|
CORALREPUBLIC Wakatobi,
2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
Trip
dates: |
11- 24 September
2005 |
|
Boat
/ resort: |
Wakatobi Dive Resort – Group trip organised by Island Dreams Travel |
|
Dive
centre: |
Wakatobi dive
centre |
|
Photo-friendly?: |
Extremely, camera
room with AC, all sorts of facilities, including on
the dive boats. The whole logistics and facilities have been built with UW
photographers in mind. |
|
Number
of dives: |
28 superb dives
over 9 days of diving. |
|
Diving
conditions: |
Clear and sunny –
very hot. Very calm, mirror-like seas. Excellent visibility, some current on
certain sites. Water temperature 25-26°C.
Nitrox diving is a must here. |
|
Comments: |
2005 has been my
best year in terms of spoiling myself with amazing
diving. A few days after returning from Cocos, I
joined an Island Dreams group led by Ken Knezick. He has been taking a group
there for 13 years (!) and he does not seem ready to stop this annual event.
Group trips are always around October, when the conditions there are just
perfect. I was travelling alone and had a bungalow all for me. I can’t but
admire the divers that went to Wakatobi before they started their own charter
flights from Bali. You had to make all you way to Bali and then spend like
three days on ferries around the South Sulawesi region to reach it. In my
case, I joined the group in Bali for a night in the very very,
nice Alam Kul Kul hotel in Kuta Beach and we all flew
together to Wakatobi the day after. We Spent 10 nights in the Resort. All
guests were divers and the place is really geared to afford you as many dives
as you can possibly want or fit in a day, from dawn to night. The house reef
is great both at dawn and on night dives, and in between you can fit three or
four boat dives. In my case, I had another annoying case of ear infection and
missed a day. Their boats are
ample and very comfortable. The ladder for entry or exit is actually in the
middle of the boat, like a small tub.
They also have a small boat to drop you off at the edge of the house
reef and many people made most of their dives there, since there is so much
stuff worth shooting. Everybody was
shooting, with big cameras too. This is a place for macro, so not a good
destination for those who like big stuff. Even so, we crossed a few whitetips and the odd eagle ray, on occasion. Lately
there have been reports of whale sharks sightings, but not very frequently. Ken’s groups are
so regular that he gets the best treatment you can have at Wakatobi. We were
completely spoilt. All the sites were
amazing, but I liked two in particular (apart from the house reef), namely Blade and Pinkie’s Wall. On the way back
to Europe, I spent another night in Alam Kul Kul where I spoiled myself rotten on Indonesian spa
treatments. |
|
|
|
