Aug 23-28
Hi All,
We did arrive in Labuan Bajo around 11:30am on Tuesday Aug 23……21nm in about 3 hours……excellent trawler conditions again!! Maybe 10 Rally boats were here but all left within the next few days.
We thought we were going to have a day off to get settled and do the “town” thing but our friends who had been here a while were anxious to leave and wanted to get in a day of scuba diving so we changed our plans to go with them. Bella Vita hosted a Happy Hour that night and we were able to get a lot of intel on the town and Park……..albeit several of the “boys” had started partying earlier in town so it was at times a boisterous and then mellow HH:))))
The first day of diving was just ok…..actually rather disappointing after all the buildup on the supposedly “world class” diving in Komodo Park. I’m not sure what happened, maybe the schedule change, but we were put on a “check-out” boat with many new divers and went to some rather calm but quite frankly average dive sites…..some healthy coral and a good variety of fish, but a lot of coral rubble/damage and bleaching. It was just average and in fact, it did not hold our friends interest and they all left the next day. The first dive was the best., the 2nd dive we went to Manta point……spent 50 min looking for mantas in some current only to see about 5 the last few minutes of the dive close to the boat. In fact when we surfaced there were maybe 10 boats all around observing many mantas from the surface. The 3rd dive was a waste….maybe 10-20′ visibility and mainly coral rubble…..we had gone there as it is close to the Rinca dragon location and many people went to see the dragons……they often see seahorses on this dive but not for us:(((((
We gave the feedback to Uber Scuba and they were rather apologetic and said give them another chance and they were confident we would be impressed. So after a day off to do “our town” thing we did a second day of diving…….OMG……what a treat…..it was fantastic and restored our faith in all our research on diving in Komodo Park. This was again a 3 dive day….we did Batu Bolong, Siaba Besar and Mauan…..yes, we are pretty tired after that!!! The first dive was full of very healthy coral and sand……we spent quite a bit of time on the sand looking at the variety of sand critters…..then it was the reef with lot’s of cabbage coral and turtle central….maybe 10-15….just awesome!!!!! The 2nd dive was again on a beautiful reef, but OMG…..when we got there the divemasters were excited as not much current but that quickly changed in the water…..in fact one woman who was a very good diver could not handle the current and was being swept out in the deep blue water…..the divemaster quickly got her back to the reef but by then both Kathy and I were struggling too…..a feirce downdraft had caught us……I grabbed Kathy which helped calm her down and then we both just grabbed on to anything and slowly climbed our way out of the downdraft…..not that scary, although Kathy might say different, but very tiring……I used up half my tank in those 10-15 minutes. It took me another 5 minutes to calm down and by that time I was down to 1000 pounds after 35 min……however, I went into save my air mode (like no breathing:)))…..no, seriously you can’t do that in scuba but you try to put yourself in a zen like state and just become super relaxed!! I did the next 25 min in 15-30′ of water in very calm conditions and soooooo enjoyed the reef and fish!!!!
Well…..lot’s of conversation on the dive boat about current……the experienced divemasters gave it a 7 out of ten…..with 8 being you can’t fin out of it so just hold on….yikes!!!!
The 3rd dive was the best and maybe one of the best in the park. It was Batu Bolong and is supposedly world class….well it has our vote. It is a small rock island that has strong current on either side so you can only dive the down current side and mainly at slack tide. OMG….the joke is it has more fish than people in China and it might be true!! The corals were also magnificent, and we saw 3 or 4 giant moray eels halfway out of their holes! Impressive and very beautiful!
