Dec 5, 2009

This time it was for real….

Already 4 years being in Alor and we have seem many times whales sometime from the boat but also from the beach ( where they sometime pass very close to shore )….by the way, we must be one of the only resort in the world where you can see whale sitting in your bungalow terrace.
But yesterday was something special, all divers could get in the water close to the whale and admire this more than 10 m sperm whale…this was the first time we could approach this animal so closely…no need to say that all were very happy…except me ..sniff…I need to stay out of the water for a week more because of a very bad cut…

Nov 21, 2009

ghost pipe fish....


I dive Alor all year long and I can say that some fish are more seasonal than some other, like the ghost pipe : It wasn't any around for a while and suddenly few appears left and right and best was at the muck dive yesterday with a robust ghost pipe, 3 harlequin ghost pipe and 2 velvet ghost pipe…will return there soon, I ‘m pretty sure there are even some more . And this is not finished, today we found what I will call a "Hairy" Halimeda Ghost Pipe.

Like you can see on the photo, it is very similar to Halimeda ….First time I see something like this and I already have more than 3000 dives in Indonesian water….

Oct 2, 2009

diving with currents

We all know that current dive can be demanding sometime, but what a recompense when you are hooked at 30 m and the spectacle is in front of your eyes….the dive yesterday was a dream dive …grey reef sharks circling 2 m from us, school of eagle ray above us in the blue water (they didn’t seem much affected by the current), we even had the short visit from a hammerhead shark, not so common in Indonesian water anymore. The group asked for this dive again and we did it 3 times in 2 weeks stay…sorry i don't have photo but soon some video will be on line...( soon means few months at the speed we manage to make things moving from Alor).

Aug 9, 2009

Summer critters


Have been busy lately, lot of diving, many happy guests, some coming back for the second time this year. Last year was the year of the harlequin ghost pipe fish we find many from all color, my favorite critter. This year is the year of the clown frog fish, some yellow, some whites, some baby orange-white some on muck diving sites and some well camouflage on colorful walls. And recently one Rinopias….hopefully, he will stay around for a while.

Jul 2, 2009

holiday !!!

no news for a while...we where having a week holiday in Bali. Actually pretty busy going left and right. the big news is that we will add a bungalow next year at the end of the beach and we already start to purchase materials for it. Tomorrow , back to work and see if the frog fish are still hanging around the house reef. See you soon ....

Jun 13, 2009

house reef dives


Latest news about our house reef : a juvenile winged pipe fish was spotted during a night dive along with a small orange frog fish . Also I could take a photo today of our two new discovered inhabitants: two splendid clown frog fish. More north at 24m a family of 7 pygmy Bargibanti are sharing the same gorgonian fan for some months now, some so big that we expect the family to grow in number quite soon. A couple of robust ghost pipe are always hanging around and some leaf fish have make home in front of the restaurant. The Pontohi pygmy have disappear for 2 weeks now but I’m sure we will find them again around.

Jun 6, 2009

You find it....

following the post : Muck dive in Kalabahi bay.
i asked a few person to see if in Europe, in some books they can find out about the nudi and the answer is Yes it exist : Ceratosoma Alleni from Chromodorididae family,
discover in 1996 by Gosliner.
So no need to wonder anymore !!!! thanks to Tita and Enrico for their successful research

May 22, 2009

fish and fish


And what about bigger animals? Because Alor is not only about excellent visibility, pristine reefs and macro life, Alor is also diving with fish…..well, we were quite lucky so far this year and to only mention the best, I like first to say that the eagle rays are still there at Current Alley, sometime the school can be up to more than 30, plenty of black reef sharks, some grey reef sharks and a school of yellow fin barracudas. The huge Tuna are still patrolling at Karl’s Dream, and may be the most unusual encounter was a school of 9 sting ray in mid water…usually you see this animal close to bottom looking for food or just resting but never more than 1 at the time….This was just amazing..

May 16, 2009

Muck in Kalabahi Bay


Today we dived Kalabahi Bay and today again was a wonderful muck dive, Wonderpus octopus, a couple of Cockatoo Waspfish, divers pipe fish to only mention the highlight…this remind me about the nudi ( see photo) we find last week at the same place …

I looked in our nudi book and I didn’t find anything similar. May be new specie? If anybody can give some light on the subject this would be fantastic.

May 14, 2009

mimic ghost pipe fish


Already many times this year the Halimeda ghost pipe fish was spotted by Junko, in Pura island but also in ternate island. This rare ghost pipe is soooo mimic with the algae that I’m not sure if it is rare or just difficult to spot ?????

May 10, 2009

small talk



Since the first time Neya find a Pontohi pygmy in the house reef (august 2008 ), we keep on finding some more. I think we even have found 2 different species, because after research on Internet I recognize the pygmy what I find few times already in our house reef : the Hippocampus severnsi, is more dark brown color while the Hippocampus Pontohi has more white dominant. both photos are from our house reef.

introduction

Hello ,

We create this blog to share with you our everyday diving in Alor ( but also news about us and the resort in general ).

Our web site (www.alor-divers.com) is nice but doesn't allow us to make changes so easilly, so we thought that the blog is the best option.

actually junko initiated the idea , for quite a while she already edit a blog in japanese.

so keep looking ....

gilles & Neya