Being a lover of the water, getting scuba certified was something I always dreamed of doing. In 2011, I was fortunate enough to do my Open Water course in Utila, Honduras and swam with a whale shark. Yup, it was as amazing as it sounds and I thought my life was complete right then and there.
Now as a certified diver, I’m on the search to dive the best sites in the world. When I came to Thailand, I took my scuba certification further and became and Advanced Diver. I knew I wanted to do some diving in Indonesia and Great Barrier Reef, and being an advanced diver really gives you an advantage to see more underwater.
When planning for Indonesia, I knew I wanted to do some diving in Komodo, as I had heard it was some of the best diving in the world. Komodo Island is best known for being home to the komodo dragon, the largest lizard on Earth. The island became a National Park in 1980 and later was expanded to include the protection of the surrounding marine life and coral reefs. The park covers parts of western Flores, the islands of Komodo, Padar and Rinca, and 26 smaller islands. It’s pretty much every diver’s dream to dive in Komodo!
I kind of stumbled upon my liveaboard trip while I was on Gili T. I was diving with a shop called Gili Divers and had gone there one morning to pay for two fun dives I had done a few days before. As I was walking out of the shop I noticed a sign that said “Komodo Liveaboard” and decided to ask about it. Lucky for me, the next trip was leaving in two days! An eight day long journey, you sail from Gili T out to Komodo and back. A few other divers and I wanted to stop in Labuan Bajo, a town on the island of Flores, to do some exploring, so the trip was only five days for us.
On the day of our departure, we met at the dive shop to grab a beer and introduce ourselves to the other divers and dive masters. Our group was pretty small, which was great, and we were all super excited for the days ahead. In the late afternoon, we hopped on a small boat and rode out to the bigger island of Lombok where we boarded our “home” for the next five days.
The name of our wonderful vessel was “Epica” and it accommodates 16 people per trip. There were eight cabins in total with two beds in each, fresh water showers, bean bags on the upper deck to relax, and beer and sodas to purchase.The trip includes lodging, all meals (snacks are good to bring!), all scuba gear (BCD, mask, fins, wetsuit, etc), and national park fees.
The first night we sailed through the northern part of Lombok to the island of Moyo. Our boat was rockin’ and rollin’ and I ended up having to close the door to my cabin because I kept getting splashed with water! Our first morning we woke up at Moyo island and were briefed for our first dive of the day. Dive briefings usually consist of explaining the dive site, the route we may take, what we can expect to see, how deep we will descend, etc. They are really important to do so there are no surprises underwater.
We ended up doing three dives that day and saw some beautiful corals along with batfish, blue streak and yellow streak fusiliers, giant trevally, scorpion fish, trigger fish and much more! We ended our day with an awesome sunset in Satonda island and watched thousands of bats travel from the island across the water to the bigger island of Sumbawa to feed.
That night we also sailed until morning and woke up at 5:00AM to watch the sunrise over the Sangeang volcano. It was absolutely amazing and there was not another boat in site. Our first dive of the day was at the volcano at a site called Bubble Reef. The sand is black from the volcano, which made the color of the coral REALLY pop out. The dive site gets its name from the bubbles that come up through sand and when you bury your hands underneath, it’s really warm.
We then sailed to Komodo and began the start to more amazing dives. I’ve never seen any sharks while dives and finally on our second dive I saw my first ones! We spotted three white-tip reef sharks along with giant trevally, tuna, giant sweetlips, spaghetti garden eels, boxer shrimp, bumphead parrotfish, and so much more.
Because it was Halloween, we spent the evening dressing up like pirates and whatever other ideas we could think of with the clothes we had. That night, since we were anchored, I slept on the roof of the boat under the stars. With no light or light pollution in sight, the sky was completely filled.
The next day we started diving with currents. Currents are usually classified as being small, medium or strong and can really make a different on air consumption and route of your dive. We learned the importance of keeping our buoyancy level with our dive master and to most importantly, NOT PANIC. In small to medium currents, you are still able to swim against them, and most of the dives fell within those currents. In strong currents you can’t swim against them, which can be scary if you’re not careful!
Our first dive was at Crystal Rock and it was one of my favorite dives of the trip. The reef was stunning, with the corals being every color imaginable. We saw eight reef sharks and so many schools of fish!
Our third dive of the day was definitely the most challenging. We rode out to the dive site and our DM jumped in the water to check the current. We were definitely in for some medium current and potentially stronger. From the surface, you can actually see the current streams moving through the water and at times even whirlpools. We dove down and began our dive through calm waters spotting turtles, two reef sharks and a few schools of fish. About halfway through our dive, our DM swam up a rock surface and immediately grabbed hold of a rock (we were all wearing gloves for this reason) and gestured to us to swim up and find a place to hold on as well. I swam up, found a spot and immediately felt how strong the current was. No way you could swim against it. One other diver was below me and swam up to try and grab the spot the DM pointed out but accidentally bumped into me on the way and I lost my grip. I went flying backwards and ended up hitting my leg on a rock but was able to eventually turn around a find another piece to hold on to. Always an adventure!
(One of the many lionfish we saw on our dives! The loud *BANG* you hear at the end is the unfortunate result of dynamite fishing, which is an illegal practice as the explosions often destroy the reef and marine life below. I know I freaked out for a second after the blast went off because it was SO much louder in person.)
Another rule we learned about diving with current is that when one person lets go, everyone lets go. So as everyone saw me fly away, our DM signaled everyone to let go. Once we all had a good grip, we sat watching the reef for a few minutes to see if any big fish would swim by. Bigger fish like giant tuna and trevally along with sharks like to swim in stronger currents, so we were all on the lookout and managed to see some cool stuff.
Later that evening, we did a hike on the nearby island we were anchored at and watched the sunset. It was a steep way up, but the view was worth it!
The highlight of our fourth day diving was seeing all the manta rays. We sailed to our second dive sight and were just relaxing until our dive when someone spotted a manta ray at the surface. And then another. And then another. We all started freaking out, grabbed our masks and got in the water. We were just surface swimming with them, but we must have seen at least 30. It was beautiful watching them glide through the water so peacefully. After about 10 minutes we decided to go ahead and do our second dive to hopefully see more mantas. We probably saw another 25-30 on our dive and one came right over my head! Definitely a day I will never forget!
On our last day our first agenda item was to see the komodo dragons. We sailed to Rinca Island, one of the only islands the komodos live on, and had a 30-45 minute guided hike. We saw around 10 dragons and luckily got to see one by her nest. Afterwards, we ended our trip with one last dive and then sailed to Labuan Bajo.
Overall, the dive trip was amazing. The marine life was absolutely beautiful and it was refreshing to see coral reefs as they SHOULD look, unbleached and unbroken. Reefs are being destroyed all over the world due to factors like overfishing, unsafe fishing practices like dynamite fishing (which we witnessed on one of our dives), pollution, dredging, climate change, amongst other factors. Reefs provide homes to about 1/4 of all marine species and with the increased onset of bleached coral reefs, many of these species could be lost forever. Even just disposing of trash properly, conserving water and practicing responsible snorkeling and diving can help protect our reefs!
If you want to dive at some of the best sites in the world, dive in Komodo. You won’t regret it!