Trip Report - Komodo on Nataraja - October 2018

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Tripophobia

Registered
Messages
56
Reaction score
37
Location
Frankfurt
# of dives
200 - 499
Hi there,

I am new to the forum and this is my second report of trips that I have done over the past 3 years.

A couple of friends and us wanted to charter a boat for Chinese Golden Week in Komodo. As usual, Ksenia from diveandcruise was a great help and in the end we booked Nataraja with 5 people.

Nataraja is a luxury wooden sailing boat and has very comfi cabins with AC and ensuite bathroom. With me running all the planning and organization our friends kindly let my wife and me have the master cabin which is really huge.

We had 7 nights and asked to cover north, central and Banta island. As we were all coming from different locations we met a day in advance in Labuan Bajo to stroll around town and buy a sim-card etc.. Pick-up at the hotel and transfer to the boat went smooth. After a short boat and safety briefing we setup our dive gear and headed to the first dive site.

Diving in Komodo is super colorful, healthy corals lots of reef fish and mantas. We were diving with 2 guides (one cruise director and one dive master for the 5 of us) and entered the water by zodiac. At the beginning of the trip we started with one zodiac but moved to two as it was a bit messy. With the strong and tricky currents in Komodo, we got a en detail briefing before every dive and I felt taken care well under water. Nitrox was not available on the boat.

Although Komodo seemed quite busy these days, the crew managed to keep us away from other groups (especially the day boats) for most spots except for the more prominent ones like Makassar, Shotgun or Batu Bolong. Banta island was super nice - although we could not dive GPS point due to choppy sea (I felt the crew was a bit overcautious here), we had two amazing Manta dives. We were the only boat and felt off the beaten track.

We also did Pink Beach, Padar Island and the Dragons. When not diving in the evenings, crew packed some drinks and dropped us at a beach which was very nice. Food and service was great and the crew was always happy to assist in taking pictures or supporting my drone flying.

On the morning of the last day, three of us were picked up by a day boat as some friends of us were coincidentally diving in Komodo as well and we took the opportunity to spend a day together. Nataraja team was so kind to drop off our luggage at our hotel.

On this trip I really got hooked to these nice wooden sailing boats as you are a smaller group compared the typical steel hull yacht styles. At a similar price point, I would always go with the sailing boat.

In summary, I definitely recommend diving in Komodo and also with Nataraja (they offer cabin cruises on a regular basis): the diving is just awesome, the service is great and I felt very well taken care of.

Please see selected pictures and my video of the trip below. Please give me a thumbs up and kindly follow my channel (will upload additional videos from past trips for the trip reports)


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Very nice! Thank you so much for sharing.
 
Welcome and thanks for sharing your fantastic video! We’re going on July 2020, now I really can’t wait.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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