Best Dive Vacations Blogs

From East Flores to West Papua, 16 days diving walls, reefs, slopes, pinnacles and crossing four different seas – that’s what the crossing trip is all about. From the tiniest Pygmy Seahorses to giant majestic Oceanic Manta Rays, Chinese Sea Snakes, Dolphins, Frogfishes, Sharks and schooling fish life – “biodiversity” topside and underwater is what we are looking for!

Where to start, where to start, where to start. It’s difficult to write a concise summation of a sixteen day diving trip through the worlds richest oceans where every location holds unbelievable encounters. Do I start with the rich marine life and expansive un touched reefs of the Banda Sea, the close encounters with giant scalloped hammerhead sharks, the whale sharks that drifted over the top of me, or the repeated encounters with the worlds most illusive whale as it voraciously scooped up plankton next to Mermaid II?

Exploring Raja Ampat on land and underwater, it would seem that there is a limitless quantity of things to see. On the surface, the mysterious karst islands that have the appearance of being made out of melted wax dot the horizon. Their labyrinth of emerald lagoons plays host to carnivorous plants while the lush jungles canopy bursts with avian life. In the deeper water and channels the surface bubbles with a frenzy of fish below which attracts a fleet of filter feeders like mantas and even whales!

Light is an important thing as we immerse ourselves in the underwater world. As divers we all know that the deeper we go, the less light we have and the less light we have the less color we see. Even in Raja Ampat, well known for it’s magical coral gardens which beam with an array of the most colorful corals can appear a bit dull on a cloudy day. Not recently however. It seemed that no matter where we go within the Raja Ampat marine sanctuary the sun was exactly where it should be, but no where was this exemplified more than at the mangroves.

Diving in Raja Ampat you’ll run into and often surrounded by a number of schooling fish. Fusileers congregate in giant swarms in the blue and can engulf you completely as they uniformly try to escape the jaws of tuna and travelly. Mountains of Sweetlips and rivers of snappers are found in the same spots on the reef year after year. No matter what reef you’re on in Raja you’re guaranteed to have a very fishy dive. However, there’s one species of fish that doesn’t seem to appreciate the reef in the same way the snappers and fusileers do. Oxeye scads, a silver fish that form immense shoals, are rarely spotted on the reef here in Raja Ampat, but instead found sheltering beneath the various wooden jetties out front of the villages. Diving beneath one of these jetties with the scads which frequent these wood structures, can offer a highly unique experience. The vertical pilings covered with sea fans, table corals, and brilliantly colored soft coral is a spectacular sight on its own. Add in a swirling mass of silver fish and your in for an underwater spectacle your not likely to forget.

Raja Ampat a majestic underwater world where every marine life comes together.The morning lights shining over stunning soft corals, Sea fans moving back and forth with the surge, Out in the blue drifting into big swarms of fish being hunted by large fish. The bliss of Oceanic Manta rays  flying over our heads and sharks that peacefully traveled by us. Such a diversity coming from the largest to the smallest of the critters.  The textures and colours that changed from day to night making each of our night dives more graceful moments! Raja Ampat such a rich an unique destination to be explored, a real untouched paradise and a dream spot for every underwater photographer!

Mermaid1 goes to an extraordinary journey from Raja Ampat all the way to Lembeh Straits with an outstanding Barracuda stopover in Halmahera!

Raja Ampat, which translates to The Four Kings in English, is made up four main islands. According to myth, these islands are where four kings ruled after hatching from the eggs of a megapode bird. It is these four islands; Waigeo, Salawate, Batanta, and Misool that make up the worlds largest repository of tropical marine life. Surrounding these islands of kings you’ll find hundreds of smaller clusters or islands which are further broken down into their own regions. One such island chain just of the northwest shores of Waigeo and straddling the equator is Kawe.