South-East Asia
WAKATOBI, SULAWESI
Indonesia's paradise islands
Season: Season: Year-round diving
Visibility: 20-60 metres
Water Temperature: 26-29°C
Wakatobi reef and island (Sam Bean)
"Probably the finest diving site in the world", or so Jacques Cousteau is reported to have said about the Tukang Besi archipelago, when he passed through this island group off southeast Sulawesi in Indonesia. Those who have since made the journey to the Wakatobi Dive Resort, opened on the remote island of Tolandono in the mid-1990s, are inclined to agree.
Six degrees south of the Equator in the Tukang Besi National Marine Reserve, and benefiting from the amazing biodiversity of the Banda Sea, the Wakatobi Dive Resort is situated in a remote tropical paradise setting. So remote in fact, that all but a few of the local inhabitants live without electricity, running water and telecommunications. The dive resort’s usual greeting is ‘Welcome. You may not have reached the edge of the world, but you can see it from here!’ Sitting in a picture postcard setting on the edge of a powder sand beach framed with leaning palm trees swaying in the breeze, you are able to enjoy a total sense of freedom and distance from civilization as well as enjoying diving on some of the world’s best coral reefs. No traffic, no pollution, no nightclubs, and no crowds.
Early visitors to the Wakatobi Dive Resort had to make their way via Ujung Pandang (recently re-named Makassar) in southwest Sulawesi, fly to Kendari in the southeast and travel onwards to Tolandono by an 18-hour boat journey. Now the resort has built its own airstrip to carry its guests by private charter from Denpasar airport on Bali to the neighbouring island of Tomia just a short boat-ride away from the resort.
With over 3,000 species of fish classified so far in the Sulawesi seas, the region is now recognized as the epicentre of marine diversity in the world. The most striking features of Wakatobi’s diving are the incredible marine diversity coupled with the pristine condition of the coral reefs.
Diving is on reef walls, seamounts, ridges, and coral gardens stretching out like vast undersea flower gardens. Slopes, reef tops, seagrass beds and sandy floors – all provide habitats for a myriad of marine creatures. The closer you look, the more you will see. Soft corals in vibrant reds, pink, purple, orange and yellow extend their flower-like polyps to feed on passing plankton delicacies. Gold, black, yellow and red featherstars cling on to huge barrel sponges and gorgonian sea fans lean out from coral walls. Schools of fusiliers chase up and down the reef’s contours in continuous waves of colour.
Some large pelagic fish move seasonally within the area, but Wakatobi does not claim to be a ‘big fish’ destination. However, when you have your eyes close to the reef studying the array of colour and life to be found there, most divers will forget to look behind them!
The popular dive site named Mari Mabuk, just a 15-minute boat ride from the dive centre, is a long ridge running at right angles to the shoreline and with its peak ranging from a depth of 25 metes to 5 metres under the surface. Huge sea fans, barrel sponges and coral heads are adorned with dazzling feather stars and colourful soft corals blooming in the frequently swift current. Many species of anemonefish (or clownfish) dance in the protection of their host anemones, and who can resist stopping to watch or photograph them? Check out the pink Muricella sea fans for Bargibanti’s Pygmy Seahorses. Lionfish glide out gracefully from their usual cover to investigate passing divers. Saron shrimps hide in the crevices of coral outcrops.
Roma, close by, is a series of undulating mounds endowed with pristine coral and anemones. A solitary Pinnate Batfish teases the photographer, swimming on before the shutter clicks and returning moments later. Clown Triggerfish seemingly have learned the same prank. Two small bommies covered in corals harbour lots of macro life, one being home to up to seven leafish: green, white, yellow and black, sometimes ‘perching’ in a pink sea fan. The rare and beautifully patterned Comet is sometimes seen under reef boulders, but a torch will be needed to locate these dark-loving fish. Along the reef an impressive plate coral formation has earned the name ‘the rose’ because of the beautiful and unusual shape that it has formed over the years.
