Itinerary 1

DERAWAN ARCHIPELAGO

The north-east area of Kalimatan, is one of the remotest in Indonesia. Here we can find an archipelago the offers world class diving and, among its islands three of them are truly spectacular: Maratua, Kakaban and Sangalaki. In its waters we can find everything from sharks to giant schools of Barracuda or Jacks, large concentrations of Mantas and the biggest jelly fish lake in the world, plus turtles by the hundreds. All of it surrounded by a paradisiacal landscape, away from the usual routes, rarely you meet other divers under the water.

MARATUA - Maratua gives us the chance to experience something almost impossible elsewhere in Indonesia; literally thousands of schooling barracudas, jacks, plus a lot of pelagic action and a real possibility of encounters with leopard sharks, grey reef sharks, white tips and hammerheads. Do not be surprised if a thresher shark also crosses your path. Inside the lagoon is a great muck dive. Cat fish, frog fish, blue ring octopus, blue ribbon eels, robust and ornate ghost pipe fish, stone fish… every possible critter might be waiting for us, absolutely a must night dive.


SANGALAKI 
-  The bottom formation in Sangalaki is shallow and sandy with a lot of small formations of hard corals making it naturally well illuminated. One can hardly go deeper than 60 feet, but the diversity is amazing from small gobies to white tips, rare nudies to big cuttle fish. The orange elephant ear sponge formations, the gorgonians and the crinoids give colour to the bottom, but Sangalaki is in the top 3 destinations in the world to see Mantas. In the channels either feeding, cleaning or just crossing there are mantas everywhere!!!