Wicked Expedition - Pulau Moyo & Satonda

The Wicked Expedition has finally passed civilization and come out unscathed! After a day moored off Bali and then another near Gili...they are back into the wilds.

Today finds the trip exploring Pulau(s) Moyo and Satonda. (how does one write that correctly?) Tomorrow they will visit the mentioned below...

 



Bit of a choppy night across the strait, but gorgeous scenery to wake up to more than made up for it! First dive of the day at Haji’s Wall, off Moyo, where Shannon found us some Denise pygmy seahorses, lovely sloping coral reef with napoleon wrasse and schools of snapper all over. 







Carrying our way along the coast to Satonda, we made our last dive at Satonda Bay, a fantastically chilled dive site that had all kinds of treasures, more pygmy seahorses, neon nudibranchs, robust ghost pipefish, and to top it all off, Sam’s first manta ray! 

Jubilant surface swim back to the boat for some pad thai then nap time! Dinghyed across to Satonda later that afternoon, made our way to land over the wonkiest little pier you’ve ever seen, and up to a mini viewpoint for photo time. 

Lake in Pulau Satonda

One of the neighboring volcanoes erupted a few hundred years ago and caused a tsunami that over spilled into the valley on Satonda and created a lake, that has no water input from the ocean. Gradually over the years the rainwater’s desalinized the lake, making it layers of salt and fresh water, and there’s a few cool organisms and fish that can survive in both types of water that live there. Time for a swim?! OK!

Bats at Night

Another beautiful sunset as we rounded the corner of Satonda and cruised towards the volcanic island of Sangeang just in time to see the bat migration on the way, hundreds and hundreds of bats flying above the boat, very cool!

Here is some video we took of the area and some interviews with guests and staff from last year when we visited Moyo. And some footage from Satonda - the lake and the bats!



If you would like to read some of the entries from the expedition last year....http://www.slideshare.net/wickeddiving/wicked-expedition-singapore-to-komodo

Remember to follow their progress, real-time here...http://ow.ly/aIZh6

If you would like to join our adventures in Komodo, you can join our 3 or 6 day Komodo Liveaboards.


-Wicked Diving

Wicked Expedition - Tulamben and beyond....

The last few days have seen the Jaya do some amazing travels - crossing the Java Sea, heading into Probolinggo and then climbing Mount Bromo....an active volcano!


No - our expeditions are not just diving!

Then they headed over to Bali and spent the last day diving around Tulamben - with a great wreck and some amazing reefs.


Here are some pictures from last year and Amanda's entry about the wreck.

A whole boat load of Jacks at the wreck

…and woke up to stunning panorama, volcanoes & so much green! Welcome to the north coast of Bali! The Liberty Wreck, off the coast of Tulamben, is so close to the beach that it’s possible to do most dives as shore dives. 

Unless you’ve got your own pirate ship that can moor up off the site and dinghy you in to drop on top of the wreck! 

pulling into Bali

Descending into and through a swirling shoal of jacks onto the top of the wreck, it’s like entering a different world. Swim-throughs and overhangs created by sections of the ship, and the whole thing is home to an immense variety of marine flora and fauna - electric clams, giant barracuda, banded pipefish, juvenile batfish and so much more. 

The Wreck and corals

We did 2 dives on the wreck (and could have stayed for many more!) then moved to a dive site aptly named Drop-Off. Just along from the wreck, it’s a deep wall drop-off, then the sand shallows up into a bit more of a muck dive. 

Leafy Scorpionfish

Scott holding on....

We stayed shallow to explore the macros - cone shells feeding on pipefish, leafy scorpionfish, octopus, and more vibrant blue ribbon eels than we could count!

Here is some video footage from last year when we visited the Tulamben wreck





If you would like to read some of the entries from the expedition last year....http://www.slideshare.net/wickeddiving/wicked-expedition-singapore-to-komodo

Remember to follow their progress, real-time here...http://ow.ly/aIZh6

If you would like to join our adventures in Komodo, you can join our 3 or 6 day Komodo Liveaboards.


-Wicked Diving

Wicked Expedition - Crossing the Java Sea on the Jaya

Singapore To Komodo - Crossing the Java Sea

Yesterday had the guests on our expedition do the final day in Kumai. The overnight on the river had the guests experiencing some more amazing creatures. Another highlight was the Rhinoceros Hornbill!

This morning - the Jaya departed Kalimantan and is now doing a long crossing of the Java Sea to Pulau Raas. This is a small island off the North-east cost of Java that doesn't even warrant an entry in Wikipedia :) So it must be small....

This long crossing means a very different day than yesterday....the occasional pod of dolphins and no much else.



Here is the gossip from the boat so far today:


"Pirate dress up for dinner last night with some fabulous costumes!!
will send photos when we can.
Rummikub tournament yesterday day - Katy and Amanda went through several tough games to emerge the overall winners -  hectic sport. 
Treasure hunt around the boat then an ocean swim planned for this afternoon. 
Should be at Pulau Raas around midnight.  Nearly zero wildlife sightings today, not even land in sight. Very, very peaceful sailing."


