Misool Eco Resort

Raja Ampat is not the easiest of places to visit. Located at the northwest tip of New Guinea, Raja Ampat is an archipelago with 1500 small islands. If, normally you’re traveling along the tourist routes, you are in for an experience of a lifetime.

The islands are easiest visited with a liveaboard, and we have many vessels in our program. The  other option is to stay at one of these remote but beautiful resorts spread across the islands.

Rich Marine Life

Photo: Ethan Daniels,. Rich marine life in Raja Ampat

When you are diving in this tropical water, it feels like you are diving in the paradise of Eden. You’ll be able to see small uninhabited white sand beaches and dive down to reefs more diverse and beautiful than many other underwater destinations in the world. It has more than 450 different types of corals. In 2001, tropical fish count reached almost a thousand, which significantly proves that this is truly a world-class diving destination.

The Indonesian waters are known for strong currents, and diving in Raja Ampat is no different. If you are a beginner diver, you need to be comfortable with drift diving. The current gives ground for great schools of fish, and mantas are often passed by. You also get the chance to spots sharks and at the surface, dolphins and whales are spotted frequently.

If you’re into small stuff, the coral life at the reef is perfect for exploration. Nudies, seahorses, pygmy seahorses, lobsters and crabs are found in the waters here. Raja Ampat has plenty to offer for all types of divers!

Great Dive Spots

Cape Kri is one of Raja Ampat’s dive sites that manifest this beauty. You will be diving while fully surrounded by schools of dogtooth tuna, jacks, giant trevally and chevron barracuda. As the currents pick up, you’ll see yourself drifting by a vast bed of soft and hard corals. I have Cape Kri on my top 10 dive sites in the world –see the whole list here.

Manta, Kri Eco Resort

Just near Cape Kri is Mike’s Point. Mistaken as a Japanese warship, this rocky protrusion was bombed during World War II. Today, this is a popular wall dive site where you can plunge into vertical walls covered by the beauty of corals and surrounded by life. Mike’s is located in Dampier Strait which means you’ll get a good chance of experiencing one of the best drift dives in your life.

Have you dived in Raja Ampat? Apart from the spots I’ve mentioned above, which ones would you recommend?

About

Torben Lonne is a top skilled PADI MSDT instructor. He has worked several years with scuba diving in Indonesia and Thailand – and dived most of his life. He is also the co-founder and chief-editor of DIVEIN.org.

Just a short 30 minute drive from Dumaguete airport (a 1 hour flight from Manila), on the island of Negros Oriental, lies the beautiful Atlantis Dumaguete Dive Resort. The resort is surrounded by lush tropical gardens and is just a short boat ride away from some of the most renowned dive sites in Asia – famous Apo Island, Siquijor Island and of course the local Dauin Marine Sanctuaries.

Atlantis Resort Dumaguete features forty guest rooms and suites, all designed with the guests maximum comfort, privacy and relaxation in mind. Besides scuba diving, guests can enjoy a number of services and experiences to make their holiday complete: spa treatments, swimming pool, beach with sun lounges, restaurant and bar, boutique for souvenirs, dedicated camera room for underwater photographers and plenty of land based tour options.

What makes this place so special is the staff. I had only been in the resort for minutes when I was already greeted by staff members calling out my name. The high level of customer service and friendliness of the staff continued throughout our stay and is definitely second to none.

Toko’s Restaurant offers relaxed dining with superb menu choices. Each lunch and dinner, you can enjoy a stunning 3 course menu freshly prepared by dedicated local and international chefs.

We started our diving activities with a couple of sloping reefs, only a few minutes by boat from the resort. Two blue-ringed octopus, flamboyant cuttlefish, cleaning mantis shrimp, lionfish, frogfish and wasp fish, all seen on our first dive, were only a small number of the extraordinary critter and marine life we were to experience over the coming days.

The dive schedule of the resort and also at its sister property, Atlantis Puerto Galera

, offers up to 5 dives per day. Two morning dives are available, followed by either two afternoons and a night dive or one afternoon and a mandarin fish dusk dive. This many dives per day are usually only offered on liveaboards, but rarely at land-based dive resorts. Therefore, this makes the Atlantis Resorts a great option for the hardcore diver as well as diver/non-diver couples.

