MANTAS ON DEMAND

Liveaboard trip 18-27 Jul 2010

Bali - Komodo
INDONESIA

Mermaid I

How many Mantas do you want to see? Five, OK. Feeding or getting cleaned? Oh, just playing around. No problem, just look to your left. And you, young lady? Ten Mantas? At a cleaning station? That would be to your right.

It really WAS like that beeing a dive guide this trip! Abolutely amazing Manta encounters in South Komodo, with a total of around 25 animals present!

We had an Australian TV-team onboard, doing a documentary about Komodo, the reefs and the people living here. So the trip wasn’t all about diving, but also visiting villages, talking to the locals, doing beach clean-ups and listening to interesting presentations in the evenings by the two onboard marine biologists. No documentary about Komodo would be complete without the famous Komodo Dragons – the world’s biggest lizzards. We had the chance to see them both in Komodo and Rinja Island. Impressive animals indeed!

Underwater we found a lot of rare critters. Zebra Crabs, Coleman Shrimps, juvenile Barramundi Cods, Stargazers, Upside-down Jellyfish, special Nudibranchs and, of course, Pygmy Seahorses.

We also had some of the best shark dives of the season on this safari. Fully grown Whitetips and Grey Reef Sharks joined forces with a mob of Giant Trevallies in a feeding frenzy at Takat Toko, north Komodo. Quite a show I can assure you!

Cruising back to Bali, we had plenty to talk about; the lovely local people we had met, the beautiful reefs and the stunning marine life in Komodo.

PJ Widestrand

Video-Pro
Mermaid I

Liveaboard diving Thailand, Myanmar, Bali - Komodo and the Andaman Islands.