|
|
|
| More Mantas at Wai17th January 2012 |
| Since 2 weeks now we have been seeing Manta near Wai island today still over 20 Mantas where there. Far better then the traditional Manta point @ Manta Sandy! |
|
| Snorkelling with more the 20 Manta10th January 2012 |
| Today we went back to this spot where yesterday we saw around 30 Manta. Yes they are still there as we counted a good 20 and when we left more where still coming. It seem to arrive in late afternoon to feed on all the jelly fish we had recently, so I don't for how long its gonna last but at the moment it really cool you don't even have to go in the water as they are all at the surface feeding. |
|
| Manta at Wai Island9th January 2012 |
| Our guest enjoy one of the best snorkel session ever near Wai island, as Manta where doing so much action at the surface that it was impossible to miss them. When we jump in the water to check it out we where delighted to see around 30 Manta playing and feeding near the surface. Black Manta, white Manta, big Manta , small Manta... a lot of Manta !!! 30 Manta WOW !!! |
|
| Bogyo reef always top3rd January 2012 |
| To have a great dive well you go on a great dive site, Bogyo reef which is one of the nicest coral garden in Raja Ampat had something a bit more special then usual to offer today. On the second minute of the dive we had a black Manta, follow by around 10 blue spotted kuhl's ray ten minutes after this we had an other black Manta directly follow by 3 mobula devil ray. That already quite top in any book I would say but that wasn't all, just in the last five minutes of the dive we top it of with one of the rarest thing you can see here 2 big Dugong!!!! Yeah man Raja Ampat rule! |
|
| Macro, more, more & more20th December 2011 |
| In the past 3 days we saw 3 different Ghost Pipe Fish on 3 different dive site. First: Robust Gost Pipe Fish @ Ayof divesite, second: Halimeda Gost Pipe Fish @ Dragonnet, third: Velvet Gost Pipe Fish @ Bogyo Reef. Part of these 3 dives was also Dragonnet, Mandarin, Pigmy Sea Horse, Harlequin Crab, Porcelain Crab, Bumble Bee Shrimp, more Shrimp & Nudies of course! |
|
| Manta Sandy13th December 2011 |
| Yes so far the Mantas are there everyday as we had again 8 Mantas, 4 Black and 4 White. |
|
| Fish heaven again, again and again12th December 2011 |
| Again today we saw a Manta at Fish Heaven, 2 days in a row and 2 different Mantas. Last season was the same... I'm starting to think there is a cleaning station nearby and I'm gonna find it!!! |
|
| The top of the top Chicken Reef8th December 2011 |
| I don't know what to say or where to start I saw everything over and over again. 10000 Fusiliers, 5000 Surgeon fish, 400 Bat fish, 100 Makerels, 100 Giant Trevalli, 70 Barracudas, 40 bumpheads, 25 Sharks, Turtle, Manta,fish, fish and more cloud of fish. I had hard time seeing the reef it was just so much. This was in my top 3 best dive ever!!! oh ya it was all in 5 metre of water :) |
|
| More & more Manta3rd December 2011 |
| Slowly the manta season is picking up and more Mantas are seen around Raja Ampat. Today at Manta Sandy we had 8 mantas for 2 dives of 75 minutes. ( 2 black & 6 white ) |
|
| Good old Chicken Reef30th November 2011 |
| Really I love this place, always a ton of fish and always action around. We had a big school of 75 Pickhandle Barracuda follow by an other school of 40 Great Barracuda. In our last 5 minutes of the dive we had 6 sharks coming to say good bye. |
|
| Shark and Sardine Reef30th November 2011 |
| Sardine Reef is a place where everything is possible, so many different species and school of fish can be found here. Usually on a good dive there you see at least 10 sharks trough your dive. Today just the grey reef shark was at least 10 of them + a few black and white tip, not bad, not bad! |
|
| Manta Point, Raja Ampat20th November 2011 |
| We are seeing more and more manta around Raja Ampat. The Limit has now around 10 Manta and Manta point has 6 big one at the moment. Let's go Manta diving! |
|
| The Limit14th November 2011 |
| Today was a really beautiful day, we went to dive to The Limit swimming around with 4 meter black manta following the others. There were 4 mantas all together and 1 eagle ray swam by really made our day. |
|
| Always fish and more13rd November 2011 |
| An other great dive at Fish Heaven, apart of all the Fusillier, Surgeon fish, Bat fish, Sweet lips and Napoleon found over here this dive had a different highlight... 4 Eagle Rays, 5 White tip, 1 Wobbegong and 1 epaulette Shark. Not bad Fish heaven not bad! |
|
| Waterfall tour12nd November 2011 |
| The beautiful waterfall trekking is slightly adventurous but rather enjoyable. The robust sound of the running down water can be heard from quite a distance. As usual, we can observe many colourful butterflies and listen to loud birds. |
|
| The best for the best8th November 2011 |
| The hungarian nature photographer are well known in the world. It is enough if we think about Bence Mate (he got the nature photographer „Oscar” in London 2010, BBC Wildlife Photographer of The Year) or Tibor Dombovari (he won the world best diverphotographer award in Antibes 2003). That is why the PapuaParadise EcoResort offer a Special Award for the best underwater photo collection in the competition of the Nature Photographer of the Year 2011. In 2011 Daniel Selmeczi won our Special Award. |
|
| Flying in the Passage7th November 2011 |
| We went to dive the Passage and enjoyed the beautiful underwater cave. As we came out of the cave, schooling of yellowfin barracuda waiting in the entrance then we were drifting with strong current to the end of the passage, great dive no need kicking. |
|
| More Mantas at The Limit3rd November 2011 |
| Two Black Manta & four White Manta are currently playing around at The Limit, as we had 2 trips going there in the past 3 days and on every dive our customer saw mantas. Yes the mantas are back! |
|
| Big,big big!!!30th October 2011 |
| Coming back from the fishy line trip, we had the chance to admire a beautiful 20 m long Spem Whale sleeping at the surface. So cool to see, I let you imagine :) |
|
| Manta are back29th October 2011 |
| In the past couple of week, we have been seeing more and more manta. For the past 3 days we had 4 mantas at the manta point, so I think it safe to say that the mantas are back. |
|
| Mega giant Trevalli23rd October 2011 |
| Chicken Reef is part of the best dive site in Raja Ampat and with reason, lucky for us many people rather dive Sardine instead which is just nearby. A lot of time Chicken Reef will be better then Sardine. Today was one of them day, way more fish then Sardine, the full lot was there, Sharks, Barracuda, Napoleon, Bumphead etc. But the real highlight of this dive was this giant trevalli that made every other fish look tiny. I never saw something like this before, minimum 1.5 M long a real monster, the bumphead look so small next to it same with the shark. I'm not joking this fish was seriously big!!! |
|
| Fish Heaven, Raja Ampat22nd October 2011 |
| When you dive fish heaven even on a bad day it will be a good dive, the only bad thing today was the visibility... only 15M, but the rest was just perfect... 3 wobbegong shark, 5 napoleon, 10 bumphead, 50 circular bat fish, 50 sweet lips and a big school of 150 long fin bat fish + all the rest of course. |
|
| Cape Kri, Raja Ampat22nd October 2011 |
| Cape is always a great place to dive, you will always find something interesting during a dive, today it was 2 turtles mating. That really cool to see! |
|
| Manta are back21st October 2011 |
| Slowly slowly the manta's are coming back to Raja Ampat at manta point. At the moment one is present at the cleaning station as our guest enjoy a 90 minutes dive with it. It may only be one but it a start and one is better then none. |
|
| Flowergarden21st October 2011 |
| Since we are active in planting flowers and we do have even an own gardener our ways to the room get more and more nice. At the moment all the wild orchids have her flower and it just looks amazing - what we didnt even needed to plant because they growing everywhere on the trees and cost in other countries a lot of money. Raja Ampat has a lot more to offer then only under water and sometimes little things can have a massive effect. |
|
| 2 monsters Cobia but no giant20th October 2011 |
| As we started the dive at Fish Heaven we encounter 2 big Cobia fish 1M+ my first reaction was yes something big is nearby, but since it was a drift dive and the visibility was no more then 15m we didn't encounter any Cobia friends... Still 2 big Cobia are still really cool to see. |
|
| The new boat start its first trip15th October 2011 |
| Since the resort is expanding with 6 new bungalows it make a lot of sense to expand our fleet as well. This custom made boat took just under 4 months to build and just left Bali for a week long and 2000km journey tour resort on Birie Island. This is the route that the boat is taking: Bali> Selayar> Buru> Batanta> Birie. The new 13.5 M long boat is power by 3 X 200hp Yamaha engine, as a GPS, sonar, toilet for the long trip and a relaxing sun deck. |
|
| Wrong tide but the fish don't care11th October 2011 |
| Coming back from the passage trip we had one more dive to do, originally we were suppose to dive Mioskon island but as I just in the water to check it out, and I didn't get a good vibe for this dive. So I told my guest and my captain to go to Sardine Reef instead Knowing that it was the wrong tide for Sardine Reef. Anyway this was a great idea. All the fish where there, Sharks, Trevalli, Snapper, Bumphead the full Sardine Reef was still there for us to have a top dive with absolutely no current. It like if all the fish were so tired from the outgoing tide that they just decided not to move and stay there during the incoming tide... lucky for us!!! |
|
| Flat Worm world11th October 2011 |
| Passage is know to one of the must dive site in Raja Ampat because of its unique macro life as well as stunning soft coral. On my last dive there I counted over 30 different species of Flat Worm + 10 different kind of nudies , as we where drifting from the cavern to the bay we encounter 8 monster Pickhandle Barracuda...I me an really big monster. So yes, this is why it is a must. |
|
| Manta's are jumping3rd October 2011 |
| As we where watching a lovely sunset a big Manta just jump out of the water in front of the sun, doing a bit what batman does with the moon, but I think the Manta was much nicer! :) |
|
| Research and nature conservation15th September 2011 |
| The last few years we were focusing to the underwater, and on 2010 we found – with the help of the nudibranch.com.au - 3 undescribed seaslug (Phyllodesmium kerasubi, Thorunna papuaparadisei, Tambja papuaparadisei) and one wellow sea worm (Phyllodoce millii). This year we start our research work on the surface. First we examine the caddisfly order (Trichoptera). Prof. Janos Olah who is the specialist of the Caddisflies described 44 new species. We have an idea that somebody can named the new species in an auction or somebody can buy its name. From the money what we will get from the auction we will support the nearest village foundation, and the continuation of the research. |
