Corals, Cultures & Dragons with a Marine Biologist

Welcome aboard the Katharina and settle into your home at sea for your trip ahead. Meet the crew and your fellow passengers before the boat sets sail. Your first stop is the Tasikoki Wildlife Rescue Center, about an hour away by cruise. Go ashore by tender for a guided tour to learn about the center's conservation work and see some of the rescued wildlife, including monkeys, hornbills, cockatoos, and sun bears.

As you cruise south, stop at several reefs and islands for snorkelling. Visit a couple of local villages along the way to experience the local culture.

In the small seaside town of Botuborani, where an absolute highlight might await the chance to swim with whale sharks, the gentle giants of the sea. In the Togean Islands, you will enjoy a fantastic snorkel on the reefs near the island of Malenge, before taking your 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. Also, have the unique opportunity to see babirusa, Indonesia’s rate and endangered native pig. You will 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.

You visit with the Bajau sea gypsies of Southeast Asia and their famous patriarch ‘Jago’, a people with a very unique way of living with the sea. About 2,500 people live in the small over-sea village, and you will be welcomed into their world to meet and talk with them about their lives. You will 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 will very likely have never had before - an encounter with a Maleo bird at a locally-run conservation project. One of Sulawesi’s most interesting birds, it is a flightless fowl with some very unusual characteristics and behaviors, and also the symbol of the province within which it lives. Cruise south, you will snorkel in the afternoon on a beautifully rich reef in front or Pulau Dua, or ‘two islands’ in the Indonesian language.

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. You will visit the bustling Indonesian island port town of Banggai, a place filled with activity and commerce. Here on Banggai island you will 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 will be on the dock awaiting on your arrival.

The last of the day’s highlights will be a snorkel on a local reef where you will see the most elegant, but very threatened, Banggai Cardinal Fish – a darling of saltwater aquarium lovers worldwide. You will snorkel on one of the local reefs around a Bajau “sea gypsy” community whose famous as Southeast Asia’s nomadic cultures.

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. You will enjoy a personalized 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. You drop anchor at an uninhabited atoll where guests have the chance to beach-comb, snorkel, paddleboard, or kayak.

You visit a famous local blacksmith 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. Stop by an uninhabited sea mount in the middle of the Flores Sea that is home tens of thousands of seabirds call home. It’s rich in upwelling nutrients and a perfect habitat for fishing and raising their young.

Bonerate is rarely visited by tourists outside of SeaTrek, and seeing this open-air boatyard is an experience to be savored. You will walk among the hulls and hulks of a huge unlaunched flotilla of pinisi ships being built on a remote island archipelago. You will meet the shipwrights and discover their age-old traditions of shipbuilding that they have practiced for centuries.

Giants will loom large in your day today: Komodo dragons, flying foxes and manta rays, three of the biggest and most impressive animals in Indonesia. Entering the Komodo National Park, you will have a hands-on experience at a coral conservation project on Hatamin Island, where you will learn about the work and get a chance to create your own coral rack and place it in the sea. As the sun starts to set, you will 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.

You have the chance to hike a scenic route of Gili Lawa Darat, or you can stretch your legs on the beautiful white-sandy beach. After the hike, you will be back on board for a mission: to count how many turtles can you spot with your own eyes in Siaba Besar island where it’s famous as turtle heaven. Go to a privately arranged, ranger-led walk around the island of Rinca, where you will see not only Komodo dragons, but also their preferred menu of prey – monkeys, deer, pigs, and buffaloes. The crew will prepare a beach BBQ for you as you all feast, sing and dance the night away by a roaring fire under the stars.

Your final day, you will wake as the boat is cruising slowly making its way to the town of Labuan Bajo. After a final Indonesian breakfast on the boat, you will say farewell to your crew, who have looked after you so well for the past sixteen days, and transfer to Komodo airport for your flight and your onward journey.