Alor Divers - Eco Dive Resort : muck / critter diving in alor

Showing posts with label muck / critter diving in alor. Show all posts

Feb 24, 2016

Spectacular muck diving in Beang Bay, Pantar

WHERE? Situated on the SE edge of Pantar Island and at the foot of Mt. Sirung volcano, Beang Bay forms a natural haven with 800 meters wide opening into the Pantar Strait of Savu Sea. A single village - Beang village- extends along the bay. There is a hot spring on the shoreline and underwater we can observe hot water and gas bubbles ascending from the black volcanic seabed.

WHY? In Beang Bay are located few outstanding muck dive sites that can rival worldwide known Lembeh Strait by the number as well as variety of bizarre creatures seen underwater. This year we will organize special day trips to Beang Bay, upon request and when sea conditions are right. The round trip from the resort takes about 2 hours and there will be a reasonable surcharge for extra fuel.

WHAT? We did the trip few times last year and the list of things we spotted underwater is truly impressive: numerous pipefish (rough snout, ghost pipefish, ornate, halimeda), great number of different octopuses, rhinopias, devil fish and crazy number of frog fish (hairy, warty, ocelated, striated etc, in total over 30 on one single dive!), few solar powered nudibranches as well as uncountable number (we stop counting after a while) of many kind of nudibranches and slugs, loads of decorator and soft coral crabs, seahorses and much more!

Here are some photos, all courtesy of our guest Sabine Gabriel...

Apr 19, 2015

We are off to a fantastic start with the diving this year !

From the boat alone, we have already had numerous sightings of Mola-mola, one Hammerhead lazily swimming on the surface and even a huge manta passing right beneath our divers during a surface interval, not to forget the usual pods of dolphins making an almost daily appearance.

But of course most of the action has been happening under the waves…

Current Alley is as exciting as ever; with all sorts of reef sharks patrolling the reef, accompanied by big tunas, Spanish Mackerel and Jacks swimming around intimidating the balls of fish. Groups of Eagle and Mobula rays calmly swimming along the wall while Stingrays queue up in line at the cleaning stations. Batfish, barracuda, bump-heads and turtles dotted around the reef have been a common in the shallows. Our other dive sites haven’t disappointed, offering occasional Shark and Ray encounters at Rumah Biru and Cathedral; Wobbegongs in the world-famous Anemone fields on Pura Island; and we also found the new favorite sleeping place of a big white tip reef shark.

As for the small stuff… Our newest muck-diving spot, located under a newly built jetty, just gets better each time we visit. Just recently we have counted 10 leaf fish on the dive site! Coral and hydroids growing around jetty pillars offer a nursery to baby-Batfish and on the bottom the octopus seem to have found the perfect spot to build their houses. The sandy areas have been hosting rare sighting such us Emperor Shrimps, Zebra crabs, and even a tiny Bumble-bee shrimp. Not to forget more of the Ghost-pipefish than you can shake a stick at. In other muck dive spots we broke some records: 4 Rhinopious in one dive; 6 sea horses in another; 5 ornate ghost pipefish together in one pinnacle; as well as 5 new frogfish and 2 blue-ring octopus spotted in less than one month ;-)

Lastly we have to mention the house reef – as spectacular as ever. The challenge will be for you to find all the lobsters, the resident turtle, and if you are a good spotter maybe the new tiny seahorse or the Halimeda Ghost-pipefish…

But don’t take our word for it - come and see for yourself !!!

Mar 11, 2015

New resort in Alor !

2015 is an exciting new season for diving in Alor!

10 years ago, when we (Gilles and Neya) decided to settle in Alor we were hesitating between few locations in Pantar Strait. Finally the opportunity of living on a remote sandy beach with preserved house reef looked like a perfect fit for what we wanted professionally and personally. We settled in Pantar, built Alor Divers and gave life to our beautiful girls Maliana and Lyvie. Our little corner flourished as Alor region in general got increasing number of visitor and divers with each passing year. Furthermore muck diving became very popular in a diving world and Alor has some great muck to offer. We saw an opportunity and started to play with the idea of building an additional resort on a different location in Alor. It eventually became clear to us we couldn’t to do it on our own if we wanted to offer personalized and professional service we give at Alor Divers. We looked for partners for a new “adventure” and decided together with our friends Max and Lauren for a partnership in setting up a new resort in Kalabahi Bay near great muck diving sites.

Creating Alami Alor Dive Resort took over a year of joined efforts and we are happy to announce that it will be open for guests starting 5 April, 2015! While we (Gilles and Neya) contributed our experience of working, living and diving in Alor, Max and Lauren did excellent work with designing and constructing the new resort. They are also resort managers and will take care of everything above and below sea level to ensure Alami Alor’s guests have a memorable stay!

Between Alor Divers located in the strait and Alami Alor in the bay, there is a choice of accommodation and diving experiences to suite a variety of expectations for a dive holiday in the Alor Archipelago. Even though the resorts are two separated establishments, we would like to offer for 2015 a special promotional discount for a combination package at the 2 resorts. Book a 6 night package at Alor Divers plus a 6 night package at the new Alami Alor Dive Resort and receive 10% discount on both stays plus 1 extra night free for a total of 13 nights in Alor.