No long term trip to Indonesia is complete without visiting Komodo National Park. It encompasses over 1,700 square kilometers (over 650 square miles), includes 29 islands, and has some of the richest marine diversity on the planet. I spent a week on a liveaboard dive boat exploring this incredible natural playground.
Komodo Dragons
The stars of this part of the world are the infamous Komodo Dragons. They are the largest species of lizard, growing to a maximum length of 3 meters (9.8 ft), and weighing up to 70 kg (150 lb). While they are apex predators in their environment, actual attacks on humans are rare. In a 38 year period between 1974 and 2012 there were 24 attacks on humans and 5 were fatal. That being said, being around them is not a particularly comfortable experience. We spent a couple of hours on the island of Komodo seeing these beasts in person.
A very young dragon walking past us.
And then a big one came around the other side of us.
And then wandered off down the beach.
We even got a group picture in behind a sleeping dragon. The picture taker was the park ranger we were with, so it was much safer than it looked.
The view from Komodo Island out to the harbor where our boat was anchored.
Padar Island
One of the main tourist attractions in Komodo is catching the sunset from the top of Padar Island.
Off to the distance is our boat in the harbor.
Everyone getting positions for the sunset.
The Underwater Wonders
Komodo is known as being one of the most diverse places to dive in the world. From manta rays, to sharks, to incredibly healthy coral, to abundant sea life, to small crazy looking night creatures, we saw a wide range of underwate wonders in our six days of diving. It was an incredible experience.
Manta Rays
Manta Rays are some of the most beautiful and elegant creatures to see underwater.
This one had what appeared to be shark wounds on its left wing.
As we were watching a shark cruise through the coral, this manta came by for another pass over us.
We also saw eagle rays and blue spotted rays on our dives.
Sharks
What would tropical diving be without seeing a few sharks? Especially when they are putting on a show circling in front of an ampitheatre of divers.
Coral
Komodo has an incredibly healthy and diverse selection of hard coral. Since there are widespread episodes of coral bleaching around the world, I wanted to be sure to record some of this beautiful, robust Komodo coral.
Additional Sea Life
These two videos show some of the amazing quantity of colorful fish just swimming through these rich coral waters.
And finally, surfacing on one of our last afternoon dives.
Night Life
One of the coolest parts of Komodo diving is all the strange creatures that come out at night.
The Spanish Dancer is a large and colorful sea slug. It gets its name from its ability to swim when disturbed through contractions and undulations of its body. As you can see, it’s a pretty beautiful show.
It’s hard to see, but that clump in the middle is a stone fish. It was moving as I turned my light on it, and then it stopped. It’s wonderfully ugly as well as highly venomous.
It’s a bit hard to see the details of the incredibly pretty pink seahorse in the video, as we were also keeping an eye on a nearby adult lionfish, which can pack a nasty sting.
Nudibranchs are a group of soft-bodied marine molluscs that are noted for their often extraordinary colours and striking forms. Currently, about 3,000 valid species of nudibranchs are known. This one here is small, a bit hard to see fully, but is still incredibly colorful.
This crazy looking pufferfish looked like some kind of underwater blimp with fins.
Lady Denok and Final Night BBQ
Our dive boat was named Lady Denok and it was a hand-built ship in the style of a traditional Indonesian phinisi yacht. There were eleven divers and fourteen crew. It was surprisingly comfortable and spacious despite its somewhat narrow built. Our eleven divers included four Americans (one who was living in Singapore and another in Thailand), a Brit, a Hong Kong native who also had a Canadian passport, a Dutch, an Australian/New Zealand couple and two really cool two Chinese friends who have been diving together for a few years.
The surprisingly comfortable dining area.
The main sun deck.
The diving equipment area. The tanks and BCDs would be loaded on one of two smaller boats and we’d put those on just before we dived.
My nice, cozy cabin.
The last night they set up tables and beanbags on a beach on a small island and we had a fantastic barbeque of fish and chicken.
The eleven of us with the our three fantastic Indonesian dive guides.
Thoroughly enjoying the barbeque.
Our last sunset.
