The Seven Seas News - August 2013
Komodo Family Trip July/August 2013 - Kids' comments
By Laura, Phoebe, Jacco, Sytse, Kevin and Jack, with photos by Jacco, Joost, Katherine, Rod and Eva.
On our recent Komodo family cruise we had 7 kids aged between 10 and 15 on board - all of them divers. Here are their comments...
The first day was full of adventures. We were woken up by the sound of the engine starting. Some were so excited that they got straight out of bed to watch as the sun rise over the horizon. Some of the things that we saw on the first dive were just amazing. Turtles, beautiful corals and big schools of fish. The next dive can only be described as a kingdom of color. On the last dive of the day we got to be the audience to an underwater feeding frenzy. It was amazing to witness the hunting behavior of the jacks and sharks working together.
Second day already! Highlights of the day must include going water skiing. It made me feel so free and made me think of how lucky I am to be back on the seven seas. Another highlight would have to be that some of us did our first dusk dive! The group was divided into our boat groups and we set off on this new adventure. With the sun setting just behind us we entered the water. There sure are a lot of weird creatures in the ocean after dark!
The following day we dived again in the morning and then some kids went to the "bat cave" and you could water ski if you wanted. When the night fell there was a night dive organized only a few people went and they were lucky because there was a lot of activity under the water. And we ended the day with a great meal and went to bed and looked forward to the next day.
On the next days, the dives were all truly stunning to me. I actually got to pet a TURTLE and a CUTTLE FISH (click here for video by Jacco Backx) and a PUFFER FISH and I also saw so many other things, but there are too many to talk about. WOW, the dives were just amazing, with beautiful corals and so many turtles and cuttlefish. Great breakfasts and lunches in between! Also everyone got to see eagle rays and sharks and napoleon wrasse and giant manta rays! Lots of little critters as well. And in the afternoons we got to go to the beach and we had baby margaritas and then to finish the day we had a delicious dinner!!!
One morning we went diving to somewhere that didn't have a name yet and 3 minutes in we saw a turtle which was very friendly. On the boat, Laura said that she had seen it on the same dive on the last trip! After a good breakfast we went for another dive. When we got down we saw a moray, not just any moray, a giant moray. It could have been at least two meters long if it came out....but it was in its hole and none of us would poke it because that would be mean. We arrived back and had lunch. And then we had a three hour journey to another area and we got to see komodo dragons there, then we went to a beach not to far away and had some snacks and watch another amazing sunset over Komodo.
Everyone thought that the manta rays (or maybe the fish feeding frenzy - click here for video by Jacco Backx - would be their favorite dive of the trip, but then the last dive of the trip was so spectacular with colorful reefs and SO many fish of all species that nobody wanted to get out of the water anymore. But the diving was over now so we then put the sails up and had the engines off, and we sailed in silence to a place where we had a great BBQ outside the Park. At least half of our group are already planning to come back next year!
» CLICK HERE FOR OUR SELECTION OF BEST PHOTOS FROM THIS TRIP
