Diving in Indonesia Archives | TRAVELS WITH TAM

It was an exciting dive in the Dampier Strait!

April 30, 2017 By Tam Warner Leave a Comment

adventure, dampier strait, diving, travel solo — **Saonek Village has not only a jetty but a mosque and a lot of children who love to watch the divers!**

On day 8 of one of the best dive trips of my life, the Arenui Liveaboard headed into the Dampier Strait of Raja Ampat. Our dive sites were Cape Kri, Blue Magic, and Saonek Jetty. Saonek Jetty brought the biggest shock of the day! The dive site is at a jetty, just as it sounds, and it was a nice, shallow dive site. During my first dive there, I saw a Titan Triggerfish. The Titan has a bad reputation for being aggressive, and I had heard the stories of broken jaws, stitches, and broken ribs. Yikes! I have always been very respectful of the Titan, it is a meaty, muscular triggerfish. On this dive, I saw a Titan diving down, and realized it was building a nest. I didn’t go close to her, but she saw me and came after me with a vengeance! Scared me to death. I had my brand new camera in my brand new Nauticam housing, and the only thing between my face and the fish was my housing. As the fish shot toward me I pushed out at it with my housing. My thought was, great, my first trip with this gear and it is going to be broken. The Titan came after me three times, and how it did not crash into my housing dome I will never know. My dive buddy swam up afterward to make sure I was okay. Okay but a bit shaken, I admit!

Cape Kri was an absolutely beautiful dive site, one of the most visually beautiful of the trip, both above and below. A large group of Bumphead Parrotfish were in the shallows, hanging out on our safety stop. The light was decent so I was able to take good photos of them. They are so ugly, but big and fascinating to watch!

Blue Magic was a gorgeous dive site, and almost an eerie dive. The fish shoals were huge, and so still, we all knew there had to be predators around. We were rewarded with Black Tip Reef Sharks, and finding a Woebeggone Shark snoozing under a ledge. We did two dives at Blue Magic, so we also saw a variety of fish, and a couple of Giant Manta Rays!

Black Tip Reef Sharks were hanging around the shoals. It was so still and quiet!

It was a beautiful day of diving!

This completely awesome trip was a Ray of Hope Expedition from Marine Megafauna Foundation with Dr Andrea Marshall.

A Most Unpleasant Surprise on Dive Day 7 in Raja Ampat

April 23, 2017 By Tam Warner 4 Comments

raja ampat, day 7, sunset — **Beautiful Day 7 in late afternoon with a drone in the sky.**

Ear problems are a most unpleasant surprise! “I can’t dive because of my ears” is something I have heard a million times. Generally, it is not true, most people can clear their ears, and if you don’t believe me, just yawn! They clear. It is a fact that there are divers who have ear trouble, and my husband was among them. He burst his eardrum at least 3 times that we know of. I used to get what they call “swimmers ear”, which is an outside the ear infection that is very painful, but I haven’t had it in years. Until Raja Ampat!

On the 6th day of diving my ears began to hurt. By Day 7 I knew there had to be an infection, so I made the decision to skip the rest of the day’s diving, take antibiotics and ear drops, and rest. The day was spent sorting photos and resting, and by dinner I was feeling much better. Until I put alcohol based ear drops in my ear. I actually screamed the pain was so absolutely unexpected! A nurse on board told me that I had probably burst an eardrum. Well, I was pretty sure of it, and the alcohol drops just confirmed it. However, I could not miss the incredibly beautiful sunset dive! My ear ached a bit for the rest of the trip, but I was very careful and had no major issues. The benefit of having a burst eardrum? You don’t have to clear your ears! A little diver humor!

raja ampat, diving, sunset — **Tips of an anemone.**

The Great Adventure that is Muck Diving!

April 16, 2017 By Tam Warner 24 Comments

raja ampat, adventure, our planet, diving — **A beautiful False Clownfish in anemone.**

So, you ask, what is muck diving? Well, it is diving in muck. Muck is defined as rubbish or garbage. In diving, it means diving in a place that is dirty, and sometimes polluted with plastic and bottles. On the sixth day in Raja Ampat we headed to Batanta, an island which is one of the “4 Kings” (Raja Ampat means 4 Kings), and explored a muck dive site called Black Beauty. It had dirty old sand, trash, and it was silty. Gross, right? No! On a muck dive you find amazing wildlife! So we spent all of day 6 muck diving, and seeing animals that are normally rare to see, but on a muck dive they were plentiful. I think this photo essay will prove it was well worth it, and I hope you enjoy these animals as much as I did!

It Was A Fantastic Journey to Tomolol Cave

April 9, 2017 By Tam Warner 18 Comments

My trip to Indonesia, like most of my other trips, was solo travel. The great thing about traveling solo on dive trips is you meet all kinds of new friends! After diving the Watch Towers, we went on an expedition to Tomolol Cave, a sacred site. A Muslim shrine is located at the entrance. Tomolol Cave has a river with fantastic limestone and rock formations. Most people use a life jacket or ring to float through the caves, much of it in the dark. Many people had lights, of course, so we could see the inner walls of the cave. From the boat to the caves on small boats, there is a pearl farm on the way. Boats must stop and pick up local guards to go to Tomolol Cave. One cannot take anything out of the cave, and the guards make sure no one dives the pearl farm for pearls!

misool, raja ampat, tomolol cave — The Pearl Farm worker’s residences.

The cave itself is like a cathedral to stone, water, and nature. Carnivorous Pitcher Plants hang on its outer walls. Misool is jungly along the rivers leading to the cave, and there are even cliff burial sites! It is bizarre to see human remains on the side of the cliffs. The presence of the guards guarantees they are not disturbed. Floating through the monoliths was a surreal experience, and one I tried to soak into my very skin. I never want to forget the beauty of Raja Ampat.

Beautiful Diving in Raja Ampat on Day 5!

April 6, 2017 By Tam Warner 14 Comments

raja ampat, scuba, diving, misool, watch tower — Shoal of snappers on Watch Towers

Misool Island continued to be good to us, and there was beautiful diving on day 5. It was a short dive day, so the dive had to be good! We went to Watch Towers, and enjoyed a great variety of fish and coral! And I saw my first Woebeggone Shark, so exciting! Enjoy!

Diving is sometimes similar to a Dr Seuss book.

Diving Day 4 in Fabulous Raja Ampat!

April 2, 2017 By Tam Warner 10 Comments

On diving day 4 in Raja Ampat I had become somewhat comfortable with my camera and housing, and I decided to try my hand at macro-photography (closeup photography). I know photographers who take absolutely amazing macro images and I have always wanted to do it myself. I know these do not come close to their expertise but I was fairly happy with the result.

macro, photography, raja ampat, scuba, diving — Small Damselfish

arenui, raja ampat — Gorgeous close up of corals in Raja Ampat.

macro, photography, photo blog, raja ampat, scuba, diving — Another incredible day!

After a couple of dives with my macro lens I switched back to my wide angle. A wide angle lens allows a diver to get very close to their subject and still have the whole subject and background in the image. So, these fish are closer than they appear! In dive photography, you must get close to the subject in order to have enough light to photograph it. The density of the water means that you have to be 2 to 5 feet from the object or your photo will be all blue, without other colors. Photographers who do scene photography have huge strobes in order to light the area they are shooting. My strobes are not large enough to do that, but maybe someday! There are often scenes I pause to gape at, and wish I could show it to people so they could see the beauty of the underwater realm.

Diving in Indonesia

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