Triton Bay
Among The Richest Soft Coral Walls In The Coral Triangle, Where The Nutrient Load That Grows Them Also Clouds The Water With Prehistoric Rock Art On The Limestone Cliffs Above · Kaimana, West Papua
Triton Bay is what happens when a reef gets too much of a good thing. THE NUTRIENT LOAD HERE IS ENORMOUS, and the walls are consequently SMOTHERED IN SOFT CORAL AND BLACK CORAL BUSHES in densities that are extraordinary even by Coral Triangle standards - and THE SAME NUTRIENT LOAD MEANS THE VISIBILITY IS OFTEN POOR, which is the trade every diver here accepts. Fish come in walls rather than schools. WHALE SHARKS COME TO THE BAGAN as they do in Cenderawasih. There are endemics found nowhere else, including a walking shark that uses its fins to move across the bottom. AND ON THE LIMESTONE CLIFFS ABOVE THE WATER THERE IS ROCK ART - hand stencils and figures in red ochre, thousands of years old, painted on overhangs you reach by boat and look up at from the sea, which makes this one of the very few prehistoric sites anywhere that requires no walking at all to see - you sit in a boat and look up at hand stencils that are thousands of years old.
Triton Bay, Kaimana, West Papua, Kaimana, West Papua, Indonesia
REACHED VIA KAIMANA, which has LIMITED FLIGHTS from Sorong, Ambon and Jakarta - schedules are thin and frequently disrupted, so BUILD IN SPARE DAYS. ALMOST ALL DIVING IS DONE FROM LIVEABOARDS running out of Sorong or Kaimana and booked months ahead; there is a small amount of land-based accommodation and a few local operators, but this is not a walk-in destination. THE ROCK ART IS SEEN FROM A BOAT, looking up at overhangs above the water - it is not climbed to and should not be touched. WHALE SHARK ENCOUNTERS AT THE BAGAN happen at dawn. THE BEST CONDITIONS ARE ROUGHLY OCTOBER TO APRIL. Bring cash; Kaimana has minimal banking and there is none beyond it.