Alor Island Diving & Travel Guides

1	Behind Kepa Island	8	Melangwala	15	Buaya Island	22	Papajahi
2	Front of Kepa island	9	Dolabang	16	Buaya Island	23	Matap
3	South Alor island	10	Limarahi	17	North Buaya Island 1	24	Lola
4	Solangbali	11	Ternate besar	18	North Buaya Island 2	25	Tamalabang
5	Harilolong	12	South Ternate	19	Batu Putih	26	Bana Village
6	Rata	13	Umapura	20	Koka	27	Pantar Island
7	Pura selata	14	East Ternat	21	Aimoli	28	Bama Village

Alor is a hidden paradise for marine biodiversity. You can meet the best coral formations and underwater life in the Alor-Pantar strait.

Diving allows you to appreciate all the richness of underwater world in all types of configuration of the reef, but just with your snorkelling gear, you can enjoy the reef scenery, many types of corals where revolve thousand of fishes.

Snorkelling is possible all around Kepa island, but you can also try magnificent coral garden of Alor Besar, or the excellent spots of Pura, Ternate and Pantar, just a short ride by boat.

Alor is recognized to keep some of the best diving in Asia. Surround by clear water, the visibility can reach more than 40 meters, with a temperature of 28°C.

With its volcanic origin, Alor offers great variety of dive sites, nearly limitless ; some outstanding walls, rock slides, valleys, seamounts, pinnacles, and unspoiled coral reefs.

Alor got a real good health reef : fishermen here are sustainable fishing practices (bubu or bamboo traps,...).

The variety and diversity is wide, from small fish to big pelagic sea life, with a rich concentration of invertebrates as well, hard and soft corals.

Some dive sites are renowned for big fishes, sharks, hammerheads, giant groupers, Napoleon wrasse, eagle rays, mola-mola, dog tooth tunas, schools of big eyes jack...

ALOR DIVE SITES

The remote islands of Alor and Pura lie east of Flores and north of Timor. They are not renowned dive destinations and consequently get few visiting liveaboards. However the diving here can be pretty spectacular at the right time of year. A lot of cold water passes through narrow straits between the islands causing strong currents and eddies. They also attract big fish that come in to feed such as barracuda, schooling big-eye jacks, dog-toothed tuna, monster groupers, and lots of sharks. There are no resorts here due to its remoteness but that, for many divers, is the attraction of diving Alor.

There are a number of dive sites between the west coast of Alor, around Payar island and up to the smaller islands of Ternate and Buaya. Coral reef profiles are extremely varied with walls, sloping reefs, pinnacles, caves and seamounts. There are both rocky sites with coral cover and true coral reef sites. Highlights are not only the big visitors but great viz, critters and very few other divers.

Kal's Dream
This is probably the most well known dive site in the area. The submerged pinnacle which can only be dived on slack tide are teeming with schools of small fish including anthias and fusiliers. You need to fin down to it since the current is usually quite strong, once there keep a lookout for barracuda and blacktips however they arent guarunteed to show. "The Dream" can be hit or miss, on a good day the viz can be gin-clear, large grey reef sharks and even hammerheads have been known to visit this spot.

Sharks Galore and Clown Valley
These two sites are located on the eastern site of Pura island. Dives are usually started in Sharks Galore where blacktips and grey reef sharks are often spotted, the dive moves south and finishes at Clown Valley which is named after the abundance of anemones and clownfish found here. There are so many of them in fact that they occupy more surface area than any other form of live at this spot.

Mandarin House and the Boardroom
The north side of Pura island offers this healthy reef slope where mandarinfish can be seen dancing in the daylight. Dusk often yields the opportunity to witness them mating. A 50 meter deep wall at the Boardroom just east of Mandarin House offers caves filled with glassfish and schooling jacks and snappers at depth.

Pertamina Pier
This relatively new site is a black sand slope in the harbour that forms a haven for critters. Keep a look out for ghost pipefish, seahorses, hairy crabs and even wonderpuss - a bizarre species of octopuss. Night diving here can be even more interesting!

There are a number of other dive sites in the area including The Arch off Ternate island. This spot has a large underwater arch at 20 to 30 meters covered in whip corals and gorgonians. Small caves can be found while diving arounf Buaya island and sea apples are the highlight diving off neighbouring Pantar island. Many of the other Alor dive sites are great for small critters and macro delights.

resources:

www.lombokmarine.com

www.la-petite-kepa.com

www.alordiver.com