Alor trip report

[charlier]

We just arrived home after a five day vacation diving in the Pantar Straits, located between Alor and Pantar Islands. After an early evening flight to Denpasar and a 7am flight to Kupang (west Timor) and a connected flight to Alor, we we met by our driver. A 45 min drive along Kalabhi Bay and a 40 min boat trip across the Pantair Straits to our lovely home for a week. Alor provides healthy corals, schooling fish, lack of overfishing, and perhaps pelagics, Our team consisted of my wife and I, one very experienced diver/photographer from France, and our guide. We never say anyone else in the water or even nearby. We enjoyed the sloping reefs, underwater pinnacles, and some macro. On the calm dives, we saw, mandarin fish, jaw fish with eggs in its mouth, mushroom coral pipefish, broad-banded pipefish, beautiful immature baramundi, a coral cat shark, pigmy seahorses, banded cleaner shrimp, and Current fish dives, large (I mean huge) dogtooth tuna (four to five in small groups), giant trevally, large schools of fusiliers, unicorn fish, and surgeon fish, bumphead, wrasses, schools of sergeant majors, batfish, barracudas and marbled rays etc... In general the visibility was superb, over 30 meters easily. The current ranged from gentle to very strong, even by Komodo standards. Currents can be wicked and Pantar Island is not for inexperienced divers. Based on my experience, if I was visiting Indonesia or traveling from Bali, I would head to Komodo or Raja Ampat for a live aboard. if I wanted solitude and wonderful pristine soft and hard coral accessed from a land-based resort, I would consider Alor.

 

[Snoobles]

Dove Alor via liveaboard last year (Arenui) and agree that it was fantastic diving. We even saw 11 rhinopious! Via liveaboard there was a mix of high current dives and no current dives and reef/muck dives. Also via liveaboard we did get to see the volcano Koomba erupting!

Thanks for the trip report charlier! Agree Alor is worth a trip!!


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[billt4sf]

In general the visibility was superb, over 30 meters easily. The current ranged from gentle to very strong, even by Komodo standards. Currents can be wicked and Pantar Island is not for inexperienced divers. Based on my experience, if I was visiting Indonesia or traveling from Bali, I would head to Komodo or Raja Ampat for a live aboard. if I wanted solitude and wonderful pristine soft and hard coral accessed from a land-based resort, I would consider Alor. [/COLOR]

Say, thanks for the review! We are definitely considering Alor, since LOBs are so expensive. But your comments on current concern me. We are not "inexperienced divers" but we want to avoid strong currents. Is the only diving on Alor in the Pantair Straits, and thus subject to strong currents?Thanks,Bill & Emily

 

[Luko]

Say, thanks for the review! We are definitely considering Alor, since LOBs are so expensive. But your comments on current concern me. We are not "inexperienced divers" but we want to avoid strong currents. Is the only diving on Alor in the Pantair Straits, and thus subject to strong currents?Thanks,Bill & Emily

Was back for my third time at Alor divers, one month ago and enjoying it very much. I would say diving Alor is basically getting the best out of the currents if you want to see mass of fish, but there are two different types of diving noneless: - Pantar strait is mostly drift diving, most of the spots, except the ones that are in the middle of the strait can vary currentwise depending on the tide, bama wall can either be a relaxed dive or a high voltage sot, even Anemone city can be very currently on lowering tide. This is why it is critical to dive with an operation that has a throrough knowledge of the sites, not just passing twice or three times a year.- On the other hand Kalabahi bay is going deep into Alor island, hence it provides muck diving with only slight currents.

 

[billt4sf]

Was back for my third time at Alor divers, one month ago and enjoying it very much. I would say diving Alor is basically getting the best out of the currents if you want to see mass of fish, but there are two different types of diving noneless: - Pantar strait is mostly drift diving, most of the spots, except the ones that are in the middle of the strait can vary currentwise depending on the tide, bama wall can either be a relaxed dive or a high voltage sot, even Anemone city can be very currently on lowering tide. This is why it is critical to dive with an operation that has a throrough knowledge of the sites, not just passing twice or three times a year.- On the other hand Kalabahi bay is going deep into Alor island, hence it provides muck diving with only slight currents.

You mean these guys?

Dive Alor Indonesia, Dive Indonesia, Scuba Diving in Indonesia

- Bill

 

[AlMitch]

Charlier, which resort or who exactly did you stay with?
And what did you think about the accoms?

