Barefoot Kuata Resort

Hello my dears,

I hope everything is going well for you! I am sitting in my hostel in Singapore and have been doing some serious sightseeing for the last 3 days. So much so that I needed a little break today. And a break in this case means that I will give you a little update.

After my stay at the homestay or on the other island, I was directly taken to the resort by a small fishing boat. Upon arrival, I checked in and then hid in the shade for the rest of the day to read, as I could already feel the sunburn on my shins and arms after coming off the boat. A pretty severe one, I must sadly say.

The resort was an absolute dream and even prettier than Blue Lagoon.

From the resort, I could also see the village on the other side of the channel where I had stayed the previous days. It was an absolute dream and it was particularly cool because I also met Juli again here. An American woman I met at Blue Lagoon who has an incredible life story and now in her 50s goes on various adventures. After some consideration and also some persuasion, I managed to get Juli to participate in the shark dive and push her own boundaries. Absolutely fantastic!

So the next morning, we both got up early, and after we received our equipment and had a short briefing, we boarded the boats and drove about 15 minutes to the dive site. We dove to 12 meters and then sat behind the built wall, and even while descending, I could already see the first sharks swimming and circling in the background. Absolutely incredible!

The entire dive has been developed with a scientific background and therefore I unusually had no problem participating in this dive even if the sharks are being fed. The development took 3 years, and there is always a shark expert present at the dive base and accompanying the dives for research purposes. Absolutely fantastic. The money generated from this dive is also used for various purposes, to populate the reef with corals. The entire coral gardens were established by the team, and there are also various coral gardens directly in the reef in front of the resort.

During the dive, we had about 15 bull sharks swimming around us and especially in front of us, and it was simply amazing to have these majestic creatures right in front of us. I felt like I was in a National Geographic film. These creatures are simply absolute survivors, and I can't put into words how much this dive impressed me. INSANE!

And since the visibility was so good, I decided in the afternoon that I would do another dive in the area. I have not regretted this decision in the slightest, as it was an absolutely fantastic dive, and we even saw popcorn krill and a turtle at the very end. The colors and the diversity were really wonderful! To top off this amazing day, there was also a spectacular dinner, which was my absolute favorite of the trip. Yummy!

The next day was already departure day. However, since I could take the ferry back to the mainland, my departure was set for 3 PM, and I was able to enjoy almost the entire day at the resort. Juli and I decided the night before while playing cards that we would watch the sunrise from the small hill on the island. So we trudged up there for about 15 minutes and enjoyed the view.

After that, I packed my things and spent the remaining hours snorkeling. Thanks to the super nice dive team, I got a wetsuit so I wouldn't get burned any further, but I could still use the snorkeling opportunity, as the reef right in front of their doorstep is absolutely fantastic, and while snorkeling, I saw a larger blacktip reef shark. Absolutely dreamy and a fantastic end to my time here at Barefoot Kuata Resort.

And then it was on to my final stop: South Sea Island.

More on that in the next post.
Yours, Britta