Destinations
Komodo, Flores, and Sumbawa
Indonesia’s eastern islands, known collectively as Nusa Tenggara, stretches from the western island of Lombok to Timor in the east. Here, the region is markedly different from the rest of the country. The climate is drier and more evocative of Australia than of tropical Bali. Komodo, hilly and desolate, is sandwiched between Flores and Sumbawa islands and has only one village, Kampung Komodo, a Bugis fishing settlement on its eastern shore.
Dolphins are a common sight in the seas between Komodo and Flores and the area is also on a Whale migration route. The reefs offer good snorkeling and some of the best diving in Indonesia, especially with Manta Rays. Buffalo, Deer, Wild Pigs and birdlife are all plentiful on land but, the most remarkable attraction is its endangered monitor lizards, Varanus Komodoensis.
The Komodo Island monitors, known also as ‘Komodo Dragons’ or ‘ora’ are the largest living lizards on Earth and found only on Komodo, Rinca, and Western Flores islands. An average adult can measure up to 3 meters long and weigh 136 kilograms but despite its size can move quickly on the ground and is an agile swimmer and climber. These lizards have a dark gray, stocky body and stout, powerful legs with sharply clawed feet. Their heads are large and their long, forked tongues are used to sense the air following the scent of prey which consists of wild pigs, deer, water buffalo, goats, birds, and other monitors.
Raja Ampat Islands Indonesia
Raja Ampat is situated in the far east of Indonesia and can be accessed from Port Sorong in the north-west of Papua. The meaning of Raja Ampat is Four Kings as it is made up of four main islands but in its entirety is home to over 600.
The area is well conserved by the setup of many marine protected areas with aims of sustainable tourism to empower the local populous. Scientists have announced that this area of the coral triangle has the most diverse marine life on the planet due to adjoining currents from the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Home to much endemic fish, the waters are also bursting with color from truly breathtakingly healthy coral reefs that you can only witness here, not to mention manta ray congregations. Scuba diving and snorkeling are obviously on the cards here for beginners or those with experience.
Birds of Paradise still live here in the wild and have been the topic of attraction for National Geographic for many years. You can take short walks with our knowledgeable tour leader to find these and some of the others the area has to offer such as the King Cockatoo. One of the activities we encourage is an early morning paddleboard through a narrow strait to witness yellow-crested cockatoos flocking over-head.
Certain locations such as Wayag are famous for their panoramic views and bays filled with small mushroom islands which are accessible by our luxury turbine-powered tender and sea kayaks. Local villages offer cultural tours and some of the friendliest hospitality you will ever come across.
Please note that other cruising itineraries are available very close by such as Cenderawasih Bay, Whale Shark experiences all year round and Triton Bay, again with Whale Sharks but also home to the traditional Asmat tribe.
Spice Islands Indonesia
The Spice Islands were once the most valuable real estate on the planet, but now lie largely forgotten as history washes past them. Ternate and Banda were respectively the sole sources of cloves and nutmeg – the ‘gold’ of the spice trade, and it’s said that Christopher Columbus was actually looking for a shorter route to the Banda islands when he stumbled on America. Centuries of battles for the spice monopoly between Dutch, English, and Portuguese buccaneers has left a crumbling legacy of colonial forts, villas and rusting cannons, partially consumed by green forests, loomed over by active volcanoes and surrounded by deep, blue life-filled waters.
From the Spice Islands arise the scents not only of paradise but also of centuries of historical interaction with Europeans. The colonization of much of Asia began here when the Dutch decided that instead of buying the spices they would simply ‘appropriate’ the land they grew on. Thus from here, their rule expanded to cover some 17,000 islands, stretching nearly 3,000 miles between Sumatra and New Guinea.
Along with the oldest fortresses in Indonesia, are 18th Century palaces like the ‘Istana Kecil’ on Banda Neira, where the last colonial governors lived in lonely luxury, walking floors of Italian marble beneath French crystal chandeliers.
The Spice Islands are scattered within, or around, the world’s deepest sea for its size – the Banda Sea. Being part of the Coral Triangle – the ‘womb of species generation’ – makes these waters the richest in marine life anywhere on earth. We can swim with hammerhead sharks, mantas and tuna, as well as with countless varieties of reef fish, in gin clear water. For days on end, we encounter few, if any, other foreign sailing boats.
Maumere and Alor Indonesia
The still wild island of Flores is 300 miles long, and has one main road from end to end, through teak forests, smoking volcanoes and multi-hued caldera lakes. Most outsiders know only its westernmost port, Labuan Bajo, as the springboard to the famous Komodo Islands, and never venture further east, to its white beaches and shining waters, or even to the cave where the bones were discovered in 2002 of the ‘Hobbit’, or Homo floresiensis, our 3-foot tall extinct cousin.
Some 5 distinct languages are spoken on Flores, and scores of further dialects. Being one of the first islands to be settled by the early Portuguese explorers, 85% of the population is nominally Christian, but they still happily practice animal sacrifice. They are also famous for producing magnificent ‘tie-dye,’ Ikat textiles – some of them years in the making – for which Flores and adjacent islands have been famous for centuries.
The island’s largest town, Maumere, lies at the North-Eastern end of Flores, and its numerous satellite villages still use back-strap looms and natural dyes and fixatives to weave their textiles. Maumere lies in the arms of a magnificent bay, loomed over by the Egon Volcano.
East of Flores lies the even more rugged islands of East Nusa Tenggara: Solor, Alor, Lembata, etc. which act as teeth dividing the Flores and Banda Seas from the deep Indian Ocean. Very clear water pours back and forth between them carrying everything from whales and marlin to sunfish and dugongs, providing astonishing opportunities for divers.
In the straits between Solor and Alor lie several small islands, torn by clear currents, which are alive with corals and sharks. In addition to giant fish traps, which require ten men to carry them, the islanders produce particularly fine Ikats with marine motifs. The inland villagers of Alor still use bows and arrows to hunt game, and they still dance circular, trance dances more reminiscent of the peoples of the South Pacific.