Derawan Islands
An Archipelago Off Eastern Borneo Where Green Turtles Nest In Exceptional Numbers And A Landlocked Lake On Kakaban Holds Jellyfish That Have Lost Their Sting · Berau, East Kalimantan
The Derawan archipelago lies off the east coast of Borneo and has two things almost nowhere else does. THE FIRST IS TURTLES IN NUMBERS THAT STOP BEING REMARKABLE - green turtles feed and nest here in such density that you snorkel with them straight off the jetty at Derawan, and see them surfacing from the restaurant. THE SECOND IS ON KAKABAN: a LANDLOCKED LAKE FILLED WITH JELLYFISH THAT HAVE LOST THEIR STING. Cut off from the sea for thousands of years with no predators, they simply stopped needing it, and you swim among millions of them. There are only a handful of such lakes on earth. SANGALAKI HAS MANTA RAYS and MARATUA is a proper atoll with walls and a resort or two. GETTING THERE IS THE PRICE: a flight to Berau, two to three hours by road, then a boat, and nothing about any of it is quick. That is also exactly why the reefs here are as quiet as they are, and why you will have most of them entirely to yourself once you finally arrive.
Derawan Archipelago, Berau Regency, East Kalimantan, Berau, East Kalimantan, Indonesia
REACHED VIA BERAU, also called Tanjung Redeb, which has FLIGHTS FROM BALIKPAPAN AND occasionally Jakarta. FROM BERAU IT IS ROUGHLY TWO TO THREE HOURS BY ROAD TO TANJUNG BATU and then THIRTY MINUTES TO TWO HOURS BY BOAT depending on which island you are heading for. NOTHING ABOUT THIS IS QUICK AND TRANSFERS MUST BE ARRANGED IN ADVANCE - there is no regular public service to most islands. KAKABAN'S JELLYFISH LAKE CHARGES A SEPARATE LOCAL ENTRY FEE and is reached by a boardwalk and steps over the island's rim. SANGALAKI AND KAKABAN ARE DAY TRIPS FROM DERAWAN OR MARATUA. ACCOMMODATION IS LIMITED and concentrated on Derawan and Maratua. Crossings are weather-dependent. Bring cash - banking is minimal once you leave Berau.