Monsoon is coming, so sadly it’s time to close for the rainy season. we’ve had a fantastic time since we opened last October, have made some fantastic new friends and seen many of our old ones. So first and foremost, a BIG thank you to everyone who has visited and supported us. We are looking forward to an even better second season, starting in September.
We started our first season with a wonderful group of photographers from Singapore and ended with a great bunch of people from Jakarta. In between we’ve had visitors from the UK, the USA, Canada, France, Holland, Japan, China, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Thailand, Belgium, Luxembourg, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Dubai, Russia, Norway, Sweden, Ukraine, Argentina and a few more I can’t remember. It has been a pleasure to introduce so many people to the wonders of Ambon. We’ve even Paul Humann, of the Reef Fish/Critters fame, diving with us, and it was a real honour to meet such a legend of diving.
For Barb and I, like every new business owners, we’ve had our ups and downs, luckily more ups than downs. From the challenge of building a new Dive Centre, setting up the business, finding staff, training staff, discovering new dive sites, it has certainly been an adventure. But it’s all been worth it. Ambon is a wonderful place, the diving is fantastic and we are so lucky to have such a great dive team. So many guests have commented on how fantastic they are, which is a great compliment to the Dive Team, most of who had not worked in the diving industry before.
The highlights for me have been, as ever, finding critters I haven’t seen before. so far this includes the critters in Bryozoan Coral (Snapping Shrimp, Gobies, Snails and Crabs), Soft Coral Pipefish, nudis, Tiger Cowrie and a few others. And also finding so many cool things on the south side of Ambon. Traditionally most guests have come to Ambon to dive the muck sites of Ambon Bay. Ambon Bay is incredible for muck diving, but the hardly explored south side has been a revelation. We originally thought that it would be our ‘wide angle’ side, as the coral is pristine and the water is crystal clear. But when you have a bunch of fantastic muck guides with marvelous eyes, it didn’t take long until we were finding many great critters on the south side too, many of which you can’t find in Ambon Bay. And also, though not common, seeing Hammerheads and Sperm Whales was pretty cool too, though I managed to be in the Dive Centre all the times those were spotted. As well as Hukurila Caves and Pintu Kota (amazing dives with caves and swim throughs), walls and slopes, we also have an incredible ‘volcano’ dive where, as well as amazing coral, you have bubbles streaming everywhere out of the white sand and even a place where you can boil an egg underwater at 25 meters!
We also discovered some very interesting muck sites in Baguala Bay, where our Dive Centre is located. In Baguala Bay we’ve seen Hairy Octopus, Ambon Scorpionfish, Flamboyant Cuttlefish, Mimic Octopus, Pygmy Pipehorse, Seahorses, Pegasus Seamoths, Harlequin Shrimp, Bobtail Squid, Frogfish, Eels and much much more. A lot of those critters have been found on our House ‘Muck’ Reef, which you can dive from the shore I front of the Dive Centre.
The Dive Centre has been a big success. It beautiful location, great layout and facilities have made it a big hit as a place to hangout and relax in the evening, enjoying amazing sunsets, cold beers, great music and lovely food. The Camera Room is ideal for photographers and videographers of all levels, plenty of charging stations and chairs to sit in.
So now it’s time to get the maintenance done…repair and paint boats, maintain engines and compressors, service tanks and equipment, so everything is perfect for next season.
Next season begins in September. The weather should be lovely, as the rain has ended. As the sea can take a while to calm done we expect to be doing a lot of muck diving in Ambon Bay, where the water remains calm. It’s an ideal month for macro. However, if the sea is calm, then we will be diving the south side too.
So book now and come and visit us in Amazing Ambon.
