To me this was perfect: it was like a liveaboard but with sleeping on land. I had a diving holiday to remember at Scuba Junkie Komodo from Dec 31 to Jan 7. It was so good I extended my stay and I’m planning to return in Spring to see some more of the dive sites.
I flew to Indonesia with Garuda from London to Jakarta, and then on to Bali arriving at just after 01:00. My plan was to take the first flight of the day to Komodo. If you do this then just take note that the domestic terminal at Bali airport closes at night reopening around 05:30. There was no access to a lounge at that time and I arrived too late to justify a hotel to myself so I tramped it in the international airport and just drank coffee.
On arrival at the airport in Flores the next morning I was met by the taxi driver arranged by Scuba Junkie, who took me plus a Dive Master intern who'd just arrived to their office in town to drop off our bags. It's a 5 to 10 minute ride from the airport to town and cost 30,000 IDR. The town is Labuan Bajo which is a typical SE Asian town, the seasoned traveller will know what to expect and suffice to say 'it is what it is'. After some lunch at one of the Italian restaurants in town I met two fellow travellers going to Scuba Junkie at the office, and one of the staff took us to their boat berthed in the harbour a few minutes walk away. The bags were taken to the boat by pickup to save carrying them in the humid heat. We departed from LB off to the Scuba Junkie resort and this takes about an hour or so. The landscape is just amazing here and the sea looks fantastic. Once you get a few miles out from LB there is only the occasional village to see on land and very few other boats. On the upper deck of the boat it has some comfortable mats and bean bags for relaxing during the journey, you can chose to be in the sun or in the shade as preferred.
I arrived on New Years Eve for a seven day stay. On arrival we were all greeted at the jetty by members of the Scuba Junkie management team and staff. There was an introduction to the resort from Lydia, the Manager to make everyone feel at home and to explain how things operated, on boat departure timings for going diving and food, accommodation etc. After settling in for an hour I went out on one of the boats and watched about ten million fruit bats leave their roost on a mangrove island close by. The bats head out in their zillions to spend the night foraging somewhere in the forests of Komodo. Back in the resort Scuba Junkie’s team had organised some Indonesian dancing performed by the resort staff team and a celebration for four newly qualified dive professionals. I really liked it that there were Indonesian DMs, one young woman and one young man, who’d qualified and been supported by Scuba Junkie.
My accommodation was in one of the Bales. There was a screen for privacy, a comfy mattress, a fan and mosquito net. It suited me perfectly and is like a better version of camping (which I don’t ever do after being forced as a child to join the scouts by my parents). It was cool enough at night to sleep just fine (but ear plugs were a useful addition as the gekos were noisy). The water for showering in the morning was at an ‘ambient temperature’ but it was nicely refreshing.
The dive boats depart soon after 06:30, and there were two boats carrying around eight divers per boat. The boats go out to different sites. The diving was simply excellent. I don’t take photographs because others here on SB do this much better than I ever could and do it to such a stunning level. The underwater highlights for me were the corals including so many vividly coloured soft corals, the tropical reef fish in their thousands, white tip and black tip reef sharks, and so many reef mantas - I stopped counting on one dive after seeing over 20.
Dive safety with Scuba Junkie was excellent and my guide was simply amazing, Angela who’s from Jakarta was just incredible. I can't believe someone so young is that professional and she's a great asset to the company. I was expecting some strong current, but I found it was all manageable with no reef hook needed most of the time. The current was no stronger compared to other sites I have dived before in Egypt, the UK or in Bali at Crystal Bay in Nusa Penida and Gili Tepekong off Candidasa. Water temperatures were 27 or 28 degrees C all the time. We dived in groups of no more than four divers per guide.
I like the idea of a liveaboard, but at Scuba Junkie Komodo you get to sleep on land and can dive three times plus with the option of a night time if the current permits at their jetty. I even did some muck diving which isn’t my thing and I enjoyed it. Although I had to pretend to Angela our guide, that I could really see some of the tiny creatures she was pointing out to me (she has young eyes and mine are not as young anymore). She increased the size threshold of the tiny creatures being pointed out to me, this helped although next time I will carry some sort of magnifier if such a thing exists. The other instructors, guides and boat crew were also great company. This operation simply works and I’ll be back soon.
I met some great people on the trip, as you always do of course when travelling and diving. Angela the guide who I've mentioned, plus the rest of the management team and staff at Scuba Junkie were great. My fellow travellers were from far and wide (Hawaii, Germany, Sweden, China, Tennessee and so many more places). I left Komodo on 7 Jan and on the way back I went with some new friends to Rinca to see the dragons. I have read that some people don’t rate this experience very highly, but to see a Komodo Dragon coming out of the trees towards you, coming down the path; or having a dragon getting up from its nest and coming over to you was pretty scary stuff. It is well worth it, and like so many things to get the best from it means going out of your way and doing the walk in the heat finding the dragons (and always going with the Ranger!).
I left Komodo for a short visit to Bali before going home. I put in some contingency time to this trip to allow for any hold ups due to bad weather etc. I headed from the airport in Bali to Padang Bai to go diving the next day with Geko Dive. This is my third time diving with these folks. I went diving with Geko Dive on 8 Jan and got to take part in a coral planting dive organised with Living Seas. They are based in Singapore and their leader is Leon, he has been trialling various different approaches to coral planting for some time. The approach he uses now is to fix coral onto substantial wire frames – big wire crabs as they appeared to look using the type of wire used in road construction. I was entrusted by his team to do some of the attaching work, fixing pieces of coral to the frame and there was a small moray overseeing my efforts. It was a great experience doing it.
Geko should also be congratulated for their conservation work elsewhere in the area helping to create habitat and encouraging new coral growth. After the working dive I did a pleasure dive at Gili Biaha Island. Last time I dived here I saw mola mola, none were present this time but I did see a big black frog fish and a baby white tip reef shark so all in all it was a great dive. With time spare I did the PADI Enhanced Air Diver course at Geko. A big thanks to Cedric for doing this and for the extra knowledge he shared with me about diving technical matters more generally. On my final day I couldn’t dive due to my flight time the next morning so Geko arranged a tour for me. The driver I have met several times before and he’s a great guy, he took me on a tour including Sideman, some splendid rice terraces and a great waterfall in a cave, Tukad Cepung. It was a thoroughly enjoyable time indeed again at Geko. I stayed at the Beji Bay Hotel, it was alright really and far enough away from the noisy part of town near the street with the bars and the ferry. The mosquitoes got me even with the aircon blowing in the room so next time I’ll pack a mosquito net. Now I will start planning my next visit to Komodo for two weeks at the end of March and the start of April. I can’t wait!
