Indonesia: Raja Ampat + Bali - March 2012
Dear English-speaking readers, this page is an automatic translation of an article originally written in French. I apologise for any strange sentences and funny mistakes that may have resulted. If you read French, click on the French flag below to access the original, correct text:
Français Raja Ampat, West Papua, Indonesia. I'm there!!! A real end of the world, still virgin, wild and beautiful, on land and under water.
Diving cruise in Raja Ampat
Sailing from island to island, in the archipelago of Raja Ampat... A dream that I had for a long time, finally became reality in this month of March 2012.
I am stunned by the beauty of this end of the world, still virgin, sown with green islands covered with real jungle, at the end of Indonesia.
Here, the word "biodiversity" takes on its full meaning. Nature is exuberant, on land and under water. We walk in the footsteps of the British biologist Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) who explored the Malay Archipelago and the East Indies in the XIXe century, and discovered many unknown species...
More modestly, two centuries later, with a small group of other diving tourists, I embarked at Sorong, on the Black Mantafor a short but fantastic five-day cruise (update : the White Manta company that owned this boat sold it to another operator).
The Black Manta is a boat designed for scuba diving, which can embark up to 16 people, in addition to the crew. This kind of "cruise" (or "liveaboard" in English) has obviously nothing to do with the liner-buildings which sometimes run aground on the Italian coasts...
Incredibly rich seabed
I knew that Raja Ampat was an exceptional destination for scuba diving. But seeing it with your own eyes is something else...
What is striking, during the first dives, is the profusion. The usual tropical underwater fauna is there, of course, but the abundance and variety of species, as much for fish as for coral, is truly amazing.
Yes, really, the sites are exceptional! Very, very high level, in terms of quality of diving. Raja Ampat is far away, but it is worth it.
A picture is worth a thousand words... So I'm posting a few pictures, as an appetizer, and I'll be back to tell you about these extraordinary dives very soon, in more detail! 😍
👌
