sLOVEnians travel

When we decided to visit Komodo national park, my first idea was: we have to go diving. And oh man, it was the best decision ever. We dove already at different dive sights, last time on Nusa Penida where we were searching for Mola Mola, but what we experienced here – underwater jungle 😊

Day trips? Liveaboard? Book in advance?

We were in Indonesia in high season – in August. Some people were stressing us on Lombok and the Gilis that we need to prebook our dives in Komodo. But we didn’t want to, we wanted to check out the situation there first and make sure the water is warm enough for Jure – not that he would almost freeze again like on Nusa Penida 2 weeks before or in Aqaba, Jordan earlier this year. We were also thinking of doing a liveaboard, but after our terrible boat trip from Lombok to Flores we were happy we didn’t book one (although it’s still a big wish to do a liveaboard once). We just arrived in Labuan Bajo (a town in western Flores and the main hub for Komodo national park), shopped around in the evening in different dive shops, found one that suited us and on the next morning we were already on the boat.

We decided for Dive Komodo (we are not paid to say that 😉 ), because we liked their friendliness and the gear looked good. We paid 1,800,000 IDR for 3 dives with equipment. You should know that almost all dive shops have similar prices for fun dives but be aware that you have to pay extra for the Komodo national park fee. The park fee on weekdays is 275,000 IDR and on Sundays and public holidays 350,000 IDR.

Dive sites

We booked 3 dives in one day. The boat we boarded was nice. It was us, a Korean and a Japanese group. We had a dive master just for us. We could relax on the upper deck, they prepared donuts and fruit for us, we had unlimited water, tea and coffee and after the second dive we had delicious lunch. They carried all the gear for us to and from the boat and we tried on and prepared all the gear the evening before.

1^st dive: Manta point

As the name says we were there for mantas. And we saw a really big one. There wasn’t a lot of corals, but rather big fish. We went 18 meters deep and at the beginning the current was super strong – we drifted next to the coral reef before we came to a clearing with a few boulders and a sandy bottom there’s where we meet the big underwater Mr. Elegant (Manta).

2^nd dive: Tatava Kecil

Oh my, what a treat is this colorful and lively dive site. We saw big schools of snappers, jacks, groupers and corals were healthy and beautiful. I can’t remember when was the last time I saw so much marine life in one dive.

The highlight was definitely when we witnessed a bamboo shark attacking a moray eel. And guess what – we caught it on tape 😊 Watch the vlog at the end to see it for yourself 😉

But be aware – the currents here are VERY strong, it was the first time I had to do a negative entry, but all went well and we really enjoyed underwater. The first part of the dive we stuck close to the reef because of the wild currents, later it was better. It’s also nice that the main reef isn’t sooo deep – our maximum depth at this dive was 17 meters.

3^rd dive: Subayur Kecil

This is a smaller reef with good visibility and not to strong currents. The corals were beautiful, colorful, many small fish were around and the whole reef was sooo alive it was a pleasure seeing it all. An octopus was hiding in a small cave and for the first time we saw a fish, which looked like it has wings. We didn’t recognize it – if you know it, please let us know. The maximum depth on this dive was 22 meters.

All in all the diving in Komodo was worth every penny and was one of my favorite diving days until now. It’s true that the dives can be challenging especially because of the currents but trust your dive masters and most importantly – tell them about your level of experience and they will choose dive sites suitable for you.

Last but not least we want to thank Akira Fukuyama who was so kind to give us permission to share his beautiful pictures from these 3 dives.ありがとうございます

Have a great time making bubbles and enjoy xx