Raja Amphat with Larry Smith and Adventure H2O

John (Canuck) and I are looking at going on this trip date and itinerary.

Not really a commercial trip per say but I'll post here to be safe.

AK 5/11/07 Timika - Etna Bay - Sorong

5/11 - 19/11 14 days US$ 335 per day

The price is pretty standard for the area due to remoteness but well worth the price of admission. Local airfare from Manado or Bali seems to be about $250USD return if memory serves me correct.

After reading Larry's log on the Adventure H2O site http://www.adventureh2o.com/dive-log2.htmlI am even more excited about this trip. Larry was one of the pioneers of Lembeh years past and is a real pleasure to spend time with. There is a story currently in Fathoms dive magazine about Larry Smith.

All is preliminary as we have not confirmed anything with the boat yet, just thought I would let people know what I am thinking about doing and see if anyone else wants to join in. This is the area where they found the new species of walking shark and set new species record counts.

This trip would also include the blue water mangroves from which I was lucky enough to get my winning image of the clownfish. I might be able to find it again too if equally lucky. 8)

Anyway, here is the website http://www.adventureh2o.com/index.html and if you think you would like to go PM or email me and I can talk to the boat and reserve some spots.

The food is topshelf and the wine flows freely from the owners own winery in Australia. Tough to take coming up from a night dive and having the crew waiting with a glass of wine.

My images from last years trip can be seen here http://www.pbase.com/yahsemtough/raja_amphat_indonesia_2006 We saw 2 different kinds of whales last year, dolphins, mantas and small stuff galore.

Boat also only takes 11 divers

Cheers

Todd

We are the boat right before you April whatever to May 9.

That trip is in November though. So before us yes.

If you have not been on the boat, you will love it. I had no issues with anything it was all first rate all the way.

Cheers

Todd

Sorry, saw 5/11 and read it in American.

Hi Todd,

Sorry to rain on your party - but I think you'll find that those dates are full. I have a group together to travel from Timika an an exploratory to the south east in search of black bass and barra with H2O owner Steve Jacobs from the 5th Nov. Mostly fishing with a little bit of diving as we work our way back to Sorong.

I think you will find the trip before is still vacant and may suit your purposes. Thought i'd mention this before you make too many arrangements.

regards,

col

" In search of black bass and barra .......... mostly fishing " !!!!!!!!!!!!

Raja Ampat region was nominated as an Unesco's World Heritage place ,

why you don't go fishing to another place ?

Fishing trips....that is disappointing...especially for black bass:( Perhaps they should be selling on a fishing forum).

A member has started a topic on this issue in the conservation section. I have moved the last couple of posts on this topic to there. For further discussion, jump to: Fishing trips to Raja Ampat !!

Thanks for the heads up. Like I said we had not booked anything just looking at options for going.

That and I did not know they did fishing trips. Strange choice for a dive liveaboard.

I may have to reconfigure my thoughts on this.

Cheers

Todd

I felt it prudent to email Steve Jacobs the owner of Adventure H2O to clarify what the purpose of this trip is. After diving with them and Larry Smith I found it strange that they would be doing a fishing trip for reef fish over dive sites and in Raja Amphat.

Steve's email was as follows

The trip is a catch and release trip meant for exploratory reasons. The fishing area is not within Raja Amphat but up rivers close to the PNG border. The longer term goal is to be able to encourage sport fishing of a catch and release nature to encourage locals to stop the practice of netting in the rivers which is decimating the fish stock as a result.

I think this helps clarify better the purpose of this exploratory trip than the first posting by Col (Barra)

They have stated the trip 2 weeks prior with the reverse of travel destination (Sorong to Timika) is available.