|
| Pricelist for 201210th September 2011 |
| Our new pricelist for 2012 is available in our website. Many people ask us what was changed since we open. First of all, we renewed all the bathrooms. New furniture was made, and all the bathroom have 24 hours hotwater. We made bigger and more comfortable moskitonet around the bed. You can put the fan and bedside under the new moskitonet. Our new safari boat will arrive in October. It will be bigger (13,5 m long), have more power (3 piece 200 Hp engines), and more comfortable (inside toilet and sundeck) than the old boats were. Unfortunatelly there is a new official rules that the price of the gasoline increased 50%, so we have to use to it |
|
| The Red Bird of Paradise9th September 2011 |
| We have cleaned the path to the Red Bird of Paradise, so now almost everybody can go to see them. Now we are prepare a comfortable hide, to see the male Red Bird of Paradise dances in the top of the tree every morning and afternoon. |
|
| Small things8th September 2011 |
| Our German and French guests were diving today in the Bogyo and Iguani reef, and afternoon in the Ayof reservatum. They saw 5 wobbegong in the Bogyo reef, a black seahorse Hippocampus severnsi (the earlier name was pontosi) in the Iguani reef, and a leaf-like gostpipefish (Solenostromus cyanopterus) in Ayof. |
|
| Manta's at The Limit4th September 2011 |
| I first have to say that at the moment there is rarely Manta's at the traditional Manta Point, but at The Limit they are there every day. This time we only did one quick dive there but we still counted 6 differents one coming back over and over trough all the dive. Remember this place is a play ground, a food spot and a cleaning at the same time. Perfect for Manta's, just remember that there is strong current. |
|
| Dugong is not gone2nd September 2011 |
| "Yes our Dugong is still around, its been 3 weeks now that we see him nearly every day. I personally think that he is a show off, but what more to say |
|
| Shark, Shark, Shark1st September 2011 |
| The best way to start a new month to dive with a bunch of Shark. 3 grey reef shark, 2 white tip, lots of black tip & 1 wobbegong, cool. But this is only one part of the outstanding marine life found at Sardine Reef. |
|
| Discovery of The Limit, Raja Ampat24th August 2011 |
| After diving there for the past 2 days I can now confirm a new spot for Mantas, we decided to call this place The Limit. The Limit is a playground, a cleaning station and a food station for more then 20 Mantas. The topography of this dive site is unique I never saw something quite like this before, cavern, swim trough, pool, over hang, wall and passage all mix up on one dive site. Due to is complexity being careful is important as the current can propel you in way you can not imagine. But this current is also the force that bring this place to life. The dive site also have many other guest like, Mobula Devil Ray, Giant Marble Sting Ray, Eagle ray, Bump Head, Shark (including Hammer Head sometime) and many other school of fish! Oh did I forget to mention Dolphin as well! |
|
| Discovery of Erwin Reef, Raja Ampat24th August 2011 |
| "As we where diving the limit our boat captain Erwin keep on talking about a place nearby where he said ""There is a lot of fish"". Well one thing I know about diving is that is always a good idea to listen to your captain and your girl friend as well. Well there was tons of fish, Eagle Ray, Wobbegongs, Whitetop, Barracuda, Trevalli's, Bat fish, Surgeon fish, Unicorn fish, Banner fish, Fusiliers and many more! Little cavern, beautiful coral garden lots of macro and more fish make this place a great no matter what you are looking for." |
|
| Full moon Dugong, Raja Amat21st August 2011 |
| Yes it is full moon and yes the Dugong is here! For the past 4 days our guest have been able to observe a Dugong right next to the restaurant every evening between 18h00 and 21h00. Seeing a Dugong is already something special, now seeing it every day is like winning the lottery! Never mind buying a lottery ticket, just come to Papua Paradise. |
|
| Bird Discovery Raja Ampat18th August 2011 |
| Yesterday going to one of our scenery trip we talk with a few people which told us that they had observe a colourful bird for quite a while and they wanted to show to us. So today we went to see this very pretty Red Bird of Paradise ( one of the 3 endemic bird of Raja Ampat). After a 25 minutes walk through the forest plus a 10 minute climbing we got to this big 60 meters tall tree where our guest could observe and listen for 1 hour more then 10 Red Bird of Paradise playing and singing between male and female. I have to say it was really cool! |
|
| Ray madness - Raja Ampat7th August 2011 |
| Fusilier Reef is a dive site which is what we call a fish dive. There is always a lot of fish there, from Barracuda to Snapper the reef contain a really nice diversity of fish. This dive was a bit special because on top of all the fish we encounter 3 giant marble Ray and 1 big porcupine Ray, quite a good surprise since both of them ray are not seen everyday. |
|
| Dive site discovery1st August 2011 |
| Here at Papua Paradise we never stop diving, we spent our free time diving for you. It mean that when we are not to busy we go on discovery dive to find you the best dive site in the Dampier strait. Sometime the dive are good and sometime they are just great, this is how we can select the best dive that will fit your profile. In the past week we discover 3 new dive site, Drift Rock, Forgotten Garden and Secret Reef which bring our total to 48 site. Keep in mind that some of them can be dive on both tide which mean 2 totally different dive per site. Imagine this, you can dive every day 4 dives a day and never dive the same place! Now this is really cool! |
|
| Dugong at the restaurant31st July 2011 |
| At 18:30 all our guest were going to take picture of this beautiful sunset from the jetty. Well none of them made it to this sunset as they started to walk on the jetty a little baby Dugong decided to entertain our guest. He stay with us for a good 20 minutes for the pleasure of our guest. It was our guest last day. Do you know any better way to finish a trip? |
|
| Secret Reef, Raja Ampat25th July 2011 |
| We where on our way to one of the best dive site we have ( Bogyo reef ), around 150 metres before Bogyo we realise that there was a parallel reef that appear to have a lot of fish, we quickly decided to stop the boat and have a quick look just to see what this reef look like. As we jump in the water we where immediately surrounded by fusiliers and could see this beautiful coral garden from the surface. We then decided to cancel the dive at Bogyo since the group already dive there and try this reef instead. As we went down the first big thing we saw was a eagle ray, the rest of the dive was just like swimming in a fish soup as school of fusiliers, banner fish, bat fish, surgeon fish, snapper and sweet lip where patrolling the reef in every direction. The coral garden is just like a garden of Eden... very impressive! I counted 8 different Napoleon wrasse in this dive. Since we have been diving Bogyo reef for 3 years now and we just realise that they was a reef just as good right next to it, we decided to call this one Secret Reef. |
|
| Passage trip Raja Ampat23th July 2011 |
| Passage is one of Raja Ampat highlight dive, if you love Macro and you enjoy drifting this trip is for you. The trip include visit of hidden bay follow by a snorkelling session in a mangrove, 1 passage dive, lunch next to the little cascade, tour around the mushroom island, visit of the bat cave & old Papuan cimetary, and 1 more dive. On our last dive at passage as we where drifting we counted over 20 different species of nudibranch and one big black tip reef shark. Our last dive of the day was a sunset dive at Mioskon Island...wow what a dive, the reef was alive so much stuff was happening, pelagic fish where hunting including the harks, schooling of fish going in every direction that it made it hard to know where to look. It was such a great dive that I have to place this it in my top 10 best twilight I ever did! |
|
| New dive site discovered in Raja Ampat20th July 2011 |
| After a beautiful dive at Fish Heaven we were all doing the normal safety stop when we realise that we are drifting on a new reef. Not to say the least we were all exited, the reef look very promising as many fish were observed from the distance. Follow up the next news on New dive site discovery as we did not dive there yet. |
|
| Mantas are still there9th July 2011 |
| We went on the passage trip with a few guests which is one of the highlight in Raja Ampat, on our way there we decided to check out if the Manta where still at Manta point. It was a good idea to have a look because we ended up having a great Manta dive. Even though we are not in Manta season any more, this is the proof that Mantas can be see all year in Raja Ampat. |
|
| Tons of Sharks at Sardine Reef, Raja Ampat8th July 2011 |
| Unlike is name suggest you will not find any Sardine over here but pretty much everything else.It name come from the fact that the density of fish found here is like a can of Sardine. Since there is so many fish here Sardine Reef is a perfect feeding ground for shark. In this dive we counted a minimum of 2 Grey Reef Shark, 3 White Tip Reef Shark, 7 Black Tip Reef Shark and 1 Wobbegong Shark. I say minimum because some of them where a bit far and we could not see if it was the same Shark again. One thing is for sure is that we where surrounded by Shark the entire dive. |
|
| Turtle again again & again4th July 2011 |
| It is normal to see Turtle in Raja Ampat but lately we have been seeing quite more then the normal average. I do not know why but I can say that in the past 3 weeks im been seeing at least a Turtle once a day sometime even 3 times on the same dive and sometime up to 5 in one day. When it Manta season we see Manta all the time now it look like its Turtle season even if there is no such thing. |
|
| New Dive Site - Bibbi s Reef30th June 2011 |
| On the way to one of our dive sites we decided to stop and checked an area which we never dived before, after we got there on the surface we could see a massive amount of fish. We checked it out on the surface and after that we decided to dive at this place. Beautifull! Black tip, White tip, Wobbegong, Barracuda, Bat fish, some smaller stuffs. . . what a great dive! We will check it out soon more and will describe you the whole dive sites in detail but for sure we will dive there soon again. The name of the reef will be named after our customers name Bibbi s Reef. Welcome in Raja Ampat. |
