Wingy
Contributor
Love Bangka long time - one of my favourite islands although I have to say I preferred a decade ago when there wasn't aircon and wifi - it had a wonderful Robinson Curoso feel to it. I use Murex on Bangka, Froggies on Lembeh and Bunaken.
Alor land based, Hoping Derawan hasn't changed too much, you're LOBs are sorted so if you do head to Derawan think about Sipidan with Scuba Ventures Oil Rigs. I haven't been to Lyang Lyang for a few years but hitting there with hammerheads was great. I spent a few days on Maumere about this time of year before doing Komodo on Pindito last year and loved chilling at Coconut Grove (From memory) last year.
Other options in Indo - Ternate, Halmahera, Morotai, after or before your Banda Sea LOB Banda Neira is worth checking out.
PNG always worth it. One of my absolute favourite places - the violence is mostly tribal and the only real difference with the recent Massacre is it made the news. Tribal violence is a way of life in PNG - It's a hard but wonderfully dark mysterious country. Dive ops like Tuwali in Alotoa, Wallindi Plantation & Febrina LOB, Kimbe and Madang etc will all do most of the organising to minimise your time in Moresby where the violence is Raskol Gangs who will target tourists. The biggest difference for me and why I prefer PNG over Indo is...1/100th of amount of divers - very rare to bump into other divers. One of my also female solo buddies left us after Komodo and went to Wallindi but had concerns about safety in Moresby so hired a PSA for the two days she spent there after her LOB.
If you're looking for big stuff - you mentioned GBR - personally IMO it's the wrong reef on the wrong side of the country - Ningaloo trumps it and has done since the 1970s. We have Whale Sharks, Mantas, Humpbacks (snorkel only no scuba) and lots of potato grouper and assorted sharks - a great white sick of the cold water down here was spotted enjoying a tropical holiday there this week.
An interesting place to dive on the NW of Aus just further up a few hundred km is Montebello Islands - about one of the only places you can dive an atomic bomb testing site and only reachable by LOB for a short window of the year is Rowley Shoals - awesome drift dives.
From Bali you can often pick up $99 flights to Perth where we have leafy and weedy sea dragons on the city doorstep and the rare Ruby Seadragon way down south at Bremer Bay which has been identified as a hotspot for an annual aggregation of really big stuff. Pods of Orcas taking out a blue whale is quite something to see.
Christmas Island technically belongs to Australia but there is only one ludicrously expensive flight from Perth per week however it's a short and cheaper flight once a week from Jakarta. CI and Timor are just starting to come onto the dive scene radar so may be a case of "get there before the crowds turn up". Not sure of your timing but the land crab aggregation got David Attenborough excited so it's on my list topside on Christmas Island. Also nearby CI is Cocos Keeling islands which have a little more "resort" options and I have heard good reports on the diving. If you do fly from Perth to CI the plane does a stop at Cocos Keelings anyway.
Few more places to consider
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Alor land based, Hoping Derawan hasn't changed too much, you're LOBs are sorted so if you do head to Derawan think about Sipidan with Scuba Ventures Oil Rigs. I haven't been to Lyang Lyang for a few years but hitting there with hammerheads was great. I spent a few days on Maumere about this time of year before doing Komodo on Pindito last year and loved chilling at Coconut Grove (From memory) last year.
Other options in Indo - Ternate, Halmahera, Morotai, after or before your Banda Sea LOB Banda Neira is worth checking out.
PNG always worth it. One of my absolute favourite places - the violence is mostly tribal and the only real difference with the recent Massacre is it made the news. Tribal violence is a way of life in PNG - It's a hard but wonderfully dark mysterious country. Dive ops like Tuwali in Alotoa, Wallindi Plantation & Febrina LOB, Kimbe and Madang etc will all do most of the organising to minimise your time in Moresby where the violence is Raskol Gangs who will target tourists. The biggest difference for me and why I prefer PNG over Indo is...1/100th of amount of divers - very rare to bump into other divers. One of my also female solo buddies left us after Komodo and went to Wallindi but had concerns about safety in Moresby so hired a PSA for the two days she spent there after her LOB.
If you're looking for big stuff - you mentioned GBR - personally IMO it's the wrong reef on the wrong side of the country - Ningaloo trumps it and has done since the 1970s. We have Whale Sharks, Mantas, Humpbacks (snorkel only no scuba) and lots of potato grouper and assorted sharks - a great white sick of the cold water down here was spotted enjoying a tropical holiday there this week.
An interesting place to dive on the NW of Aus just further up a few hundred km is Montebello Islands - about one of the only places you can dive an atomic bomb testing site and only reachable by LOB for a short window of the year is Rowley Shoals - awesome drift dives.
From Bali you can often pick up $99 flights to Perth where we have leafy and weedy sea dragons on the city doorstep and the rare Ruby Seadragon way down south at Bremer Bay which has been identified as a hotspot for an annual aggregation of really big stuff. Pods of Orcas taking out a blue whale is quite something to see.
Christmas Island technically belongs to Australia but there is only one ludicrously expensive flight from Perth per week however it's a short and cheaper flight once a week from Jakarta. CI and Timor are just starting to come onto the dive scene radar so may be a case of "get there before the crowds turn up". Not sure of your timing but the land crab aggregation got David Attenborough excited so it's on my list topside on Christmas Island. Also nearby CI is Cocos Keeling islands which have a little more "resort" options and I have heard good reports on the diving. If you do fly from Perth to CI the plane does a stop at Cocos Keelings anyway.
Few more places to consider
.
