West Papua - Kararu Sea Safari ??

Planning to join a trip on the Sea Safari in the Raja Empat area of Indonesia in a month or so. First time there. Any tips or comments from recent visitors?

Recommended wetsuit? Suggested photo equipt preparations? Diving experiences I should expect? Any advice about flight and other connections? The one thing you wished you had taken and didn't?

Thanks for your experience!!

Larry

I'm sure you'll have a great trip. It's a wonderful place. Check out the REAs (Rapid Environmental Assessments) and reports on Raja Empat by TNC and others. These have an amazing amount of information about the marine and terrestrial wildlife of the area.

- Donnelly R., Neville D., Mous P. 2003. Report on a rapid ecological assessment of the Raja Ampat Islands, Papua, Eastern Indonesia, held October 30 – November 22, 2002. Report from The Nature Conservancy Southeast Asia Center for Marine Protected Areas, Sanur, Bali Indonesia. 246 p (pdf, 5,500Kb). High resolution version (pdf, 15,250 Kb)

- Erdmann M.V. & Pet J.S 2002. A rapid marine survey of the northern Raja Ampat Islands (Eastern Indonesia). Report from Henry Foundation/The Nature Conservancy/NRM/EPIQ. 36 p (pdf, 699 Kb).

- Halim, A. and Suebu, A. 2004. Support for the establishment of effectively managed MPA platform sites as foundation for resilient networks of functionally-connected marine protected areas (MPA), Raja Ampat islands, Papua province, Indonesia. Annual project report (September 2003 - December 2004). The Nature Conservancy Southeast Asia Center for Marine Protected Areas. 23 p. (pdf; 472 Kb).

These reports are available on TNC's SEACMPA (Southeast Asia Center for Marine Protected Areas) website, which has a lot of other interesting material as well:

TNC SEACMPA

I was in Raja Empat over Dec-Jan. A 3 mil wetsuite was fine for me, and I'm the original warm-water-wimp. Most of the dives were quite warm, around 28-29 C. I did bring a hood, but I don't think I ever bothered to take it on a dive.

There are some spectacular topside photo opportunities as well as underwater ones, including beautiful and very interesting limestone karst islands. Birds of Paradise. Cuskus (if that's the spelling), some folks on our boat saw one.) A long lens might be worth having. I also experimented with over/unders for the first time on this trip, and was very glad I'd brought the split diopter and the RainEx. Mostly I shot wide-angle. (If you're interested, there are some shots further down in this forum, and more on my website ( Tabula - Images by Robert Delfs ).

I'm sure the Kararu people will be able to help you sort out the flight connections and all that.

As to critical supplies, we did run out of wine and harder stuff (rum, Scotch) including what we brought AND all the ship's supplies. Of course, that almost always happens, though this trip did span Xmas and New Year's. The Kararu boat may be better supplied than Bidadari, or your and your boatmates may make less serious inroads than we did. But if you're so inclined, it's never inappropriate to bring a bottle of good rum and a bag of limes on a live-aboard dive trip.

I believe the Kararu has been operating in RE continuously for a few months now, and Sorong is not exactly a major metropolis, so you can't count on them being able to supply critical supplies such as fresh limes for daiquiris. It all depends on local supply.

Frogfish

Thanks Robert, the links in the post weren't working but I did find your picture album (I suppose I can leave my camera at home since it doesn't look like you left may good photos for others!) I want to see that giant clam!

I'm not a very athletic drinker, so if they run out of booze I won't suffer too much! Looks like I can look forward to a lot of WA opportunities. Were the macro subjects (nudis, shrimp, critters) just as prevalent?

Thanks again.

Depending on dive site, be prepared for STRONG currents. I dove with Papua

Diving in Aug. Cape Kri for example was a tough dive for photo due to currents.

I have a feeling Larry has already done this trip anyway, but if not - thanks, Larry. I promise you I left LOTS of pictures. Sorry about the link.

We had some current a few dives, but nothing like Komodo (or Nusa Penida for that matter). I suppose it depends on the site - we didn't do Cape Kri.

I wouldn't worry to much about currents on the Kararu boat. When they're operating in Komodo, they tend to avoid the hairiest sites like Batu Balong.

Frogfish