Not even 2 months were gone suddenly I was boarding into another Raja Amapt adventure. Flying to Sorong right after Christmas, I found myself sailing 9 days in Misool … another of my Indonesia dreams and probably all scuba divers bucket list destination.

After taking a 2h ferry trip from Sorong to Waisai, with Papua Mandiri Ferries (probably one of the best ferries trips I ever did: super clean ferry, both regular and VIP cabins with a huge TV’s for karaoke music that played during the entire trip, AC and breakfast snack on the VIP cabin).

Not sure how and where to start describing this trip. Despite of a moody weather, with a lot of rain and long sailings (20h from Waisai to Daram, our first stop) I believe this was the trip of my life regarding experiences!

This was basically a diving trip and during my first dive (and by far was not the best one) I literally cried underwater! I couldn’t believe that such beautiful and and healthy reef could possibly exist. So many underwater life in just one dive with millions of fishes schooling around and other small creatures. The fan corals were huge and untouched and them on the way to the shallow for our safety stop … a Wobegon Shark sleeping!!

All dives in Misool are a carnival of colours and life, with lots of different layers of fish to look at: colourful Anthias to all kind of fusiliers, small glass fishes and damselfishes, groupers and playing closer from the rainbow corals and the always cute and also colourful nudibranchs and the dancing snakes. The sea bottom is covered by beautiful soft and hard coral, with no trace of bleaching (in 15 dives I must saw just 2-4 bleached coral). Soon as you look into the blue … more fish schooling around: tunas, jacks, lots of GTs, trevallys, barracudas, wahoos, bump head parrot fishes, napoleons, batfish, sharks, turtles, hundreds of groupers, baramundi cods, … just endless life.

And when you thing that the diving can’t get better … think twice!!!
The first dive of 2018 was probably one of the best dives of my life, and by far the best dive of this trip.

In the middle of nowhere there’s a dive spot called Raja Empat (meaning Four Kings) and they call this for a reason as it was a beautiful place were all pelagic were the kings of the dive. It’s exposed to such current that we had to hook ourselves to the reef and every now and then the regulator would free-flow. Soon as we reached the top of the reef (just 5 meters deep) we were welcomed by huge clouds of small fishes, dancing for us, different layers of colourful fusiliers, anthers and damselfishes … so many that it was hardly possible to see something 3 meters away! An then …. a big school of trevallys and tunas. We hooked around 14m, on the edge of one of the pinnacles and waited for the action: when we less noticed we were in the middle of dozens of huge trevallys hunting their breakfast, in such a frenzy that they even hit us!

Let’s not forget the best Birthday day I ever had: swimming in a natural salt lake full of stingless jellyfishes!!!

Hopefully this hidden paradise can remain as it is for long time: remote, unspoiled, pristine and breathtaking.