The view from atop Padar Island is reason enough to revisit. Teardrop-shaped emerald and sapphire bays flank the island’s rugged ridgeline. Popcorn clouds levitate above sparkling seas, beneath which await rich reefs and fish traffic jams, whirlwinds of current-fueled marine life at storied dive sites like Crystal Bommie and Yellow Wall, and abundant, exotic macro beasties weird and wonderful. Add close-up encounters on a black-sand beach with reptilian monsters seemingly lumbering straight out of the Jurassic period, and it’s obvious why we’ve returned to the wilds of Indonesia.

Few places pull you back like Komodo National Park. Reading the guest book aboard Seven Seas proves it. My five ebullient entries can’t match Lida’s, a veteran of more than 20 Komodo cruises. The waters beneath our ship’s sleek hull are obviously possessed of the extraordinary.

Capt. Wahyu reads the sea surface’s swirl and boil while cruise director Karl briefs us at each site. Komodo’s currents are formidable, but these pros know their stuff and drop us safely into a fish frenzy beyond reckoning at Castle Rock. Rainbow runners, surgeonfish, and fusiliers in the thousands race about feeding on the falling tide. Eschewing plankton for protein, beefy giant trevallies muscle through the crowd, devouring their smaller piscine peers.

We train wide-angle lenses on manta rays stacked up at the Alley’s cleaning stations. Muck macro excels day and night at Wainilu, where eagle-eyed guides Irwan and Jefry discover blue ribbon eels, zebra crabs, winged pipefish and flasher wrasse.

To know Komodo is to experience Cannibal Rock in Horseshoe Bay. Home to seemingly every critter known to science, it’s a photographer’s favorite that consistently ranks among the world’s top dive sites. Crinoids and corals carpet every surface in a dizzying array of colors, rivers of minnows shimmer overhead, and prized photo subjects overflow, including psychedelic sea apple cucumbers, Coleman’s shrimp on toxic sea urchins, and magnificent nudibranchs. Nearby sites similarly impress. Yellow Wall is spectacular, aflame with yellow-orange soft corals and busy with fish life. We dive it, Eagle Rock and Cannibal multiple times, pausing only for surface intervals with the park’s prehistoric celebrity lizards.

Our remarkable 12-night Seven Seas expedition soundly reaffirms why Komodo is a must-do (and redo) Indonesian liveaboard itinerary.

Komodo National Park Trip Tips

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