SeaTrek with Corals, Cultures & Dragons with Nicole, Coral Specialist

Today marks several firsts as guests are welcomed aboard the boat, introduced to the crew and fellow passengers, settled into a seaborne home for the next two weeks, and set off on the adventure ahead. The first stop is the Tasikoki Wildlife Rescue Centre, about an hour’s cruise to the south. Passengers go ashore by tender for a guided tour of the centre, learning about its conservation work and encountering resident wildlife such as monkeys, hornbills, cockatoos, and sun bears. The afternoon offers time to relax on deck as the journey continues southward.

Morning begins at Punten Island, where breakfast is followed by a first snorkel on a beautiful reef teeming with fish, corals, and other marine life. The afternoon features another snorkelling session off the uninhabited island of Ratatotok, offering more vibrant coral reefs to explore. In the late afternoon, the boat sets a southerly course for an overnight journey to the next destination.

Today you visit a local village and meet with the local people, and see how they live. Visit a school and take a tour through the clove plantations that support the local economy. Back on the boat, a five-hour cruise to the small seaside town of Botuborani, where an absolute highlight might await – the chance to swim with whale sharks. Set off late afternoon south towards the Togean Islands.

Some great wildlife experiences await you today, both in the water and the air, with birds, fish, and invertebrates as the main features. You enjoy a fantastic snorkel on the reefs near the island of Malenge, before taking the snorkels and masks to experience a rare opportunity to swim with stingless jellyfish in nearby Lake Mariona, one of only 20 lakes in the world that are home to these amazing creatures. Visit a local village and meet the people, and enjoy a late afternoon walk in the local forest before being witness to a most amazing show of nature as flocks of hornbills come flying in to roost in the trees – a once in a lifetime sight only accessible with SeaTrek.

Today is your first encounter with the Bajau sea gypsies of Southeast Asia, a people with a very unique way of living with the sea. About 2500 people live in Kabalutan village, and you are welcomed into their world to meet and talk with them about their lives. Head to the southernmost tip of the park and have a long snorkel near the before setting sail to the southeast for a most unique wildlife encounter the following morning.

A very unique experience awaits you today, one you is very likely have never had before - an encounter with a Maleo bird. One of Sulawesi’s most interesting birds, the Maleo is a flightless fowl with some very unusual characteristics and behaviors, and also the symbol of the province within which it lives. You visit a conservation project on the mainland where scores of Maleo live and breed. Entering in twos, you can watch them at their sandy nesting sites from a camouflaged hide as they go about their business. Later that morning, cruise south and snorkel in the afternoon on a beautifully rich reef in front of Pulau Dua, or ‘two islands’ in the Indonesian language.

A trio of unique experiences awaits you today involving culture, conservation, and wildlife. Visit the bustling Indonesian island port town of Banggaii, a place filled with activity and commerce. Here on Banggai Island, visit the local market, explore the neighborhoods, the sultan’s palace and the maleo bird egg ‘museum’, and all from the fleet of brightly-colored motor rickshaws, which be on the dock awaiting the arrival. Pay a hands-on visit to LINI, an NGO doing great work with coral restoration on the surrounding reefs, in addition to working with local fishermen in finding sustainable solutions for supplying fish for overseas markets and the live aquarium fishing trade. The last of the day’s highlights is a snorkel on a local reef where you see the most elegant, but very threatened, Banggai Cardinal Fish – a darling of saltwater aquarium lovers worldwide.

Pay a visit to another Bajau ‘sea gypsy’ community awaits you today, as you get to once again meet and experience one of Southeast Asia’s famous nomadic cultures. After your visit with the sea gypsies on Padai Kecil Island, you snorkel on one of the local reefs, and then set sail later in the afternoon, heading south to the wonderful Wakatobi National Park. You also have the rare privilege to swim once again in another stingless jellyfish lake, the exotically named Danau Piasu Botangan.

This is day one of two in the Wakatobi National Park, a very hard to reach archipelago filled with fascinating culture and also one of Indonesia’s best national parks, with outstanding underwater life natural beauty. As well as snorkelling in the morning and afternoon, you can enjoy a personalised tour of the island of Wangi Wangi, with highlights that include a seaweed farm, meeting with a traditional weaving community, and the ruins of a centuries’ old Dutch fort, a relic of the ancient Spice Trade.

More fascinating culture and snorkelling await you today, as you visit a famous local blacksmith and do a drift snorkel on the Wakatobi Resort’s magnificent house reef. Snorkelling comes first in the morning, and then during lunch you cruise to nearby Binongko Island, where the local craftsmen use hand-operated bellows on the furnace in the blacksmith shop to produce machetes and knives for that are highly sought-after right across Indonesia.

When you awake today, the sky are filled with the sight of Brown- and Red-Footed Boobies and Lesser Frigate birds, many of which are circling the boat and trying to land on the stays and masts. The island where you are is Kakabia, an uninhabited sea mount in the middle of the Flores Sea, rich in upwelling nutrients and a perfect habitat for fishing and raising their young. You spend the day here snorkelling and exploring, and make an attempt to go ashore (tide depending) for an afternoon of swimming, kayaking, paddling and fun.

Today you are on another relaxing day on Tinabo Island, where you enjoy swimming, snorkelling, paddleboarding, kayaking, birdwatching, and exploring. In the evening, the crew set up for a beach BBQ and party on the sand under a tropical night sky filled with stars.

Today, you walk amongst the hulls and hulks of a huge unlaunched flotilla of pinisi ships being built on a remote island archipelago. You meet the shipwrights and discover their age-old traditions of shipbuilding that they have practiced for centuries in this forgotten corner of the world, using basic plans, wood, and a collection of simple tools and age-old techniques. Bonerate is rarely visited by tourists outside of SeaTrek, and seeing this open-air boatyard is an experience to be savored. As you walk through the village and along the beaches and meet the locals, you gain a new appreciation for island life and for the kind of boat you have been cruising with for the past twelve days.

Giants loom large in your day-to-day: Komodo dragons, flying foxes and manta rays, three of the biggest and most impressive animals in Indonesia. Rising early in the Komodo National Park, you take you for a privately arranged, ranger-led walk around the island of Rinca, where you see not only Komodo dragons, but also their preferred menu of prey – monkeys, deer, pigs and buffaloes. After lunch on board, go in search of manta rays as they glide by as they feed in the current at their local cleaning stations. This evening, as the sun starts to set, gather on the deck and be witness to a most spectacular event as thousands of flying foxes leave their mangrove forest homes en masse on their nightly fruit-foraging missions.

Go ashore in the early morning on Komodo Island for another walk through the savanna and forests of Komodo Island in search of dragons and other wildlife. Then set course northwards in search of manta rays at a popular cleaning station, followed by a snorkel with sea turtles. At dusk, you have the chance to climb to a viewing point on Gili Lawa Darat Island, which offers magnificent views of the sunset and the Komodo National Park.

The final day is one of snorkelling and culture. After an optional morning swim and snorkel, take on a private tour to a local village high up on a mountain plateau, where you are welcomed in by the elders and offered betel nut and arak, a potent local alcoholic brew. You are witnesses to the traditional ‘caci' whip dance and the 'bamboo' dance, performed by the villagers for generations. After a final Indonesian lunch on the boat, you say farewell to the crew, who have looked after you so well for the past two weeks, and transfer to Komodo airport for your flight back to Bali and your onward journey.