Indonesia: Banda + Raja Ampat - Oct-Nov 2015
Dear English-speaking readers, this page is an automatic translation made from a post originally written in French. My apologies for any strange sentences and funny mistakes that may have been generated during the process. If you are reading French, click on the French flag below to access the original and correct text:
Français I returned from Indonesia three days before the terrorist carnage in Paris on November 13, 2015. I had started to write this light, happy, carefree article about my dive-cruise on board the Waowlong before the horror of these attacks...
But how to celebrate the beauty of the world, after the horror of this bloody Friday? How to talk about the joy of life, travel and diving?
Finally, I decided to publish this article anyway. To be on the side of life. To put some blue in the darkness. Because the motto of Paris, Fluctuat NEC mergitur, really makes sense in such a sad context...
Maluku to Raja Ampat
So here it is. I lived a fabulous adventure, on distant seas, on board a ship as beautiful as a pirate princess' ship: the Waow.
Wow? This is the acronym for World Adventure Ocean Wide. That's the exclamation you let out when you discover this bird-thin three-master (as in the song), "Waow!"
Updated February 2018. The Waow, this magnificent cruise-diving boat that used to sail the waters of the Indonesian archipelago, and on board of which I had the chance to embark in 2015, does not exist anymore... 😢 It unfortunately burned and sank, in the bay of Cenderawasih, in Indonesia, in the night of January 31 to February 1, 2018. I refer you to the message published on their Facebook page and on their site.
60 meters long, 11 wide and 10 high, 800 tons. It was built between 2008 and 2012, while ironwoodThis rot-proof "steel wood", based on the model of the traditional Indonesian transport boats called Pinisis.
I had already mentioned this boat in my "practical" article on Raja Ampat, more than two years ago (in the chapter on cruises and dives). I did not know then Waow a luxury ship, specially fitted out for divers, carrying out crazy itineraries in the Indonesian archipelago, in the heart of the "Coral Triangle. What to dream ...
The dream has come true! I'm going home. of a twelve-day cruise in Indonesia on the Waow, in the seas of Banda and Seram. I put you below the map that summarizes the journey and the dives.
From Ambon to Sorong, from the Moluccas to Raja Ampat, far from the world's fury, one can only marvel at the beauty of nature and the underwater world.
Of course, I had a lot of fun with it...
On the road of spices
October 27, 2015. First night on board. In the half-light of my cabin, I watch for unknown noises. The boat creaks and sighs as it splits the waves. There is the muffled hum of the engines in the distance and the shuddering of the nearby water against the wood of the hull. I tame the sounds around me.
But the sea is calm and the roll will remain moderate throughout the crossing. We make our way to the legendary Banda Islands, the spice islands (nutmeg, cinnamon, clove) that made the fortune of the VOC, the Dutch East India Company in the 17the and XVIIIe century. There is something exhilarating about following in the wake of the great navigators of yesteryear.
Read also → Banda, the fabulous spice islands
That first evening, as we left the port of Ambon, the gentle rocking of the Waow rocks me.
I have the impression that the boat is alive. I can almost hear it breathing with each wave it splits. Reassuring, soothing sensation, which helps me to slide little by little towards sleep.
Underwater
But I can't wait to go back under the surface. The diving equipment is ready. And my camera already in its chamber, ready for the first immersion planned in the early morning. I still don't know, this first evening, what I will see under water...
There will be massive hammerhead sharks and the swirls of silver jacks. The swarms of blue triggerfish and yellow-backed fusiliers, the glittering waterfalls of glass fish, the multicoloured twirls of butterfly fish... And also the graceful green turtles, the enormous humpback parrot fish, the majestic napoleons. The bright yellow schools of snappers and the delicate interlacing of giant gorgonians...
I brought back tons of pictures, which I finally find the time to sort out, now that I'm back under the grey Breton sky. I'll be back to show you all of them very soon!
😉
I was the guest of the Waow from October 27 to November 8, 2015, for this dive-cruise named "Secrets of Seram". All opinions expressed here remain 100% my own.
