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Diving With Dragons

Sport Diving

Ken Hoppen - December/January 2001-02

Soon after weighing anchor we reached the mini Wall on the island of Sebayor. This site teemed with life the masses of smal fish darting through the corals had to be seen to be believed. More anthias and others colourful fish than I imagined existed flashed in a blur of colour over the hard and soft corals. On the top of the wall a large school of humphead wrasse patrolled the shallows as we combed the wall below. There were so many colourful species in a small area that when you spotted something special it was easy to be distracted by the dozen or so packed in the small area around it.

On a second dive here next day I explored the bottom of the wall around 30m looking for a huge patch of garden eels. I hovered 10m or so above another diver wondering what he was looking at before I realised that the ' thin seawed ' was actually 1000-plus individual garden eels swaying in the slight current. A jet-black juvenile batfish with oversized fins and an orange margin enough time or shots on the dive sites here.

In a bay at nearby Glilli Lawa Laut I had my first encounter with a creature I'd heard plenty about but had photographed before a pygmy seahorse. Rumour had it they were mostly found on gorgonians at 30m or more. Well, we found them at 15m! In fact, we found four of these beauties on a mid-sized red gorgonian, and the largest was about the size of my thumbnail. they can contort themselves into a blob which makes them hard to find even when you've them pointed out to you! They're worth the hunt though; few others creatures are as delicate, or as photogenic in their natural habitat.

We were dropped by the zodiacs right on the seahorse habitat a few hundred metres from the boat, and drifted back to the boat with the gentle current once we'd finished. The fish life here was diverse and plentiful too, and with unforgettable anemonefish there were many different species of these beauties in a small area. I also discovered what caused the small fish to erupt through the surface during our onboard intervals-a school of long toms was hounding them hard trying to snare a meal or two. This life and death fish carnival had been going on mere metres above our heads.

Batu Belong and nearby Tetawa kecil were real highlights. Both are actually pinnacles rising out of 70m and break the surface by 10m or so. a slight current carried us onto the pinnacle and then round to the lea side. Batu Belong had a gutter running down the side where we were dropped in, and we followed this down past schools of giant trevally and jacks to the 30m mark where we were swept around the wall past huge rock formations and into the lea. we were confronted by two small whitetip reef sharks stretched out together on a table coral. We disturbed them, and they briefly circled before again settling on their favourite spot. The deco stop was just as interesting as swarms of fish were feeding on the rocks, possibly on the algae being carefully tended by some irate sergeant majors. A pair of mandarinfish also appered.

The next dive was one out of the box. It was a snorkel on a site where they'd had regular manta encounters, but we weren't prepared for the number we saw. We began at about 6m and drifted with the current scanning for the mantas we'd seen from the boat. It took several minutes to find them; I was about to give it up as a lost cause when the fun began. The first manta was on the bottom, ststionary in the slight current. Three more appeared from the distance, hovering next to a bommie that I assume was a cleaning station. taking a breath, I dived and cruised slowly past the stationary trio before racing back up for a fresh breath. Much more was to come though. I personally lost count at 25, but there were well over forty mantas. At times squadrons of eight cruised past on the surface; others went past on the bottom. after half an hour of drifting we hit the 20m mark then still on a high, we did it again!

The northern sites of Linta straitbetween the islands of Komodo and Rinca tended to be the clearest, and visibility was well over 30 m. Heading south, however we hit viz typically around 10m, but the increase in marine life and the strange finds we made more than compensated though. Our first stop was Pink Beach off Komodo Island itself. A small wall starting near the surface sinks to about 17m before reaching sand, and it teems with marine life. This is one of, if not the best places I've experienced for macro. The fish life added to corals added invetebrates added to colour.....I could go on and on..! Just pack your macro setups! My number one find on my two dives here was a leaf scorpionfish lurking under an overhanging coral keeping a predatory eye on the mass of small glassfish surrounding the tiny crevasse. Totally confident with its disguise, it completely ignored me.

After visiting Komodo national Park and the legendary dragons (yes, they are seriously big), we cruised to the southern end of neighbouring Rinca Island and its huge cliffs. Of the many dives in this area, Cannibal Rock was outstanding. a large bommie in the middle of a channel, it was crawling with new things.

Perhaps my most exciting find was a beautyful and unusual nudibranch. Magnificently patterned, it had a large fleshy'horn' in front of the gills. The nudi was around seven centimetres. Very unusual. This whole area is full of special critters. If you are interested in making a find new to science this probably the place to be. The rock was also home to the largest angelfish I've seen-it was just a little smaller than a football, and jet black with small white spots. It was very difficult to photograph and even i have trouble spotting in my own photos. We knew there were angelrfish here, but I searched the spot for a fair while and didn't see it (to be fair I was looking for something a lot smaller). Our captain found it and pointed it our several times before I believed Him.

A highlight of travelling these islands in the wildlife you see from the boat. We often spent time between dives watching Komodo dragons patrol the beach, and if they weren't there often deer, wild pigs or monkeys would be. Sea eagles soared above, and large herons waded the waters edge.

There were many other dive sites during our eight day/seven night adventure which all deserved much more than the single dive possible sites like Crystal Bommie, Invertebrate Wall, Chrinoid wall, Pillarstein, and the three sisters kept us all completely absorbed. This is an underwater paradise with the extra bonus of land animals such as the unique Komodo dragon yuo should do this trip at least once in your diving lifetime. Like me, once you've been, you start wondering just how fast you can get back.