Sometimes you just need to go back to the ocean.

Of all the places in the world, I always find myself drawn back to two kinds of places – the wild polar regions and anywhere that I can be near the ocean. I feel right at home in the water and honestly, in water is just about the only place in the world I feel any level of gracefulness.

Ever since I learned to dive, I have truly loved it. I love feeling weightless, gliding through the water and meeting amazing wildlife at every turn. I know to many people diving seems scary but it just isn’t. It’s peaceful, it’s calming and honestly, for me it’s almost a meditative experience.

So, when I managed to score a week off work and cheap flights to Bali, I immediately started thinking of where I could go diving next and after only a small bit of research, it quickly became obvious that the Komodo Islands were going to be the way to go.

From Bali, I flew to the city of Labuan Bajo – the gateway to the Komodo Islands.

I spent the evening in a hillside bamboo hotel room that could’ve been cleaner but offered incredible views of the bay before boarding my liveaboard the following morning.

I had never done a liveaboard before and thus wasn’t sure what to expect, but it ended up being phenomenal. After much googling, the most affordable whilst still being comfortable boat that lined up with my days off was the Bajak, owned and operated by Scuba Republic.

The cost was $700 USD for the 4D3N, including 10 dives, all meals, a visit to see Komodo dragons as well as a sunset hike on a protected island.

We boarded in the morning, got settled into our rooms and before too long we were eating our first lunch and getting prepped for our first dive – which absolutely did not disappoint.

The next day we started early with a visit to Rinca Island to try and spot Komodo dragons. Now, I have to be honest, I know that seeing Komodo dragons in the Komodo Islands is kind of a quintessential experience, but I honestly wasn’t all that excited for it, however, it did end up being quite the fun morning.

When we arrived we were told that it was actually unlikely for us to see the dragons as it was the middle of mating season and they would likely be hiding away in the bush, so imagine my surprise when we immediately spotted these two big boys!

The highlight of this outing for me though was the hike to the Rinca Island viewpoint – it was so unbelievably beautiful!

After we left Rinca, we spent the day doing three glorious dives. I kind of couldn’t believe how good the diving was – I had heard Komodo was a good diving destination but this was beyond good, this was absolutely phenomenal.

That evening we were treated to a beautiful sunset and I couldn’t resist spending the last moments of dwindling light diving headfirst into the ocean.

 

Our third day on board was a big one as it would be our only four dive day – we were to do three day dives, have a sunset hike and then do a night dive – it was a big one!

Not to mention, this day of diving was amazing. On one of our dives we were hanging out with big groups of schooling fish before I heard excited noises underwater – I turned around and saw our guide pointing to a bunch of manta rays in the current ahead of us!

After so long wanting to see manta rays, it felt unbelievable to not just see one, but to see a whole group of them.

We also had an incredibly odd experience on one dive that unfortunately, I didn’t get any video of. Basically, we were in the midst of what started out as a completely routine dive when suddenly we heard the loudest bang I’d ever heard. The fish all instantly hid amongst the coral and all of us were looking around us and at each other wondering what on earth we heard. At first I thought maybe someone had had some sort of equipment malfunction or that a boat on the surface had dropped some loud equipment onto the floor of the boat but then we heard the sound three more times throughout the dive!

We finished the dive as planned and once we surfaced, all we could talk about was what on earth that crazy loud noise could possibly be…

That evening we moored in a bay and landed via dinghy to undertake a sunset hike. It was a bit of trek to get to the top but absolutely worth it for these views.

After watching the sunset we made our way back down the hill and upon reaching the bottom we were met with a whole group of Indonesian police who wanted to talk to us! At first I was confused as to why but after they questioned us about what we had heard on our dive we quickly learned that that crazy sound we had heard, well, that was people illegally dynamite fishing just a few clicks away from us.

It was absolutely insane to think that we were in the water just a short distance from such an insane thing happening.

The next day was our last on the boat, amazingly, we had made quite good time so we were able to do three dives – they threw in an extra dive for no cost for us!

Our last dives were absolutely phenomenal – we dived ‘the Shotgun’ which is a channel that is home to an extremely rapid current which is so much fun to fly down! We ended up getting almost to the end of the shotgun when we suddenly spotted a big surprise and had to frantically put in our reef hooks so that we could stay and watch the majesty for a while.

My few days on board the Bajak were so much better than I ever could’ve imagined. The Komodo Islands are a true paradise for divers and I simply cannot wait to return one day.

THE LOWDOWN

Getting to Komodo Islands: The gateway to the Komodo Islands is the small city of Labuan Bajo. This city is well connected via domestic flights from Bali or Jakarta
Scuba Republic: I opted to join the Bajak because it offered rooms with aircon and great diving guides for an affordable price. The boat isn’t the fanciest in the world, but it doesn’t need to be – I would happily sail aboard the Bajak again and for longer trips – click here to book or to learn more
Remember: Bring a gopro or underwater camera – there is so much incredible nature to capture!