Nirvana and Lava: 12-Day Wakatobi Liveaboard

Baubau → Maumere · 12 days

Route of Nirvana and Lava, from Baubau across the Banda Sea to Maumere.

Twelve days, three seas and one active volcano. From Wakatobi’s reef systems, we cross the Banda Sea via Batu Tara before reaching Alor and the Savu Sea, where the southern coast is diveable for only a few weeks each year.

Nirvana and Lava

12 days
Baubau → Maumere

When

Late April 2029

The route

Baubau · Wakatobi · Banda Sea · Batu Tara · Alor · Solor · Pantar Strait · Savu Sea · Maumere

The diving

Walls · Seamounts · Soft coral · Gorgonians · Black sand · Volcanic bubbles · Remote southern reefs

Wakatobi

The reputation holds up

Wakatobi takes its name from Wangi Wangi, Kaledupa, Tomia and Binongko. Around these four islands lie roughly twenty-five reef systems: fringing reefs, offshore barriers and atolls. With little sediment, the water stays exceptionally clear over walls lined with soft coral and gorgonians.
We dive Roma and Blade around Tomia, plus the outer reefs of Kaledupa and Binongko beyond day-boat range.

Banda Sea & Batu Tara

Smoke on the horizon

Then the land disappears. Two days across the Banda Sea lead to Batu Tara, a volcanic cone standing alone in open water.
Below the surface, volcanic gas rises through black sand in streams of bubbles, with reef growing on the ash around you.

Alor & Solor

Fed from below

Around Alor and Solor, deep, nutrient-rich water feeds steep volcanic slopes covered in hard coral. By April, the strongest upwelling has eased and the water has warmed.
There is black-sand diving too, on dark, clean slopes where the guides slow the pace right down. When the anchor drops, dugouts often come out from the villages, with children paddling around the boarding platform.

Pantar Strait
& The Savu Sea

A few weeks a year

The seasonal shift lets us continue through the Pantar Strait to the exposed southern coast. The sites are bigger, more open and hold more fish than the northern side. This stretch is only reliably diveable for a few weeks a year, and few boats are in position to use that window.
The journey ends at Maumere on Flores.