The Seven Seas News - May 2015

Exploring beyond the East of Flores

By Mark Heighes. Photos by Foued Kaddachi.

We're exploring once more the vast archipelago of islands and reefs East of Flores. Waking up at the island of Adunara at sunrise on day one, this is promising to become another great day on another great trip. Breathtaking views with one or more volcanoes on the horizon and some of the most diverse itineraries that Indonesia has to offer.

Sharks are on the way back. There seem to be a lot more sharks around on a number of sites East of Flores, in the last few years. Especially Silver Tips which I have seen on my last two trips out east, on some of the deeper sites. No photos of those, but plenty of Black Tips and White Tips in the shallows and not too camera shy either.

Nothing quite like diving on a very active volcano... Pulau Komba just keeps surprising us both above and below. We can now actually hear the volcano erupting while we dive there on one of the sites most recently added to the menu here.

Always some dogtoothed tuna and impressive old hard coral formations to wander through. And we have not even started really exploring some of the black sand slopes for critters here...

Pamana Kecil was revisited for the first time in 25 years . It did not let us down and produced one of the best dives of the trip. We added another top site to the ever growing list for the East of Flores.

South Pantar stunning in more ways than one. Pristine is probably the best way to describe it. Alcatraz and Jaws are still untouched and visited by few others than the Seven Seas...

Excellent critters on some of the sandy sites.

The kids always steal the show in Alor.

And before we realize, we're on our way back past some of the magic mountains.

Mark Heighes, May 2015