Indonesia's island oasis

Sometimes I wish I could go back to simpler times before mobile phones meant we could be contacted 24/7, the dodo still existed (I would have loved to see one of those!) or computer games were creating a generation with no passion for the natural world. Other times I am glad to live in the 21st century, which has given us the internet, the iPod and the ability to get to far-flung dive destinations in a fraction of the time!

There was a time, only a few years ago, when it took a full three days of arduous travel just from Bali to reach Wakatobi, which is in the remote south-east corner of Sulawesi, Indonesia. This same journey now only takes two and a half hours on private plane direct to Wakatobi’s own airstrip. The charter flights have allowed the resort to reach the next level of luxury, so that none of your home creature comforts will be missed. You may even develop a new suite of rock star-like demands! Accommodation is in the form of private bungalows fully equipped with air-conditioning, a private balcony, internet access and a mini bar. The level of opulence then escalates through four types of bungalow to the ultimate, which are the villas. These walled oases have between them an infinity pool, love shack and the best views on the island!

Regaining your focus!
With such luxury on the island it is easy to become so distracted by spas, sun bathing and amazing cuisine that you forget all about the stunning reefs that you’ve travelled all this way to see. A typical day for the die-hard diver begins with a hearty breakfast followed by a dive briefing in the long house - this was the original building, which used to accommodate all the guests, the kitchen and dining area, but has now transformed into the dive briefing area, camera room, salon, spa and boutique. After dive briefings the boats head out in different directions with two dives provided in the morning and one in the afternoon. With one exception, all the sites are a leisurely 20 minutes or so by boat; the most-distant site is Blade and takes around 45 minutes to reach, but this time flies by since dolphins and pilot whales are often seen on the journey. The ratio of guests to guides is low, as are numbers on each boat, thus making the most of the resort’s remote location and making you feel like you’re the only ones on the reef. With the help of the boat assistants you’re soon in the water, with the next 70 minutes spent enjoying the stunning underwater scenery.

Many of the dive sites are sheer coral walls dropping into the abyss, but there are also sloping reefs, pinnacles and mini walls. The reefs here really are something to behold, especially when a little current is running and the abundant soft corals swell to open their polyps, covering the reef in a kaleidoscope of colour. Some of the most-colourful sites are walls with occasional ridges that catch plenty of current, creating a huge diversity of sponges, soft corals and gorgonians. My favourite of these is Magnifica, where there is a certain patch of reef that has to be the healthiest and most vibrant I have seen. Another of my favourite sites is Teluk Maya, which is more of a muck dive on a sandy slope in a semi-protected coral bay. Seagrasses grow on the sand and harbour all manner of unusual critters, such as ghost pipefish, Pegasus seamoths and an occasional cockatoo waspfish. The reef then slopes up to the surface where a huge school of batfish hang out. It was also here that the pygmy pipehorse Kyonemichthys rumengani was found only months after its discovery in the Lembeh Strait of northern Sulawesi. Thinner than a piece of string and only two to three centimentres long, it is staggering how internal organs can fit into such a tiny animal!

Getting to know the residents
I have spent several months at Wakatobi conducting fieldwork for my pygmy seahorse studies (see February 2009 issue), which has given me plenty of time to get to know the reefs and their inhabitants intimately. For one part of my study I spent a total of 45 hours (over the course of six weeks) watching one pygmy seahorse family, so I obviously became quite friendly with the local community of reef creatures. A resident humpback snapper, which are usually skittish, became so used to me it allowed a close-up shot of its face! Every evening at dusk all sorts of activity began; the same Leander plumosus shrimp would leave its hole at precisely the same time and head off for a night on the reef, and after a few weeks of studying my pygmy family, I noticed that a group of Bartel’s dragonets were becoming active at around 5.35pm. The larger male would display to his smaller mate and, like their cousin the mandarinfish, would eventually rise up into the water column and spawn. I was surprised to then see the male move off and complete the same courtship with another two females before retiring for the night! This happened every evening and I was amazed how many creatures you can set your watch to!

