While even the Wakatobi resort with its
sheltered areas closes during the wet monsoon period in January and
February those islands are closed to fisherman and divers alike during
most of the year. Only during about 4 weeks in April and October - that
is the relatively calm time between the east and west monsoon - you can
visit this area. Our trip took us there at the end of March, beginning
of April. The weather was calm and fair, fierce sun during the day and
star covered sky at night.
Only a few divers have ever visited
the islands east of Wakatobi. Our dive guide Gerry had been here before,
but we did quite a lot of exploratory dives. Nearly all the diving was
done on very steep walls. They drop down to many hundreds of meters. At
some dive sites (around Hoga and Karang Kaledupa, Batuata) there are a
lot of small caves and overhangs. The water was quite warm (29 to 30°)
specially in some of the shallow areas in the lagoons of the atolls.
Visibility was always excellent but currents strong, with some very
strong down currents.
Actually we expected large fish and
even whales (from reports in books and a article in the Asian Diver
magazine) but were a bit disappointed since we rarely saw sharks or big
pelagic fish. The coral cover though was just excellent - no damage from
fishing, boating or diving at any place. There were huge boulders of
hard corals everywhere, sponges the size of a man and sea fans 2 to 3
meters across. Some places with whip corals stretching several meters,
whole fields of them. There were not that many small things to see like
nudibranchs or other invertebrates. So I recommend this place if you
want to see unspoiled coral reefs but not for large fish.
The trip is only available for live
aboard private charter from Bali or from Sulawesi
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