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irian jaya to flores

The Irian Jaya to Flores cruise is a fourteen night voyage from Sorong, Irian Jaya via the Banda Sea to Maumere, Flores or the opposite direction.

Please note that these itineraries are subject to change depending on local weather and diving conditions and that all times are approximate.

day by day

Detailed itinerary for cruises from Irian Jaya to Flores, for cruises starting in Flores the same itinerary applies in reverse.

Day One: Arrival & Boarding

Kararu Dive Voyage’s dive master will pick you up and you will be escorted to the ship for immediate boarding. Cabin allocation and ship orientation will take place before departure at 3:00 PM. Take this opportunity to familiarise yourselves with the vessel, make yourself comfortable. Dinner will be served while sailing towards our first destination Wai Island.

Day Two: Kri Island

Welcome to Kri Island. The reefs in this area are protected by Max Ammer from the Papua Diving Resort. If you would like to add some diving days before the cruise you can just stay at his resort and join the boat right outside the Lagoon.

Kri is a great start for the cruise with the most fish and coral species accounted on a single divesite. Truly pristine reefs, you will want to dive these sites around this island again and again. A night dive will be offered.

Day Three: Wai Island

After a light breakfast, a dive will be offered in the calm shores of Wai Island. A full breakfast will be served and another dive will be offered at the American plane that fell in the 1940’s. The wreck is upside down and between 24-34m (90-115’) deep. The wreck is fairly intact with excellent coral covering it especially on the lower side of the tail section. The guns are also visible on this truly great dive. Lunch will be on board while the afternoon diving will take place in this spectacular area. If desired, you may take a short trip on shore to see the resident cassowary bird. Several different exciting critters will also be on offer today.

Days Four, Five & Six: Misool Island Group

Today a mesmerizing underwater scape which boasts walls and pinnacles where not an inch is left uncovered. Enormous sea fans rise to the surface, reef fish abound, and the reefs are adorned in every shade of soft coral. This area has also won fame for being a prolific habitat for pygmy seahorses and on most any dive the guides can find all three species.. The deepest part of the seafloor in this area is only about 200 feet down.

The Misool Island group sits at the entrance of the Seram Sea, two degrees south of the equator. This entire region is one enormous ancient limestone basin and even has limestone as the seafloor. Those who have travelled to Palau can picture these little tropical islands covered in pandana, other palms, with steep sided walls where wind and sea has worn the rock away.

The islands, or islets, are uncountable. The larger ones, like Misool itself, have canyons and lagoons speckled with white sand beaches ideal for tender boat rides. One can spend hours exploring and never see the same bay. It really is a place of great beauty both above and below the water. It’s rightly being considered by the Indonesian government for national park status and by the United Nations as a world heritage site. Below the water there are over 1100 species of fish and over 450 different species of corals making the area one of the most diverse marine habitats in the world.

Day Seven: Koon Island

Koon Island is located in the South of Seram Island and is the next stop after our departure from Misool. Koon has only one divesite named “too many fish”. What makes Koon so special is the location on a trench that goes down to over 3000 meters. All the big Sea life that passes from the north to the south ocean has to go trough these waters. Big schools of all kinds of Fish are seen here as well can be Orcas, whales and sharks. Depending on the moon phase the strong currents can make this dive a very challenging Dive.

Days Eight, Nine & Ten: Banda Neira

Banda, has an important place in Indonesian and world history. Dominated by a 2500-foot active volcano, for more than three hundred years these tiny islands were the centre of wealth for the Dutch colonies. They were the only source of the rare spices of nutmeg and mace for centuries and the Dutch, after capturing them from the Portuguese, guarded them jealously from all comers including the English. For centuries, a kilo of these spices held more value than the same weight in gold.

To get the full story guests will need to come aboard and experience the islands themselves. Suffice to say that the islands’ rich history is reflected in its architecture, population and the culture. The diving is also full of surprises. There are some exceedingly good reef dives on the east and north sides of the islands, but the real gem is under the pier and in front of a small hotel’s sea wall. Here not only marine life treasures such as pipe fish of all varieties, frog fish of many varieties and colour variations, and a plethora of juvenile fish seeking sanctuary in the calm waters, but also the least bashful and largest mandarin fish ever! These colourful gems are out of their hiding places all day and are in such shallow water that they can be seen from the pier.

The vessel takes advantage of the sleepy harbour by being alongside the pier. This is when Voyager’s heritage as an old roll-on roll-off car ferry is put to use by lowering her stern ramp to create a swim platform. This enables divers to come and go as they please all day long.

Banda Sea – north of Gunung Api is a remote archipelagic atoll named Lucipara. These atolls are also surrounded by a seafloor that is 13,000 feet below. Consisting of three large islands and a few tiny reefs that just break the surface the islands offer divers vertical walls and visibility of over 120 feet with very mild currents. They are also home to a population of the largest sponges that Kararu has ever seen in Indonesia. Some barrel sponges can swallow a diver in their orifice without difficulty.

Gunung Api - is a volcano that’s summit breaks the sea’s surface by 800 feet yet which has its base on the seabed some 13,000 feet below. The island created by the volcano is 120 miles from the next nearest landfall and is therefore home to the reef fish that populate it’s steep drop offs and walls, occasional visiting pelagics, and extraordinarily an uncountable population of Banded and Olive sea snakes. These marine reptiles have found a sanctuary here among the warm volcanic vents and reef fish that live in the area. It is truly a unique spot that never ceases to amaze divers. In some shots there are over thirty snakes in the frame and they make inquisitive yet docile subjects.

Day Eleven: Maisel

Excellent reef diving and critters will be today’s itinerary . It is truly a spectacular location and a full days diving will be on offer

Days Twelve & Thirteen: Alor

This area, the famed Alor Strait is another landmark on the Indonesian diving map. Sitting dramatically in the strait between the two large islands of Pantar to the west and Alor to the east are three small volcanoes that have long been extinct. The largest of these, the verdant island of Pura. This is another centre for traditional weaving and the islanders here are Melanesian in ethnicity with dark skin and tight curly hair.

Not only does Pura offer pristine reefs, each village protects the reef on its shores and practices a sustainable fishing system of traditional fish traps and spear fishing, but also the opportunity of seeing the spear fishermen carrying out their trade. The men and kids are a delight, diving down to 20 metres on occasion, to tend the traps or shoot a nearby reef fish. They also make willing underwater photo subjects.

There are also great opportunities to take split shots of the small outriggers with the spear fishermen hunting below. However, when dusk sets, everyone with a camera changes to a macro set-up and prepares for the mandarin fish dive in the shallows in front of the village

Day Fourteen: Kawula

This will be a fantastic day of muck diving for critters. Expect to see nudibranchs, ghost pipefish, and frog fish all in one dive. In the afternoon we will visit the whaling village.

Day Fifteen: Flores

Pulau Raja offers wonderful drop offs and spectacular reef dives. This is a very special site as it is rarely dived site due to it’s distance from the mainland, Maumere is where most of the dive trips are conducted.