Wisnu
Contributor
Typically in Indonesia, nice white sandy beach does not mix with good house reef - but Prince John Dive resort, the only dive resort in Tanjung Karang beach, Donggala, central sulawesi is an exception. The house reef strech over 500 m beautiful white sand beach has (mostly) healthy reef house of many interesting critters including tinny blue ring octopus we saw during our pleasant and long night dives. The house reef is also excelent for snorkeling, Please note, Tanjung Karang is public beach, 1 hour drive from Palu, the capital city of Central Sulawesi, can be very crowded with locals during weekend.
The resort certainly is far from Four Season, it has shown aging time, require some serous renovations and upgrade - but we enjoy our time there as we can manage our expectation. Seem lot of improvement with their new manager - Alex did his best to accomodate all our request despite the resort was quite full; we have our own private guide.
The house reef offer very good diving but not spectacular, no big fish. We visited south atol and posi kawe, still in Donggala bay, within one hour from the resort with their large wooden boat. At both sites, at least 3 white tips welcame us and patrol around us in a distance - but very shy, no way to approach them.
We also visited their new dive site, Marantale at Tomini bay, 3 hours by car. Simply amazing visibility - the best viz we experienced so far, very blue water and very healthy coral - however this place is not for bigfish lovers.
Practicaly, during our dives I have no chances to use camera underwater, my older daughter took over my EPL-1 with panny 7-14mm and her sister enjoyed her new XZ-1 plus dual macro lens. Not bad idea, I just enjoy my diving ang watching my kids; and sometime became a model for them.
For more detail trip, please check my daughter blog Donggala - Mayang Purwanto
Her younger sister still busy with her tennis camp after we return back to Jakarta, she has not updated her blog yet. Anyway, here are few of her shot with XZ-1.
The resort certainly is far from Four Season, it has shown aging time, require some serous renovations and upgrade - but we enjoy our time there as we can manage our expectation. Seem lot of improvement with their new manager - Alex did his best to accomodate all our request despite the resort was quite full; we have our own private guide.
The house reef offer very good diving but not spectacular, no big fish. We visited south atol and posi kawe, still in Donggala bay, within one hour from the resort with their large wooden boat. At both sites, at least 3 white tips welcame us and patrol around us in a distance - but very shy, no way to approach them.
We also visited their new dive site, Marantale at Tomini bay, 3 hours by car. Simply amazing visibility - the best viz we experienced so far, very blue water and very healthy coral - however this place is not for bigfish lovers.
Practicaly, during our dives I have no chances to use camera underwater, my older daughter took over my EPL-1 with panny 7-14mm and her sister enjoyed her new XZ-1 plus dual macro lens. Not bad idea, I just enjoy my diving ang watching my kids; and sometime became a model for them.
For more detail trip, please check my daughter blog Donggala - Mayang Purwanto
Her younger sister still busy with her tennis camp after we return back to Jakarta, she has not updated her blog yet. Anyway, here are few of her shot with XZ-1.