A 20-minute boat ride to the neighbouring island of Sawa brings one to the Fan Garden, a wall dive and steep slope with craggy ledges in the upper area. Here you will find lots of pink, orange and red soft corals, purple and orange sea fans, and barrel sponges – the latter providing a chance to search out the tiny pink hairy squat lobster that hides away in the crevices, looking like a small piece of discarded angora wool.
Take a gentle drift along Inca’s Palette, which begins as a moderate slope and then plummets into the depths with multiple overhangs. Huge leather corals, tube sponges, a giant Tridacna clam and the palette of hard and soft corals are features of this site. To get the most advantage from the dive, drift along when the current is running and the corals open.
At Table Coral City, one of the favourites amongst a plethora of outstanding dive sites, two adjacent seamounts rise to within seven metres of the surface. Swim over an extensive garden of cabbage coral. Sea fans of all colours protrude from the slopes, a gigantic multi-layered pink sea fan taking pride of place close by an equally enormous barrel sponge. A large area of layered table coral gives the site its name. But do not be too distracted by the pristine corals. Spend some time searching out the little creatures like the tiny Mushroom Coral Pipefish, Robust Ghost Pipefish, bold mantis shrimps and beautiful anemone shrimps.
By now you will be wanting to return to the dive sites that you have already marked down as your favourites. The dive operators, however, will be anxious to show you more of their outstanding sites. It is a difficult choice for you. You want to get back to your favourites, but the dive operators are right – at Wakatobi the good gets even better! The Blade, comprising a chain of pinnacles towering to heights varying from 25 metres to 6 metres below the surface is arguably the most spectacular and exhilarating dive of all, and is so named because of the sharp edge along the top of the ridge. It is a little over an hour’s boat ride from the dive centre, but the journey is justified by the dramatic underwater scenery. Like a fairy-tale castle, the pinnacles are festooned with towering corals, barrel sponges, sea fans and soft corals. The dive ends with a safety stop in the shallows above one of the pinnacles. Here you will want to hang, admiring the panorama and draining every last minute from your dive.
The icing on the cake is Wakatobi’s spectacular House Reef. Just 20 metres from your bed you can enter the water and swim just a few fin strokes before you start to encounter Wakatobi’s marine life. Even before you reach the seagrass bed, 15 metres from the water’s edge, you might have encountered snake eels poking their heads out of the sand and flounders skimming over the sandy bottom. Over the seagrass bed, still with only one or two metres of water above you, the sharp-eyed can observe Robust Ghost Pipefish, Black-lined Filefish and Pavo Razorfish. Then in a short stretch of patch reef check out the Ribbon Eels, Gold-specs Jawfish, the occasional Blue-spotted Ray and the shrimp gobies standing watch whilst their associate blind shrimp works hard excavating their communal burrow. Only 50 metres from the shoreline you reach a gully leading to the drop-off. But before you go over the edge you will want to stop and watch the shoal of resident Bigeye Jacks and spend a few minutes with the Blue-lined Fangblennies that have made their home in ready-made holes in the concrete mooring base. Down now to 12 metres for the house reef’s pièce de résistance – an un-named species of pygmy seahorse, resident on a sea fan! So much to see and you’ve only just reached the drop-off. A gentle drift along the craggy wall reveals beautiful pristine corals, anemones with their anemonefish friends, Periclimenes shrimps and porcelain crab guests, nudibranchs, scorpionfish, lionfish and batfish. Do not forget to keep a watchful eye out towards the blue – turtles and eagle rays are frequently seen here. Needless to say, night dives along this wall are an explosion of colour. Try them!
The chain of islands from which Wakatobi takes its name: Wangi, Kaledupa, Tomea and Binonko, form an area known as the Wakatobi Marine National Park (also known as the Tukangbesi Archipelago). Those who take a cruise on the newly-refurbished Pelagian will explore the Greater Wakatobi Area and the Western Banda Sea. There will be opportunity to explore the outer reefs of the Wakatobi Marine National Park visiting the smaller eastern and southern islands of Moromaho and Runuma, the big reefs of Karang Kaledupa and the fascinating ‘critter diving’ haven of Buton island, as well as the best of the reefs around Wakatobi Dive Resort.
