Diving in Southeast Asia. David Espinosa

      A DREAM COME TRUE

      “I [David Espinosa] first experienced Kal’s Dream in 1995, at the tender age of 18. At that time I was still a rank amateur with only a handful of dives under my belt. Graeme’s son Donovan took me under his wing, and for the first two days we experienced superlative dives at The Arch, where we were buzzed by eagle rays and sharks, the Fish Bowl, the Boardroom and Cave Point, where the steep walls covered in a profusion of colors dizzied me. These, however, were only a prelude to the real show.

      On the morning of the third day, Donovan felt I was ready for Kal’s Dream, a small pinnacle that rises from the deep and sits in the middle of the strait. I can still remember that dive as if it was yesterday. The Dream is marked by a vertiginous wall on the south side and a rather gentle slope on the north. We perched ourselves on a small outcropping on the north side at 30 meters and watched the show unfold.

      Numbers of grey sharks swam up from the abyssal depths and began circling our roost. One particularly frisky shark passed a few times, getting nearer with each pass. Down in the depths, bus-sized groupers slowly swam about, while schools of enormous tuna patrolled the reef top. The visibility was gin-clear, and we could see as barracuda swarmed a tip opposite our ledge.

      Suddenly, a large, indistinguishable figure loomed from the dark. The ever-nearer and increasingly worrying grey shark quickly scattered, and before it disappeared back into the shadows I caught a brief glimpse of my patron saint and protector—a giant 3.5-meter hammerhead.

      To this day, not one dive on the Dream has equaled that first experience, but they come close. It is without a doubt a dive to dream about.…”

      IN AND AROUND ALOR

      Because Kal’s Dream must be dived at slack tide—any other time would be insanity—operators there have looked to the many other walls and reefs in the area as alternatives.

      On Pulau Pura’s southwest tip lies a marine anomaly that few divers have ever been able to comprehend. Clownfish Alley is an unremarkable slope, but what it lacks in topography it makes up for in marine life. From 2 meters down to 30 meters, and for 1 km, every boulder and rock and pebble is covered in anemones, a remarkable sight.

      Mandarin House is situated in front of the north village on Pura. It is a rather unprepossessing though healthy reef slope on which mandarinfish can be seen cavorting—during the day! If currents are minimal, divers can also gather there at dusk to witness the mating of these magnificent dragonets.

      To the east of Mandarin House is one of Pura’s healthiest reef walls, The Boardroom, a “hidden” point near the local village. The wall, where several caves and overhangs give shelter to thousands of glassfish, begins just below the waterline and drops to a sand slope at 50 plus meters. At these depths, schooling jackfish, snappers and fusiliers swim in the currents, which can gust up to 2 knots. If the current is running, divers can drift to either side of the point to finish the dive in peace. The wall is even topped by a large rock, home to nudibranchs, leaf scorpionfish and even the blue ringed octopus.

      Pertamina Pier is in the harbor, only minutes away from the town of Kalabahi. This black sand slope sits at the base of the old Pertamina Pier and is home to a fantastic range of muck critters—anything from seahorses to ghost pipefish, the wonderpuss, juvenile batfish in the seagrass to the east and harlequin shrimp at various depths. Though the visibility is typically poor, this is still an awesome dive! At night it only gets better because stargazers, Pegasus sea moths and bizarre moray eels come out to play.