|
| Fish Heaven Raja Ampat29th June 2011 |
| Fish Heaven doesn t hold its name for nothing, this place is just pack with fish. Its a dive site we discover a few month ago which like his name says its Heaven for fish. Only 10 minutes by boat to see many Napoleon, bumphead, white tip, wobbegong, rays, puffer, eels and many more. School of barracuda, bat fish, sweet lips, surgeon fish and fusiller are just a few more that what you can really see over there. . .the list is too long. The coral garden is just mind blowing, outstanding bommie s totally cover with damsel fish bring this garden alive, many giant clam, fish fish and more fish. Only 2 words, Fish Heaven! |
|
| Dolphins behind Birie25th June 2011 |
| On this afternoon we where going to a dive site nearby for a bit of macro stuff, the dive was great but the real highlight of this dive was the six bottle nose Dolphin that we encounter on our way there. The dolphins came to play with us and race the boat for a good 10 minutes before going back to there regular business. |
|
| Night Dive at Dokri23rd June 2011 |
| Great are the night at Dokri island, on this dive we had 3 Wobbegong Sharks, one was swimming, of course the endemic Walking Shark, a big Green Turtle, Giant Moray, a few Painted Spiny Lobster, Decorator Crab, Boxer Crab, Shrimp and more of the nocturnal creature the list is too long. |
|
| New Flowers Decoration On The Resort5th June 2011 |
| Our island itself so far of course has already been pretty but since the arrival of the new management they really have brought some nice new ideas either to make a change as well as to make your eyes even look better. Our team is so enthusiastic in help and love to work with the new decoration, so we can say after couple of weeks ahead our resort soon will have a new touch. So come over, look and enjoy our place. |
|
| 3 New Species Of Fish Found In Raja Ampat27th May 2011 |
| Dr Mark Erdmann discovered 3 new species of fish bringing the total number of identified species in Raja Ampat up to 1414! He found 2 new cardinal fish from different genuses, Siphamia and Apogonichthyoides. The 3rd was a type of dartfish, Ptereleotris. |
|
| Shark finning26th May 2011 |
| Every year tens of millions of sharks die a slow death because of finning. Finning is the inhumane practice of hacking off the shark s fins and throwing its still living body back into the sea. The sharks either starve to death, are eaten alive by other fish, or drown (if they are not in constant movement their gills cannot extract oxygen from the water). Shark fins are being harvested in ever greater numbers to feed the growing demand for shark fin soup, an Asian delicacy. Not only is the finning of sharks barbaric, but their indiscriminate slaughter at an unsustainable rate is pushing many species to the brink of extinction. Since the 1970s the populations of several species have been decimated by over 95%. Due to the clandestine nature of finning, records are rarely kept of the numbers of sharks and species caught. Estimates are based on declared imports to shark fin markets such as Hong Kong and China. |
|
| Mandarin, Dragonnet & Nursalim s Flasher wrasse all in one25th May 2011 |
| Right in the back of our island we have one dive site for the Mandarin and one more for the Dragonnet.But not any more! Now we can combine both fish on a single dive. On top of this we can ad to this dive our pretty Nursalim s flasher wrasse, which is endemic from Raja Ampat. |
|
| The Storms are gone19th May 2011 |
| Earlier this year, since time immemorial not seen storms struck on Raja Ampat. Over the past 50 years, 3 largest storm raged between January and April 2011. However,as sudden it came as fast it disappeared the Storm season. More than a month ago we did not detect storms, and at the same time the water temperature reduced to 28 C. |
|
| Whales and mantas14th May 2011 |
| We went to do some diving in the area of Mansuar with our guest. As we were passing between the islands of Mansuar and Wai the magic words were said: There she blows! We saw the first sperm whale from a distance of about 2km. As we got closer we saw that four of them were gliding through the water. We kept our distance to about 50m to ensure we didnt disturb them. It was amazing to watch them. By the time we got to the manta point the weather deteriorated but we were lucky and 7 mantas still entertained our guests. |
|
| Wilson s Bird of Paradise12nd May 2011 |
| At dawn we left to go visitied our Wilson s Bird of Paradises. After an easy 20 minutes walk we reach our secret spot, thanks to mother nature we been having beautiful weather for over a week now, perfect for the bird. From here we could observed the play this exotic creature found no where else on earth. |
|
| More and more Baby sharks9th May 2011 |
| It is normal to see a few baby black tip reef sharks past in front or under the guest bungalows, but now there are so many that sometime its even hard to count how many they are, a few school of 15 to 20 black tip are patrolling the top of the house reef everyday. Simply they are everywhere. |
|
| Sharks at Kri Island5th May 2011 |
| Our guest were diving cape Kri when 5 Gray Reef Shark decided to come and do a 30 minutes parade. Later a 2 meters long White Tip Reef Shark came an join the show as well. Welcome to the Dampier strait! |
|
| The Asian Oriental Roller came back2nd May 2011 |
| For several months the Asian Roller (Euystomus orientalis) was missing from the list of birds observed on our island. The first specimen arrived at the end of April, while today on it can be seen almost every where on the island. It is now a common bird in Birie island. |
|
| Manta Point26th April 2011 |
| At Arborek Manta Point it becoming harder to count how many manta we see, as our guide counted at least 15 different one on 1 dive. Half were Black manta. |
|
| Dolphines at Bogyo-Reef26th April 2011 |
| Our dive boat meet with a group of 30 Bottlenose Dolphines at Bogyo Reef. The dolphin decided to race the boat, so we decided to race the dolphin, until now no one is sure who won the race. |
|
| New chef22nd April 2011 |
| Since we open in 2008 we always had positive feed back about our food, but wanting to improve more and more the food quality we try a few different chefs from the region, at the end of 2010 we finally found one! Joe our new chef is from Maluku Island and got his experience managing kitchens of the finest resorts and hotels in the area. He is a very accomplish chef who like to experiment new style and fusion. His colleague Aris which Joe recommended is also an outstanding chef, though he come from a different background working in large urban hotel, he bring his influence from Chinese fine cuisine combining the hot and spicy to our dish bringing us new flavours all the time. To guaranty satisfaction we use local product from nearby villages and the local market to ensure freshness to all our cuisine as well as supporting the local economy. With a bit of European influence to our Asian and Papua cuisine, merging the local spices to the European touch we can create unique international fusion dishes. |
|
| Baby turtles21st April 2011 |
| This morning as every body was making there way to the restaurant for breakfast quite a few of us was up for a surprise, as baby turtles where walking in every direction looking for the sea, all trough we collected over 30 turtles and help them to make there way to the sea. |
|
| Fish heaven again12nd April 2011 |
| An other great dive at Fish Heaven today, on top of all the regular reef and pelagic fish found here. On one bommie only we found 1 wobbegong, 1 epaulette shark and one giant moray. To top it off we had a few bumphead parrot fish and a manta that came to say hello, we also counted 4 giant clam all over 1 meter. |
|
| Fish heaven7th April 2011 |
| I went on a discover day with my group of 6 costumers…wow we discover 2 dive sites in one day, after the first dive we decided to call the dive site Fish Heaven due to the impressive amount of fish found there, but when we went the second dive site we got so much blown away that we just dive there the rest of the day and call this place instead Fish Heaven. It is like a fish soup you don t know where to look, the diversity and the amount of fish is just mind blowing! |
|
| Baby sharks at the Restaurant5th April 2011 |
| Regularly, half meter long black tip reef sharks can be seen from the guest bungalows terrace. The bay of the resort operate as shark nursery. Today 15 juvenile black tip were chasing other fish in front of the the Restaurant terrace for our guests pleasure. Such this large number of shark has never been seen here before. |
|
| Mantas again3rd April 2011 |
| The strong wind of the storm during the night has cleansed the waters of the region. Therefore today visibility was between 25 to 30 meter. So our group has seen not only the burly fish but they could film a meeting with 2 huge Manta at Millie s Reef. |
|
| At Arborek Manta point31st March 2011 |
| Our curious group was entertained by 7 huge Mantas, among them there were 4 speciment completely black. |
|
| Pulau Urun30th March 2011 |
| Pulau Urun is one of the most diverse privat dive site of ours. Here in one pleace we can observed the world of giants and dwarfs. So it was even now. Our guests met with two overflying Manta and 6 burly Eagle Rays. However, they could observed one-one pygme seahorse (Hippacampus bargibanti) on two different kind of Gorgonia. |
|
| Manta at Millie s reef 28th March 2011 |
| During today s dive at Millie s reef our guests met with lot of fishes, barakuda, jackfishe, tuna fishe. The team was also visited by a giant manta. |
|
| Fantastic dives in the Dampier strait27th March 2011 |
| We when to the Dampier strait for a 3 dives trip ( Mioskon, Mike's Point and Cape Kri) and what a trip it was! Apart from all the regular reef and pelagic fish witch are find in huge number over there. On every dive, we had many Wobbegong and Black Tip Reef Shark. We also encounter 6 Eagles Rays and on ours way back got forced to slow down to enjoy around 30 Pilot Whales doing us private show. Macro or wide angle, its hard to say just bring 2 cameras! |
|
| Manucode at our Island25th March 2011 |
| On Birie Island occasionlly appear the Manucode, one of the common Bird of Paradise species in the area. However, we have never observed what our Germany guests experienced. Beata and Martin noticed, that at on one of the furit tree sometimes 4-5 or more Glossy Mantled Manucode (Manucodia ater) feast regularly. |
|
| Night dive at Dokri21st March 2011 |
| Our Germany guest wish come ture during night dive when she met 2 walking sharks. They were lucky to take picture of a Batfish with fascinating black and orange colours. |
|
| Dugong on the Service Side20th March 2011 |
| We hosted Otto C. Honegger Swiss wildlife film maker and Edi Frommenwiller who was one of the discoverer of Raja Ampat (Owner of Pindito Liveabord) when we received the news about a dugong which was swimming near by the jetty at the service side. Luckily they were able to film it. |
