diving in sangalaki, indonesia, 16-23 July 05
travelled 12 hours from singapore to get to a pretty obscure place in indonesia in search of manta rays. expected a school of them dancing above me, which was common in this place. but nature was so unpredictable...
like when we set off on monday for a trip to another island, Kakaban, 1.5 hrs away from Nabucco where we stayed, it was sunny. next thing we knew, we had hit right into a storm with crashing waves. our little speedboat rocked so violently, i swear we all thought it may capsize, but nobody said a word of it, of course, lest it became a prophesy come true. the precariousness of the situation gave us all sudden newfound dexterity in suiting up in our wetsuits in a split second, while the boat was swaying. i had my eye on my mask and fins in case we had to jump ship. water had flooded into the boat and the engines were wet and refused to start. the boatman was fixing it and after a long consideration, our divemaster, putu, told us, sorry, we have to cancel the trip. our crazy boatman thought otherwise though and said we would be able to make it. the engine was fixed and soon, we were speeding through the 1.5m high waves again. after crossing the rough open seas, we entered into a calm sheltered bay at the island of kakaban. the light rain created a pattern of circles on the flat sea and the dead calm seemed surreal. we hit the cold waters and surveyed the deep walls covered with a myriad of corals. the colourful fishes went about their usual business, seemingly oblivious to the storm above.
kakaban was famous for its jellyfish lake. there were four species of stingless jellyfish, including an 'upside-down' one which could be found lying on its back in shallow parts of the lake. this exposed its symbiotic algae to sunlight, enabling it to make food. it was pretty cool swimming among those jellyfishes and molesting them, knowing that they wouldn't sting. the brackish water smelt a little stale and fishy though. kabs was a little freaked out cos she had been badly stung by jellyfish before but she finally jumped in and was immediately cured of all fears i think. putu picked a jellyfish up and threw it in our direction as a joke but it broke into two, with the legs detached from the head and we were shocked and there was awkward stunned silence for a second. it was pretty funny that the joke fell flat literally and we didn’t know whether to laugh or feel sorry for the jellyfish who lost his head. apparently, there is another smaller and not so famous jellyfish lake in maratua itself. but it is harder to trek in because there are no nice walkways.
after having lunch on the beach, we dived at barracuda point at the western tip of kakaban. currents were strong and we had to descend together immediately upon hitting the surface of the water. we emptied the air from our bc's and did a synchronised negative entry on the count of three. the sense of danger of getting swept away by the currents and losing the group if we did not descend quickly enough caused the adrenaline to flow. i like 'synchro diving' already! we drifted along at 30m depth and passed barracudas, jacks, and a whitetip shark along the way. it was around kakaban that kabs lost her mask and snorkel after surfacing...
the other day trips we made were to sangalaki. we had set off on tuesday in high spirits, anticipating a huge school of mantas. however, it was all quiet when we reached the dive site, Manta Run and we wondered where the mantas have gone to. at the surface, one manta with white belly and of about 2m wing span came near our boat to check us out. we were really excited and hit the waters immediately. during the dive, he had disappeared though and just as we were giving up hope, the beautiful creature swam by gracefully, flapping his wings slowly like a bird in slow-mo across a stretch of fine, white sand. on a separate day, we saw another larger manta with a black belly. i finned to keep up with it but it was way too fast. I only got to about 2m away from it.
we also spotted sleeping leopard sharks and one 3m nurse shark at sangalaki. cheng went very close to one of the leopard sharks (which had a remora attached to it) and it woke up and swam towards bonz, who froze and quivered behind her camera. it went to about half-metre away from her and then turned away.
the other high adrenaline dive was at the channel at maratua, called Big Fish Country. when the tide was coming in and the current was at its strongest, we could see eagle rays, dogtooth tunas, school of barracudas and jacks hunting. using reef hooks to hang on, we stopped to watch the action as the current rushed past us. at the end of the dive, the current swept us into the bay of maratua.
was quite disappointed with the dives generally because our high expectations were not met – e.g. school of mantas in v-formation, somersaulting, hammerheads, etc.
well, what made up for it was the very nice resort we stayed in (with stairs leading down to the water), the very good food complete with fierce dabu dabu (indonesian style cut chili with tomato and lime) and a cute divemaster.