Awww...again, we are all very jealous here at headquarters!



Here is some video we took last year on a similar transit from Kalimantan. However - this is neither happy or fun to watch. No guests were harmed in the video....





If you would like to read some of the entries from the expedition last year....http://www.slideshare.net/wickeddiving/wicked-expedition-singapore-to-komodo

Remember to follow their progress, real-time here...http://ow.ly/aIZh6

If you would like to join our adventures in Komodo, you can join our 3 or 6 day Komodo Liveaboards.


-Wicked Diving

Wicked Expedition - Day 4

Singapore To Komodo - Kumai

Kumai is a place that is special to all of us at Wicked Diving. Okay, not Kumai so much as the nearby forests.
Kumai is the name of the river and the small town nearby. We actually sail the Jaya right up the river to just beyond this point and moor up for a few days. We refill with Diesel, freshwater and fresh vegetables as well. But the real point of this little diversion is the incredible Camp Leakey! 

This is the original and one of the largest Orangutan reserves in the world. And it is so remote and so rarely visited that they are always looking for a tiny bit of cash.  What can you do to help? One way is to change your habits! Make sure your foods are Rainforest friendly. Responsibly sourced products are hard to find in the United States but are available. In European countries it is pretty easy to access these goods. The other way to help is by sponsoring an Orangutan!

However - there is so much more! After departing the Jaya, they will join a small river boat and wander deeper and deeper into the jungles and then into the park. Along the river banks are so many amazing creatures and scenes. Proboscis Monkeys jump through the trees as do Gibbons, a vast diversity of birds, and much more. At night millions of fireflys bounce around the rivers banks making it a living galaxy of lights.

Here is some notes from Amanda's trip Diary last year:

" Sunset along the coast of Kalimantan – photo time for everyone before dinner, hen a briefing on the next few days – our local guide Ari came across to the boat to explain the itinerary for the trip into Tanjang Putting to see the orang-utans. Early start tomorrow, pack a clean t-shirt, mozzie spray, cameras and we’re good to go!

Everyone was up and about bright and early ready for the trip into the jungle, and we got everyone in the mood by playing the soundtrack to ‘Jungle Book’. I wanna be like you-oo-oo… :)

 

Pick up at 0900 with a small blue and white boat and we met Jo, our guide for the trip. Left the main Kumai River and drove up into Tanjang Puting National Park. One side of the river is the area where most of the logging and forest clearing for palm oil plantations, so not so many orang-utans, but the other side is national park, so that’s where we’re looking! 





Eyes peeled for wild orang-utans! We spotted way more than we thought we would, loads of them hanging off the trees close to the river, we started to get pretty good at spotting them. Also plenty of proboscis monkeys and long tailed macaques eating and fighting throughout the treetops. Jo started each briefing or sentence with ‘how are you tomorrow?’, so we all started to address each other in the same way, and spent the day chilling on the boat watching for apes, with breaks for tea and strong Indonesian coffee with lots of condensed milk every so often. The river water was quite murky, it’s all the mercury contamination from the mining in the area, but soon we were headed into ‘black water’ which sounded a tad ominous, but actually meant the clean water area of the park free from contamination. The water visibility here was beautiful, and the calm of the water and the reflections of the jungle in the river sent us all running for our cameras "





Here is some video we took of the area and some interviews with guests and staff from last year when we visited Kumai.



If you would like to read some of the entries from the expedition last year....http://www.slideshare.net/wickeddiving/wicked-expedition-singapore-to-komodo

Remember to follow their progress, real-time here...http://ow.ly/aIZh6

If you would like to join our adventures in Komodo, you can join our 3 or 6 day Komodo Liveaboards.


-Wicked Diving

Wicked Expedition - Day 2 Equator Dive

After the visit to Pulau Pejantan - it's time to head off for Kalimantan (Borneo) and more adventures.

It's a pretty long transit and this is a great time for the staff and guests to relax, chat, get to know each other and some games. Slowly, as you watch the GPS of the Jaya as she heads East by Southeast you can see her creep closer and closer to the equator. Rather than simply pass this opportunity up...well here is Amanda describing what they did last year...and some pictures!

 

Waved goodbye to our little paradise island and headed towards Kalimantan. 

Edging closer and closer to the Equator, it may be an invisible line but we were all really excited, not too many times in your life you cross the Equator on a pirate ship! 

We decided to go swimming, then change of plan and we went diving instead, too cool! 

 

We descended skydive fashion all holding hands in a circle, then grouped together for a photoshoot with our pirate flag and an Indonesian flag – Wicked representation on the Equator!

 No fish around, but blue blue blue like you’ve never seen before, crystal clear visibility, so much fun.

They also took some great video footage of this dive :)








If you would like to read some of the entries from the expedition last year




Remember to follow their progress, real-time here...http://ow.ly/aIZh6

-Wicked Diving