Dive site of the month!

The skies might no be as blue as they were a week ago, there may be a little more rain than normal, but the diving has been some of the best we've experienced! Manta Rays are being seen all over the place, and we are in the rare time of year where we can dive both the South of the National Park and the North! One of the dive sites that has constantly delivered over the past month is Mawan, one of our top manta dive sites!

Where is Mawan?

Mawan is in the centre of the Komodo National Park, meaning we can dive it all year round!



What does the dive site look like?

'Mawan' translates from the local language of Maggarrai to 'pretty', and the site certainly lives up to its name. The reef is filled with stunning pink soft corals, and is home to all kinds of interesting critters. We start the dive around a sandy patch which has a manta cleaning station next to it. It's a great spot to sit and watch the mantas interact with each other. If there are no mantas there, we'll drop down a little deeper and look for white tip and black tip reef sharks. As you head left shoulder the reef flattens out and is covered in gorgeous corals - starting with predominantly soft corals, the landscape changes and you see more hard corals.



When do you dive it?

The ideal conditions for this site is on slack or a rising tide. It is possible to dive it on a falling tide, but the currents can be a little trickier. Mantas seem to be there no matter what the currents are doing!




What can we see there?



The dive site is a favourite amount many because of the incredible manta ray interactions you can have there. While Karang Makassar (Manta Point) may have the most mantas (it's possible to see over 50 in one dive!), it's not uncommon to have the entire hour long dive with mantas swimming over your head at Mawan. It seems to be a site where they enjoy being sociable, and will spend hours at the cleaning stations. But there is much more to this dive site than just mantas. If they're feeling a little shy and don't fancy putting on a show, then it's a great site for sharks, sting rays, and big schools of fusiliers. It's also a fantastic spot for macro - we regularly see hairy shrimp and leaf scorpion fish at this fantastic site!



For more information on our dive packages, where we dive and what we see, check out our website or send us an email

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