Binongko Island is actually one of the few islands where steel is forged and knives are formed by the same process of smelting and moulding as they were hundreds of years ago. The dive sites here are dramatic in structure with sheer walls studied with black coral, overhangs populated with fish schools and rocky reef tops with swim-throughs draped in colourful soft corals in yellow (Sarcophyton) and orange (Sinularia). Within these soft coral overhangs divers will find such fascinating small creatures as peeping blennies, dottybacks, gobys and some very photogenic sea spiders.
The Eastern Islands are the most remote islands of the Wakatobi islands group and are consequently the least dived. Some of these small, palm-covered, low-lying islands have sea gypsy villages on stilts. Giant overhangs, dramatic canyons and fabulous drop-offs combined with very clear water, superb diversity, profuse and healthy coral and rich fish life make for some wonderful diving – some say it is the best wall diving in the world!
Karang Koromaha is an atoll of around 6 kilometres in diameter, from where it is possible to see Tomea island. Some fishermen make the long sail from Kaledupa to fish with lines in the atoll, but as the sea can be rough in this area, the atoll is seldom fished. Deep walls and steep slopes, overhangs with huge cracks, delicate hanging soft corals and cracks and crevices rich in invertebrate life make these dives a delight for photographers and videographers as well as those who dive armed only with a magnifying glass. Reef corners in this area attract huge schools of fish. Search under table corals for sweetlips lurking below.
The large island of Buton, southeast of Sulawesi, has some very special dive sites with some amazing inhabitants. Shallow dives of no more than 7 metres hold such marine ‘treasures’ as Flying Gurnards (often in pairs), throngs of pipefish, Ornate Ghost Pipefish, frogfish in a variety of colours, juvenile Black Snappers, Marbled Snake Eels, ‘piles’ of octopus, crabs in every shape, size and colour and anemones galore. Devil Scorpionfish, stonefish, Cockatoo Waspfish and Ringed Octopus are also found in this area. This is definitely one of those places where macro photographers should give up trying if they don’t find any photo opportunities!
WAKATOBI DIVE RESORT
The environmentally-friendly Wakatobi Dive Resort was founded by Lorënz Mader, a Swiss eco-pioneer who, disappointed by the influences of mass tourism, set out to pursue his dream of setting a better example in virgin territory, unspoilt by overcrowding and pollution. The traditional architecture of the Indonesian longhouse and the bungalows embrace sound ecotourism principles and were all constructed by local craftsmen using traditional hand tools.
All the spacious, air-conditioned, beachside bungalows have ocean-side verandas, a king-sized bed (or two single beds on request), ceiling and floor fans. All bungalows have en-suite bathrooms with hot water showers. They are furnished with locally produced furniture, including sofa, armchairs, desk and table. There is plenty of storage space for clothes, books and camera equipment. The verandah is also furnished with a small table, easy chairs and a drying rack for dive and swim wear. Beach Bungalows are situated on the beachfront and Garden Bungalows are sea-facing, but are situated in the row behind the Beach Bungalows, just a few steps from the sea. The Select Bungalows are of the same size and construction as the Beach Bungalows, but are located on the western beach and face the sunset. Each Select Bungalow has its own marine life library, a torch for walks at night and is decorated with fresh orchids. Newly built in September 2005 are the superb Wakatobi Villas. They are located at the northern end of the resort and perched on the cliffs with superb views over the ocean and wonderful sunset panoramas. The light and airy, open-plan Wakatobi Villas are very spacious and stylish and feature open-plan bathroom, a king sized bed and the potential for adding a double bunk, if need be. The showers have probably the best views in south-east Asia! The Wakatobi Villas are around a five minute stroll from the main resort, and so offer additional privacy – a superb choice for a honeymoon!
The dive centre briefing point, equipment rooms, gear rental store and camera room with well-equipped workstations and 220v charging points are within the longhouse at ground level. At a slightly elevated position in the longhouse, the dining hall and lounge area occupy a prominent position overlooking the sea, while at a higher level still is another lounge area (complete with library, video and DVD player).
