Papua Diving: Sorido Bay Resort - The Resort

  Cape Kri, Papua Barat, Indonesia
Sunday, September 21, 2008

As wide and diversified as the World is, and as often as we discuss whether we would return to a particular place before seeing all of the rest of the world,

Papua Diving here we come!

Papua Diving: Sorido Bay Resort is one of the few places to which we will return!

Frankly, I have never felt the need to reinvent the wheel!

In this case the descriptions provided by Papua Diving: Sorido Bay Resort are a perfect starting place for our description of a magical week in Raja Ampat on Kri Island, Papua Irian Jaya: http://www.papua-diving.com

Raja Ampat: biodiversity extraordinaire

Located off the northwest tip of Bird's Head Peninsula on Kri Island, Raja Ampat, or the Four Kings, a fast archipelago comprising over 1,500 small islands, cays and shoals surrounding the four main islands Misool, Salawati, Batanta and Waigeo. It is a part of the newly named Papua province of Indonesia which was formerly called Irian Jaya.

Raja Ampat's pristine beauty, both above the water and below the water, is truly unrivalled. Its remote location and lack of infrastructure have inhibited the growth of tourism. This area's staggering abundance of marine life is due in part to its incredibly low human population density. Beneath the dense jungle canopy, the islands are primarily karst limestone, which are dry, inhospitable, and overwhelmingly vertical. The few resident Papuans are mainly a subsistence society, exploiting a variety of resources to meet their basic needs. Fishing is only one of these resources, and they continue to employ traditional, low-impact fishing techniques, using a hook and line from dug-out canoes.

Papua Diving

Papua Diving actually maintains two resorts: Sorido Bay Resort where we stayed; Kri Eco Resort (on the right side of the photo off in the distance) around the point and within walking distance from Sorido Bay.

I am taking the time to talk a little about the Papua Diving, and in a moment it's owner Max Ammer

Max Ammer: adventurer, founder, builder, manager,

and his staff, because we were so impressed with everything - of course the diving, the ambiance, the incredibly helpful and friendly staff, and the food in the middle of nowhere - that as far as we are concerned

1) we will definitely make the trip to dive with Papua Diving in the future, and

2) if you are a World diver and you haven't been to Sorido, well... you just haven't been!!

Sorido Bay Resort is newly built and opened November 2004. The resort allows our guests to experience Western style comforts

Our room for the week

in a traditional Papuan setting. Located on a beautiful deep lagoon and white sand beach on Kri Island, the dive resort is central to the most spectacular dive sites in the Raja Ampat.

Our house reef is Cape Kri where Dr. G. Allen recorded 283 different species of fish during ONE dive. This made this not only the fish richest dive site known to science, but also the richest house reef anywhere!

The resort has been built to offer all western comforts combining modern and traditional Papuan building methods.

Dining and recreation area

Frankly, we were so amazed with everything, and especially the construction of the resort. Most of the materials are local hacked out of the forest and prepared in a small mill that Max created.

High rafters and fans for air flow

If I had a carpenter's level with me there is no doubt that everything is both level and square.

Max went to the area many over 20 years ago hunting for plane and ship wrecks, found much more than he was seeking, and created a paradise in the middle of nowhere. Good on ya Max!!

In addition to the two legged walking residents, our favorite two legged flying resident was Horny!

Is that food?

Horny visited us throughout the day, and at meal times he had a good eye for catching fruit in the air.

Red Bird of Paradise: Photographer Matej Azman

In addition to diving, one of the "land" activities is getting up at 5:30am (Jackie did; I didn't!) and going to the forest to see the Red Bird Of Paradise.

A specially built bird hide

Life couldn't be better; only different!

And that is just Sorido Bay Resort!!




Now lets talk about the diving: first, when we are above the water and then we will present our Papua Diving UW images.