|
| Mantas at Arborek19th March 2011 |
| We visited the Mantas with our German geusts. There was big urging the rotation at the cleaning station. Usually 6-7 Mantas were floated in front of the divers. Because of the big success, our guests fullfill their dive there for three times. Of course, next to the Manatas the small things turned up as well. Such as sea moth, minimum 6 different kind of Nudy, pipe fishies, crebs asn cleaning shrimps. |
|
| Nuclear power plant explosion in Japan17th March 2011 |
| We were sorry to read the story in Japan about the Fukushima nuclear power station explosions. Since Fukushima is more than 4300 km far from our Resort, neither the Resort nur the safty of our guests is not under Risk. |
|
| Earthquake in Japan11st March 2011 |
| One of the most powerful recorded earthquake in Japan. The 8.9-strength quake has induced tsunami but before it reached West Papua region, it completely lost its strength. In the Resort we did not feel anything from this. |
|
| New collagues has arrived9th March 2011 |
| Mel (Melanie) from Germany and Dex (Dieter) from Canada after their visit in February, have already came back to work with us. Earlier they worked for many years in Malaysia and Thailand as a Resort Manager and as an Instructor. Both of them are dive Instructors and they start their work in Paradise with big hopes. Our Resort staff next to the Hungarian language can serve the need of the guest in Engilsh, French, Germany and Indonesian. |
|
| Millie-reef, the new dive site7th March 2011 |
| We found a new big fish dive site from the Resort of quarter of an hour. The small sized of underwater reef top is at a depth of 5 m and because of the strong current as a result is almost always found a strong flow of Spanish Makrella, huge batfish swarm, burly Bump head parrot fish, 3 types of about 200 Barracuda and the inevitable bumphead parrot fish and nearly 1,5 m long groupers. |
|
| Mantas against the Resort4th March 2011 |
| After lunch as a break time we went back to Manta point with our guests. Where more than 40 Manta were waiting for the group which we could snorkel with. |
|
| Rays, rays, rays2nd March 2011 |
| Our guests dived at Bogyo-Reef in 29 degrees water. 4 Eagle Rays were waiting for them and for several minutes accompanied the divers. After this dive on the way back home we went to check our Manta Point where 4 burly Manta Rays were spending time at the cleaning station. |
|
| Dugong on the House Reef1st March 2011 |
| The Resort Manager s wife goes swimming everyday in front of the guest bungalows on the house reef. This morning she met with a dugong accompanied by bat fishes. They looked and checked out each other meticulously, then they boths swam their way. |
|
| Mobula on the house-reef1st March 2011 |
| Our Hungarian guests were entertained by 7 enormous Mobula during the check dive at the House-reef. They swam away only after 3 times back and forth for a swimming presentation. |
|
| Wilson s Bird of Paradise27th February 2011 |
| Early morning our guests from Switzerland went to watch the Wilson s Bird of Paradise. After waiting for 2 hours they displayed. The males were cleaning the playground and then with their sound and colourfull feather attract the hens. They could observed and took pictures from 5 birds. |
|
| Filming walking shark26th February 2011 |
| The German Oceanfootage group in the last days were filming walking shark (Bamboo Shark) and carpet shark (Wobegong) at the Resort s dive sites. Boths species are endemic to the region shark species, divers can only meet with both of them here. 6 walking shark was filmed and observed at the House-reef at service side of the resort. |
|
| Fantastic dive at Kampung Baru3rd February 2011 |
| We dived with some of our Chinese guests at Kampung Baru Corner. Even the start was good, immediately we met 2 eagle ray. Later on we could take picturs from a bamboo shark and 10 different kind of Nudibranches. The peak of the dive was still the 2 yellow Hippocamus pontohi and 5 pieces of Hippocamus bargibani what we found and took pictures. |
|
| Mantas in front of the Resort2nd February 2011 |
| Our American guests just had lunch at the Restaurant when mantas appeared in front of the coral reef of the guest's houses. They were jumping out from the sea for more than one hour, sometimes they jump out with their whole bodies from the water. There were at least five mantas and everyone had the opportunity to observe them. Hopefully, in the next days we meet with them under water as well. |
|
| Our friend the Marbled ray28th January 2011 |
| In the first of the day we had more than one surprise. The highlight of this dive was for sure the 1.50m wide female Marbled Ray,we also had the common Tasselled Wobbegong Shark, a nice big Blacktip reefshark, a group of Humphead perrot fish and a lot of more. |
|
| The male pipe fish - the difference between them and the human nature27th January 2011 |
| Do you know that the male Pipe fish carry the eggs under his body? We could see it and have it now on picture. |
|
| Nudis in Raja Ampat26th January 2011 |
| Only in one dive we found in a area of 10m radius 14 different species of nudibranch next to cleaner shrimps, pipe fishs and flatworms including a Giant Flathead. These are the Latin name of the nudis we found: Bornella Anguilla, Chromodoris annae, Flabellina Exoptata, Godiva quadricolor, Halgerta Carlsoni, Hypselodoris Maculosa, Nembrotha Chamberlaini variant, Phylidia acellata, Phylidia varicose, Phylidia pustulosa, Phylidiopsis Shireenae, Risbecia tryony, last one is unidentified yet. For all macro lovers - you missed a great dive. |
|
| In front of your bungalow23rd January 2011 |
| Just arrived in the resort our guest get the first surprise, if you go out of your bungalow you can see all the time little baby blacktips in the shallow water but on this day there waited for us a big blacktip in the shallow water - welcome in Paradise. |
|
| Dugongs moved in?19th January 2011 |
| Dugongs appeared over the past few days at the service side. Our guests could regularly snorkel with them and could even take pictures. The animals appeared again the next day. |
|
| Still Dugongs4th January 2011 |
| Over the past two weeks dugongs regularly appeared at the service side of the Resort. Our guests could see them regularly. |
|
| Dugongs again24th December 2010 |
| Dugongs appeared again in the afternoon lights, just like a Christmas gift. This time there were two of them and they spent their time at the back side as well. |
|
| Dugong at the service side19th December 2010 |
| A dugong has visited the Resort service side in the afternoon. Stayed there for a long time and all interested parties were able to observe him while he turned up during his snack. |
|
| A new pipefish?14th December 2010 |
| We could observe a never-seen-garfish species with our guests. First at Kampung Baru, then at Kapasbow dive site. Finally to be found at Manta Point, too. We hope it will turn out soon exactly what kind of rare or new species we have found. |
|
| Devil scorpionfish7th December 2010 |
| Sometime we visit that muddy place with full of various tiny miracles near the neighbouring 'New-Village' (Kampung Baru). We have been lucky this time again, as we found the Devil Scorpionfish. |
|
| Visiting the Wilson Bird of Paradise28th November 2010 |
| We visited the home of a Wilson Bird of Paradise with our Swedish guests. They had the chance to observe the male bird a few times and one female also made an appearance. We witnessed the very special act of staying on the ground and checking out his home. |
|
| Meeting with the swordfish 27th November 2010 |
| We were on our way to our next dive site with our German guests when we saw a huge dorsal fin. When we got a bit closer we saw a 2.5m long sword fish peacefully resting on the surface of the water. When the fish realised our presence it escaped with unbelievable speed even jumping out of the water a few times while swimming. Experts say that the swordfish is one of the fastest of the oceans reaching 100 km/h. |
|
| Trip on the Passage 26th November 2010 |
| We went to the Passage with our Swiss guests. One of our guests, Peter Johansson, managed to observe a few specimen of the White-tailed Tropicbird (Phaethon lepturus). |
|
| Mantas at Aborek25th November 2010 |
| We took our German, Spanish and Swedish guests to Aborek, the place of mantas. First there were only three mantas but more and more appeared later on. At the end of the dive there were twelve huge 3 to 5 meter long specimens some completely black in colour. We are so happy. The mantas are back! |
|
| Mantas at the pier23rd November 2010 |
| The guys were waiting for the new guests at the pier when a 4 meter long manta appeared in the water. It was circling in the water for 15 minutes then it disappeared. Maybe the mantas are back? |
|
| Dugong at the restaurant22nd November 2010 |
| During the evening when it was full moon and the tide was in a dugong visited the grassy waters in front of the restaurant. It had a little feast then minding his own business swam away. |
|
| Hunting wobbegong 20th November 2010 |
| We dived on Bogyo reef with our German and Swiss guests. The team had such an amazing experience that no diver had ever had before. Near our dive base we have seen the same wobbegong almost everyday, however, during the last three years we only saw it swim on ten occasions as it normally just rests at the bottom of the sea. Today was a different day! We had the chance to observe the way it hunts and feeds. The over two meter long specimen first lifted its tail above its head and slowly dangled it from side to side. Pretty much immediately an abundance of small fish surrounded the shark’s tail then the predator struck. It repeated the hunting and feasting up to ten times during 15 minutes. The team watched on from a very close distance (approx two metres) we will never forget this day! |
|
| A trip on the island of Fam 16th November 2010 |
| We dived near the island of Fam with our German, Russian and Swiss guests. During both dives the water was very crowded. Hundreds of barracudas, huge jacks and human size groupers followed us around. Of course wobbegongs made an appearance as well and a black tip also joined the party. To finish the day on a high we managed to take a picture of a rare type of snail, the Notodornis minor. |
|
| Still Wilson Bird of Paradise 5th November 2010 |
| During our walk in the jungle this morning we have found the homes of two Wilson BOP. It is easy to access both places and observe without disturbing the birds. Despite the bad rainy weather we still managed to see one of them. |
|
| Wilsons Bird of Paradise 3rd November 2010 |
