Dragons & Molas

Mola-molas, or ocean sunfish, visit the reefs of Bali only for a few months every year. The rest of the time they have a pelagic existence in the open sea. We depart at the end of their season and should be able to glimpse the molas. They like deep dropoffs and upwellings and can be found anywhere from 40 to 130 feet. The come in to get cleaned by bannerfish and angelfish as well as assorted wrasses.

Komodo will be at its peak in the north with excellent visibility and the famous critters arriving in big numbers. Dive will be done in the region from Sangeang and Rinca.

The Komodo National Park has been a huge success and is one of the best model programs the country has to offer in terms of preservation and conservation. This is why we believe Komodo park diving is still at the top of the diving scale in Indonesia. The state of the hard corals in the north is outstanding, the fish numbers have increased and the critter life has been abundant. To top it off, regular encounter with pelagic creatures like mantas and even sharks is on the rise.

Rinca and Horseshoe Bay can be cooler than northern sites so we have free (FOC) new 5mm wetsuits for our guests.

Day 1

Embarkment in Laboanbajo, departure to Tatawa already in the Komodo national Park : Tatawa Kecil. It has different undersea topography than what we will have been experiencing and also the great chance of seeing mantas. Batu Balong is a small island in the middle of a current area that attracts plenty of sharks and provides excellent visibility. The drift in Tatawa Besar is a classic in Komodo. The site is covered with orange soft corals, schooling batfish and a beautiful shallow hard coral garden.

Day 2

Early in the morning for a walk to see the famous dragons. Very close to the station we find Pantai Merah, a nice, small and very fishy reef with plenty of life. Look for painted frogfish and lots of nudies. We then move the boat a few miles to Padar to dive W reef, a submerged reef made out of 3 mini sae mountains.
Great for nudies!!!

Day 3

Horseshoe Bay in Rinca, the home to the famous Cannibal Rock, Yellow Wall and Torpedo Alley.
Waters will be colder than before and the visibility a bit less, but there is such an abundance of all kind of life that divers are too busy looking at the reef to notice. All kind of critters can be spotted here including giant frogfish and rhinopias, whitetip reef sharks and turtles, resident unique nudies and a blue octopus.

Yellow Wall, as its name indicates, is covered with soft corals. The unique lady bug, the sea apple, the fire urchins with Coleman shrimps and zebra crabs are particularly easy to spot in this area. Torpedo alley is another of the legendary night dives in Indonesia, apart from the rays there are frogfish, sea pens, numerous crabs and Bobbitt worms

Day 4

Langkoi: Mantas, mantas and mantas and sometimes MolaMola as well. We will have many opportunities to cavort with mantas here.

Day 5

Gili Lawa Laut: This has the biggest concentration of life in Komodo. Schools of surgeonfish, barracudas, jacks, passing sharks, sweetlips, Napoleon fish and sea turtles are common. Lately we have had dolphins fishing right in front of us. Unbelievable dives!!! Worth the whole trip!!

Day 6

Gili Lawa Laut and the passages in Gilli Lawa Darat:This is another day of adrenaline and incredible fish life!!!

Day 7

Banta: We will be targeting one of the most beautiful reefs in Indonesia: GPS. Expect good, manageable currents that bring in pelagic action.

We can see grey reef sharks, barracudas, green and hawks-bill turtles and the rare oceanic trigger fish. On the northwest corner Stairway to Heaven is a very healthy wall full of varied action. Mantas may pass by. K2 and Star Wars are nice alternatives as less demanding dives. They have nice reef with low current and big cuttlefish, leaf fish, Pegasus sea moths and green turtles.

It's a Small World is one of the best night dives of the trip. There is potential to see everything from hunting lionfish to bobbit worms, stonefish, stargazers and bobtail squid.

Day 8

Sangeang: The Volcanic slopes give way to a black sand bottom. At Bubble Reef one can experience the sensation of warm gases percolating through the sand. The mixture of coral reef and black sand is fascinating and all divers like to search for leaf fish, blue and juvenile ribbon eels and big schools of snappers.The dive site Black magic has some nice black coral formation on the sand and there is a chance to see ornate ghost pipefish and tozeuma shrimps. Both night dives, either there or in Bontho are fantastic. One almost sure bet is seeing the outstanding boxer crab.

Day 9

Moyo and Satonda. Moyo has absolutely great macro dive including the wonderpuss octopus as its most notable inhabitant. Satonda has a nice reef that is quite colorful. There's also a white sand slope where we can find some bommies with plenty to see like stonefish, pipefish, inimicus and pygmy seahorses among them. The island also has a marine lake and a colony of thousands of flying foxes that appear at night for an eerie show.

Day 10 and 11

Nusa Lembongan and Nusa Penida. Mola search. The Molas will be found in can be found anywhere from 40 to 130 feet. The come in to get cleaned by bannerfish and angelfish as well as assorted wrasses. The low impact size of our dive groups enhances our chances of multiple mola encounters. Molas can reach sizes of 4 tons and be over 15 feet tall.

Day 12

Arrival at Benoa harbor in Bali.