Raja Ampat - Halmahera - Lembeh

This 13 days / 12 nights multi destination trip, East to West, visits the south of Raja Ampat (Misool), the west coast of Halmahera and ends in Lembeh Strait. It offers outstanding diving and is a perfect itinerary for both fish life and critters.
Our adventure begins in Sorong and ends in Bitung.
We organize your pick and drop off at the airport or at your hotel in those cities.

THE DIVING

Misool, South Raja Ampat Misool is among the hottest spot of Indonesian diving. The abundance of sea life, both fixed fauna such as corals and gorgonians along the lush reef, as well as the stunning quantity and diversity of fish swimming above is just astonishing. The dive sites’ underwater topographies are also varied and interesting, filled with dramatic pinnacles, long ridges, walls, hidden caves, rock formations, azure lagoons and much more. The fauna ranges from the tiny Pygmy Seahorse to the oceanic manta ray. Raja Ampat’s signature are the huge schools of fish: clouds of fusiliers and balls of baitfish that attract predators like tunas, trevallies and barracudas; schools of the inquisitive spadefish, schools of sweetlips, groups of bumphead parrotfish, napoleon wrasses, etc. Reef sharks are very much present on the reefs; the carpet shark or wobegon is ubiquitous, laying on a coral or under a rock behind a cloud of glass-fish.

Halmahera is one of the best Indonesian dive destinations. It offers a great variety of dive sites among beautiful islands still largely covered with tropical forests.

Many of the dive sites are sea mounts with a rocky substrate and plenty of boomies covered with soft corals in all different colors. The fish life is intense: as an Halmahera signature, black tip sharks are seen patrolling around on most of the dives. Tunas, Spanish mackerel, giant trevallies and other pelagic fish are part of the show. Other type of dive site includes great critters dives and beautiful fringing reefs

The last days of the trip will be in Sulawesi, in the Lembeh strait and eventually Bangka islands. Lembeh strait is well known as critter and muck diving Meca. Black sands are home for many kind kind of frogfish, rhinopias, flamboyant cuttlefish, mimic octopus and many more. Bangka is a mix of critters and beautiful reefs dives, with colorful soft corals.

A minimum of 36 dives is offered during the trip, including at least 6 night dives.

SNORKELING

Our trips are open to snorkelers. Most of the dive sites offer great snorkeling opportunities with a lot to see in shallow waters. We offer specific guidance for snorkelers.

ACTIVITIES

Besides the diving, we offer some activities along the trip according to weather conditions and the final trip itinerary.

In Misool, we will visit the ranger’s station and snorkel in front of their beach in a natural shark nursery where small black tips are swimming around in one meter of crystal clear water. A short trek to the view point of the “love lagoon” (a lagoon in shape of a hearth!) will be offered. We may also visit a cave near Farondi.

In Halmahera we can visit some of the local village, and experience some hot springs.

In Sulawesi, on the last afternoon, we visit the National Park of Tankoko, a preserved forest where we can see macaques and Tarsiers.

During the trip you are welcome to ask a boatman to bring you to shore at any time, as long as the schedule allows it. Our complementary kayaks are also available to go on shore and to visit the lagoons whenever the boat is anchored. All these activities are subject to weather conditions and to the planned daily schedule.

WEATHER

The weather is variable, with some sunny days and a few showers. The sea is generally calm, with eventually a bit of wind under the showers. Temperatures are around 27-30 °C.

VISIBILITY

Generally good in Misool ,excellent in Halmahera and good in North Sulawesi.

TEMPERATURE

The sea water temperature is between 28° and 30°C (80°-84°C)

CURRENTS

Some of the dives can have consistent currents. However Wallacea Dive Cruises has a long experience diving these sites and we pay close attention to diving in the right places at the right time, to avoid difficult or dangerous currents.

Before each dive, our guides conduct current checks so that our briefings will always inform you about the up-to-the-minute diving conditions. If the currents are too strong on a site, we wait or shift to an alternative dive site.

ITINERARY AND NAVIGATION.

The below map shows the planned itinerary. It can varies, depending on weather conditions, currents, visibility and tides.

Leaving from Sorong, we go directly to Misool, where we spend 3-4 days depending on the conditions. Intense fish life, great soft corals and gorgonians.

From Misool, we head to the small islets of Pisang for one day of diving. This isolated island with a few satellite rocks is home to intense underwater life: millions of trigger fish, schools of surgeonfish, bump head parrotfish, Spanish mackerels and tunas passing by.

We then reach the South of Halmahera on the following day. We will dive the South tip of Bacam, then enter the Patiniente Strait between Bacan and Halmahera. The diving take place around the islands of Kusu and Saleh, where the water in forced in narrow straits bringing an intense fish life. We then start cruising north to the Goraichi islands. Stunning coral reefs, amazing macro, billions of reef fishes and lots of reef sharks inhabits these areas.

At mid- way between Halmahera and Sulawesi lays the islands of Tifore, where we spend one day. The dive site is famous for it’s huge school of barracudas.

In North Sulawesi, we will dive the Lembeh strait and it’s legendary muck dive sites -and eventually a few sites around Bangka islands, offering a mix of critters and reef dives-.

We disembark in Bitung and transfer to Manado airport by a 45 minutes road trip.