22/06/2019 to 28/06/2019 - Komodo / Indonesia

Today, in the morning, we went from Bali to Komodo, or more precisely to Labuan Bajo city on the Indonesian island of Flores. This is the destination airport to explore Komodo National Park. Komodo is probably best known for its huge Warana, also known as Komodo dragons, but the underwater world here is also worth seeing. From Labuan Bajo, we continued by boat for 2 hours through the beautiful island world until we reached the Scuba Junkie Komodo Beach Resort. No tourists in sight, only three local neighbors. Our accommodation consisted of a small wooden hut with a palm leaf roof, a mattress, and a mosquito net. Completely sufficient for the next 5 nights, as we were out on the diving boat during the day. 4 days of diving with 3 dives each day. Our dive sites were Siaba Kecil, Mawan, Gindang, Sebayur Kecil, Batu Bolong, Manta Point, Cauldron, Castle Rock, Tatawa Besar, and Siaba Besar. Particularly noteworthy here are the dive sites Siaba Kecil, Mawan, Batu Bolong, Cauldron, and Castle Rock. In Siaba Kecil, you descend and are immediately swept away by the current. Like on TV, the whole underwater world passes by without having to swim. The spectacle lasted about 8 minutes, and then we went up to 7 meters below the surface to look for Dugongs. We were lucky and could see them on both days we were here. Mawan is the Mantapoint in Komodo. Just sit in the sand and wait, the Mantas come by automatically. The dive site Batu Bolong is also called fish soup. You dive in a zigzag on only 100 meters in length because there is strong current on the right and left, which you better avoid. But the current attracts thousands of large and small fish. It was really exciting in Cauldron. The dive starts very relaxed. Then a wall 5 meters high comes up, which we dove up to. Once at the top, it becomes shallow again, but here we have hacked a rope into the rocks and held on to it. Because there is really strong current here. The hair and bubbles are blown away immediately. Many sharks are attracted to these underwater conditions, which we could observe very well. Castle Rock is probably the most famous dive spot in Komodo. Normally, there is a lot of current here. However, it was completely calm for us. Above the water, we were able to watch a beautiful sunset every evening. One of the evenings even from the boat, because after diving, we went out again, watched the sunset, and then saw thousands of bats flying out. On June 27, we left the Beach Resort and took the boat back to Labuan Bajo. But we made a stopover on the Rinca island to visit the Komodo dragons. They live here freely and alone on the island. Rinca is one of the uninhabited islands. We were picked up directly at the boat dock by rangers because the dragons are not safe. The animals eat each other in case of food shortage and otherwise the monkeys, deer, and water buffaloes living on the island. We were able to observe several animals during a guided tour for an hour and took a beautiful view over the island world of Komodo from a viewpoint. We spent the last night and day in a small Bed&Breakfast in Labuan Bajo, and in the early evening, we flew back to Denpasar on Bali.