| The Wilsons Bird of Paradise was still hunted in the second half of the last century. Usually they end up in a museum or in private homes as stuffed trophies, or sometimes they were hunted for their feathers by the locals. However, these practices have mostly disappeared. The local culture has also changed. Nowadays hardly anyone walks the forests and it is a tall task in Raja Ampat to find a young local who knows the forest, animals and birds anymore. The Bela Rotan - Wilson BOP - is considered as one of the most mysterious and illusive birds. There are villages where only the older generation (over 60 years old) has seen this bird and they can only recall the encounter from decades ago. Therefore it was a big challenge to find this bird as we couldnt expect much help from the locals. After weeks of searching we heard the bird calling from three different directions in a valley which has never been visited by a white man before. Now the challenge remains to locate the few square metre place where the bird lives in the jungle. |
|
| Visiting the island of Mansuar 2nd November 2010 |
| We popped over to the neighbouring island of Mansuar for a couple of dives. In the almost still water we saw a couple of black tips, one wobbegong, one pigmy seahorse (Hippocampus bargibanti) and three of the same nudi species that we have never seen before. |
|
| A new species of bird on the island of Birie31st October 2010 |
| While we were on a bird watching trip with our guests we were lucky enough to have the chance to observe the Red-throated myzomela, which has never been seen on our island before. |
|
| The day of the seahorses 30th October 2010 |
| We went to see some mantas with our German guests at Arborek. During the second dive we bumped into a black seahorse (a Hippocampus severnsi) and then we were lucky enough to also see a yellow one (Hippocampus pontohi). But its not the end of the story as during our night dive on the island of Dokri (next to our dive base) we found a white specimen of the Hippocampus cilemani. Stephan took some excellent photos of it. To make the dive even more exciting our guests also found a 10 cm long frogfish. It was an amazing dive. |
|
| Denise turned up on28th October 2010 |
| After amazing dive at Bogyó reef, we dived at P-47 Thunderbolt wrack. From the wrack only 30 meter far away a Denise Seahorse (Hippocampus denise) turned up as well. |
|
| Yet another new species27th October 2010 |
| We dived Maik s Point at a very strong current when we found a 4cm long fast moving yellow sea worm, which has never been seen before. Australian experts immediately realised that we have discovered a new species (this is the fifth one) and we named it the Phyllodoce millii (Horvath, 2010). |
|
| Earthquake in West Sumatra27th October 2010 |
| On the 26th of October the Richter scale 7.2 earthquake shook the Indonesian coast of West Sumatra. Since the earthquake location is 3500 km far from our Resort as the crow flies (between us there is Borneo and Sulawesi), we did not sense anything. We just heard about this incidence from those who contacted us. |
|
| Hippocampus bargibanti26th October 2010 |
| We were diving near Paulau Urun when at a depth of 16 meters we found a couple of specimens of Hippocampus bargibanti, which is the third separate species of pigmy seahorse that we have identified in the area. |
|
| Birding on the island24th October 2010 |
| When our guests are interested in the subject and we have an expert on hand we do bird watching trips. The best time to observe the birdlife on the island is between 5 and 6pm. We have a purpose built hide where we use a 60X binocular to get a good view. There are regular sights of the White-bellied Sea-Eagle, the Osprey and the Brahmin Kite. On occasions we have the pleasure to see the New Guinea Harpy-Eagle, the Long-tailed Buzzard and the Gray-Headed Goshawk. We have regular sightings of the Palm Cockatoo and the Sulphus-Crested Cockatoo, as well as the Eclectus Parrot, the Papuan Lorikeet and the Rainbow Lorikeet. Pigeons are common such as the Pinon Imperial Pigeon and the Spice Imperial Pigeon. However, the Pied Imperial Pigeon and the White-throated Pigeon can be seen less often. The Yellow-bellied Sunbird, the Glossy-mantled Manucode, the Torresian Crow and the Singing starling are often seen on the island while the Spangled Drongo is heard but not often seen. The Blyth s Hornbill can be observed often while the Moustached Tree-swift hardly appears. The two most common birds on our island (or might be just the loudest) are the Helmeted Friarbird and the Willie Wagtail. Nevertheless the Beach Kingfisher and the Rufous-bellied Kookaburra are just as often around and if Bogyo the dog doesn t scare it away the Common Scrubfowl seems to like the area as well. So bird watching is a brilliant sport to do on the island! |
|
| Popped out to the neighbours again23rd October 2010 |
| We dived around the islands of Arborek and Mansuar. The main highlights of our trip are three black tips, one of which was between 4 and 5 meters long, one white Denise seahorse (Hippocampus denise), one nudi and one sea worm which are waiting to be identified. |
|
| Visiting the neighbours22nd October 2010 |
| Visited the nearby islands of Kir and Waigeo. We completed three dives and we could say that the dives went well. We saw two wobbegong, two walking sharks, one black tip and a black seahorse (Hippocampus severnsi). |
|
| A new kingfisher21st October 2010 |
| For the first time in the upper mangroves of the Sharinam river we observed a blue and black kingfisher (Halcyon nigrocyanea). |
|
| An almost new species of nudi18th October 2010 |
| We were diving on the house reef with our German guests when a beautifully colourful (blue, reddish brown and black) nudi made an appearance. First we thought we had found a new species but according to the experts, this specimen belongs to a known species of the Thuridilla hoffae. |
|
| Trip to the passage14th October 2010 |
| We had a day trip with our American, English and German guests. First we had a look at the painted handprints on the rocks then we went to snorkel in the Hidden Bay. Following these activities we went to dive the Passage, which turned out to be a rather exciting dive as the current was very strong. One of our guests diving for thirty years felt like he is superman while doing the dive. It was a real thrill! After that we sailed to the bat cave where we had a look at the bats and House-martins then we had a look at a traditional burial ground. We finished the day with another dive on the island of Kri. Our guests agreed that it was their best ever dive (some of them had 5 years dive experience some of them 30 years) considering the amount of fish they saw. We saw an abundance of black and white tips, tuna and jack fish, Napoleon and child size sea bass. After an amazing day everyone could enjoy the sunset from their own terrace. |
|
| Sharks on Bogyo reef 9th October 2010 |
| The current was stronger then usuall and there were more fish on the reef then ever before. First we saw a white tip shark followed by a huge Napoleon fish and later on a few hump-head parrot fish showed themselves. To finish the dive we managed to take a few shots of a wobbegong. It was a brilliant day! |
|
| Rays on Bogyo reef 3rd October 2010 |
| Bogyo reef is one of our most popular big fish, open sea dive sites. There are always large baracudas, jackfish, humphead parrot fish and black tips. A Napoleon fish is a regular visitor who comes to check us out, which is a real sight in this part of the world. During today s dive the team saw a huge 1.5 meter long spike ray. The team was still swimming after the huge ray when a 3 meter long manta ray sailed across the water above us. We love Bogyo reef. |
|
| Here is all well!30th September 2010 |
| According to the WWF Indonesia, coral-bleaching can be seen across Indonesia s coral reefs. Experts blame water movements during September 2009 and the ever increasing water temperatures for the unwanted change. Coral bleaching happens when the algae, which live in symbiosis with the corals, die. Of course the rise in the water temperature does not respect boarders, therefore, the whole of the Andaman Sea is impacted by the temperature change. This includes the Maldives, reefs from the north tip of Sumatra to Thailand where the sea water temperature broke all records and reached 34 degrees in May of this year. The most dramatic changes that experts have ever identified can be seen in Aceh, Indonesia where 60% of the corals are impacted. Other places impacted by a dramatic decline in the health of the coral reefs are the islands of Bali, Alor and the Wakatobi island group. Out of these the Wakatobi islands group shows the most damage where coral bleaching affects approx 35% of the coral reefs. We feel it is important to emphasise that around Raja Ampat the water temperature has never risen above 30degrees and there is no sign of any damage to the coral including coral bleaching! |
|
| Boat trip 29th September 2010 |
| We went on a speed boat trip with our German guests. About half an hour away from our resort we bumped into a thousand strong pod of dolphins. Even our well travelled and regulary diving guests agreed that they have never seen anything like it before. To make the day even more amazing a 8 meter long Minke Whale joined us later in the day. |
|
| Island of Dokri 28th September 2010 |
| We took our Australian guests for a dive around the island of Dokri. The most interesting encounters during our dive were a snoozing wobbegong and a walking shark. |
|
| Trip to Cape Kri 28th September 2010 |
| We arranged a trip to the neighbouring island, Kri, with our guests. The most interesting moment of our dive was a visit from a grey reef shark. |
|
| Diving around Mansuar 27th September 2010 |
| We went for a dive around the island of Mansuar with our German guests. During the dive we were lucky enough to see a couple of wobbegongs. One of them was sleeping on a lettuce coral, we managed to take some amazing shots. Later on we bumped into a white pigmy seahorse (Hippocampus denise) providing further photo opportunities. We ended the dive with a few great photos of a huge, 15cm long Pseudoceros dimidiatus sea slug. What a dive! |
|
| Still on the house reef 25th September 2010 |
| Today was the day of the turtles. The team met four of them during our dive and one of them was having a meal in a huge cave full of glass fish. When finished munching the turtle slowly moved out of the cave and casually swam away. The school of glass fish slowly like a curtain opened up as the turtle was making his way out. It was a truly unique experience. In addition to this we encountered five different nudi species as well as three pieces of sea slug. |
|
| Lets look around on the house reef!23rd September 2010 |
| We did all the check dives on the house reef today. Above the untouched lettuce corals a 1.5 meter long black tip was hunting and later on an eagle ray also visited the reef. She is a regular visitor and makes snorkelling much more exciting than usual. Apart from the huge hump-head parrot fish the Crytocentrus cinctus goby was the most interesting thing to see. |
