I decided to go on a 3 day inland trip from Labuan Bajo to a volcanic crater that was filled with a lake which apparantly had a 5-600 meter hole in the middle of it, one of the deepest known. Although it was full of minerals and very green looking it was ok to swim in and actually felt very relaxing afterwards. We camped by the lake and had a couple of treks to some waterfalls for swimming.
By the side of Sano Nggoang, water was boiling nearby out of a spring –
Sano Nggoang Labuan Bajo
View from the hilltop over looking the lake –
Sano Nggoang Labuan Bajo
Nearby waterfalls –
Waterfalls near Labuan Bajo
Waterfalls near Labuan Bajo
The roads around the lake were broken and rough, even the trusty Land Rover found it tough –
It was nice to be out of the heat of the town and in a cooler climate. The local village was full of friendly people interested to know where you were from. It was a new venture for the tour company so not many people had been to that area yet although i’m sure it was going to change, Indonesia is becoming more popular as a tourist destination year on year.
I booked some more days diving in Komodo National Park including a trip to Rinca Island where the Komodo dragons live, this is the only place in the world to see the dinosaur like creatures apart from Komodo Island itself.
The diving started off with some great sights, turtles, black tipped reef sharks, white tipped reef sharks, a fantastic octopus which changed colour and shape many times within a second or two, hundreds of brightly coloured smaller fish and lots of corals. A particular favourite of mine are Moray eels, they always look so menaceing showing their teeth and sticking out of their hideaways but i think they are just watching you go by. We went back to Manta Point again in the hope of seeing some mantas and as there was a bit of current it was going to be my first drift dive. Theres not too much you can do in a drift dive other than go with the flow so to speak, the current takes you along and theres really no point fighting it as you just wear yourself out. You have to travel at whatever speed the current takes you which feels strange to begin with as you aren’t propelling yourself along. We were about two thirds of the way through the dive when i thought that our hopes of seeing a manta ray had gone. We travelled over the bottom of the sea which was littered with broken coral then just as we came over another ridge there was a big manta ray hovering in the current. They come to the so called cleaning stations where small fish clean the parasites from them, you are supposed to drop to the bottom and just watch the manta ray in all its glory. All was going well until another diver from another boat appeared with a camera and rushed up to the manta ray, obviously it got spooked and went on its way. I thought it was a big one but apparantly at only 8-10ft wing span it was a ‘baby’, they can get to 12-15ft wide !! It was an impressive sight, it kind of reminded me of the Starship Enterprise hovering in space, i couldn’t wait to see another. Photo shamelessly stolen from the internet, it looked something like this –
Diving in Komodo National Park
Komodo Dragon, about 20 years old –
Komodo Dragon
Komodo Dragon
A short walk to the top of the hill revealed the view out from Rinca island to the Komodo national park –
View from Rinca Island oug to Komodo National Park
