After exploring some of the islands around Komodo from Labuan Bajo, we were ready for the real wildlife adventure - 3 nights at the well renowned Scuba Junkie, located right on the edge of the national park and a stones throw from some of the best dive sites in the world. We arrived at the office after lunch and were taken to the docks, boarded a boat with a group of other divers and made our way to the Scuba Junkie dive lodge about 2 hours along the coast. The water was beautifully calm, and the sun was shining, so we enjoyed taking in the beautiful island scenery as we cruised towards our destination.

On arrival we were given a much needed welcome drink and were briefed by Euwan (the manager) on our itinerary and about the surrounding national park. After settling into our rustic lodge rooms we went to get our dive gear sorted for the following day. We then headed for a sundowner beer on the pier before an amazing buffet dinner with a range of Indonesian dishes.

Diving Day 1

We were up at 5:30am, and after a quick coffee and some toast we boarded the boat with our dive guide Ellie and fellow divers. Once we set off we were served a hearty breakfast (pancakes, eggs, fruit) and were given a briefing on ‘Mini Wall’, our first dive site near Sebayur island, with a beautiful hand-drawn depiction of the underwater topography and what to expect to see. On the way we spotted a small pod of dolphins jumping through the water, which was a nice bonus! We had opted for a quick refresher as we hadn’t dived in a few years, so our guide Ellie went back through the basics with us before we suited up. After a quick refresher in the shallow waters to test our reg and mask safety skills, we descended a little deeper to discover a steep wall covered in beautiful coral and teeming with fish.

The site was great for peering into small crevasses, and we were able to spot an ornate ghost pipefish, a spotted box fish, electric clams as well as a giant frog fish, and a blue spotted sting ray! Having little current meant it was a perfect dive to help us find our feet (or fins) again, plus great visibility and warm water made it all the more enjoyable. After a surface interval and a coffee break we headed to our second dive of the day: Mawan. The currents were a little stronger on this dive, and as we drifted amongst the occasional mounds of colourful coral were able to spend lots of time with a friendly hawksbill turtle, and spotted many titan trigger fish as well as white tip and black tip sharks.

Our final dive of the day was ‘Siaba Kecil’ or ‘Superman’ as it’s also known. The current on this site was incredibly strong, and as we flew over the reef ledges we tried to keep as low to the bottom as we could. It was great fun watching the marine life pass us by at such speed! To our luck, towards the end of the dive a huge ninja manta (with a black belly) glided over a coral cleaning station, and hovered against the current right next to us. We managed to get some great GoPro footage which was a plus, but this also meant we separated from Ellie (our dive guide) due to the strong currents. This wasn’t too much of a problem as we had already completed our safety stop, and had been told this might happen on the dive. Once we surfaced we inflated our signal marker and within minutes another Scuba Junkie dive group surfaced, so we joined them and the dive boat picked us up. We couldn’t stop smiling once back on the boat; this was our first experience diving with a manta, and it was as incredible as we’d hoped!

Diving Day 2

After our first day of diving in Komodo we had already seen an amazing variety of marine life, but were keen to spend more time with the Mantas. Fortunately for us the second day of diving included ‘Manta Point’, where as the name suggests, the chance of seeing them is high. With another early start, we boarded the boat, and set off to our first dive site: ‘Pencah’. Pencah is a pinnacle of rock with the most amazing wall of soft corals. Here we spotted our first pigmy seahorse, a tiny and illusive marine animal which is incredibly hard to photograph on a GoPro! We also got to see more white tip sharks, a bamboo shark, scorpion fish, turtles, brightly coloured fusiliers and different types of tiny colourful nudibranchs. The dive ended on a ledge a few meters from the surface where the sunlight beautifully accentuated the corals and abundance of marine life. It was a great start to our second day!

