We did 24 dives on Alor, two to four a day, between October 27th and November 2nd. We spent our days aboard a boat, and our nights at a hotel in Kalabahi, the big town on Alor. This installment is about the diving and marine life.
While we found many reports prior to our trip touting Alor's excellent visibility, we found it to be similar to other areas of Indonesia ... some great, some soupy, and a lot of in between. The terrain is a mix of walls and slopes, with a sea mount or two.
As to the mix of swimming marine life, we saw a bazillion small reef fish, relatively few "eating fish" (10-14"), a couple dogtooth tunas, couple of Napoleons, one grouper, one turtle, and a handful of morays. A couple of sites featured schools of surgeonfish/unicornfish and fusiliers, but we were expecting to see more sweetlips, jacks, snappers, etc, and didn't. My guess, for what it's worth, is that the local population, who are excellent with both nets and traps, have reduced that mid-range, eating size fish, leading to the high numbers of little reef fish. This is not a marine park, and poor locals have to eat, so this is not unexpected, in my opinion.
No sharks, no rays save for a couple small blue spotted ones. We spotted two mola molas from the boat ... one a "smack" on the water and the other a fin tip. Always lots of dolphins present, but they're seen from the boat, not on dives. Several of our group spotted one whale departing the area as they surfaced from a dive.
We appreciate macro life, but don't dive just to see it. We spotted a few nudis, some ornate ghost pipefish, other odds and ends, but not a great number of macro critters.
As reported by others, the coral life is generally quite healthy, but not of the size and varied color we've seen in other areas of Indonesia. Lots of big sponges, barrel and otherwise, but few gorgonians. If pygmy seahorses exist there, they must reside on something else.
If you require a large helping of muck in your dive diet, it's my opinion that you should consider passing on Alor. Muck sites are uncommon, happening in the sound transiting to/from town, and are of questionable quality. Because of their location, they end up being dusk/night dives. We dived three muck sites a total of four times. Had you dived these sites in Lembeh, you'd be giving your dive guide a dirty look. We did, however, see one small, spindly octopus, which our guide had never seen in 23 years' diving there.
Currents are as reported, very Komodoesque. Lots of upwellings and some huge whirlpools during tidal changes, and slack periods on some sites can be very unpredictable. We were swept off of several sites near the end of the dive, knowing that would be the case. Water temps vary from 82-83F/28C to damn cold, maybe 68F/20C or so. For me, a full 5-mil plus hood wasn't enough on some dives. The cold upwellings literally cooled the breeze around the boat sometimes.
Kal's Dream is the supposed big draw there. It's a rocky sea mount with low coral growth, not stunning to look at, at least for me. The attraction is fish, and while we dived it twice, the assortment was about the same ... a mix of everything I mentioned above, but not in the sheer numbers you'd see on some sites in Komodo or Raja Ampat. I think you'd have to dive this site repeatedly, or hit it "just right," to get the full effect.
For me, Cathedral was the premier site. This is a stepped wall starting above the water, right from land, and dropping down to a beautiful swim-through. We hit it with the sun just perfect, warm water, and no current. Excellent growth on the wall and as fishy as any site we saw there.
Our next dive, following a motoring surface interval across the channel, was Clown Valley. This is a unique experience, an area much larger than you can cover on a single dive, covered solid with a profusion of anemones. I managed to not notice two nice fat air bubbles behind my WA wet lens for every shot I took there. Whoopee. I could have dived it twice, easily, but this was the coldest site of the trip, and no one was interested in splashing there again.
In general, I'd say it's like Komodo, except that it's different. Just a little different mix of stuff. I personally wouldn't say it's better than Komodo, but if working your way around Indo dive areas is what you do, it's a worthy trip. We both say we're glad we did it, but probably wouldn't repeat it ... though we would repeat Komodo, Raja Ampat, and Wakatobi for similar dive experiences. You be the judge.
Next installment ... the "not diving" part ... hotel, boat, dive op, etc.
While we found many reports prior to our trip touting Alor's excellent visibility, we found it to be similar to other areas of Indonesia ... some great, some soupy, and a lot of in between. The terrain is a mix of walls and slopes, with a sea mount or two.
As to the mix of swimming marine life, we saw a bazillion small reef fish, relatively few "eating fish" (10-14"), a couple dogtooth tunas, couple of Napoleons, one grouper, one turtle, and a handful of morays. A couple of sites featured schools of surgeonfish/unicornfish and fusiliers, but we were expecting to see more sweetlips, jacks, snappers, etc, and didn't. My guess, for what it's worth, is that the local population, who are excellent with both nets and traps, have reduced that mid-range, eating size fish, leading to the high numbers of little reef fish. This is not a marine park, and poor locals have to eat, so this is not unexpected, in my opinion.
No sharks, no rays save for a couple small blue spotted ones. We spotted two mola molas from the boat ... one a "smack" on the water and the other a fin tip. Always lots of dolphins present, but they're seen from the boat, not on dives. Several of our group spotted one whale departing the area as they surfaced from a dive.
We appreciate macro life, but don't dive just to see it. We spotted a few nudis, some ornate ghost pipefish, other odds and ends, but not a great number of macro critters.
As reported by others, the coral life is generally quite healthy, but not of the size and varied color we've seen in other areas of Indonesia. Lots of big sponges, barrel and otherwise, but few gorgonians. If pygmy seahorses exist there, they must reside on something else.
If you require a large helping of muck in your dive diet, it's my opinion that you should consider passing on Alor. Muck sites are uncommon, happening in the sound transiting to/from town, and are of questionable quality. Because of their location, they end up being dusk/night dives. We dived three muck sites a total of four times. Had you dived these sites in Lembeh, you'd be giving your dive guide a dirty look. We did, however, see one small, spindly octopus, which our guide had never seen in 23 years' diving there.
Currents are as reported, very Komodoesque. Lots of upwellings and some huge whirlpools during tidal changes, and slack periods on some sites can be very unpredictable. We were swept off of several sites near the end of the dive, knowing that would be the case. Water temps vary from 82-83F/28C to damn cold, maybe 68F/20C or so. For me, a full 5-mil plus hood wasn't enough on some dives. The cold upwellings literally cooled the breeze around the boat sometimes.
Kal's Dream is the supposed big draw there. It's a rocky sea mount with low coral growth, not stunning to look at, at least for me. The attraction is fish, and while we dived it twice, the assortment was about the same ... a mix of everything I mentioned above, but not in the sheer numbers you'd see on some sites in Komodo or Raja Ampat. I think you'd have to dive this site repeatedly, or hit it "just right," to get the full effect.
For me, Cathedral was the premier site. This is a stepped wall starting above the water, right from land, and dropping down to a beautiful swim-through. We hit it with the sun just perfect, warm water, and no current. Excellent growth on the wall and as fishy as any site we saw there.
Our next dive, following a motoring surface interval across the channel, was Clown Valley. This is a unique experience, an area much larger than you can cover on a single dive, covered solid with a profusion of anemones. I managed to not notice two nice fat air bubbles behind my WA wet lens for every shot I took there. Whoopee. I could have dived it twice, easily, but this was the coldest site of the trip, and no one was interested in splashing there again.
In general, I'd say it's like Komodo, except that it's different. Just a little different mix of stuff. I personally wouldn't say it's better than Komodo, but if working your way around Indo dive areas is what you do, it's a worthy trip. We both say we're glad we did it, but probably wouldn't repeat it ... though we would repeat Komodo, Raja Ampat, and Wakatobi for similar dive experiences. You be the judge.
Next installment ... the "not diving" part ... hotel, boat, dive op, etc.