The Wakatobi Express
One of the resort’s main underwater attractions is the world-renowned house reef, which is easily accessible from shore at the front of the resort. Depending on the currents, which can be quite ripping and have been coined the ‘Wakatobi Express’, access is either from the beach or via taxi boat, which can drop you up-current, allowing a hassle-free drift back to the resort. At the end of the jetty, where the less energetic of the group will no doubt be enjoying a cocktail at the jetty bar, lives a school of bigeye trevally that could amuse me for hours. They are always eager to check out new and exciting creatures in their domain and often rush up to divers to have a closer look, one by one eyeing you up. They will then change their collective mind and rush off to check out something else, such as a passing green turtle, before heading over the reef crest into the shallows to relax after all the excitement.

Blue-ringed adventure
For me the diving in Indonesia is one of the few places you just never know what you’ll see. I spent a week getting up at 6am to go in search of the elusive blue-ringed octopus on the house reef, but I had been warned that they had only been spotted a few times so not to get my hopes up, but I enjoyed pottering around in the shallows even if I didn’t find the grand prize. On my last day of diving, suddenly out of the corner of my eye, there it was in full splendour - the blue-ringed octopus! It was my first one! I had obviously heard that this is one of the most-dangerous animals on the planet and to keep my distance or suffer the consequences, but luckily they don’t seek out trouble and provided you don’t pick one up there is no real danger. Unfortunately, flounders are not so well informed and no sooner had I seen the octopus than a flounder dashed over and ate it whole! The flounder then momentarily spat out its colourful quarry before finally eating the animal, tentacles first, although the bright blue-ringed body fleetingly poked out of the fish’s mouth before being swallowed. I was sure the flounder would immediately drop dead but it seems flounders must have some immunity to the octopus toxin and after ten minutes it happily swam away!

Pygmies
Since I am studying pygmy seahorses for my PhD, they can’t really go without a mention here since Wakatobi has the highest diversity and abundance of pygmy seahorses I have seen, with four species regularly encountered on their reefs. For those who have not been lucky enough to see one, their basic body shape is the same as their larger cousins only less than two centimentres in total length! Pygmy seahorses were traditionally identified from gorgonian corals, where two species are known to exist, Bargibant’s (Hippocampus bargibanti) and Denise’s (H. denise) pygmies settle from the water as juveniles and spend the rest of their life on a single gorgonian coral host.

They match exactly their colour and surface texture to the polyps and stems of their host so are almost impossible to spot without the assistance of an eagle-eyed guide. In addition to these species two newly named and scientifically described pygmies can be found at Wakatobi,the off-hite Pontoh’s (H. pontohi) and mottled orange-and-bornw Severn’s (H. severnsi) pygmy seahorses. These two do not have a specific host and can be found anywhere on the reef, making them all the more difficult to spot! Luckily, they tend to live in a small home range for long periods, provided photographers are careful not to disturb them. The guides will help photographers and divers to approach and see these tiny creatures, but do not tolerate moving or manipulating the animal, which would kill them.

For those getting land sick!
As well as land-based diving, the resort also has a liveaboard boat, the Pelagian, with itineraries that tie in with the charter plane schedule. Since its arrival the boat has been totally gutted and provides every luxury for the ten to 12 guests aboard. It visits some of the dives around the resort, but also includes many other reefs in the Tukang Besi island chain. The archipelago is made up of four main islands, the first two letters of each island making up the name Wakatobi: Wangiwangi, Kaledupa, Tomia and Binonko. Pelagian visits each of these islands in the chain, as well as the much-larger island of Buton, which is becoming renowned for is black sand critter dives. Harlequin shrimp, wonderpus octopus, ornate ghost pipefish, frogfish and more-common sightings of blue-ring octopuses are all potential critter sightings at Cheeky Beach.

Reefs such as Wakatobi’s are rarely seen these days; where there is no evidence of any human-induced damage. Luckily, the resort has worked closely with local villages over the years to ensure that the reefs remain as they always have been. They have also tried to encourage divers to be mindful while diving and be careful when photographing animals so as not to touch or harass them. This has been no easy task, but this philosophy continues and hopefully can be passed on to the guests, who will take this ethos of sustainability with them to their next dive destination. Wakatobi has amazingly lush and vibrant reefs bursting at the seams with life of all shapes and sizes. It is surely one of Indonesia’s, if not the world’s, most-luxurious dive resorts that has not compromised comfort for great diving.

Sport Diver verdict
Wakatobi is a luxurious resort in the middle of nowhere which offers all the creature comforts of home, as well as some of the most-stunning reef diving in the world.