subject to change without prior notice, at the discretion of cruise director and captain
Day 1: Arrive to the ILIKE at Ambon port.
Day 2: Ambon Bay
Day 3: Nusa Laut
Day 4: Bandas Islands
Day 5: Bandas Isalnds
Day 6: Koon Island
Day 7: Misool Daram Islands
Day 8: Misool Fiabacet/ Boo Island
Day 9: Misool Wayilbatan
Day 10: Penemu Island
Day 11: Yangeffo Island and Dampier Strait
Day 12: Disembark in Sorong Port
We embark ILIKE in Ambon, the capital of the Maluku’s province. It is the most populated city in the area and its phenomenal muck diving is considered as one of the best in the world. The city is spit by an enormous Bay, that
since recently is connected by a bridge.
Cuttlefish, seahorses, octopus and many other critters find their home in this deep Bay. It is muck diving in its purest
state. One of the most famous dive site is Twighligh in Laha village.
As the name says it feels like twighlight even in broad daylight. You may first wonder why your guide brought you
here, but than a whole new world opens to you.
Creatures that you have never seen before or even knew existed. Here we can find such critters as a harlequin
shrimp or hairy frogfish, flamboyant cuttlefish, seahorses, mototi, hairy, starry, wonderpus are just a few of the many different species of octopus you can find here.
Biggest highlights are rhinopias or the elusive psychedelic frog fish, other than in Bali it is never found anywhere
else in the world.
Don’t forget the beautiful coral gardens found outside the Bay. There is a huge natural rock bridge, called, Pintu
Kota. It is covered in beautiful and colourful soft corals, with great marine life.
Nusa Laut incredible diving as Ahmed the small village that protects the area against illegal fishing does a great job conserving this area. Big schools of jacks, rainbow runners, tuna, spanish mackerel, but there is also chance for
big pelagics.
The Banda Sea is spectacular as it is very remote due to its location and possibility of rougher seas. Crystal clear waters, bottomless dropoffs, colorful coral pinnacles and so much more. After the eruption (1988) of Gunung Api close to Banda Neira, the lava flowed into the sea covering and over throwing the coral below.
You will be amazed by the fast recovery of the hard-coral garden that grew in its place. For the night/dusk dive we can see the ma- ting dance of the very colorful mandarin fish, search for frogfish, seahorses, razorfish and octopus.
We offer you the opportunity to visit the old historic town of Banda Neira. Here you will find many remains of the Dutch and English spice trade. We will visit an old nutmeg plantation and have a little taste of how you can make great use of this famous spice that once was believed to cure the plague.
The fort Belgica offers great views of the port and Gunung Api.
Koon Island, again a very remote location that it lays between the Ceram, Arafula Sea the Banda Sea, feeding of very nutritious currents fish and corals thrive here like never seen before.
Raja Ampat translated from the Indonesian language it
means Four Kings. it refers to an archipelago with more than 1500 islands with the four main islands of Waigeo, Batanta, Salawati and Misool and is part of the Coral Triangle making it one of the richest biodiversity of the world.
More than 1300 different species of fishes and more than 600 different spices of corals are some of the
beauties from this Indonesian paradise.
Once we arrive in Misool you will be amazed by the diversity you will find here. An abundance of marine life, a variety of underwater seamounts, smaller pinnacles, coral walls and coral gardens, covered in giant sea fans, soft corals in all colours, massive table corals and countless fish.
The massive sea fans houses the smallest seahorses. This is a great place to find the elusive epaulette shark, or walking shark. This nocturnal shark sneaks up on its pray by ‘walking’ closer and closer to it. It is largely a marine park set up by Misool Eco Resort in cooperation with all the local villages, not to fish inside this area. It gets patrolled by the park rangers.
It is also one of the few places in the world where we can find two species of Manta rays on the same dive
sites.
Ending the journey, we will be traveling to Dampier Strait where we can find huge amount of nutrients from
Pacific Ocean bringing in bigger predators like giant trevallies, yellow fin tuna, rainbow runners and even giant mantas (at the right season), some sharks like blacktip, grey reef,
white tip sharks.Table corals prove a great hiding place for wobbegongs shark.We offer you the opportunity to visit local villages or there hike up to one of the lookout points