We indeed signed up for the 3rd day of diving and then took a day off in between. OMG, the 3rd day maybe the best diving day we have ever had…..it’s always hard to rank but this day ranks right up there with Rainbow Reef in Fiji, Tuamotus especially Fakarava, Roatan, Little Cayman. Bonaire…..wow, wow, wow!!!! We were supposed to go to the North part of the Park but the wind was too strong so we stayed in the Central area again. We did Police Corner, Batu Bolong (same as the day before but the other side), and Siaba Besar…….a repeat from the day before and one of our favorites, but again a different section!!!! We just can’t say enough about these dives!! All had amazing corals and unbelievable fish life! Even in the sandy sections, we found many hard to find creatures such as Robust Ghost Pipefish, Shortnose Pipefish, a Marbled Snake Eel, several Hairy Frogfish (Randall’s Frogfish?) and even a Flamboyant Cuttlefish. And large fish abounded on the reefs too, along with more turtles than we could count, some feeding on the sponges and others just lying on the reef. It felt a bit like being in a surreal photo in a book!! Bravo to Uber Scuba for their wonderful eyes and great guides!!
It was our good friends on sv Spruce, Andy and Sue, who used Uber Scuba last year and highly recommended and we strongly 2nd that recommendation. They worked hard the last few days to make our diving experience the best it could be…..they even gave us a choice of dive sites for our last dive…..just wonderful people and a good operation!!!
All this diving has put us further behind the Rally schedule and we are all by ourselves now. We are not sure if or when we will ever catchup although the Rally people are still making it rather cumbersome to get our Visa extended. In fact after numerous emails to the Rally, most unanswered, we have concluded that we cannot catch up in time to extend our Visas so will go to Plan B and have them done in Lombok at the marina. I can honestly say the marina people are so much better and easier to deal with than these Rally people…..ugh!!!! We are kind of bummed not finding a fellow buddy boat with compatible likes and schedules. The other alternative for us is to not do some of the things we want and join up with the Rally, which at least for the next 2-3 weeks we won’t do. So, for the time being, we are on our own…..may the force be with us:)))) But, to our surprise, we got a phone call late the other night….well, it was 8:30ish :)…..from Brett & Stacey……they were still in the Park and having a great time….it was good to hear their voices and know someone was close by!!!!
Labuan Bajo or LBJ: This is a unique town by Indonesia standards……it is heavily influenced by the Komodo Park and servicing the tourist trade and scuba diving. There are many English speaking restaurants, markets and hotels catering to the foreign tourists. There are probably 30+ dive operations with maybe 20-30 liveaboards. I not sure this amount of diving in the Park is sustainable……on the 1st day we saw lot’s of evidence of damage (although not all caused by humans) so I hope the Park puts some kind of control in place or eventually the reefs may be heavily damaged. They have something very, very special here, and it would be truly awful to lose it…..
We ate at several places…..Taco Bajo for dinner……a real Tex-Mex place run by a woman from Detroit, then Lu Cucina for a marvelous pizza/beer lunch and then La Mediterraneane, maybe the best food, for homemade pasta dishes with delicious sauces and a real salad with lettuce. The food probably didn’t deserve a CO rating but we were certainly acting like it, and it was such a delight to have some non-Indo food for a change We also found a western-style bakery and stocked up on multi-grain bread that might last us another month….oh what a treat……and of course there was that heavenly brownie:)))) And, wow, a food store that had yogurt and cream……Mystic is stocked up once again!
Banking: The joys of traveling in foreign countries. We went to use our First Republic ATM card and were promptly denied. Soon, we had a fraud alert. After numerous attempts online and a very expensive phone call back to the USA, we convinced them we are legit and traveling in Indonesia. Thanks for caring First Republic, but if we’re traveling in Indonesia, we’re most likely CALLING from Indonesia, too!! Sheesh!!
We are off today to go to Rinca Island to see the Komodo dragons. It is about 12 nm. We will get there anchor close by and go into the Ranger station to pay our various fees and to arrange a tour for tomorrow morning when the dragons are supposedly more active!! From there we will stay in the park at a few anchorages and then we will make an overnight to Lombok to prepare for my Mt Rinjani climb. Again, due to this crazy Rally schedule our friends are long gone so I will be doing this climb by myself……Kathy’s back is still too tender to risk this climb. I’m very ok with that although it would be nice to have others along….but, maybe we will find someone in the next few days!!
Hope all is well!!
John
Mystic Moon
GO MYSTIC GO!!
PS: Some pics on the website gallery: http://mysticmoonvoyages.com/photo-gallery/nggallery/main-album/Komodo
