Sunday 15 September Dive Castle Rock

Around to the islands north of Komodo to Pulua Lawa Laut, a popular spot with yachts and dive boats alike. Great for us because we can reach one of the top dive spots in the area, Castle Rock, by dinghy. The only drawback to the site is it is a pinnacle in open ocean swept by the ebb and flow of the current. The trick is to drop in at slack water.

We went out to the rock at what we calculated to be slack water, ready to dive but prepared to down grade to snorkelling if the current was too strong. For once we hit the sweet spot of the tide and were able to enjoy a really good dive. Within five minutes we came across a turtle foraging amongst the corals and a trio of black tip shark, trevally and Napolean Wrasse taking turns to ferret out a fish which had taken refuge under a barrel sponge. Each was circling and then dashing in to root under the sponge with their snouts seemingly oblivious to our presence. Mr Shark almost bumped into us. In the end it was the Napolean Wrasse which found his meal.

Going around the rock I found hundreds of yellow nudibranchs and every surface covered with feather stars. On our safety stop we espied one of the lovely coloured Mantis shrimps trotting along a sandy ledge and were able to spend a long time watching him; unusual as they normally run for cover at the first sight of a diver. Add to the above free swimming moray eels, scorpion fish and beautiful corals and you have a great dive, doubly enjoyable when it's less than 500m from the boat.