Bali - September 2003
by Jose Pickers

After the flight from London to Bali (I won’t bore you with how long the journey was) we arrived in the evening, to enjoy a wonderful Bali sunset and a good night’s sleep. The early morning sunrise woke us gently and we looked forward to planning the diving ahead. On the first day of our arrival, we chilled out around the pool enjoying the tropical sunshine and wondered what islands we were going to visit and what we were about to see. One particular visit we were excited about, was visiting Komodo National Park on Komodo Island to see the famous Komodo Dragons. An island known throughout the world, as the home to the world’s largest lizard - an agile predator that can grow up to 3 meters in length.

The following day we transferred to what was going to be our home for the next 12 days, the “Komodo Dancer”, a typical Indonesian ship, traditionally crafted, two-masted wooden sailing boat, 30 meters long and 9 meters wide, that could accommodate up to 16 divers in 8 staterooms, all with private shower and “head” (for those who aren’t sailing enthusiasts - toilet). Each room had a porthole to see the islands as we passed by, and was large enough, and comfortable enough to provide us with a good nights rest after a strenuous day of diving. The crew were superb who offered an excellent choice of meals, a hot towel and massage after almost every dive. The service was above and beyond you would ever expect, from morning breakfast served in your cabin, to taking your tank off after each dive and ensuring you had a full tank before every dive.

Before every dive, a briefing took place by the dive masters and local guides one of whom was called “Yan” who could spot anything in the water, from a white tip shark to the smallest seahorse, about 1 cm in size at any distance.
One of the most fascinating dives we all had took place at a location known as “Langkoi” which is south west of Komodo Island, which our guides called “Manta Alley”.

The first dive was an impressive one, as I back rolled into the warm tropical sea, gave my ok signal to the crew, I felt a giant manta ray pass within inches of my shoulder. There were only moments, as I watched with amazement this gentle giant of the deep, with a wing span approaching 4 to 5 meters. I gathered my thoughts and continued to descend to the reef. During the dive, I saw a half dozen or more giant mantas, all of them as impressive as the first, boy, what a great dive!

The next dive, was north of Gili Banta Island, called GPS Point. Upon descending, down a few meters from the surface, we saw a Hammerhead Shark, my first sighting and I would have to admit it was the finest looking fish I had seen to date, that of course is excluding the Sperm Whales I had seen previously a couple years earlier in the Solomon Islands.

Some of the other locations we dived were, “Batu Montjo Bay” - where we saw lion and scorpion fish, “Gili Lawa Laut” - alligator fish, black and white tip sharks, “Tatawa Kecil” - parrot fish, “Nusa Kode” - blue spotted stingrays, and “Komodo island” - where we saw the most beautiful coral formations.

This extended adventure came to an end, all too soon, and before we knew it, we were on our way back home our heads full of wonderful images I had seen.