the rooms and the lobby were very clean, the restaurant had a good food choice (lunch and dinner), served in a very reasonable waiting time, nothing comparable to some of the remote indonesian city hotels. The frontdesk staff spoke good english & was very helpful at finding us a car/driver for a "city/shopping tour" (100kIDR=7$ per hour). Unfortunately on a sunday almost everything was closed we couldn't find anywhere to buy some local art, nor where to have dinner so after a couple of hours we went back to the hotel, from the last visit I made to Sorong I was surprized with the number of city hotels newly opened or opening.
There are 10 bungalows on the resort all aircon accomodating 20 guests max in total. A third of the customers were either snorkelers or non divers. Various nationalities represented, only 2 americans guests, the rest being nationals from various european countries (IT, FR, CH, NL, UK, SP), mostly families with kids or teens.
There are two white sand beaches 10 minutes walk and a jetty just in front of the resort wher you can lie on sunchairs or dive
The resort can bring out 4 speedboats ranging from 2*50hp to 2*150hp for the most powerful, dedicated to snorkelers. We had the smaller speedboat on our own for 2 diver/photographers. Needless to say, we commanded the dives we wanted to do with our private guide and boatcrew.
Food is good (even very good for Raja Ampat standards), ordered the day before. Expect croissants, pancakes and/or eggs for breakfast, fusion style plates often prawn/fish based (sometimes quite elaborated) for lunch (2 courses+fruit) and dinner (3 courses incl. dessert), plus a sweet snack for teatime.
Sunset on Cove resort transfer speedboat :
Dive wise, they usually do 2 dives in the morning plus an afternoon dive or full day trips, after a few days we tended to chose the second option, since there are not many sites around for afternoon dives. They can provide for a night dive, but we were too lazy and satisfied with the day dives to try one. The jetty is an excellent 3rd dive though with schools of jackfish, snappers and batfish around the pillars.
There is a trip to Piaynemo included in the package every wednesday. They can also organize daytrips to Kri/Mansuar areas with a minimum number of participants as well as a financial supplement on top.
Just to summarize the areas we dived in one week and some photos for each area
Gam/Yengeffo area : citrus ridge, Mayhem, Yenggefo, mangroves,.. 30-40 minutes boat ride.
Some spectacular fish packed action like Mayhem, schools of fish and gorgonians in Yenggefo reef, as well as very shallow mangroves in Yenggefo or Citrus ridge, perfect for practising over unders.
Fusiliers on Gam channel
Wobbegong on Citrus Ridge
Mangroves
into the mangroves :
Mayhem
Gorgonians on Yenggefo
Penemu/Fam area : Melissa's garden, Anita's garden, Fam channel, Rufus island, etc. 40 minutes to an hour ride, depending on the sea... we just couldn't imagine how long it would take for smaller boats we saw coming from Kri with only 2*40hp engines and 6 divers onboard !!
I was somehow disappointed with Melissa's garden, lots of small fish and hard coral fields but a lack of a "dramatic" reefscape, in that respect I thought Rufus ridge was absolutely world class with tons of fusiliers, damselfish, surgeonfish passing through the gorgonians and into the arch (Rufus ridge could be Penemu's response to the famous Boo's windows), good diving as well in Fam channel.
Melissa's garden
Fam channel reefscape
Anita's garden
- To be continued -
First part : Raja Ampat Cove Eco resort
This time we selected Cove Eco resort, which is primarily targeted to european customers (french owned) and a little under the radar, located west of Dampier almost halfway between Penemu and Gam. This area is less dived than the central Dampier zone as there are only a few homestays and only two resorts Raja4divers and Cove Eco, except for Penemu and Piaynemo area we almost had the dive sites for ourselves. August might not be the best time although quite enjoyable as there are NO liveaboards around, we mostly had grey skies part of the each day (less cloudy than Sorong), sometimes rain (not so much) more often bumpy rides on the speedboats, be prepared for trips standing up on the boat if you want to protect your backbone.
Cove is located on its own island Yeben island, it takes 2:30 hrs ride from Sorong to Waisai then 1:30hrs speedboat ride west, approx 30 minutes past Raja4divers. problem is that the ferry departs from Sorong at 9AM, hence you have to take a redeye flight (which I despise) or overnight in Sorong (which we did)... or both...
We stayed at Swiss Belotel for the night, which was nice located quite near to the ferry harbour, the rooms and the lobby were very clean, the restaurant had a good food choice (lunch and dinner), served in a very reasonable waiting time, nothing comparable to some of the remote indonesian city hotels. The frontdesk staff spoke good english & was very helpful at finding us a car/driver for a "city/shopping tour" (100kIDR=7$ per hour). Unfortunately on a sunday almost everything was closed we couldn't find anywhere to buy some local art, nor where to have dinner so after a couple of hours we went back to the hotel, from the last visit I made to Sorong I was surprized with the number of city hotels newly opened or opening.
There are 10 bungalows on the resort all aircon accomodating 20 guests max in total. A third of the customers were either snorkelers or non divers. Various nationalities represented, only 2 americans guests, the rest being nationals from various european countries (IT, FR, CH, NL, UK, SP), mostly families with kids or teens.
There are two white sand beaches 10 minutes walk and a jetty just in front of the resort wher you can lie on sunchairs or dive
The resort can bring out 4 speedboats ranging from 2*50hp to 2*150hp for the most powerful, dedicated to snorkelers. We had the smaller speedboat on our own for 2 diver/photographers. Needless to say, we commanded the dives we wanted to do with our private guide and boatcrew.
Food is good (even very good for Raja Ampat standards), ordered the day before. Expect croissants, pancakes and/or eggs for breakfast, fusion style plates often prawn/fish based (sometimes quite elaborated) for lunch (2 courses+fruit) and dinner (3 courses incl. dessert), plus a sweet snack for teatime.
Sunset on Cove resort transfer speedboat :
Dive wise, they usually do 2 dives in the morning plus an afternoon dive or full day trips, after a few days we tended to chose the second option, since there are not many sites around for afternoon dives. They can provide for a night dive, but we were too lazy and satisfied with the day dives to try one. The jetty is an excellent 3rd dive though with schools of jackfish, snappers and batfish around the pillars.
There is a trip to Piaynemo included in the package every wednesday. They can also organize daytrips to Kri/Mansuar areas with a minimum number of participants as well as a financial supplement on top.
Just to summarize the areas we dived in one week and some photos for each area
Gam/Yengeffo area : citrus ridge, Mayhem, Yenggefo, mangroves,.. 30-40 minutes boat ride.
Some spectacular fish packed action like Mayhem, schools of fish and gorgonians in Yenggefo reef, as well as very shallow mangroves in Yenggefo or Citrus ridge, perfect for practising over unders.
Fusiliers on Gam channel
Wobbegong on Citrus Ridge
Mangroves
into the mangroves :
Mayhem
Gorgonians on Yenggefo
Penemu/Fam area : Melissa's garden, Anita's garden, Fam channel, Rufus island, etc. 40 minutes to an hour ride, depending on the sea... we just couldn't imagine how long it would take for smaller boats we saw coming from Kri with only 2*40hp engines and 6 divers onboard !!
I was somehow disappointed with Melissa's garden, lots of small fish and hard coral fields but a lack of a "dramatic" reefscape, in that respect I thought Rufus ridge was absolutely world class with tons of fusiliers, damselfish, surgeonfish passing through the gorgonians and into the arch (Rufus ridge could be Penemu's response to the famous Boo's windows), good diving as well in Fam channel.
Melissa's garden
Fam channel reefscape
Anita's garden
- To be continued -
