New Adventures in Raja Ampat: Our Journey Begins
By Lida Pet-Soede.
Just before 2022 was over, Jos and I started our much-anticipated new adventures in Raja Ampat, joining a special New Year’s cruise to explore this beautiful Indonesian paradise. Learn more about Raja Ampat on National Geographic.
Travel in Indonesia during this time of year is always a bit uncertain, with rain and stormy conditions causing flight delays and making it hard to plan an itinerary too far in advance. Fortunately, we were lucky with the flights to and from Sorong and were under the safe and steady command of cruise director Sebastian and Captain Pai, who closely monitored the weather forecasts. They skillfully navigated us to less exposed but equally stunning bays when necessary.
From December 25th, we joined a diverse group: two returning families, the well-traveled diver Christian, Guteri—looking for some quality time away from the office and her race-bike—Sebastian and his love Alice, and, of course, Captain Rivai (Pai) and his professional crew.
Our days were filled with dives, snorkeling, kayaking, and a couple of outstanding hikes. One memorable morning was spent exploring all the remarkable caves in the Tomolol area. Though we had visited several of these caves just before Covid, there was one huge cave that had almost slipped my mind — the last time Jos, little Eva, and I visited it was nearly 10 years ago, with our old dive guide Stew Esposito.
While Christian and Jos explored the area the afternoon before with Pai, the rest of us climbed the 1,000 steps to one of Raja Ampat’s Instagram-famous viewpoints. Meanwhile, the guys rediscovered the cave entrance! The next morning, with high hopes, young adventurers Guteri and I went to the cave, but at first, it looked very different from what I remembered.
Though impressive and ending in a freshwater pool, it was not the cave I had hoped for — or was it? As I began to feel a little sad that the place that had created such cherished memories for our family seemed lost, Pai recalled what our old dive guide Tommy used to say: “Once in the cave, keep right and find a dark low passage through the rocks.”
As we were about to turn back to reassure the parents and speed boat crew, Pai and I took one more look. We turned around some huge slippery rocks and found it! In the pitch black, the freshwater dive pool was there after all. The blue knotted rope to get out of the pool was still in place. We all jumped in, creating new magical memories alongside Heidi, Andrea, Aude, and Hadrien in the coolest, cleanest freshwater — truly a highlight of our new adventures in Raja Ampat.
New Adventures in Raja Ampat: Explore the Untouched Beauty
Discover the thrill of new adventures in Raja Ampat, where pristine reefs and vibrant marine life await every explorer. Our journey takes you beyond the usual paths, revealing hidden gems and untouched underwater landscapes.
With every dive and trek, these new adventures in Raja Ampat bring fresh experiences that inspire and excite. Whether you’re a seasoned diver or a first-time visitor, Raja Ampat offers unforgettable memories and a chance to witness one of the world’s most spectacular natural wonders.
Join us and embark on your own new adventures in Raja Ampat — a place where every moment is a discovery.
The different island groups of Raja Ampat made for beautiful backdrops to excited stories of the younger, newly experienced divers, to whom Alex pointed out many different pygmy seahorses and the cutest nudibranchs, as they doubled their number of dives ever made during our new adventures in Raja Ampat.
Christian, a very experienced diver who visited so many of the top dive spots in the world, had Papuan dive master Kelvin all to himself and added remarkable unique underwater pictures to his already amazing collection. Claudia and Kevin hit their 100 dives under great conditions, and personally, I could not tear myself away from the mesmerizing swarms of silvery anchovies, gathering in the gazillions around so many of the islands during this time of the year.
Snorkelers swam with a dugong (!), a huge manta ray, several fully-grown blacktip reef sharks, and many schooling different fish species – all in the brightly coloured and easily accessible reef shallows. As we always say, and Paul and Christine can confirm from this cruise: often one sees the most in the shallows, so there is absolutely no need for ‘FOMO’ when on snorkel only during these new adventures in Raja Ampat!
Novice live-aboard guest (and city-girl ????) Alice spotted the cutest couscous during one of the island hikes, the bird lovers in our group witnessed 8 (!) red birds of paradise during their mating behaviour, and all of us enjoyed the sun setting on many hornbills swooshing above our heads to spend the night at a little island in the middle of a beautiful bay.
Important for Jos and me, throughout this amazing adventure and our many new adventures in Raja Ampat, we also managed to keep our fitness training on par and worked out on the Seven Seas’ matted roof either with the TRX tied to one of the masts or doing isometric workout sets provided by Swen de Ruyter. All workouts were perfectly designed for liveaboard conditions.
While other returning Seven Seas friends raved about the quality and selection of the food prepared by Niko, we were also blown away by the super yummy and healthy lunches and dinners. While tempted to go back for seconds, this made it easy to maintain a healthy food regime as well.
As internet was not available for days at the time – making for excellent discussions and catching up with reading lists –, I also managed to work and submit 2 proposals as Jos fine-tuned a literature review of the impacts of climate change on Indonesian grouper and snapper populations.
To top this already perfect cruise and our series of new adventures in Raja Ampat, as Captain Pai turned the Seven Seas back towards Sorong, we spotted large pods of dolphins and multiple whales. One of them, a Bryde’s whale, crossed our bow, not in the least bothered as we jumped and screamed and filmed it. Truly incredible. Jos and I will visit some of our favourite places in and around Bali for the last time before we leave Indonesia in May 2023, but this experience will be impossible to top: thanks to the entire Seven Seas team.
Lida Pet-Soede
January 2023
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