Dive Site and Cruise Destinations

Diving Komodo

You will find some of the most exciting diving in the world in the area around Komodo and Rinca. The boat anchors just off great cliffs of black basalt, which are constantly pounded by sheets of blue water. Just offshore are scattered rocks and outcroppings. There is an almost eerie look to some of the summits. They are black and angular, and their bases are undercut by the action of the seas, reminding one of the statues at Easter Island. The roughness of the surface is a little daunting, but things calm down considerably once you are down about 10 meters.

Underwater, the black cliffs continue, cut by huge chasms and in places split into huge, rectangular blocks, like undersea buildings. The black rock provides a dramatic black drop to the colorful encrusting growth of gorgonians and corals, and the rugged terrain is unlike just about any other tropical reef in the world.

Healthy growths of hard corals boulders, the tangled branches of staghorn coral, table corals and many other forms decorate the occasional protected coves and the shallow tops of the undersea cliffs. On the sheer drop-offs as well as in the caves and crevasses the rock is covered by a solid mat of bright yellow cup corals, multi colored gorgonians and countless varieties of soft coral. A photographer trying to steady himself with his left hand cannot find enough unoccupied space for even a single finger.