Bora_Horza
Contributor
Hi all, this is a repost of a trip report that was lost when the servers crashed a few months ago. Not that much about Alor on Scubaboard, so here it is (again)..
…Thought I’d put together a trip report from my time in Alor, Indonesia over Easter 2007. Alor is a rugged, relatively undeveloped island in the east of Indonesia, and has some wonderful diving.
I arrived in Denpassar, Bali, then flew to Labuanbajo, Flores to dive in the Komodo National Park (my third time there). I’ve already posted a trip report about this part of my holiday at Scubaboard; you can read it here: http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=190078 if interested.
After 12 days in Labuanbajo I took a 4 hour minibus to Ruteng, and then flew to Kupang, West Timor.
I was only meant to be in transit through Kupang, but due to various circumstances (I missed my connection due to some misunderstandings) I ended up spending 2 days in this actually quite sleepy city.
Not masses of things to do in Kupang, but interesting in its own way. I spent a good few hours at Lavalon bar / restaurant, on the seafront reading books and drinking ice cold beers (a number of Aussie expats frequent this establishment in the afternoons and evenings, and Edwin, the owner knows how to keep his customers satisfied!) Edwin is also a good source of information if you’re there for a few days. I enjoyed buzzing round the city on ojeks (motorcycle taxis) for 5000 Rupiah a go (about 35 pence), and the bemos (minivan transportation) are also interesting, as they’re highly decorated with elaborate transfers across the windows, some of them totally X rated! Very funny to see!
And then I flew on to Alor for a bit of diving. Unfortunately I only had 4 days this time, as I had to meet a friend back in Bali, but I had a blast while there.
Arriving in Kalabahi I got a car up to the village of Alor Kecil (a 40 minute trip costing 50,000 Rupiah / £3) then the boat across to the little island of Pulau Kepa. I stayed at La P’tite Kepa, a great little resort, managed by a French couple Cedric and Ann (see Diving & Accommodation in the heart of Alor archipelago and Welcome to www.alor-diving.com , website dedicated to UW pictures of La P'tite Kepa Divers ! - Alor Diving for the dive shop part of their business). Good food and funky traditional Alorese style bungalows. They have a basic dive shop, with compressors, tanks and a selection of wetsuits, etc. It costs 100,000 Rupiah (about 7 quid) a night, and that includes 3 meals a day. Here are a few photos I took around the island:
View from then pier
La Petite Kepa resort from the boat
Clouds over Ternate island
Alor has beautiful diving, and great viz when I was there with spectacular corals and walls and lots of interesting critters – frogfish of many colours, crocodile snake eels, electric clams, pygmy seahorses, seasnakes, and the list goes on. Also some fierce currents!
Initially I was a little concerned as there didn’t seem to be as many big fish as I saw around Komodo, but on the last of the 7 dives I did there we saw 3 hammerhead sharks cruising by, so that was alright!
Some fascinating views from the boat as we sailed to the dive sites – pods of dolphins, and big feeding frenzies with 1m+ yellowfin tuna torpedoing out the water feeding on smaller fish, and all the crazy currents and whirlpools.
There’s an interesting phenomenon which occurs in the channel between Palau Kepa and the Alor mainland. When the tides are running strongly, especially at new or full moon, the water looks like a river in full flood. And you can get some VERY cold water upwelling into the channel, changing the temperature from around 28°C down to about 14°C! This can stun the fish in the channel, and all the locals go out in their boats with little nets and just scoop up all the comatose fish… Quite a carnival atmosphere!
We returned from a dive while this was happening, and there were also lots of dolphins taking full advantage of this feast. Then we saw the fin of a big mola mola (sunfish) out in the channel. Cool! We decided to try snorkeling with the dolphins as they were so close to shore. My mate Chris went in first, and straight away he turned to me and said ‘better put your wetsuit on!’ So I suited up, borrowed a snorkel and in I went. Cold! I swam out a bit further. Extremely cold! I could feel my bones beginning to ache. I persevered and did get a short time where I could watch the dolphins while snorkeling then it was back to shore to warm up in the sun!
