Snorkeling at Raja Ampat…
Raja Ampat is located off the northwest tip of Bird’s Head peninsula on the island of Papua, in Indonesia’s West Papua province. It is an archipelago comprising over 1,500 small islands and cays surrounding the four main islands: Misool, Waigeo, Salawati, and Batanta. This region is widely renowned for its rich marine biodiversity – the richest recorded on earth. Scientist, divers, tourists, have been visiting the region. Doing various activities, from a highly sophisticated research about the marine biodiversity to simply enjoy the beauty of Raja Ampat, both above and under water.
We had been planning this trip for quite a while. The date and the list of participants had been changing for – I don’t know for how many times already. But I kept it in my mind that I had to join the trip. This place is one out of numbers of places in Indonesia that I have put in my destination wish list, a place that I want to visit at least once. One of the reasons is because I wanted to take pictures. Not thinking of underwater activities or photography. Well, at least not yet…
And when the date and preparation were finally completed, off we went from Timika to Sorong – an hour and half flight, continued with another 1,5 hrs sea trip using a small boat to Mansuar island at the south of Waigeo, where Raja Ampat Dive Lodge (RADL) – a dive resort managed by Grand Komodo where we would stay during this 4 days trip – was located. There were 7 of us. 3 of them were divers, including Arief our ‘event organizer’. And since the EO is a diver, you can imagine how the itinerary would be.
Tranquil, between heaven and earth…
Day 1. Arrived at Mansuar. Standard procedure: sunset hunting. Continued with a big dinner prepared by the friendly RADL staff, and chatting until midnight. The resort itself was so cozy, I can imagine I would spend weeks here without feeling boring. The only thing that was missing was mobile phone signal, I guess, we would still need to communicate with the ‘outside world’ after all…
Day 2. Still started with standard procedure: sunrise hunting and finding object at surrounding area. Not too much of luck for the sunrise hunting, though. Breakfast at 7, and prepared for the first trip off the island for the day. We used two boats this day: one for the divers, 3 of us plus the guides, and one for the photo group – including myself – who wanted to take a trip around island-to-island to take pictures. But the diver group also brought the snorkel gears and let us using them. So I geared up and jumped to the water. Seeing directly the underwater view for the first time, made me hesitate to get back to the original plan of the day…
Beautiful coral reefs, you can see them even from above the water…
Hesitantly, we got out from the water and the boat started to take us around. It was also worth it. The scenery of the small islands was also amazing. Finally I experienced the beauty of Raja Ampat myself. A bit of underwater, and a bit above the water.
After lunch, we decided to use only one boat and went to the next diving spot they’d already planned. The photo group decided to, well, drop the plan a bit and went for snorkeling. We ended the day with sunset hunting around the resort’s jetty, taking pictures of the coral reefs around while the daylight slowly faded away…
Sunrise at Mansuar…
Day 3. Still not much of luck with the sunrise hunting, but I managed to shot few of photos, though. And this day we got off from the resort with only one boat from the very beginning, heading west. Again, the beauty of the coral reefs invited us to jump into the water. This time, it was not only corals but also school of fishes, stingrays, manta rays and barracudas. And this time, snorkeling gears and underwater camera cashing started to emerge in my mind…
Dive… dive…!
Day 4. We would be heading back to Sorong after lunch. So we spent the whole morning swimming & snorkeling around the resort’s beach. Even nearby the resort’s jetty, we could easily find and enjoy the lots of beautiful coral reefs. The photo group practically forgot the main agenda of their trip (including myself – so don’t expect too much photos from this trip, haha..).
One 4-days trip is obviously not enough for a place like Raja Ampat. I have to go back. I want to go and see more of Waigeo, Wayag, Misool and other places in this region, capture the beauty of them with my camera…
The only issue left now is, that the budget I reserved for a new lense Zuiko 12-60mm is in a major doubt because the thought of using it for wetsuit & snorkeling gears becomes more prevailing. D*mn… 😀
* More photos from this Raja Ampat trip are stored at http://www.ismawanismail.com/gallery/index.php?/category/raja-ampat
