This will be a 3 parts report from my latest divetrip 3 weeks mid august/early september 2018 in Bali and Nusa Tenggara islands.
First part Kalimaya Resort - East Sumbawa :
I first heard/read about Kalimaya on this board more or less a year ago. My summer holidays were already booked at the time, it was too late to revert though I kept the idea in the back of my head for this year.
Booking directly with them is really easy, the Kalimaya selling team provides lots of information and full replies in a minimum time, I was even scared that was too much organized looing at their too glossy flyers for a resort located in Indonesia... there's even an electronic agreement process at the time of sending back your information.
Fear not! The place is really remote after 1hr flight from Bali (I hate WIngsAir with the way they change gates just after you checked on the LCD screen, only advise for final call etc. I will take Nam Air next time) and 2hrs drive on a mountainous winding road.
The aircon bungalows all facing the sea are quite luxurious although a little smallish (photogs take a lot of room), but the outdoor bathrooms and the large terrace are compensating for that.
Guest and managers concregate around the swimmingpool before lunch/dinner time sitting on the giant sofas or on lounge chairs,there are wo communal tables where everybody eats altogether after the chef ceremoniously announces the menu (and funnlily enough everybody applauses for the entertainment). Food quality is good, mainly western/asian fusion kind with a choice af veggie/non veggie meals.
Diving is organized with 2 boat dives in the morning and additional shore dives with or without guiding in the afternoon or on demand. Tegan and Stu the managers get alternatively on board and guide the divers, Marco is the inhouse local guide, Arif is an indonesian veteran instructor and a swimming encyclopedia of all over Indonesia dive spots (some may have known him from Weh or from the Pindito LiveAboard), Coco and Pieter a couple of european instructors also guide the guests.
I was assigned Coco as my guide, an experienced swiss girl instructor from Komodo and the Gilis.
I was eager to check the diving with a lot of expectation, as there is the vicinity of Sangeang volcano with promising black sand dives, as well as the western part of Komodo NP and Banta island facing a few miles east of the resort.
So now it's time to start diving as the boat is getting ready :
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Diving around Gili Banta, I was lucky (in a way) to dive "High Voltage" at slack tide with absolutely no current, (though I would have been curious to see that dive site with even more fish and expanded cral polyps). The feel is that I was diving Alor, excellent viz, excellent coral life, walls and electric blue water, excellent dive.
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When the snake came to paradise :
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There's also a spot where mantas are almost guaranteed but I prefered to skip this one to return on Sangeang volcano which was my instant favorite as soon as I got into the water.
Sangeang volcano is another story.
After 45 speedboat ride you get close to the always fuming island and select either black sand or coral dives. There might be a liveaboard or two leaving the area but generally we'd expect to be the only divers around, that's the beauty of Eastern Sumbawa.
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Unluckily there was already a tender from Mermaid's liveaboard picking up their divers.
Even though it was 100m away I knew I could put a name on that tall silhouette standing cluelessly on his barge without his longview glass like the infamous Captain Bligh, abandoned by the Bounty though still not by Emily: this is how I recognized Billt4sf I met a week before in Bali, after he was ending his dive on Bubble reef and being picked up. I could almost hear him cursing the world on his boat “I hate this… and I hate that…”,. (IMO they should have left him drift to Timor like the original Bligh... but that's another point of view : mine.).
Back to interesting facts : the crown of the jewel in this area is Bubbles reef which immediately went in my top 5 favorite dives. It starts with a black sand area covered with glowingly colorful corals absolutely untouched then continues with a ridge covered with crinoids and anthias dancing around the green or orange hard corals, a valley leads to a forest of snowy white black corals (wonder why these white Christmas trees were named “black” corals) within which schools of sweetlips float around, on the shallower way to exit the black sand turns into yellow rusty colors from the sulphur, the water becomes warmer as the volcano bubbles spring steadily from the bottom.
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The beauty of the dive comes from the variety of life you can find and the diversity of photo ops : wide angle on the amazing corals, sweetlip schools, macro for the abundance of nudibranchs, sometimes yes, a blue ring octopus comes on a shallower reef and performs its psychedelic antics.
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Around Sangeang island there are a few black sand dive spots alive with macro critters. It”s also time for a 1h break and sometimes assist to a traditional sailingboat race.
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Black sand host nudibranchs mostly, but also froggies, ghost pipefish, etc. the configuration of the dives here as well as the critter life is very similar to Tulamben’s black sand dive sites.
I also had night dives on the black sand spots next to the resort, night dives are always excellent and fruitful in terms of critters.
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This one is special : Coco my swiss guide thought she was pointing me a pipehorse while I thought I was photographying a green latreutes shrimp. Only the full screen display unraveled the unconscious teamwork when looking back at the image.
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All in all I am really looking forward coming back to Kalimaya resort for a next dive trip, this stay was too short for an excellent destination providing amazing dives, which would really deserve at least a full diving week.
Next destination : Komodo