verdict is that nabucco is worth going back for, with or without the mantas.
like when we set off on monday for a trip to another island, Kakaban, 1.5 hrs away from Nabucco where we stayed, it was sunny. next thing we knew, we had hit right into a storm with crashing waves. our little speedboat rocked so violently, i swear we all thought it may capsize, but nobody said a word of it, of course, lest it became a prophesy come true. the precariousness of the situation gave us all sudden newfound dexterity in suiting up in our wetsuits in a split second, while the boat was swaying. i had my eye on my mask and fins in case we had to jump ship. water had flooded into the boat and the engines were wet and refused to start. the boatman was fixing it and after a long consideration, our divemaster, putu, told us, sorry, we have to cancel the trip. our crazy boatman thought otherwise though and said we would be able to make it. the engine was fixed and soon, we were speeding through the 1.5m high waves again. after crossing the rough open seas, we entered into a calm sheltered bay at the island of kakaban. the light rain created a pattern of circles on the flat sea and the dead calm seemed surreal. we hit the cold waters and surveyed the deep walls covered with a myriad of corals. the colourful fishes went about their usual business, seemingly oblivious to the storm above.
kakaban was famous for its jellyfish lake. there were four species of stingless jellyfish, including an 'upside-down' one which could be found lying on its back in shallow parts of the lake. this exposed its symbiotic algae to sunlight, enabling it to make food. it was pretty cool swimming among those jellyfishes and molesting them, knowing that they wouldn't sting. the brackish water smelt a little stale and fishy though. kabs was a little freaked out cos she had been badly stung by jellyfish before but she finally jumped in and was immediately cured of all fears i think. putu picked a jellyfish up and threw it in our direction as a joke but it broke into two, with the legs detached from the head and we were shocked and there was awkward stunned silence for a second. it was pretty funny that the joke fell flat literally and we didn’t know whether to laugh or feel sorry for the jellyfish who lost his head. apparently, there is another smaller and not so famous jellyfish lake in maratua itself. but it is harder to trek in because there are no nice walkways.
after having lunch on the beach, we dived at barracuda point at the western tip of kakaban. currents were strong and we had to descend together immediately upon hitting the surface of the water. we emptied the air from our bc's and did a synchronised negative entry on the count of three. the sense of danger of getting swept away by the currents and losing the group if we did not descend quickly enough caused the adrenaline to flow. i like 'synchro diving' already! we drifted along at 30m depth and passed barracudas, jacks, and a whitetip shark along the way. it was around kakaban that kabs lost her mask and snorkel after surfacing...
the other day trips we made were to sangalaki. we had set off on tuesday in high spirits, anticipating a huge school of mantas. however, it was all quiet when we reached the dive site, Manta Run and we wondered where the mantas have gone to. at the surface, one manta with white belly and of about 2m wing span came near our boat to check us out. we were really excited and hit the waters immediately. during the dive, he had disappeared though and just as we were giving up hope, the beautiful creature swam by gracefully, flapping his wings slowly like a bird in slow-mo across a stretch of fine, white sand. on a separate day, we saw another larger manta with a black belly. i finned to keep up with it but it was way too fast. I only got to about 2m away from it.
we also spotted sleeping leopard sharks and one 3m nurse shark at sangalaki. cheng went very close to one of the leopard sharks (which had a remora attached to it) and it woke up and swam towards bonz, who froze and quivered behind her camera. it went to about half-metre away from her and then turned away.
the other high adrenaline dive was at the channel at maratua, called Big Fish Country. when the tide was coming in and the current was at its strongest, we could see eagle rays, dogtooth tunas, school of barracudas and jacks hunting. using reef hooks to hang on, we stopped to watch the action as the current rushed past us. at the end of the dive, the current swept us into the bay of maratua.
was quite disappointed with the dives generally because our high expectations were not met – e.g. school of mantas in v-formation, somersaulting, hammerheads, etc.
well, what made up for it was the very nice resort we stayed in (with stairs leading down to the water), the very good food complete with fierce dabu dabu (indonesian style cut chili with tomato and lime) and a cute divemaster.
verdict is that nabucco is worth going back for, with or without the mantas.
posted by nan at 4:16 PM
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