Komodo National Park

Komodo - what a difference since our last visit! The islands in the Komodo National Park were brown and arid when I left here in September last year. Now in the height of the wet season, it’s all lush and green!
We anchored at Palau Gili Laut, in the north of the park. There were the local fishing boats around, but no sign of the usual dive, snorkeling and live-aboard boats. That suited us just fine - there’s something wonderful about having an island and bay all to yourself.
We took the the dinghy and explored the bays nearby. Several fishing boats had moored there as it was really protected from the elements. As always there was much enthusiasm and greeting from the guys on the boats.
The island sheltered us from the wind and ocean swell, so we enjoyed a more restful night than we’d had in a few weeks.
In the morning we started the day more slowly - Dale had been getting up and preparing to sail at 5 am, so he enjoyed a sleep in. By 10am, we were snorkeling in the bay. Despite there being quite a lot of trash washed up, the reef was healthy and abundant, and the visibility was the best we’d had to date.
The variety in coral varieties- both soft and hard was rather wonderful. I love all the coral patterns and textures. And the reef fish were plentiful and active, and it was so good to see larger ones too, which had been very scarce in the other sites.
I contacted a Dive firm based in Labuan Bajo to try to book dives to see both manta rates and turtles. They advised that the government had closed the harbour due to extreme weather, so the dive and tourist boats weren’t running. It seemed a bit odd as the weather in Komodo was the most pleasant we’d seen since late December.

It turns out that on 28th December a chartered live-aboard sank when heading back to Bajo from Komodo.
A large wave swamped and sank the boat, resulting in the deaths of a Spanish man and 3 of his kids. Only the crew, his wife and one child survived! Absolutely tragic and terrifying! I guess the govt is having a knee jerk reaction! This of course explained why Komodo had no tourist boats and aside from the fishermen, we had it to ourselves.
I did ask the dive people for suggestions on where to snorkel or dive with the hookah so we had a charge of finding turtles and mantas. He directed us to a spot called Makasar, so we relocated and figured we’d try our luck.

And lucky we were! Not only did find turtles cruising around doing turtle stuff, we found an area of literally an acre or more, littered with huge sea stars. Some of these were as large as a dinner plate! Interestingly I didn’t see any baby ones!

The other fascinating find were armies of black spiny sea urchins. They appeared to be in formation, and they were in groups of hundreds, even thousands!

We also spotted a shark - first one in Indonesia, but by the time I raised the camera, he’d disappeared. We did manage to film a Brown-banded Bamboo (edit) shark as he just lay there 😀 and posed.

Another exciting find was a huge stingray - he was partly concealed in a patch of coral sand, but disappeared before I could catch him (with the camera - I’m no Steve Irwin)

I seem to have more of an idea on using the GoPro, so the footage is better - certainly not professional by any means, but at least now I mostly capture what I intended, rather than the inside of my pocket, or the bottom of my bag 😅!

After a couple of hours in the water - time just flies - we went back to the boat, ate and napped!

The following morning, with time to get to Bajo - specifically Kantor Imigrasi - the immigration office - so I could extend my visa, getting scarce, we went for a final look for Mantas. Dale set up the Hookah - battery, pump, hoses and regulators on the dinghy and we headed into the channel where Mantas congregate in the fast current. While they feed, remoras and other small fish clean them.

It was a bit rougher that morning so Dale decided to stay in the Dinghy to manage the hoses and safety lines while I ‘dived’. It didn’t look too encouraging to start with. There are a lot of nutrients in the current, so the visibility wasn’t good, and I could only go down 4 or 5 metres at most, as the dinghy was being swept at a different rate than I was under the water.

Then suddenly I noticed two mantas feeding. I popped up to try to get more rope let out, and when I went back down, and saw another. I managed to get a video - not great quality, but something! Satisfied, we motored back to the boat, pulled up anchor and set off towards Bajo.

Enroute I did a bit of research on the islands we would pass. One island, Pulau Pingu, has a pearl farm there. I contacted them, and arranged for us to visit. We were greeted by Dominik, who showed us around and explained the process of farming pearls. Atlas Pearls, was funded, and I guess partially owned, by Australians and is in its 15th year. I noticed that their safety standards seemed to be high - all the staff in the water, on the jetty and in boats wore life jackets. That isn’t something you see here!
We, of course, were the only guests due to the closure of the harbour.

The pearls take 4 years from fertilisation to harvest, and each oyster shell is scraped clean every month! The oysters who produce 1st class pearls are reseeded and put back into the water for another 2 years. The meat from the others is sold as ‘Pearl Meat’ and the shells turned into mother of pearl, so it’s pretty much a non-extractive, no waste model. Sadly, or fortunately, the jewellery in their showroom was priced at high end international prices, so I wasn’t tempted!

As we were leaving, Dominik asked if he could have a photo with us, as did the guy who ferried us from our mooring to the island. Then a young English woman appeared. Turns out both she and her spouse are marine biologists and manage the farm. So we had photos with Becky too!

The sail back to Bajo was over quickly and we found a good spot to moor, just outside of the harbour, tucked between the islands. There was another catamaran there, plus 2 western style yachts which appear to be charter boats - aside from these, everything was Indonesian, wooden and many were having maintenance done on them. It was a bit weird being back in ‘civilisation’ with lots of boats, busyness and being close to a town. It emphasises how remote we’ve been lately!Read more