Komodo to Maluku with a Marine Biologist

Board the vessel in Komodo and settle into your cabin and attend a briefing covering safety and the trip plan. The boat then sails through the park as the tour leaders explain upcoming activities and provide guidance for the voyage.

Experience large wildlife encounters in Indonesia. You take a privately arranged, ranger-led walk around Rinca Island, where you see Komodo dragons along with their prey such as monkeys, deer, pigs, and buffaloes. You then snorkel on some of Komodo National Park’s reefs, where you see sea turtles, large schools of fish, and rich coral ecosystems. At sunset, you gather on deck and watch thousands of flying foxes leave their mangrove forest roosts to begin their nightly search for fruit.

Bonerate archipelago is rarely visited by tourists outside of SeaTrek, and seeing this open-air boatyard is an experience to be savored. You walk among the hulls and hulks of a huge unlaunched flotilla of pinisi ships being built on this remote island archipelago. You then meet the shipwrights and discover their age-old traditions of shipbuilding that they have practiced for centuries.
As you walk through the villages and along the beaches and meet the locals, gain a new appreciation for island life and for the kind of boat you have been cruising with for the past thirteen days. Snorkel some fabulous reefs in the third largest atoll in the world and see a huge abundance of fish, corals and all the creatures and plants that dwell within.

Literally meaning “High Rock”, you visit the island of Batuatas, which takes its name from the nigh and dramatic cliffs that line its western coast. You visit a famous local blacksmiths where the local craftsmen use hand-operate bellows on the furnace in the blacksmiths shop to produce machetes and knives for that are highly sought-after right across Indonesia.

If the tides and currents are in your favor you pass by an uninhabited sea mount in the middle of the Flores Sea where tens of thousands of seabirds call home. It’s rich in upwelling nutrients and a perfect habitat for fishing and raising their young.

You spend time 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. At Hoga Island, you snorkel the island’s famous drop off, with a beautiful reef and myriad fish species of all types and sizes.

Visit a Bajau “Sea Gypsy” settlement, Here, you see how the Bajau people live in, on and above the water and how their community thrives in harmony with the ocean. Known for their ability to read the weather, hold their breath for extended periods and their exceptional freediving skills, and their deep connection to the sea, the Bajau depend entirely on marine life for survival. Meeting them in person is a truly unforgettable experience.

The Bokan islands are an area of unsurpassed beauty and today will be a day of marine exploration and relaxation as you snorkel, swim, paddle around the glorious reef, beach and island with giant clams scattered around the area.

You pay a hands on visit to some “local heroes” at an NGO doing great work with giant clam restoration on the surrounding reefs, in addition to working with local fishermen in finding sustainable solutions for overseas markets and the live aquarium fishing trade.

Crossing to the Sula Archipelago, you visit a local village, where you can meet Kadai tribe, one of the four indigenous tribes of Taliabu Island. They speak limited Indonesian but welcomes visitors with genuine warmth and friendliness. Once known as skilled hunters, they now focus more on agriculture, though traditional hunting is still practiced today.

You have the rare privilege to swim in a small marine lake filled with stingless jellyfish, one of only 20 lakes of its kind in the world. Stingless jellyfish exist as a result of evolutionary adaptation in isolated marine lakes where they have no natural predators and have developed alternative ways to obtain food.

 Enjoy some relaxing time on the beach swimming, paddle boarding, kayaking and snorkelling on the white sand beaches and reefs of the western end of the Sula island chain. Visit Manipa Island, a place said to have magical powers, because none of the colonial powers ever took hold here. You visit a village to experience their food production technologies, which include sago production, nutmeg and cashew plantations, as well as a pot-distilled volatile oil called “kayu putih”, famed throughout Indonesia as a universal panacea: cosmetic, antiseptic, insecticide, decongestant, analgesic, stimulant and tonic.

On the last day, you arrive in Ambon where everyone will say their goodbyes to the crew, the tour leaders, and fellow guests who have been your family for the past two weeks.