 

[charlier]

Say, thanks for the review! We are definitely considering Alor, since LOBs are so expensive. But your comments on current concern me. We are not "inexperienced divers" but we want to avoid strong currents. Is the only diving on Alor in the Pantair Straits, and thus subject to strong currents?Thanks,Bill & Emily

Hi Bill and Emily

I am with Luko on this post. Alor is getting the best of currents to see schools of fish. Many Pantar Strait diving is nice drift diving, but some vary from relaxed to high voltage. If you discuss these conditions with your team and DM, you can avoid the high voltage sites, or even abandon a dive if its too unfriendly. Make sure you dive with a DM that has a complete knowledge of the sites, from falling to rising tides with respect to the lunar cycle. I plan my trips to Alor based on a full or new moon, but for me its a relatively easy place to access. That said, there are very nice little current or no current sites in the straits, without going into Kalabahi Bay. Sites such as Red Sand Beach, Mandarin Slope, or Solembali Wall. Even these sites can be tricky at wrong time of day. Many people dive in the Pantar Straits that are not comfortable in strong currents, but gentle to moderate current dives bring out the fish. Best, Charlie

---------- Post added September 22nd, 2015 at 08:59 PM ----------

Charlier, which resort or who exactly did you stay with?
And what did you think about the accoms?

Hi AlMitch and Billt4sf
My wife and I always stay at Alor Divers (Eco Dive resort) on Pantar Island. We really enjoy the isolated location and romantic setting. Its a long trip, since it involves a drive from the Alor airport to the Pantar Straits and a boat ride across the straits to the resort. The resort is run by a French/Sovenian couple that spend the non-summer months in Bali. For the past two years, the resort manager(s) are a couple from the UK/Spain. They are wonderful and try to accommodate all the customers. The maximum is 4 divers/DM and they try to make sure the groups are compatible. In general, most of the divers that go to the resort are experienced divers, so you are with like-minded people.

We stayed in a small, beautiful wooden cabin w/o air con with a large been covered bed with netting. Each cabin has large windows with natural light, and a bathroom with on-demand hot water showers, toilet, and sink. The cabins have artful furniture made in Bali. We never found that we need AC - the cabins have a fan. The food is very nice. The cooks are well-trained and the Indonesian food has a special Euro feeling. I travel a lot in Indonesia, and Alor resort food is perhaps some of the best I have experienced, given its remote location. Although we mostly dive from liveaboards or resort dive in Bali, Alor is one of the few land-based resorts that we visit every year. I just realized that I did not acknowledge our photographer from our original post - our guide Ben Hawkes.
Best, Charlie

 

[Luko]

Charlier, which resort or who exactly did you stay with?
And what did you think about the accoms?

I would say the same thing about Alor Divers, it's one of my favorite places in Indonesia, it's been 3 years in a row I am now coming back.
I always have much fun buddying with Gilles, the french owner who's also a very good photographer.
Neya and Gilles made a really good job with their resort, I have only seen very few places as good for socializing around the addictive peanut jars and a bar (or a bottle of Champagne that I bring whenever I win the photo contest ) showing photos, making friends or discussing about anything ...(like how the Internet will save the world - private joke to Bea, the spanish guide- ).

...and by the way, Charlier, what is your success record on Current Alley (you should know what I mean)? I got 3 times out of 5 in 2 years, max 7 at a time.

---------- Post added September 22nd, 2015 at 06:10 PM ----------

Hey has anyone who dived Alor been to Banga Beang bay (sp.?), SouthEast Pantar?
What were your impressions compared to other Indo sites? Where exactly did you dive and what critters?

 

[Bora_Horza]

Hey has anyone who dived Alor been to Banga Beang bay (sp.?), SouthEast Pantar? What were your impressions compared to other Indo sites? Where exactly did you dive and what critters?

I've dived twice at Beang bay, on mini liveaboard 2 night trips with La Petite Kepa. Beang is a remote large bay with a little village onshore. Underwater the whole area is mostly a flat slope, sand and gravel, going down, down, down, really deep. One or two dives had some quite strong currents, but normally it was fine. On my last trip we saw a whale shark from the boat one evening waiting to start a night dive. Lots of interesting critters to see - I loved all my dives there! Great muck dive area - I saw lots of little juveniles (frogfish, ambon scorpionfish, loinfish), cephalopods (coconut, wunderpus, long-arm, white v octopus, bobtail squid, etc), different snake eels, opisthobranchs, lots of interesting crustaceans, bobbit worms, and the sea-pens often had something interesting sheltering in them. There are also some beautiful dive areas outside the bay - soft corals of every colour, schools of barraccuda, etc. Some can be fast drift dives! A selection of photos taken at Beang here: https://flic.kr/s/aHskkgn9Rg

---------- Post added September 22nd, 2015 at 07:34 PM ----------

By the way - found this video of snorkelling at Alor!
[video]https://youtu.be/fYVW-cLBgag[/video]

 

[Struth Ruth]

Thanks for the report, I am going to Alor next month, really looking forward to it now