Pulau Satonda.

I was pretty excited about going to Pulau Satonda. This is a volcanic island which erupted 10,000 years ago, and now has a huge salt water crater lake. The island is uninhabited and is a National Park.

The sea enroute was very rough (again), and the anchorage had really big swells so anchoring was tricky. We were deciding whether to take the dinghy or the kayaks to shore, but then on impulse decided to snorkel to shore instead!

The snorkelling was the best we’ve done in Indonesia so far. The coral was healthy and diverse, and there were a much greater diversity in fish types. We managed to get some reasonable GoPro footage. Being rough water, the visibility wasn’t great, but we still loved it.

The pier, beach and park entrance was devoid of humans when we got to the island, but there was a troupe of monkeys watching us warily. By the time we started walking up the concrete path, carpeted in lush green moss, they slipped away into the jungle. Further along we saw a wild boar watching us. Dale decided to head back and grab a stick to fend it off. But again he slipped quietly away, and we didn’t see him again. (Pig not Dale 😆😆😆)
The path petered out pretty quickly and was soon really overgrown. At time we had to force ourselves bodily through the shrubs and vines.

When we finally made it to the lake, again it was deserted, much to our delight. The water was a similar temperature to the sea, and was shallow for a few metres, then dropped away to a huge depth. The lake actually consists of 2 craters, the deepest of which is 69 mt. The caldera - wall of crater is up to 300 mt high.

The lake has a coral style (but not actual true coral) reef, but seems to be mostly one or two types of coral growth. The only marine life we saw were striped little fish. The snorkelling was a bit otherworldly- the colours were eerie. Due to the high salinity (they refer to it as a soda lake) floating was incredibly simple. I was surprised at the difference in my buoyancy compared with the ocean.

After our snorkel we hiked part of the crater ridge through the jungle. It was pretty tough going, steep, rugged and apart from a narrow dirt track which was very overgrown, quite untouched. It’s an awesome feeling, trekking through wild jungle on a remote island, knowing there’s no one there except us.

We were well rocked to sleep that night. Next morning we decided to circumnavigate the island in the dinghy. It was fun, bumping along, and the water was so clear that you could clearly see the bottom and action in 2 mts of water.
We spotted a strange cage on the foreshore so pulled in to have a look, thinking if might be part of some scientific research. Up close, it was much bigger than it seemed - probably 4 mt by 2mt, but only 2.2 mt high, - had been clad in fly mesh with (now ripped) in shade mesh. The sign on it was unreadable, so we were no wiser! The beach had a huge covering and range of coral rubble and shells. And sadly, a bit of trash too, though not as bad as lots of areas here.
As we’d walked a fair way from the dinghy, Dale headed back to bring it to us while I walked further. To meet him I had to walk out a long way through the reef so he could pick me up safely.
As we continued around the island, the sea became progressively rougher so a lot of bouncing ensued. I think Dale was a bit concerned about how the yacht was coping in the swell, but when we came round the point and saw her bobbing there, he gave a sigh of relief!Read more