Coralia Itinerary

Raja Ampat - Dampier Strait, Kawe and Batanta - 9N

On embarking day, you will be greeted by the Coralia team and get time to settle in, prepare your gear and relax from your travels. Coralia cruise directors will also give you an orientation about the amenities on board, the safety features and procedures, and the cruise itinerary. Typically, we use the afternoon and night to make our way to the first dive destination. So the first dive will be the next morning. 

Starting from Sorong in West Papua, we head to the south of Raja Ampat’s largest island, Waigeo, to the famous Dampier Strait. Here you can expect to dive at some world-class, adrenaline-packed dive sites such as Cape Kri, Chicken Reef, Sleeping Barracuda, Sardine Reef, Mioskon and Blue Magic. At the other end of the Dampier Strait is the island of Arborek with a great jetty dive. Lalosi is a drift dive completely full of fusiliers and with a chance to see wobbegong sharks. The well-known manta aggregation sites of Manta Sandy and Manta Ridge are also in this area. 

Sawandarek is on the island of Mansuar and features a fantastic jetty dive. You can also visit Papua Explorer’s coral restoration project here. For those interested, we can take a walk around the village at Sawandarek or Arborek. After a night dive on our first day of diving, we will travel to Penemu. 

Famous Melissa’s Garden awaits us at Penemu, with its spectacular, healthy and widespread hard coral plateau in the shallows. At Keruo Wall we can admire large gorgonian sea fans and lovely reef tops, and we might also explore My Reef and Batu Rufus. A short hike to the viewpoint of Penemu offers a spectacular view of the lagoons and their surrounding islands. 

Next, we make our way to Wofoh, where there are several unique dive sites easily reachable from one mooring point. On one side, we will have the backdrop of Wofoh and Taman Wofoh, two small islands with pristine white coral sand beaches, and on the other side, we can take in vistas of the forested mountains and valleys of West Waigeo. We will do one or two dives at Wofoh before heading into Aljui Bay. Inside this bay, there is an opportunity to take a little tour to visit the pearl farm and learn all about how pearls are grown. A late afternoon dive at the pearl farm jetty might be possible, and it can be full of schooling fish and wobbegong sharks. During the night dive, it is not unusual to find macro favourites like toadfish, octopus and Epaulette walking sharks. 

Next day we will dive at the island of Kawe. Here the dive site Black Rock awaits us; soft corals bloom in a variety of colours from the rocky outcrops, amazing us as Raja Ampat’s full abundance comes to life in a most vibrant display. Eagle Rock is our next stop and is named for the majestic eagles circling above the small, rocky islands. Underwater, divers can encounter creatures like wobbegong sharks, schools of sweetlips, batfish and barracudas, bumphead parrotfish and reef sharks, and even the occasional manta ray! We will go back into Aljui for another magnificent night dive with the critters. 

The following day will be spent on the western tip of Gam island, at an island called Yangeffo, which protects a sheltered bay. This small area has multiple world-class dive sites. Famous ones like Citrus Ridge and Mayhem always amaze divers with their vibrancy and biodiversity. Sunsets and sunrises are very special at our mooring point at Yangeffo: as the sun drops, the surrounding forested hills become alive with flocks of sulphur-crested cockatoos, and Blyth’s hornbills emerge to return to their roosting places. 

At Dayang, in the northwest of Batanta, there is a beautiful small sandy island home to a population of coconut crabs. Dayang is just at the entrance to one of Batanta's many scenic bays and has a colourful reef with wobbegong sharks, schooling yellow snappers and great macro-life, including pygmy seahorses and unusual nudibranchs. Dayang island also offers a great chance to encounter manta rays, the gentle giants, at their cleaning stations. In the south of Batanta there are some great macro dives in the sandy slopes. 

The remainder of our adventure will be spent diving in the Dampier Strait. 

Our last day will offer two more action-packed dives in the Dampier Strait. We can also arrange for a bird-watching trip on the last morning to see the enigmatic and endemic red bird-of-paradise. After lunch, we make our way back to Sorong for hearty goodbyes. 

On disembarkation day, the Coralia team will equally assist you from Coralia to the airport.

Sample itineraries are for guidance only. Actual itineraries may differ slightly due to factors such as weather, wildlife, logistics and local regulations.