The Komodo Islands

2nd to 7th October 2010 

We left our anchorage at Rangkoh and for our own reasons we chose to only visit the islands at the north end of the Komodo’s. We do intend to do sail all the way through from the north end of the Komodo Islands to the south on our return voyage.

We pulled up at Gili Lawa Laut first and while the bay looked beautiful, it was full of local charter boats. Already we had become used to being the only boat in a bay, so we moved around to the south side of Gili Laut. 

As advised there were good moorings at S08 29.5 E119 33.1 Unsure of what was in the water we did not dive at our first anchorage. 

Two days later we moved a to the bay at the entrance to where we were and pulled up the only mooring there. The next morning we jumped in the dinghy and had a look around for something that resembled the coral we had heard so much about. Having almost given up I said to Cathy, how about jumping in here near the (2M to 128M) drop off. When she came up she could not understand a word of what she was trying to say, other than “jump in, you have to see this”.  It was just like an elderly Aunt’s garden, everything was in it’s place and just perfect, even the colours were in order. If only we had an underwater camera.

The next few bays we stopped at were not quite as spectacular underwater, but they still provided days and days of snorkelling entertainment. While drifting around the bay of Batu Montjo (Monco) in the dinghy one morning, looking for another snorkeling spot, Cathy heard an unusual noise. Although we had not seen any (other than the timber models the locals handcraft) I guess Komodo Dragons were always in the back of our minds. The second time around I heard the noise as well. “That sounds like a whale” I said, sure enough as we looked over towards “Catcha Star” there was a Killer Whale surfacing again. It stayed and hunted in the bay for about fifteen minutes and then continued on it’s way. No camera again, uuuuhhhh!!!

The water was so clear in Monco bay....... Well have a look at these photos taken from on deck.

We then moved over to Gili Banta, anchoring in the large bay for the first few nights and then moving on up to the smaller bay in the SE corner for many enjoyable days. 

These concrete pillars are in the bay at Labuhan Gili Banta. Can anyone tell us what they were for?

Once again the coral was not as spectacular as it had been near Gili Lawa, but the water was beautifully clear and provided a great place to swim and snorkel.