The resort has its own gourmet chef preparing local and international cuisine. With three cooked meals a day and snacks in between, guests are unlikely to go hungry. Fresh vegetables and fruit are bought regularly from markets on the mainland and, in accord with the resort’s conservation principles, only pelagic fish bought from local fishermen and caught by hook and line are served at the table. Typically, evening dinner would be sushi, soup, fish, savoury rice and vegetables followed by an exotic dessert and fruit. Coffee and tea are available round the clock.
Two pre-lunch boat dives, and on most afternoons a one-tank boat dive, accompanied by divemasters who are familiar with the dive sites, are included. On the first dive of your holiday you will be asked to demonstrate your buoyancy, air-sharing and mask-clearing skills. There are no petty diving restrictions, but divers are urged to comply with safe diving and reef protection practices. Within your safety limits take your time. Few other resorts will ask you to limit your dive time to 75 minutes. Unlimited diving on the extensive house reef is available throughout the day – and night! Tender boats are on stand-by in the afternoon to facilitate easy access to all sections of the house reef. Nitrox is available at an extra charge.
Snorkelers are welcome at Wakatobi Dive Resort (the non-diver price is applicable).
Wakatobi Dive Resort offers a series of 7-11 nights stays throughout the year. Your first day starts with a morning charter flight from Denpasar airport on Bali to the island of Tomia. After a short drive to the jetty, a 20 minute boat ride will bring you to Wakatobi. On the return journey clients leave Wakatobi in the morning and are due to arrive back in Denpasar in the afternoon. Overnight stays in the Denpasar area are required prior to Wakatobi trips and strongly recommended on departure in case of delay.
Price: from about £1223 for a 7 nights stay; from about £1706 for a 10 nights stay; from about £1867 for an 11 nights stay. Includes: road and boat transfers between Wakatobi Airport and Wakatobi Dive Resort; 7, 10 or 11 nights full board accommodation (breakfast, lunch and dinner) on a twin/share basis at Wakatobi Dive Resort, including coffee, tea and biscuits 24 hours per day; 6, 9 or 10 days diving (2-3 boat dives daily plus daily afternoon house reef tender boats and unlimited shore diving tanks 24 hours per day), dive guide for boat dives. There are also reductions for extra stays and for returning clients. Deposit: £450 (holidays costing up to £1500); £600 (holidays costing between £1501-£2000); £750 (holidays costing over £2000).
Single Occupancy Supplement: 75% of the applicable diver package price.
PELAGIAN
Now owned and operated by the team behind Wakatobi Dive Resort, Pelagian has been completely refurbished to offer top-quality accommodation and diving facilities. The quality and assurance of one of Indonesia’s most reputable dive operations combined with the luxury of the Pelagian means that, for the first time, it is possible to explore these remote and incredible reefs with their abundance of unique marine creatures while diving and cruising in total comfort. Furthermore, Pelagian is fully integrated into Wakatobi’s award-winning marine conservation and community development programme. A portion of your trip funds contribute to this programme, and in return, access to the diving sites in the Greater Wakatobi region has been granted to Pelagian.