One of my diving highlights was Apo Island, only a 45 minute boat ride from the resort. It is a small island surrounded by stunning reef walls, drop offs and beautiful coral gardens. We spent two days diving here at different dive sites and only experienced a little bit of current on two dives. Although I very much enjoy wall diving, my favourite time was spent just cruising around 10m and above, spotting critters amongst the coral. Devil scorpion fish, stone fish, sweet lips, frog fish, gobies, trigger fish, parrot fish, surgeon fish, lion fish and plenty of different nudibranchs were all to be found on our dives. I am also pleased to report that the local sea turtle population in the Philippines is very healthy.

After completing our diving activities at Atlantis Dumaguete, we joined the resort’s own fabulous liveaboard, Atlantis Azores, for another three fantastic days of diving. We sampled part of the Bohol itinerary of Atlantis Azores, including the whale sharks at Oslob, at the southern tip of Cebu Island, followed by Sumilon, Cabilao and Balicasag Islands.

Watch a Video

Taking part in Azores’ Bohol itinerary means diving around tranquil islands surrounded by crystal clear waters and pristine white sandy beaches. Dive sites include superb hard and soft corals, stunning reef walls, drop offs, critters such as pygmy and thorny seahorses, frog fish, ghost pipe fish, many different species of nudibranchs, clown fish, parrot fish, pegasus sea moths, blue ribbon eels, schools of jacks and trevally, hawksbill and green turtles and sea snakes. Very occasionally you might also come across reef sharks, sting rays and manta rays, however, we haven’t experienced any on our numerous dives.
Atlantis Azores is a luxury liveaboard offering a high quality of service and standard. It features 8 cabins for a max. of 16 divers, a huge dive deck with camera table, comfortable lounge with flatscreen TV, sun lounges and a jacuzzi on the sun deck.

Azores offers four different itineraries in the Philippines, so there is plenty of diving to be done. Up to 5 dives are offered on each full dive day. The food on board the vessel, freshly prepared by a local chef, is just delicious. There was a continuous flow of food platters coming out of the galley, pleasing all our different taste buds. A brief cup of coffee with cereal or muffin was available before each first dive early in the morning. Following our first dive, a sumptuous hot breakfast was served. Lunch and dinner were delicious 3 course meals with the choice of either meat or fish as main meal.

After 8 days in the Dumaguete region it was time to say goodbye. The Atlantis motto “Arrive as a guest, leave as a friend” pretty much says it all. I am certainly keen to get back to see how everyone is doing!

Papuan Barrier Reef photo: Craig DeWitt

The Golden Dawn has been pioneering diving in PNG since 1990. Craig DeWitt, veteran diver and skipper of the MV Golden Dawn, offers now some awesome diving at the Papuan Barrier Reef, south of Port Moresby.
The Papuan Barrier Reef is a substantial rival to the Great Barrier Reef of Australia running 1000 km from Port Moresby to Rossel Island at the tip of the Louisiade Archipelago, and has the advantage for much of its length of being much closer to shore. Craig has recently been exploring the section between Port Moresby and slightly beyond Hood point 100km to the south-east. The Barrier reef shelters a lagoon with many small isolated coral reefs commonly called “Bommies” and has a multitude of passes cutting through the reef and allowing Coral Sea waters to flush the lagoon.

While there are some well known dive sites on the Papuan Barrier, which are close to Port Moresby such as Suzies Bommie the majority of the trip will be spent “finning the reef less travelled”…to coin a term by PNG Dive Pioneer Bob Halstead.
 
The passes are adorned with colorful sea fans, sea whips and barrel sponges. On the outer walls Silvertips, Grey Reef Sharks and White Tips are commonly sited with occasional sightings of Java Sharks (Pig Eyes) and Great Hammerheads. Inside the passages Eagle Rays, Mobula Rays, Blotched Sting rays (Cow Rays), Tasseled Wobbegongs, Leopard Sharks, Tawney Sharks are common.

Well, Dirk and Claudia from Diversion Dive Travel will be on the first excursion to this awesome destination. Would be great if you join us!

Join us exploring!

Date: 15-21 August 2011 from/to Port Moresby ,
Package: 6 nights Diving Papuan Barrier Reef, twin accommodation, all meals, tanks, weights. Up to 5 dives on dive days,  return airfares on Airniugini from Cairns  from AUD 2599.00
 Other excursion dates are available for August/September. Please email us!
More information on our Golden Dawn Website