|
| The return of the mantas?20th September 2010 |
| During a check dive, only about 20 meters from the jetty, our attention was drawn to a 3 meter long manta sailing across the waters. The plankton bloom has just started turning the waters into a thick soup like feeding ground. Our house mantas should also be coming back soon. |
|
| 2 meter long sea snake5th September 2010 |
| At the Arefi Berauk dive site we bumped into a sea snake. We have never seen such a large specimen before. It was approx 2 meters long and the size of a wrist in diameter. Our experienced dive partners agreed that such size may not even be real. |
|
| Wind from the south-west?August-September 2010. |
| Based on the last few years and centuries of local knowledge the wind from the South (really it is a South Westerly wind) arrives around August-September. During this time sailing becomes very difficult for 2 to 4 days a week. Luckily our resort and dive centre enjoys a sheltered position, thanks to the large island of Batanta, consequently our guests are hardly affected by this phenomenon. However, this year the Southerly wind and the choppy conditions did not arrive at all! |
|
| Diving at Pulau Dua with our Dutch guests14th August 2010 |
| While we were diving at Paulau Dua with our Danish guests we found a rather large palemargin grouper under a good size coral-reef. Only when we moved a bit closer did we realise that the 30 cm long grouper was dead and strangely its mouth was wide open. After a closer look we realised that a 9 cm long puffer fish (Papuan toby) was stuck in its mouth and the puffer was still alive. It could not escape from the dead fish s mouth cavity as its body was caught in the dead fish s teeth. We managed to free the puffer which swam away happily. It is likely that the grouper caught the puffer which puffed itself up in its mouth. As the puffer expanded in size it stopped the grouper to use its gills effectively and eventually the grouper suffocated without releasing the puffer. A slow death would have awaited the puffer as well if we didn t find him. |
|
| Wobbegongs10th August 2010 |
| Our French and Dutch guests during their dive at Lalosi reef observed 8 wobbegongs (carpetshark). Although these shark species are not uncommon, it is exceptionally lucky to see so many wobbegongs during one dive. |
|
| Trip to Passage16th July 2010 |
| During the first dive of our beautiful trip at Manta Point we had a real manta show of more than 10 white and black mantas coming towards us from all directions sometimes even in groups of 4 and 5 during the whole dive. Besides visiting the Papuan traditional burial location and bat cave, the main attraction of the day was the Passage. After diving in the caves at the beginning of the dive we found many amazing colourful nudibranchs. Right after we had a turtle then 1.5 meters long white tip shark swimming along with us for a few minutes. Our memorable dive ended with a beautiful surprise of an eagle ray breaking the silence underwater. |
|
| Visiting Manta Pont at Arborek15th July 2010 |
| The first dive of the trip was at the Manta Pont. Four mantas (black and white) were entertaining our guests during the entire dive. At the second dive we saw 3 really large size wobbegong sharks at the close by Lalosi reef. |
|
| Sargassum frogfish at the housereef1st July 2010 |
| The currents bring smaller and larger seagrasses close to our housereef. This is where we found a 12 cm long sargassum frogfish( Histrio histrio) travelling on a seagrass at the surface. |
|
| Palm Cockatoos on the island26th June 2010 |
| The palm seeds have ripened on the huge trees of the island. Now these trees are the kingdom of the Palm Cockatoo from dawn till dusk: it's amazing to observe them while having a nap, excersizing and looking around. Even 6 to 8 of them can be seen together. We can't have such an amazing view anywhere else! |
|
| Dugongs again20th June 2010 |
| While the crew was taking the boat back to the service side from the dive center they met 2 dugongs. Mammy duggong and her baby were swimming towards the seagrass to have dinner. |
|
| Giants and Pygmyes19th June 2010 |
| A school of barracuda was welcoming us at the beginning of the dive. They must have been around 20, even the smallest one was larger than 1 meter. Then a few really large tunas came along with the current. We were very excited to search for pygmies at the gorgonias. We found a pink Hippocampus denise at the first one and two Hippocampus bargibanti at the second gorgonia. These tiny creatures made our day really special! |
|
| Ghost pipe fish at Goa Kecil18th June 2010 |
| Our dive team found a white ghost pipe fish at the very beginning of our dive. We have not seen this spiece in Raja Ampat before. A little later there was a hiding octopus with a few dancing shrimps along the reef. We saw at least 8 nudibranchs during our dive. The most interesting was an unknown spiece from the Chromodorididae family. |
|
| Black Rock13rd June 2010 |
| Black Rock is among our favourite macro dive sites. Besides the wonderful tod fish and huge wobbegong we also found 13 species of nudibranchs. Mentioning some of the best ones: Chromodoris coi, Chromodoris kunei, Glossodoris cruenta, Jorunna funebris and Phyllidia ocellata made our dive really pleasant. |
|
| Ayofi Reserve11st June 2010 |
| Our new dive manager dived at the reserve for the first time. Ayofi as always showed its best. First an eagle ray flew above us, then we met a few huge bumpheads, more than one meter long ones. We also found a more than 3 meters long wobbegong which had two little shrimps cleaning his back. We were looking for pygmys on the gorgonias at 30 meters, but we could not find any. One of our dive guide found a black nudibranch. We have not seen this species before and we could not even find it in the nudibranch index. |
|
| Dokri again8th June 2010 |
| We had a check dive without guets at Dokri today. The huge barracudas and tunas are still there as usual. Even the 2 meters long reef shark appearing from the blue was not surprising. The real surprise was to find 2 pink Denise (Hippocampus denise) pigmy seahorse during browsing a gorgonia. |
|
| Trip to the Passage1st June 2010 |
| We organised this trip for our German guests, it included a few more additional programs as well. Our group started with a short snorkelling in Hidden bay of Gam island. Then we proceeded to dive at the narrow channel of Passage which is located between Gam and Waiego islands. First we explored the underwater caves, then we began to look for nudibranchs. We found more than 25 species during the 90 minutes long dive. We also identified an undescribed species of Thorunna (family Chromodorididae) and a Chromodoris fidelis as well. After having lunch beside a small waterfall we went to see the beautiful mushroom formed islands, the traditional burial place and the bat cave as well. On the way home we dived at Chicken reef where we found a bargibanti, a walking shark, 2 turtles, a white tip reef shark, a huge fan tale sting ray, a really beautiful wobeggong, a few really nice and young crocodile fish, an orange Thacacera and a Glossodoris stellata from the nudibranch family. Does it sound exciting enough? |
|
| Terns at Pulau Dua30th May 2010 |
| We went to look around in Pulau Dua islands between 2 fantastic dives. We found the nesting place of 3 different Tern birds in one of the desert islands. The Bridled Tern (Sterna anaethetus) breeding in the largest number. There were the species of the Crested Turn (Sterna bergii) and the Black-naped Tern (Sterna sumatrana) also. We could also observe a few Black Noddy (Anous minutus) too. We did not moor on this island naturally, we did not want to disturb the birds. |
|
| Birds of Paradise29th May 2010 |
| We left for Batanta island to look for Birds of Paradise with our Swedish guest in the middle of the night. We approached the other side of the island with our motorboat, then after an hour walk we finally reached the mountain top at sunrise. This is where the most beautiful bird of our Planet was waiting for us, the Wilson s Bird of Paradise. We admired the bird for 2 hours while we took pictures and videos as well. The distance between our guest and the bird was around 4-5 meters most of the times. On our way down from from the mountain we got to meet the other endemic bird of Raja Ampat, the Red Bird of Paradise. We had another small excursion in Salawati island in the afternoon in research of the King Bird of Paradise. We did not manage to see the colourful male, but we could observe the female feeding her baby just flewn out of the nest very well. |
|
| Mantas28th May 2010 |
| The mantas are gone 3 weeks ago from the Secret Manta Point of our dive center. Only a few appear occasionally. Therefore we took our guests to the well known Manta Point at Arborek. At the first dive 7 mantas were entertaining our team with their wonderful show. There were 3 black ones, one of them more than 5 meters long! The broken tailed one was also here which we meet regularly during the past 4 years. The visibility was worse during the second dive, 7 mantas showed off at this time however. The black ones were represented by only 2 smaller individuals. While waiting we met a very charming filefish (Rudarius minutus). |
|
| Frogfish at Wai Island27th May 2010 |
| Our team dived at the wreck of the P47 (Thunderbolt) airplane, next to Wai Island. At the beginning of the dive a blue-brown frogfish turned up at 14 metres, which was found by Rainer, our German guest. Later on we found again 2 of the red coloured Denis sea-horses (Hippocampus denise) at the tail of the machine. |
|
| Dive at Pulau Uru26th May 2010 |
| We dived at the exterior arc of Pulu Uru with our guests. It took us by surprise to have a visibility of 15 meters which was worse than expected. This did not spoil the team s mood however. First we found 2 pygmy sea-horses (Hippocampus bargibanti). And a huge manta flew above us in the same moment against current. A little bit higher up a 2 metres long wobbegong was waiting for us, we also met 2 turtles (none one them woke up from our visit). We saw a one and a half meters long white tip reef shark too. We felt that all this was enough for one dive. |
|
| Birds of Paradise23rd May 2010 |
| We made a smaller excursion on Batanta island with an early dawn departure, searching for new birds of paradise observing places. We found the Red birds of Paradise after a 20 minutes boat ride and a half an hour long easy walk from our resort. We managed to observe at least 4 birds in the tall foliage. |
|
| There are less enjoyable dives too19th May 2010 |