I took this photo at midday of the channel – even though it was blazing sunshine you can see a low fog on the water, caused by the cold water condensing the moisture out of the hot humid air.
…Thought I’d put together a trip report from my time in Alor, Indonesia over Easter 2007. Alor is a rugged, relatively undeveloped island in the east of Indonesia, and has some wonderful diving.
I arrived in Denpassar, Bali, then flew to Labuanbajo, Flores to dive in the Komodo National Park (my third time there). I’ve already posted a trip report about this part of my holiday at Scubaboard; you can read it here: http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=190078 if interested.
After 12 days in Labuanbajo I took a 4 hour minibus to Ruteng, and then flew to Kupang, West Timor.
I was only meant to be in transit through Kupang, but due to various circumstances (I missed my connection due to some misunderstandings) I ended up spending 2 days in this actually quite sleepy city.
Not masses of things to do in Kupang, but interesting in its own way. I spent a good few hours at Lavalon bar / restaurant, on the seafront reading books and drinking ice cold beers (a number of Aussie expats frequent this establishment in the afternoons and evenings, and Edwin, the owner knows how to keep his customers satisfied!) Edwin is also a good source of information if you’re there for a few days. I enjoyed buzzing round the city on ojeks (motorcycle taxis) for 5000 Rupiah a go (about 35 pence), and the bemos (minivan transportation) are also interesting, as they’re highly decorated with elaborate transfers across the windows, some of them totally X rated! Very funny to see!
And then I flew on to Alor for a bit of diving. Unfortunately I only had 4 days this time, as I had to meet a friend back in Bali, but I had a blast while there.
Arriving in Kalabahi I got a car up to the village of Alor Kecil (a 40 minute trip costing 50,000 Rupiah / £3) then the boat across to the little island of Pulau Kepa. I stayed at La P’tite Kepa, a great little resort, managed by a French couple Cedric and Ann (see Diving & Accommodation in the heart of Alor archipelago and Welcome to www.alor-diving.com , website dedicated to UW pictures of La P'tite Kepa Divers ! - Alor Diving for the dive shop part of their business). Good food and funky traditional Alorese style bungalows. They have a basic dive shop, with compressors, tanks and a selection of wetsuits, etc. It costs 100,000 Rupiah (about 7 quid) a night, and that includes 3 meals a day. Here are a few photos I took around the island:
View from then pier
La Petite Kepa resort from the boat
Clouds over Ternate island
Alor has beautiful diving, and great viz when I was there with spectacular corals and walls and lots of interesting critters – frogfish of many colours, crocodile snake eels, electric clams, pygmy seahorses, seasnakes, and the list goes on. Also some fierce currents!
Initially I was a little concerned as there didn’t seem to be as many big fish as I saw around Komodo, but on the last of the 7 dives I did there we saw 3 hammerhead sharks cruising by, so that was alright!
Some fascinating views from the boat as we sailed to the dive sites – pods of dolphins, and big feeding frenzies with 1m+ yellowfin tuna torpedoing out the water feeding on smaller fish, and all the crazy currents and whirlpools.
There’s an interesting phenomenon which occurs in the channel between Palau Kepa and the Alor mainland. When the tides are running strongly, especially at new or full moon, the water looks like a river in full flood. And you can get some VERY cold water upwelling into the channel, changing the temperature from around 28°C down to about 14°C! This can stun the fish in the channel, and all the locals go out in their boats with little nets and just scoop up all the comatose fish… Quite a carnival atmosphere!
We returned from a dive while this was happening, and there were also lots of dolphins taking full advantage of this feast. Then we saw the fin of a big mola mola (sunfish) out in the channel. Cool! We decided to try snorkeling with the dolphins as they were so close to shore. My mate Chris went in first, and straight away he turned to me and said ‘better put your wetsuit on!’ So I suited up, borrowed a snorkel and in I went. Cold! I swam out a bit further. Extremely cold! I could feel my bones beginning to ache. I persevered and did get a short time where I could watch the dolphins while snorkeling then it was back to shore to warm up in the sun!
I took this photo at midday of the channel – even though it was blazing sunshine you can see a low fog on the water, caused by the cold water condensing the moisture out of the hot humid air.
