Raja Ampat To the Volcanoes of Maluku

The crew and tour leaders welcome you to the boat. As you settle in, the ship raises its anchor and heads into Raja Ampat National Park.

You start your day with a pre-dawn excursion to spot the Red Bird of Paradise and observe its courtship display in the canopy. Afterward, you visit a different site to see the ground-dwelling Wilson's bird of paradise. Later, you snorkel on one of Raja Ampat's reefs to view hundreds of fish and coral species.

You visit a small island group for a short hilltop climb to take in the amazing views. After some great snorkelling on the island’s reefs, we will set course for a
local village, where the local children will perform their traditional dances for you. You can also walk around the village and gain a sense of their culture, which is still kept very much alive by the villagers living in this isolated place. There's a chance that you may get to see some manta rays as you snorkel, but there are no
guarantees.

Snorkel the Dampier strait, home of some of Raja Ampat’s premier reefs. If the currents are in your favor, you might see some of the area’s larger specimens of marine life, which are attracted to the strait’s nutrient-rich waters.

Visit the chain of islands that makes up the eastern part of the Misool archipelago in the south of Raja Ampat. The topography is typical of ‘karst dissolution’
featuring a great number of tiny islets whose bases have been eroded over time by the relentless motion of the tides. You swim in a mysterious stingless-jellyfish lake among the many thousands of the animals: undoubtedly one of Raja Ampat’s most memorable activities. You use the tenders to explore more of this impressive maze of karst islands, both above and below the surface, complete with some prehistoric cave paintings, estimated to be anything between 3,000 to 5,000 years old and depicting various human figures and huge human hands, fish and flowers.

You visit the small seaside village of Aduwei on Misool, where you can stroll around and meet the local people. You visit the school and to learn about the way Nature Conservancy is working with the village to empower with local women with a fishing practice called ‘sasi’. You will be snorkelling at a channel that divided two islands where sea fans are hanging in the drop offs and the current is rich in nutrients. Spend the day strolling a white-sandy beach and snorkel the reef where juvenile black tip reef sharks usually frequent.

You pay a visit the Pisang Islands. These tiny gems isolated in the vast waters of the Ceram Sea offer us a chance to relax and enjoy the sparkling white-sand
beaches, clear waters, and vibrant reefs before making your way to the shores of West Misool. Visit Bacan, another of Indonesia’s historic spice sultanates. You go ashore to explore the forested slopes where Wallace made some of his greatest zoological discoveries, including the Standardwing Bird of Paradise, and the huge and magnificent Golden Birdwing Butterfly. Wallace described the latter species as the "finest butterfly in the world". You will also keep a close watch for these and a host of other animals, some of them endemic to these islands, including parrots, cockatoos, lorikeets, hornbills, the elusive cuscus and the endangered black macaque – the only monkey in Maluku. It’s the wrong side of the Wallace Line for monkeys; these ones were introduced hundreds of years ago from North Sulawesi.

Visit the Guraici Archipelago, a chain of islands with white sandy beaches, vibrant coral reefs and some lovely local villages. You will spend a full day here snorkelling, swimming and beachcombing. The islands are part of a government-controlled conservation area, designed to protect the reefs and the many beautiful marine species that live there. Visit the village of Dodinga: the very place where Wallace was living when, in a fit of malarial delirium, he discovered the mechanism which drives evolutionary change - natural selection. Dodinga is a pretty little riverside village with friendly people, colourful houses and the ruins of an old Portuguese fort, and its importance in the history of science cannot be understated.

Today marks the end of your adventure. In the early afternoon, guests are dropped off at the airport for onward flights.