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Dear Fellow Diver:
If just one thing sets aside a great dive resort
from a good one, it's the ability to walk to the beach,
strap on a tank, and get in some top-notch diving. And
that describes Wakatobi and its House Reef Wall, which
rates among the best anywhere.
After descending the wooden stairs at the pier, a
few kicks lead to a shallow gully opening to a sheer
wall dropping to around 120 feet. A usually gentle current
dictated whether to turn left or right; either
direction provided beautiful soft coral trees, fans, and
sponges. Our dive to the left brought a diversity of
butterflyfish, including pyramid, long-nosed, ornate, and
red-fin specimens, pennant bannerfish, crocodile fish,
trumpetfish, pink and spine-cheeked anemonefish, and
short-nosed boxfish. A juvenile scorpionfish and other
diverse critters hid in the low corals. Two turtles
feeding on a sponge put a finish to our dive. The diving
is so exceptional that some visiting divers spend more
time diving here than boat diving. If a current's running,
the staff will motor divers up current so that
they can drift all the way back to shore.
En route,
my first stop
was Bali, where
a Wakatobi agent
whisked my buddy
and me through
immigration.
We were off
to decompress
at my favorite
Bali resort,
Puri Santrian,
30 minutes from
the airport. Three days later, a Wakatobi
rep at the airport escorted
us through check-in and to
the lounge to await our 8:00
a.m. two-hour flight to the
southeastern tip of Sulawesi,
where a boat would be waiting
for the 20-minute trip
to the isolated hotel. When
Wakatobi opened its doors in
1996, they posted instructions
over the toilets to check
for sea snakes before sitting
down. Twenty-five years later,
Wakatobi has morphed into a
true luxury dive resort.
Wakatobi has several villas and nearly 30 palm bungalows. After arriving,
I unpacked in my bungalow, had a fine lunch, and afterward listened to the dive
briefing from divemaster Hery. Then off to the pier, where the crew carried our
gear down the stairs to the water for our voluntary check-out dive....
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