Watusi Woman - Stunned Sailor

Lanuan Bajo, Flores

Labuan Bajo, Flores might still be a fishing village at heart, but it is also the gateway to the Komodo National Park and our reason for visiting this town. In close proximity are several islands that make up Komodo National Park and they offer some spectacular beaches and diving and snorkelling opportunities. Let's not forgot, the Komodo dragons.

Labuan Bajo town itself is pretty chilled with some great resorts, cafes and restaurants. And heaps of dive shops. Diving is a huge drawcard for this region and is the reason why most tourists make the trek here.

harbour

harbour area

these gorgeous kids stole my heart

Hubby and I were here 4 years ago, so for us it was an opportunity to see how the town fared, what with covid travel restrictions killing off tourism. We were really surprised at the amount of tourists in town. In fact, we couldn't even hire a scooter as everyone was clean out of stock. That's a good thing for all the local businesses, bad luck for us. The town has definitely improved and grown since our last visit, especially the roads. What were once dirt roads are now asphalt with proper guttering. Very impressive. The harbour area has also been completed, work that was just starting 4 years ago. It was great to see the hustle and bustle without being overcrowded. The are many liveaboard boats here to spend anything from 2 nights to 10 nights on board to enjoy all that this spectacular region has to offer.

Once we had checked out the town, done an amazing day trip to Komodo Island and had a bit of shore time it was time to up-anchor and move on to more of the naturally beautiful islands.

Makassar Reef called us. In particular, the Makassar lagoon. Motoring into the lagoon was a little heart-in-mouth moment. There was only 1 small channel in, unmarked by beacons, and not showing on our charts very clearly. There were 3 interesting mooring buoys. One was a small white buoy, one was a plastic container and one was a 4litre oil bottle. Buoys done Indo style.
First time in a while I've had a mooring to pick up and although they are not in the calibre of Australian mooring buoys, I managed to snag it the first time and, with Hubby's help, bring up the big heavy mooring rope.

As the tide dropped it was more obvious that we were ringed by reef with turquoise waters all around us. Very cool. I swam over to the closest part of the reef and, although very pretty with lilac and yellow fields of coral, there was not much else to see. Sundowners whilst watching the sun sink behind Komodo island gave us a few more shades of colour to admire.

part of the reef that ringed us once in the lagoon

sunset behind Komodo island

The next morning involved a dinghy ride to the top end of the lagoon and boy, what a difference the location made. First there were turtles, several large ones, swimming around with me. Or me with them. Then half a dozen huge stingrays, longer than I am tall, sitting on the bottom camouflaged in the white sand. A school of big trevally, 2 very big grouper that I followed, then I hit the coral. There were so many different types of coral, mostly hard, and tons of fish. Truly spectacular. The reef was very shallow so the full colours of the fish and coral were visible. So many pretty fishes 🥰. I surprised a big turtle as I came over a coral rock and he shot off like cannonball to get away from me. While I was laughing through my snorkel the biggest grouper I've seen here in Indonesia cruised on passed me. Does it get much better than this? The only thing I didn't see was a manta ray, known to frequent these waters but elusive to me so far.
With low expectations after the previous afternoon snorkel, I didn't take my gopro. Silly me. A truly wonderful snorkel session and nothing to show anyone.

The landscape of the komodo island group is absolutely spectacular. Barren contoured mountains, in some cases volcanos, meet crystal clear, often turquoise waters that are filled with coral and fish. An incredible paradise. We spent a few days enjoying the snorkelling and sunsets before it was time to continue our journey westwards.

This is definitely an awe-inspiring region and it won't be 4 years before we're back for more exploring.

Until next time, Watusi Woman - Awestruck sailor, out.