After a couple of days of ho-hum snorkelling, Wakatobi Marine Park delivers in spades, with sunny conditions and a top temperature of 29⁰C. L’Austral arrives just after 8 am, and passengers are in the water on schedule at 9:30 am. It’s another beach departure for the snorkelling, but in contrast today it is a soft sandy beach, with some seagrass in front of a coral reef, with a spectacular drop-off about 250 metres from the shore. There are scores of tropical fish of too many varieties to count, sea snakes, and some interesting razor-like fish. The conditions are perfect for snorkelling – the swim out to the drop-off is easy, and there isn’t a huge amount of traffic.
The afternoon is drift snorkelling, still in Wakatobi Marine Park, from a zodiac platform, which entails a zodiac ride out to deep water near the reef drop-off, jumping off the zodiac, and swimming with the current to a zodiac stationed about 400m away. It is such a great snorkelling position that I catch the shuttle zodiac back to the drop off point another two times to take advantage of the conditions. The corals are huge and diverse, and there is an even greater variety of fish than this morning.
As soon as the zodiacs are loaded back on L’Austral, the anchors are lifted and we’re off from Wakatobi Marine Park as the sun sets to our next destination – Pulau Alor.
A great day is finished off with a great sunset. Captain Marchesseau announces the possibility of a green flash after the sun goes down, but it doesn’t eventuate. The half-submerged sun on the horizon is spectacular though.
