Papua Diving: Sorido Bay Resort - The Diving

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

Lots more diving for us to do!

Papua is frontier diving. One of the last truly wild places on earth, it has yet to succumb to the pressures of overfishing, coral bleaching, exploding tourism and overpopulation. The diving reflects this. Topside there are few roads, even few boats ply the water in the Raja Ampat islands on the "bird's head", the far northwestern end of Papua where Papua Diving is located. Underwater, the life is wild, extraordinarily plentiful and for the most part, unexplored.


They said it; we did it! When you look at the dive map you can understand the caption - there is just lots more diving for us to do!!

The Resort is located in the midst of gigantic reef systems with more dive sites than you could map in a lifetime! From the resort, virtually hundreds of sites with diverse topology and life can be reached with relatively short boat rides."

Kitting Up Papua Style

From mucky shallow bays with shrimp gobies, octopus, nudibranchs and "twilight zone" critters; to lagoon channels overhung by rainforest; to rock islands undercut by the sea and covered with a kaleidoscope of tunicates and corals; to offshore reefs with raging currents supporting an unbelievable variety of colorful soft and hard corals and FISH, lots and lots of large fish, the diversity of sites seems endless.

Underway: Let's get wet

Each day is different and may include from 2 to 5 dives (3 day dives + 1 night dive being the average) depending on the divers' desires. Many sites are within 5-30 min. of the resorts, however some special sites are further away. Divers may choose to return to resort between dives (from the nearby sites). For the farthest sites from the resort, we plan multiple dives (2-3) and carry a packed lunch to enjoy during a surface interval on one of the finest deserted white sand beaches you will ever experience.

The "other" boat

Most dives are drift dives due to strong currents in the area. The currents provide nutrients for the outstanding quantity and variety of fish life and corals in the area. A fabulous variety of colorful soft corals and plenty of reef fish are found at most sites. Large schools of fish are known to populate some areas, pelagics such as sharks, Manta and Mobula Rays, dolphin, whales and turtles are frequent sights.

Raja Ampat reefs

Visibility is good, but not spectacular, and is best in the morning dives. The water temperature is 82?-84?F (28?-29?C) year round.

Unbelievable diving!

The area is not only stunning underwater. Topside, the islands have a very diverse topography with steep mountain shores and deserted white sand beaches.


The area is far off the beaten track and is rarely visited by foreigners.

Papuan village

One day we visited one of the "off the beaten track" villages - simply fascinating to see how another culture lives and thrives!

Papuan village

Papuan village

Sun Bleached Blonde - jokes anyone?

Frankly, there was no way we could improve on the descriptions provided by Papua Diving.

We experienced what they described, nothing was exaggerated, and

now let's go below and see what the Blonde and I saw while diving...............