| There is a slightly bare shoal made by the flows hundred meters from the house reef in front of the guest houses. We roamed the exterior side of this. Although the place could be a big fish area considering its position, but it did not provide a similar spectacle as Dokri now. The truth is that we saw 2 turtles and we found 2 pygmy sea-horses again finally (Hippocampus bargibanti) too. The Tambja morose was the most beautiful one among all the nudies. |
|
| The day of the nudibranchs17th May 2010 |
| New dive at the black rocks (Kampung Baru - Black rocks). We found 10 nudibranchs at least alltogether. Chelidonura varians, Sebadoris nubilosa, Chromodoris leoparda, Chromodoris tritos, Chromodoris coi are the most beautiful of the area. |
|
| New dive sites12nd May 2010 |
| Exploring our surrounding area, looking for new dive sites are also part of our dive center’s everyday activities. This is how we found the reef behind Kampung Baru. We were diving from one miracle to the other until the last moment of our 75 minutes long dive. First we saw 2 octopuses without observing any usual shy behaviour, then a todfish was posing in front of our cameras. Later we found a white tip reef shark sleeping in a small cave, and then we saw 8 different species of nudibranches. We ended our dive with seeing a ghost pipe fish at 3 meters in an environment without any current. It was a wonderful dive! |
|
| Walking shark at the house reef9th May 2010 |
| Our guests like snorkelling on their last day or in between two dives usually. Our Hungarian guest saw a walking shark about 20 meters away from the dive center. They can be followed, observed for houres. We ended the dive after taking a few pictures. |
|
| Dokri4th May 2010 |
| Dokri has always been one of our favourite Big Fish dive sites.It was even more special today. At first we saw a 2 meters long reef shark followed by an eagle ray. Then we saw black tip reef sharks again. The biggest one must have been the size of a man. One meter large bumphead parrot fish were following us, two of them became our dive buddies. At last another eagle ray and a small turtle joined us at the end of our 50 minutes dive program. |
|
| Waisai s Birthday3rd May 2010 |
| The one week long birthday festival of the capital of Raja Ampat has started today. We were also present of course. On the way to Waisai we had the enormous pleasure to encounter a group of 50 - 100 pilot whales and dolphins swimming along our boat. |
|
| Sperm whales again1st May 2010 |
| We were cruising back home from Sorong shopping trip when we met two 15 -16 meters long sperm whales cruising the waves about 20 meters from our boat.They did not bother while we were beside. |
|
| Dugong on the service side30th April 2010 |
| The hightide arriving with the full moon invited a dugong to the seagrass of our housereef. We could hear his sound in the middle of the night. |
|
| Sperm whales come to visit28th April 2010 |
| The team was getting ready for the next dive in the harbour when opposite the guest houses approx 200m from the shore two sperm whales appeared. They were spurting water out and playing then they slowly swam away toward the East. As they swam further away one of them made a playful jump out of the water. |
|
| The house reef can be dangerous sometimes26th April 2010 |
| Our guests are used to the appearance of occasional sharks, octopus, rays or other beautiful creatures under the guest houses and restaurant. However it is essential that we remain observant and careful as today under the no.10 guesthouse a rather large stonefish was bobbing around and not far from him we observed a 20cm long sea snake. |
|
| Tawyn nurse shark under the jetty24th April 2010 |
| A 1.5 m long tawyn nurse shark visited our house reef again. She circled under the jetty for a while and time to time a half meter long black tip followed her around. |
|
| New reefs23rd April 2010 |
| We dived a new reef in the open sea with our German guests. The pristine water around the reef provides home to untouched corals, many different groups of fish and of course nudis. At the end of our dive while undertaking the safety stop at 5m two giant mantas circled around us. We identified them, based on their interesting white patterned wings, as the same mantas we met at the beginning of week at Palau Dua. The afternoon dive brought some more new and amazing experiences by diving yet again at a new dive spot, which we named Tapor Ingkassiow. |
|
| Brown boobies in the area21st April 2010 |
| After a big thunder storm some brown boobies visited the area for couple of days. These birds hunt for fish by darting into the water catching their prey under water and they are very rare visitors to the area. |
|
| Diving the Wai Wall20th April 2010 |
| Our German guests enjoyed a classic wall dive with us taking them to the cave entrance at 30m. On the way to the dive a twenty strong dolphin group swam along our speedboat. During the dive we met a wobbegong, a black tip, a turtle and nine different kind of nudi. On the way home we popped in to see the manta rays. Our guests were snorkelling with 30 to 50 mantas (the truth is that the mantas came to see us rather than the other way around) and we also found the time to have a dive at a cleaning station at 12m. |
|
| Tourist Information Centre opens in Bali15th April 2010 |
| The mayor of Raja Ampat (Drs. Marcus Wanna) believes that the future of the area lies in ecotourism. In recognition of this he opened Raja Ampat Information Centre at Bali Island (Sanur, Despensar, J1 By Pas Ngurah Eai No. 88/B). Where anyone interested in the area can get detailed information about its diving centres and other activities in the area. |
|
| Baby shark show30th March 2010 |
| Our team had a very exciting dive with extremely curious and playful white and black tip reef baby sharks at the dive site Paradise. |
|
| Spotted mandarinfish26th March 2010 |
| A new fish curio turned up in the vicinity of the resort base. The patchy tangerine fish (Spotted mandarinfish=Picture dragonet)can be found only in the Philippines and some Indonesian islands according to the literature. These beauties are not as shy as their relatives. They are easier to be observed and to be taken picture of. The new pictures have already been added into our gallery. |
|
| Dugong again 21st March 2010 |
| Early in the morning a dugong has visited our Austrian s couple (at guest house, number 2). The Dugong was seen having seagrass for breakfast in front of the guest house terrace, Sabine and Rene had a chance to make a video and photo of it. |
|
| Visiting the Hornbill s Island18th March 2010 |
| There is a small island right next to Batanta Island, a few kilometer far away from the Resort.At dusk on this island the Papuan Hornbill birds usually gathering together, because they can spend a safe nigh there. Occasionally 60-70 birds congregate in the area, and they entertained the visitors with a spectacular air show. It s happened, when our interested group visited them. |
|
| Mantas are still here!14th March 2010 |
| One of our guest had dived at the closest Manta Point near the Resort. During her last dive she had chance to dive with more than 50 mantas, afterwards she snorkel with them on the surface. The animals were so crowded, such this view is rare to be seen. |
|
| Dugong in front of the guest house!2nd March 2010 |
| During early morning a Dugong was found having breakfast in front of the guest house reef. From one of the guest house terrace we could managed to make some recording of it. |
|
| 54 nudibranches in 2 weeks20th February 2010 |
| Our German guest, Peter Müller from Munich, is really interested in nudibranches of Raja Ampat and he took photo of 54 nudi species in the 2 weeks he spent with us. Furthermore, he had time to dive and snorkel with many mantas too. |
|
| Ghost pipefish in the neighbourhood15th February 2010 |
| Our German guest had a lucky day when nearby the resort at Kampung Baru Bay and at Kampung Baru Corner dive sites he went on muck dives. At the first site, we found 5 ghost pipe fish. While there was no current, very nice photos were taken. At the other site, we found a Hippocampus Pontohi that had been unseen there before. We also took many nice photos here as well. |
|
| Another Mandarin fish9th February 2010 |
| "Our Indonesian guest found some more Mandarine fish on the house reef at our guest side. Since some fish have appeared at the NE side of the island, we can say now that this unique ""sunset"" fish species can be seen almost everywhere on our house reefs around the resort." |
|
| A dive at Wai Wall1st February 2010 |
| We joined our guests to dive at a dive point near Wai island in front of the resort. Although, this dive site is not considered as a manta point, 5 giant manta welcomed our group. Later came some white and black tip sharks as well. The sharks then were followed by 18 of 1 metre big bumphead parrotfish (mostly they substitute the napoleon fish). After finishing the dive, the group spent some half an hour by snorkelling with 20 mantas. |
|
| Dugong in love29th January 2010 |
| During our trip to Sorong, we saw 2 dugongs on the surface in a bay North of Batanta. When we got closer to them we realised they had their private mating time. It would be great if dugong population would grow in number. |
|
| Mola mola in Raja Ampat16th January 2010 |
| Nearby the harbour of Sorong, the local fishermen found a mola mola. The juvenile mola mola was only 70 cm. This very rare species has been found the very first time in R4. |
|
| Meet a whale again15th January 2010 |
| We went diving with our 3 Romanian guests to Pulau Urun, a dive site 15 minutes away from our resort when we were able to see a whale. He was travelling from East to West coming up the surface 3 times. |
|
| The mantas has still been here.5th January 2010 |
| There have been countless numbers of mantas at Manta Point close to PapuaParadise EcoResort. It always fills us with great excitement to see how beautiful they are flying calm and gently around us. From November to January they are likely to be our frequent visitors. |
|
| Mantas arrived!10th December 2009 |
| There are 2 manta points can be found around the resort. At one of them, some 4-5 meter wide mantas (black ones too) are regularly there. The mantas only visit the other closer site occasionally for only couple of weeks but that time - like in this December - in huge amount. This January we could snorkel among almost 50 mantas. We hope our guests could experience the same. |
|
| Visit of the bupati13th November 2009 |
