Halmahera is the new "in" dive destination in Indonesia. It's the place that everyone is talking about but few divers have yet visited the region due to it's isolation.
Located in between North Sulawesi and West Papua, north of Ambon, Halmahera can be reached by liveaboard dive boats departing from either Manado city or Sorong.
However at this time there are very few liveaboards doing the trip. Some boats have one or two trips per season scheduled. The Halmahera sea is often dived as a transit trip between Manado and Sorong.
From the diving that has been done there, reports are highly encouraging. Divers talk of even more diversity than Raja Ampat, and that's saying something. They claim superb visibility, large schools of fish, pelagics and amazing macro.
No conclusive surveys have yet been done to back up these claims but given the location and the pedigree of all the surrounding dive sites on Irian Jaya, the Banda Sea and Sulawesi the thought of diving Halmahera makes the mouth water.
What is certain is that pioneering Indonesia liveaboard operators will be making more voyages to Halmahera in the near future.
Watch this space... |
