on the house
T
he wait is over - Indonesia is open to travellers, and Wakatobi Resort (www.wakatobi.com) is once more welcoming divers and snorkellers. Guests from around the world are already making plans to visit this remote island paradise, the resort staff are now readying everything for their arrival, and the resort’s iconic fleet is standing by to ferry divers to world-class sites within Wakatobi’s private marine preserve. But not all divers will be catching the boat. Each day, some choose to stay behind and dive from shore on Wakatobi’s famous House Reef. Guests have been known to devote entire days into the night to shore-based diving in front of the resort, and many return year after year to repeat the experience. Enthusiasm such as this has earned the House Reef a reputation as ‘The World’s Best Shore Dive’. What exactly makes the Wakatobi House Reef worthy of this accolade? It is a combination of factors that include easy access, habitat health, diversity of ecosystems, an abundance of unique marine life and the sheer size of the site.
The shallow water playground
Between the beach and deep water is an expansive stretch of shallows filled with grass beds, sand flats, colourful stands of soft corals and scattered hard coral formations, all remarkably healthy and quite dense in places. It’s something you wouldn’t expect so close to a resort. Much more than a swim-over between shore and reef, this area is prime grounds for a cornucopia of marine life that includes frogfish, stonefish, ornate, robust and Halimeda ghost pipefish, moray eels, blue-spotted stingrays, a variety of cephalopods (octopus, squid, cuttlefish), jawfish, shrimp and goby pairs, a plethora of nudibranchs, cuttlefish, eagle rays soaring through at certain times of the year, and more. The shallow depths of this area of the House Reef allow ample sunlight to flood the seabed, revealing bright colours that would be lost at greater depths. This generous supply of ambient light combines with the abundance of subjects to provide photographers with an ideal underwater studio. The shallows also hold a special appeal for snorkellers, who can enjoy an up-close look at the seabed without venturing far from shore.
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Wakatobi is located at the world’s epicenter of coral reef biodiversity and is designated a UNESCO Marine Biosphere Reserve. This means that while diving at Wakatobi you can see the greatest diversity of marine life.
Diving on the edge
Some 70 metres from the beach, the contours of the House Reef make an abrupt transition from shallow water. A stunning wall fans off to the north and south from the end of Wakatobi’s jetty. Here, the reef crest begins just 2m from the surface and plunges to depths of more than 70m. This dramatic topography creates an ultimate opportunity for multi-level diving profiles. This underwater rampart is riddled with overhangs and crevices. A thriving array of sponges, hard and soft corals shelter a diverse population of invertebrates and fish, with the mixture of species changing as depth increases. Water clarity in the 30-metre-plus range allows ample ambient light to filter down into the depths, adding to the visual drama of the walls and undercut slopes. This diverse landscape provides endless opportunities for critter hunting among the corals and the shadow-cloaked refuges that cleave the slopes. Divers can follow their interests to a chosen depth, then work their way slowly back towards the surface, creating profiles that allow for hour-plus bottom times and end with safety stops among lively coral formations. Green and hawksbill turtles are commonly seen cruising the edge of the water or taking a snooze beneath the overhangs in the wall.
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