| Although, we had been organising the visit of the local government to our resort for months, it seemed it would not take place this year. However, one day, a boat full of people arrived to the resort to inform us that the Bupati would come. It was a surprise and we had only 2 hours to get everything ready. The first man of Raja Ampat, Dr. Marcus Wamna and his wife arrived with three huge boats. Altogether some forty people accompanied him (family members and officers) on the opening ceremony. The head of the Tourist Office came as well. The Bupati s wife cut through the ribbon made of flowers then they familiarly visited around the whole resort from the bungalows to the workers houses. The opening ceremony was followed by a nice, hearty lunch. The Bupati spent only two hours here but for us it was significant because he cancelled his programs in the capital to be able to visit us. Our visitors were very satisfied with everything for sure. Having several conversations with the Bupati, he repeatedly committed himself to the importance of tourism and the conservation of nature. |
|
| Meet the ghost pipefish6th November 2009 |
| In the first week of November, we had such friends we have dived with in many different sites of the world. That is why we are extremely happy that on the Passage tour, the group found a very rare creature of this territory, a ghost pipefish (Solenostomus paradoxus). |
|
| Shark nursery21st October 2009 |
| We were exploring a new dive site when we discovered a shark nursery. The black tips were peacefully snoozing in the sand. |
|
| Loved up turtles20th October 2009 |
| During our snorkelling trip we bumped into couple of mating turtles. We had the chance to observe their love making ritual and take a short video of it. Never before have we had the chance to see such amazing moments despite diving for more than a decade. |
|
| Another pygmy seahorse 3rd October 2009 |
| At a dive site nearby the resort, we found another pygmy seahorse, the Hippocampus pontohi in colour black (there is a yellow stripe on its back and its face has red spot). |
|
| Trip with pilot whales2nd October 2009 |
| Our first guests were lucky enough to meet pilot whales on the Passage trip. |
|
| Our first guest arrived26th September 2009 |
| The resort s first guest arrived: Jim from the USA. Jim dives 5 times a day discovering the coral reefs nearby. |
|
| Dugongs again!!! 17th September 209 |
| On our guest side, we could observe a dugong having breakfast at the house reef in front of Bungalow 10. |
|
| Six pygmy-seahorses on a gorgonian29th August 2009 |
| Visiting a new dive location nearby, we have seen six pygmy-seahorses (Hippocampus bargibanti). |
|
| Dugongs are back again!24th August 2009 |
| Late afternoon, we had the pleasure of watching a couple of dugongs playing on the house-reef until sunset. |
|
| Salawati Dragon22nd August 2009 |
| A 2.5 meter long dragon visited our temporary kitchen the other day. We knew that the largest dragon on Earth, known as the Salawati dragon, lives on the next island to us but, we have not realised that they inhabit our island as well. It s been a great surprise! |
|
| Pygmy-seahorses on the house reef19th August 2009 |
| While we were diving on the house reef, we have found two pygmy-seahorses, one yellow and one white. There were only about a meter away from each other and matched the colour of gorgonians they were on. |
|
| In the Reservatum17th August 2009 |
| We got the permission to dive in the Reservatum area 10 km away from Brie. It s a fantastic place to dive with creatures of all colours and sizes. We have seen four different kind of turtles and discovered a new type of nudibrachia (sea slug) that we have not known about before. It’s an amazing experience for a nudi fan like us. |
|
| Tawny nurse shark6th July 2009 |
| We managed to identify the shark which was photographed from one of the guest house s balcony. It is a Tawny nurse shark (Nebirius ferrugineus). |
|
| Pack of troublemakers16th June 2009 |
| While we were building the jetty on the guest side of the island we realised that in the water thirteen one meter long Black-tip sharks were hanging around pestering the residents on the coral reef. They spent more than half hour around the jetty. |
|
| Wilson’s Bird of Paradise13th June 2009 |
| Our first bird watching trip led us to one of the most beautiful birds on earth, I believe. We set out early morning and we watched the sun rise from the top of a mountain. We hardly spent an hour in the hide, made up of leaves, but the experience will stay with us for a life time. The two male and three female Wilson s Bird of Paradise were singing, cleaning, posing and playing only approx three meters from us. They did not even acknowledge us, we had the chance to have a good look at them. During the afternoon we managed to observe a King Bird of Paradise, nevertheless the bird was singing about twenty meters up in the canopy. |
|
| The 2 meter long Uncle21st May 2009 |
| We were building the roof for the fifth guest house when a 2 meter long Black tip visited the shark nursery on the house reef. We have not seen such large Black tip in the shallow, knee height waters under the guest houses before. |
|
| 5 King Cockatoos21st May 2009 |
| Five beautiful King Cockatoos (Palm Cockatoo) were nibbling the fruits on the tree above our kitchen this morning. It was amazing to see so many of them at the same time. |
|
| Baby shark on the guest side of the island15th May 2009. |
| An approx 80 cm long blacktip shark was hunting under the fourth guest house during the day. |
|
| Dugongs at night5th May 2009. |
| Late at night a few dugongs appeared on the service side of the house reef. As it was dark we did not have the opportunity to observe them closely but we could hear their heavy breathing every time they surfaced. |
|
| Ripening fruits4th May 2009. |
| The King Kakadu’s favourite fruit is coming into season. From sun rise to sun set no hour passes by without a few black Kakadus disturbing the peace around the resort. It is a wonderful experience to be woken up by their singing. |
|
| Dolphins on the house reef2nd May 2009. |
| A dolphin family of four have visited Raja Ampat’s most beautiful and best situated guest houses this morning. |
|
| We have ordered the speedboats29th April 2009. |
| After three days of negotiations we have ordered the speed boats from Bali. The two smaller boats provide comfortable space for 8 divers each. The bigger boat can take up to 16 people and provides comfortable space for all day trips. |
|
| Dugongs seen by our workers13th April 2009. |
| Our workers reported seeing more dugongs during the day, this time on the guest side of the house reef. They mentioned that they did not find the encounter surprising as they see them regularly when out fishing. |
|
| The build of the first guest house is complete!26th March 2009. |
| The first guest house was finished during the afternoon. Going forward the builders will have an easier time building rest of the guest houses as they can just copy this master piece. |
|
| Mantas on the house-reef25th March 2009. |
| Early evening and three mantas were patrolling the house reef waters. The largest was over 4 meters long. They were quite trusting of us so we could watch them from only a few meters while snorkelling. |
|
| Whales again!21st March 2009. |
| Approx 15 minutes from our resort, at the same place where we observed them before, we have encountered a couple of whales again. The family was peacefully snoozing on the surface of the water. The mum was approx 15 meters long and un-surprisingly the baby was significantly smaller. As we did not want to disturb the family idyll, we kept our distance. It is very promising though, whales were around on both occasions we visited this place. |
|
| Humphead parrotfish20th March 2009. |
| Today seventeen giant humphead parrotfish were swimming on the corral reef in front of the guesthouses. They must have been up to a meter long and they were happily swimming around exploring the area for about half an hour. Some of them showed real bravery swimming right under the guesthouses. It was amazing to see them so close to shore. |
|
| Small sharks are back3rd March 2009. |
| Under the service-side jetty two black tips were happily hunting today. |
|
| Appearance of a giant manta ray26th February 2009. |
| The guest side-jetty seems to be popular with visitors. Today a 4 meter long manta ray patrolled the nearby waters. |
|
| Dolphins are our first visitors25th February 2009. |
| The building work is on track and the guest-side jetty is practically ready for use. It was checked out by a 30 strong dolphin group today. |
|
| Walking shark12th February 2009. |
| Today afternoon on the service side of the resort we found a walking shark. |
|
| Sharks20th January 2009. |
| Three baby sharks came to visit the jetty again. |
|
| Baby shark18th January 2009. |
| On the service side of the resort there are regular sightings of baby black tips every day, all throughout the day. Moreover, this afternoon a scary bamboo shark appeared as well. It seems that our underwater friends are moving back to their old habitat as the building work is coming to an end at the service side of the island. This is brilliant news! |
|
| Mantas everywhere18th January 2009. |
| Our Papuan colleagues told us on few occasions that there is an amazing manta ray feeding station near by. We did not know about this place before so it was time to explore! And what a breath taking experience it was. In the past we have dived with mantas in the Maldives, we have seen the shark bitten giants in Mozambique, and of course we had many encounters with black mantas here in Raja Ampat. However this experience exceeded all expectations and past experiences. It was awesome to encounter 30 or even 50 mantas feeding on the surface at a place the size of a football pitch. We cannot even imagine how many more must be in the deep below as we were only snorkelling at the time. |
|
| Sleeping whale17th January 2009. |
| At dawn we sailed across to a nearby island, looking for the colourful Wilson birds of Paradise. On the way back we bumped into a 16-17 meter long whale, peacefully snoozing on the surface. Initially we slipped a little too close to the giant and he swam away with sudden urgency. Clearly he did not like being disturbed. However he stopped about 300m away from us and carried on with his nap. This time we were more careful and stopped about 5-6m away from him. Half of our team was filming the sleeping giant from the boat, the other half took some amazing footage underwater. |
|
| Wobbegong9th January 2009. |
| Colleagues working on the guest side of the island observed two other wobbegongs around the jetty. |
|
| The building is keep going6th January 2009. |
| During the work of putting the main supporting columns of the jetty in place we have encountered two wobbegongs swimming around and a manta ray as it was jumping out of the water. It seems that the underwater life is keeping an eye on our project. |
|
| Second phase of the building project6th January 2009. |
| The second part of the project was started on the 6th January 2009. During this phase we are completing the building work on the guest-side of the resort, finishing all the guest houses and service buildings on this part of the island. We are estimating the completion time of this phase to be end of May, beginning of June 2009. |
|