Diving Komodo

Dive Area information

The best and only real way to see the most unique sites of this region is with a dive liveaboard vessel, however there are plenty of day boats that dive Komodo now!

What Itinerary
This highly depends on the port of departure and time of the year. Many liveaboard vessels choose to depart from Bali, though this now seems to be changing. Using Bali as your port of departure port does loose you a day of diving on the first day and then only average dives on the way back. The very best way to dive Komodo is really from a port nearer to the National Park. This is after all, what you came for. Starting nearer to the National Park ensures excellent diving from day one till the end of your cruise. During different times of the year you can see different highlights on northern or southern reefs. During the different monsoons you can even go beyond to other very unique islands. It is always best to take advantage of the best condition on each monsoon rather than trying to see it all in one trip. The southern sites of the Komodo National Park are much more unique and are best dived towards the end and beginning of the year while the northern reefs are much better in the middle of the year!

Click here to read more about sample itineraries.

Below is a sample of the islands you will possibly visit on your Komodo cruise.

Satonda Island
An extinct volcano surrounded by lush green forest. This is home to thousands of flying foxes (fruit bats) and a large crater lake. Dives here are all easy and generally with clear water averaging 20m visibility, with no or very little current. The main site here is a reef boxed in by a sandy slope, great for the smaller creatures. Night dives here usually come after the bat show, as all night dives this one comes with many surprise bottom dwelling critters! Land tours are also offered; you can go make your wish come true on this island walk.

Sangaeng Island
This time an active volcano 1949m in height that can often still be seen smoking on clear days. Dives here are all on black sand, giving great contrast to the gorgeous colourful corals and creatures that live here. Visibility varies from 10-30m. The reefs on Sangaeng are some of the most unique in Indonesia, ranging from colourful soft coral covered walls, coral ridges covered with hundreds of crinoids with a huge varieties of coral and great critters. Then there are the black sand slopes that always look like nothing at a glance but looking closer they are home to lots of rare and unusual marine life.

Sumbawa (Bima Bay)
A very special place for those small, unique critters that are found on many great dive sites on this island. One favoured site known to many is a shallow reef top with lots of leathery corals, a sloping sand patch and a few small rocky spurs where most of the little critters hide. The list of critters seen here really is too long to start if you really want to know mail me. There are many other new recent dive site we have found with even better critter action, specially for those who are real muck divers, unidentifiable and very rare and unusual creatures have been seen here making it for those who really are after something different, visibility is generally very poor, and can get down to less than 5m.

Banta Island
This is now closing in on the Komodo National Park, many operators want this island to be included as aprt of the National Park proper, it is so good! Appearance is very baron island scape, a total contrast to the underwater scenery. During the right season, very good visibility here offers excellent reef diving, with up to 30m at times and with reefs that range from walls, mild sloping reefs with amazing hard coral garden reef tops, a large sea mount GPS Point, for those who like to go in search of the biggies (experienced divers only attempt this site) and other amazing white sand slopes filled with great unique critters. A night dive here will keep you awake thinking for hours after, trying to remember all the amazing things you saw. A few dives should only be dived on the right tides, due to very strong currents, some have very strong and dangerous downcurrents, there are others which are always easy to dive and accommadate all divers preferances of macro or wide angle scenery.

Komodo Island on Land
The Loh Liang Bay is where most tourists will go to see the legendary Komodo Dragons. Dragons are very often seen around the ranger station here but those wanting a little more, a short trek is arranged to take you in a little further. You can often see wild pigs, deer, wild orchids, many different birds and usually Komodo dragons in their natural habitat. After the walk you can buy locally made wooden Komodo Dragons, locally cultured pearls and other handicrafts.

Diving Komodo Island and it’s small surrounding islands
The diving now changes dramatically as we enter an area where up-welling reefs bring with them colder water (can be as low as 22degC) during much of the year, 5mm even 7mm wetsuits are recommended if you feel the cold). The visibility drops mots of the year here, and can drop as low as 10m. Later in the year it can get much claerer and warmer. Lots of nutrients come in to feed thousands of invertebrates that cover most of these very unique dive sites in the Komodo National Park.

North and south Komodo are 2 very different regions with very different coral growth. The north has very unique up-welling reefs whilst the south is more akin to your classic tropical reefs. Some of the dives you are likely to encounter here are small island wall dives packed with fish, pinnacles, colourful soft coral covered wall dives, coral gardens filled great critters, amazing sandy slopes for the most memorable night dives, or for those who just love more critter diving. There are sites where larger marine can be seen, often currents affect these bigger fish sites, which makes diving them during the slack tide much safer, ensuring diver safety. Manta rays, large Napoleon wrasse, sharks and other large pelagic fish regularly visit many of the sites within the Komodo National Park. Coral reefs throughout the Komodo National Park are densely populated by invertebrates, the most colourful soft corals, giant black coral bushes on certain sites are a shear beauty to see. The fish life on many of the sites is also as good as the reefs themselves and very unique.

Padar Island
Another island within the National Park. Pristine rarely visited white sand beaches and a huge variety of dive sites, they just get better in this area as we go. Choices of dive here are a series of pinnacles “3 Sisters/W-Reef” that are covered in colourful invertebrates with lots of nudibranchs, thousands of small fish crowd all over these pinnacles with many different schooling fish. There are a few very unique topographical, scenic dives within this small island group, there are many great coral gardens with a great sandy slope night dive. In this region we have a few of our own very unique dive sites. Our favourite and most unique is called “Taman Rahasia” or Secret Garden, this will certainly become another well known National Park dive site. The most unique feature here are the giant, fish filled black coral bushes, many large fish make this area their home, pelagic fish and often surprise biggies coming in here too… oh yeah and great critters too! World renound photo journalist Michael Aw said this was the most unique dive site in Komodo he had seen in many years!

Rinca Island (Horseshoe Bay)
Last but not least OUR FAVOURITE island. Still lying within the boundaries of the Komodo National Park. This really is one of the Komodo trip highlights. A truly amazing and most unique area which is best dived during the latter part of the year to fully appreciate the true joy of such a special island. Horseshoe Bay on the southern end of Rinca we are surrounded by hills. Komodo Dragons are often seen here, along with monkeys, wild pigs and even deer wandering along the black sand beaches. However it is the diving here that is really something special, pinnacles, walls, slopes with huge coral bommies, coral packed ridges, a few of our most recently discovered sites are great for viewing resting reef sharks and of course there more black sand critter slopes. This whole area has many critters and excellent scenery just everywhere you decide to drop in, the general visibility here will be average of 10-15m, though during the latter part of the year you can see this region in its full glory, at times with 30m visibility. It really is so good that only a few days are often no where enough for most divers.

In all Komodo has to be one of the most interesting places for diving on the planet. This is due its diversity, amazing fish, critter life and of course those beautifully colourful reefs.

Interested? Mail us for more information about this region!