We spent the surface interval sunbathing on the top deck, and waited for our second dive of the day: ‘Manta Point’. It was hard for us not to get our hopes up after many failed trips to spot mantas before, but we had all of our fingers crossed none the less. After gearing up and descending we realised that the currents were incredibly strong again, but that also meant a higher chance of seeing Mantas. At the beginning of the dive we spotted a wealth of marine life, from huge bumphead parrot fish, giant sweetlips and a group of giant trevally. We drifted along in our group, keeping our eyes out on both the reef and the blue to see if we could spot more mantas.

The dive is mainly spent zig-zagging over hills of rubble coral. The Mantas use this area as a cleaning station where they can get groomed by tiny wrasse and copepods. After a few minutes of waiting we were in luck! To our delight around 6 Mantas came gliding across to the cleaning station! As there was nothing to reef hook into it took us a while to work out the best way to view the Mantas whilst not getting swept away by the strong current. They got so close to us, and we were able to get some great footage and even see their unique markings on their belly. It was a life-long dream to see these majestic animals, and we felt so lucky to see them in such great conditions and close proximity.

After lunch we headed to our final dive site: Wainilu. This was a ‘muck dive’, where you had to scour the bottom of the sea bed for tiny creatures. A lot of our boat were not very enthused by the lack of big, exciting marine life and so sat it out. We went along anyway as we hadn’t done a muck dive before and wanted to see what we could find. During the dive we spotted lots of ribbon eels (which were yellow, blue or black depending on their age). We also spotted an ornate ghost pipefish, lots of nudibrancs including the ‘Picachu’ which looked just like the Pokemon character! Although much less exciting than our previous dive, it was nice to contrast the macro and micro marine life. After surfacing and heading back to the lodge we realised it was probably the best day of diving we’d had, and enjoyed catching up with the other divers over beers that evening.

Day 3 - Rinca Island

A big perk of Scuba Junkie being on the edge of the national park is that we were very close to Rinca island. On our last day, after a final breakfast and checking out of our rooms we were taken by boat to Rinca island - another great place to see the Komodo Dragons. On arrival our guide explained a bit about the national park and the route we were taking, and we set off through the dry, baron landscape. It was extremely hot, and even though it was a short walk we were glad to take a break in the shadey hut at the viewpoint. We then walked onwards through dry forest, where we spotted wild boar, deer and monkeys - all on the menu for Komodo Dragons.

As we approach the end of the hike we managed to spot a few huge dragons roaming around in the wild, digging burrows and keeping a watchful eye on us as their huge fork toungs tasted for potential prey. As we approached the restaurant at the end of the tour a group of photographers got a little too close for comfort, making the dragons hiss and run in different directions - it was actually quite scary! We got a much needed drink in the shady restaurant to cool down before talking our final boat trip back to Labuan Bajo.

After getting back to the town we booked in for a couple of nights stay at La Seasta Hostel and Hotel to end our trip to Komodo and unwind a bit. Being a newly built place it was very comfortable, had a nice restaurant and rooftop bar and comfy rooms - just what we needed to wind down after an adventurous and wildlife packed few days in the national park.

On our last night we decided to visit the local fish market at the marina in Labuan Bajo. There were many small stalls with locals cooking up fresh fish on smoking BBQs. We ordered a red snapper and some sides, and a couple of cold Bintang to celebrate what was an incredible wildlife experiences, both in and out of the water.

Although we had some reservations about Komodo due to the large number of tourists (so much so that it was rumoured to close in January 2020) the experience far exceeded our expectations. Yes the viewpoints and sights were crowded, Labuan Bajo very hot and busy, but the sheer variety of landscapes, marine wildlife and the Komodo dragons themselves we’re worth every second. When visiting a heavily touristic place, it’s important to ask yourself why you’re going and what you want to get out of it. For us, it was to dive with Mantas and see the Komodo dragons - both which we felt incredibly privileged to be able to witness - so everything else we saw was a bonus. We enjoyed our time at Scuba Junkie so much that we left feeling like we could definitely return in the future, as there was so much more of the underwater world in the national park left to explore.