Labuanbajo, Indonesia - Diving at Batu Balong...
This was the most incredible diving/snorkeling we've had so far! Ernest and Neman took us out to Batu Balong, one of the best dive sites in Komodo National Park. You dive behind a small rock in the middle of the water that shelters you from very intense currents that flow on either side of the rock. We were told to follow the divemaster closely and turn around when he did or risk being caught in the currents. They could swept you kilometers away in a matter of minutes. There are also powerful whirlpools created by the currents that can suck you deep underwater and keep you there.
The coral is beautiful and the fish life is very intense. On the miniature scale we saw very colorful nudibranchs ("sea slugs") and flat worms. They ranged from one to three inches in length. One of them was nicknamed the "techni" nudibranch because it had such an array of intense colors that it was in "technicolor".
On the large scale we saw fairy bassets, giant trevally, star puffers, Maori (or Napoleon) Wraisse, unicorn fish, sweet lips, hawksbill turtles and white tipped sharks.
(For scuba people - we did this as a multilevel dive, maximum depth of 72-feet, 58-minutes bottom time.)
The boat pickup was quite exciting as we needed to swim away from the rock island but carefully avoid the intense currents. After being picked up our boat motored through one of the whirlpools. It's not a place you want to be swimming or diving!
Our next request was to find manta rays. Amazingly, Ernest spotted them within about ten minutes. We saw about 5-6 of them in a group swimming right under the boat as we passed over. They were in the same area we had cruised for hours on another boat a few days before. We were so excited that one guy wanted to jump overboard immediately to swim with them. Ernest tried to calm us down, explaining that if we jumped in the middle of them, they would swim off immediately. We stopped a ways beyond where we had seen them, donned our snorkeling gear and jumped in. We swam like madmen towards the area where we had last seen them. Later we found out Ernest and the crew of the boat were laughing at us... all we had to do was let the current take us and we would get there just fine.
We spotted a large manta ray hovering around a coral head 35-40 feet down. I would estimate he had at least a 9-10 feet wing span -tip to tip. We could see him very clearly as the visibility was excellent. He was being "cleaned" by butterfly fish. It was bascially a car wash for mantas. We were able to watch him for over ten minutes. From time to time one of us would take a breath and try to dive down as close to him as we could, but he was deeper than our abilities. John may have gotten closest. He spooked him and the manta circled , but them came back to same coral head. They are incredibly graceful and appear to move virtually effortlessly.
I followed another manta that came by the same area. He was swimming leasurely with me directly overhead. He had his front mouth flaps curled up for streamlining. At one point I dropped back and he came up nearer the surface so that I was almost directly behind him. I watched small bubbles come off of his back. It was such a neat experience that I swam with him for over five minutes until he exhausted me.
Back in the boat we had a lunch of rice with a small piece of fried chicken, a cucumber, a piece of cabbage and hot sauce and tea or water to drink.
Our final dive was to a site called "the orange grove" because of the intensity and color of much of the coral in the area. This was a gorgeous area lots of fish and coral. We did a shallower dive that lasted for 70-minutes. Besides the fish mentioned before we saw a palette surgeon and cuttlefish. I was able to get within a few feet of a rather large cuttlefish (about 1-2 feet long) and observed him closely. The are truly strange and fascinating creatures. We also saw several hawksbill turtles.
This was the most incredible diving/snorkeling we've had so far! Ernest and Neman took us out to Batu Balong, one of the best dive sites in Komodo National Park. You dive behind a small rock in the middle of the water that shelters you from very intense currents that flow on either side of the rock. We were told to follow the divemaster closely and turn around when he did or risk being caught in the currents. They could swept you kilometers away in a matter of minutes. There are also powerful whirlpools created by the currents that can suck you deep underwater and keep you there.
The coral is beautiful and the fish life is very intense. On the miniature scale we saw very colorful nudibranchs ("sea slugs") and flat worms. They ranged from one to three inches in length. One of them was nicknamed the "techni" nudibranch because it had such an array of intense colors that it was in "technicolor".
On the large scale we saw fairy bassets, giant trevally, star puffers, Maori (or Napoleon) Wraisse, unicorn fish, sweet lips, hawksbill turtles and white tipped sharks.
(For scuba people - we did this as a multilevel dive, maximum depth of 72-feet, 58-minutes bottom time.)
The boat pickup was quite exciting as we needed to swim away from the rock island but carefully avoid the intense currents. After being picked up our boat motored through one of the whirlpools. It's not a place you want to be swimming or diving!
Our next request was to find manta rays. Amazingly, Ernest spotted them within about ten minutes. We saw about 5-6 of them in a group swimming right under the boat as we passed over. They were in the same area we had cruised for hours on another boat a few days before. We were so excited that one guy wanted to jump overboard immediately to swim with them. Ernest tried to calm us down, explaining that if we jumped in the middle of them, they would swim off immediately. We stopped a ways beyond where we had seen them, donned our snorkeling gear and jumped in. We swam like madmen towards the area where we had last seen them. Later we found out Ernest and the crew of the boat were laughing at us... all we had to do was let the current take us and we would get there just fine.
We spotted a large manta ray hovering around a coral head 35-40 feet down. I would estimate he had at least a 9-10 feet wing span -tip to tip. We could see him very clearly as the visibility was excellent. He was being "cleaned" by butterfly fish. It was bascially a car wash for mantas. We were able to watch him for over ten minutes. From time to time one of us would take a breath and try to dive down as close to him as we could, but he was deeper than our abilities. John may have gotten closest. He spooked him and the manta circled , but them came back to same coral head. They are incredibly graceful and appear to move virtually effortlessly.
I followed another manta that came by the same area. He was swimming leasurely with me directly overhead. He had his front mouth flaps curled up for streamlining. At one point I dropped back and he came up nearer the surface so that I was almost directly behind him. I watched small bubbles come off of his back. It was such a neat experience that I swam with him for over five minutes until he exhausted me.
Back in the boat we had a lunch of rice with a small piece of fried chicken, a cucumber, a piece of cabbage and hot sauce and tea or water to drink.
Our final dive was to a site called "the orange grove" because of the intensity and color of much of the coral in the area. This was a gorgeous area lots of fish and coral. We did a shallower dive that lasted for 70-minutes. Besides the fish mentioned before we saw a palette surgeon and cuttlefish. I was able to get within a few feet of a rather large cuttlefish (about 1-2 feet long) and observed him closely. The are truly strange and fascinating creatures. We also saw several hawksbill turtles.
posted by Chris at 10:00 PM
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