Best Komodo Diving Liveaboard Destinations for Snorkel and Chill
It’s been traveler’s best kept secret that Komodo has one of the most rewarding marine life in the world. For more than a decade, diving and snorkelling has been featured on most Komodo holiday itineraries. With the presence of Komodo diving liveaboard facilities, snorkelling and scuba diving in Komodo’s rich waters is just like a dream come true. A lot of divers would probably familiar with some of Komodo’s best and most challenging dive sites, like the Batu Bolong, Castle Rock, Pillarsteen, and Yellow Wall. However, sometimes we just want for a leisure snorkel and a beautiful beach to chill nearby. For such mood, we have enlisted some of the best recreation snorkel which marine life would still blow your mind away.
Where to Moor Komodo Diving Liveaboard and Get the Best of the Two World
Manta Point, Makassar Reef, And Taka Makassar
Manta point is a site that you wouldn’t simply miss when you are sailing with Komodo diving liveaboard. No site is better than Manta Point to guarantee a wonderful sight of Manta Ray. The seabed may look humble with coral rubble, but the site is a favorite feeding and cleaning stations for these gentle giants of the sea. The mid current brings in nutrient-rich zooplankton that the Manta loves, while small fishes offers a good cleaning services for the Mantas and other large fishes. The Mantas loves to relax around the bottom of the sea (it’s only 10 – 15 m depth), sometimes with their mouth open, effortlessly feeding on the plankton. You could see from three to even twenty Manta Rays on one diving! When you are not seeing the Manta, you could hunt for marble rays, eagle rays, bamboo sharks, or unicorn fish that usually patrolling the area.
When you are done with the dive, you could go back to the Komodo diving liveaboard to get changed and head to the Taka Makassar nearby. Reapply your sunscreen cause you’re about to enjoy the tropical sun in starkly white Taka Makassar, the only “island” in Komodo National Park to consist only by white sandy beaches. Bring your beach towel, beach mattress, and sunglasses—and you are ready for some serious paradise-like chill!
Pink Beach and Padar island
Who doesn’t know the Pink beach of Padar Island? Padar is one of the most popular destination fro any trip to Komodo, made famous for its 360º hilltop view featuring three crescent bays of different color and amazing savannah landscape. The pink beach itself is among the rarest beach on earth, where travelers love to sunbathe on its rose-tinted sands.
Going down from the shore to the shallow water underneath, you would find blooming marine life with slow to medium currents featuring scorpion fishes, a school of stripe fusiliers, and crocodile fishes. Between the corals, you will find amusing critters, such as nudibranchs and blue ribbon eels. Snorkelling in Pink beach may not give you a spectacular view, but it’s truly relaxing and fulfilling for the soul.
Gili Lawa Darat
Another shallow site to dive (or snorkel) in is the Gili Lawa Darat, which only reach to 20 m in depth. The site also offers great drift dive featuring changing topography and mild to very slow currents. A dive to this site could be done before or after Gili Lawa Island excursion, which would be pleasant either way. The bottom of the sea is alive with patches of garden eels, chilled white tip sharks and rays that just resting lazily in the sands, and springs of bronze sponges and soft corals that are popping up here and there. Keep an eye trivially, yellow-ribbon sweet lips, black snappers, red snappers, and blue fins that occasionally pass the area.
Before you get back to your Komodo diving liveaboard, spare some time to take a rest in Gili Lawa Darat’s sloping savannah fields. Let the wind blows your stress away and the grasses whispered soft-spoken tropical dream to your mind.