Fully air-conditioned and with only six cabins, Pelagian offer plenty of space for each diver. Built to cruise the world’s oceans in safety and comfort, Pelagian cruises at nine knots and has a range of over 8,000 nautical miles. Onboard water-makers and capacity to hold 20-tons of fresh water in her tanks means no constraints when it comes to showering or camera rinsing. Of the six cabins available for guests, there are two Standard Cabins, two Deluxe Cabins and a Superlux Cabin on the lower deck. The fabulously spacious Master Suite is located on the main deck at the centre of the boat so there is no staircase to negotiate before or after the dive. There is a very spacious bathroom with a shower cabin, large mirrors, wash hand basin and lavatory. The bathroom is bright and comfortable, which makes a welcome change if you have ever experienced cramped conditions and hand-pump facilities which can be so tedious to use! The spacious aspect of this cabin is carried through to the bedroom which has a king-sized bed, a sofa and easy chair and an entertainment centre with stereo, DVD and large-screen TV. There is a small make-up room at the front of the cabin. There is ample storage space. Although this lovely suite has by far the most floor space and the best amenities on board, the downside is that this is the cabin where the anchor chain is most heard. Accessed by its own staircase from the main salon, the Superlux Cabin is at the back of the boat. A lower double bed and an upper single bed are laid out in a ‘V’ shape with a lowered seating area between. There is a spacious en-suite bathroom. Whilst not so very spacious as the Master Suite, this is a very popular cabin as it is the quietest cabin on the boat and is in a very private location. The two Deluxe Cabins are located downstairs, one on each side of the boat and forward of the main salon. They each have one double and one single bed and ample shelving and storage. The several port holes make these cabins particularly light and airy. There is an en-suite bathroom for each cabin. Standard Cabin 4 is centrally located between the two Deluxe Cabins. It is the smallest cabin on the boat and the one with the least natural light, though also, due to its central location, the one with the least movement of the boat. It has two beds, one above the other, and an en-suite bathroom. Standard Cabin 6 is on the starboard side of the boat and in front of one of the Deluxe Cabins, but is accessed from a separate stairway from the camera room. It has an en-suite bathroom and two single beds, one above the other. A special and very pleasant feature of this room is that one of the beds looks straight out at the ocean, just above sea level – a most pleasant place to relax. There is ample storage space.
On Pelagian you can expect well-cooked and appealingly presented meals from international and local cuisines. Tea, coffee, water and juices are available at all times and beer and wines are available for purchase from the bar. Meals are taken in the attractive salon area on the main deck. A sundeck and a new, shaded seating area on the upper deck is where most divers relax between dives.
Underwater photographers are well-catered for on Pelagian with a camera workshop and re-charging station. Standard 2-prong, 220 volt electrical outlets are available and power rails can be found in the camera room. An extensive VCD and DVD collection, CD and book library, are available. Most dives are carried out from one of the two, 9-metre RIBs and, for speed and convenience, tanks are quickly filled using whips from the mother ship. Nitrox is available at an extra charge.
Pelagian operates out of Wakatobi Dive Resort and the 7-11 nights cruises are run in parallel with Wakatobi packages. Your first day starts with a morning charter flight from Bali to the island of Tomia. After a short drive to the jetty, a 20 minute boat ride will bring you to Wakatobi Dive Resort and you can board the boat. Usually meals will be taken at the resort on the first and last evenings of the charter. On the return journey clients leave Wakatobi in the morning and are due to arrive back in Denpasar in the afternoon. Overnights stays in Denpasar are required prior to Wakatobi trips and are strongly recommended on departure in case of delays.
Price: from about £1363 for a 7 nights cruise; from about £1900 for a 10 nights stay; from about £2060 for an 11 nights stay. Includes: road and boat transfers between Wakatobi Airport and Pelagian at Wakatobi Dive Resort; 7, 10 or 11 nights full board accommodation (breakfast, lunch and dinner) on a twin/share basis on Pelagian, including coffee, tea and biscuits 24 hours per day; 6, 9 or 10 days diving (4-5 dives daily including some night diving where appropriate), dive guide. There are reductions for extra stays and for returning clients. Deposit: £500 (7 nights cruise); £700 (10 nights cruise); £750 (11 nights cruise).
Single Occupancy Supplement: 75% of the applicable package price.
FLIGHTS: Prices from about £842 to Denpasar, plus from about £209 onwards to Wakatobi. There are daily flight connections to Denpasar. We will quote you the airfare applicable, based on routing, season, current fare levels and booking class availability. Our quote will include all taxes and fuel supplements applicable at the time of quotation, as well as our service charge. The usual airfare deposit is £300.
On the charter flights to and from Wakatobi there is a 125 Kgs per person total weight allowance, including your personal body weight, hold luggage and hand baggage! Usually extra weight allowance can be allocated.
STOP-OVERS: These are available in Singapore or Kuala Lumpur, depending on flight routing.
COMBINATIONS: As all holidays to Wakatobi start and end in Denpasar, Bali, why not spend some time diving on this superb island or cruise by liveaboard to remote Komodo & The Nusa Tenggara. Talk to us about the possibilities.
Wakatobi reef scape (Sam Bean)
