Bye Bye Bali - Hello Labuan Bajo - Blue Marlin Dive Komodo - Komodo National Park

We were sad to leave Ubud.  It's such a chill place.  Mertha was kind enough to drive us back to the Grand Palace in Denpasar for our last few days in Bali.  My priority was to try to pack and ship our scuba stuff and other items.  A DHL office was down the street and luckily open on a Saturday.  I was told a cardboard box was required.  Had fun finding odd sizes of boxes and putting together a homemade one.  It was mostly crappy thin cardboard help together by tape. The DHL person later suggested we put 2 DHL boxes together instead.  So much for all that work.  Oh well.  The DHL boxes were a much better choice as it fit great and was tough.  As it was big and heavy, it was 40% off and only $700 Canadian to Brampton.  Not bad.  We went to the beach with KT for a nice evening dinner and soon were in a Taxi to the airport.  A smaller prop plane took us to Labuan Bajo for our next part of the tour.

Labuan Bajo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labuan_Bajo

I was astonished at the amount of dive shops in this small community.  I'd be afraid to randomly pick one as there are just so many.  A Dive Master (DM) in Fiji recommended Blue Marlin Dive Komodo
https://www.bluemarlindive.com/bluemarlindive/destinations/blue-marlin-komodo/

Being lazy we stayed in their accommodations and even ate most of our meals in their restaurant.  Blue Marlin is great.  We met Paul the DM who will soon be our guide.  We got sized up for our gear and prepared for a four night stay aboard the Ikan Biru.

IKAN BIRU, “THE BLUE FISH”
https://www.bluemarlindive.com/bluemarlindive/destinations/blue-marlin-komodo/liveaboards/

The reviews are off the charts for this boat
https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g1777483-d3874344-r173270407-Blue_Marlin_Dive_Komodo-Labuan_Bajo_Flores_East_Nusa_Tenggara.html

No point in having a huge nap-sack so we repacked our stuff and stashed our bags.  We welcomed several other guests who would be staying on-board with us and hopped onto the dive boat which soon led us to our home on the sea.  The Ikan Biru is a beautiful 25 year old wooden ship.  It's been converted to a very nice liveaboard/dive boat with a friendly crew compliment of 5 and two DM's.  The chef is really amazing having worked with this ship for 5 years.  This was our first Live-aboard and it takes some getting used too.  All we seemed to do is Eat, Dive, Rest, Repeat.  4 dives per day.  15 dives in all. Night dives are cool, totally dark.  Everyone is armed with lights.  These are not wimpy dive locations either.  It's an Advanced Open Water certification boat with a few pretty challenging dives.  It was fun.  We all chose to skip a dive to hike/see Komodo dragons too.  The weather was perfect, no rain, kinda hot but breezy up in the "loft" of the boat.  The wind was awesome but kept us from one dive location having caused some big waves.  We were forced to challenge the waves for one trip and the boat tossed us around pretty good.  We even lost some gear overboard and had to slow down and pick up whatever still floated. Fun times.   A big thanks to the entire team at Blue Marlin Dive Komodo.  Very fun, informative, professional and skilled.

Here's some video links

We were blessed to dive with Adib Ridzuan from Singapore on this trip
He put together this awesome 1 minute video video for his Instagram Feed
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1fMVblkHI8EUyfLH0ktFLsHV8MNJSCR8z

This ride is called The Shotgun.  It is kinda crazy at first.  Sander guides us to a hold on location where the current is pretty strong.  Grabbing stuff to hang on too is risky for the bare hands and the reef.  Look out for things that can break off, become damaged or possible hurt you.  After we free fall we cruise right past a Manta.  Watch how Sander couples safety with fun at the same time.  Nice job Sander
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1wWJkT0EmNK6ZdNXFRCzeCWw3j1VQKgWv

Check out the wave action we encountered here
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1XqvaRF6yqXzQtrDD5ZnJAPcQT-ckKoSw

Jacob our new friend from Sweden brought his cool DJI drone and made this
https://drive.google.com/open?id=12x4wWQF2zYeF5ACVvvXqS8a7Ktgipd26

This bag and our scuba stuff needs to go

It's costing us 60-100 per plane as it's extra

We can rent the wet suits/boots/fins

We kept our DSMB, Dive computer, Mask/Snorkels

I walked around town to gather random boxes

Our stuff, exploded view

The final box, kinda

Mostly tape

Turned out DHL recommended using two of there boxes

Worked out way better

Last supper at at the beach

Ngurah Rai International Airport, Denpasar

Cool entrance way eh

Note the little statue off in the distance

Right in the middle there

That's a pretty big statue within Garuda Wisnu Kencana Cultural Park

http://gwkbali.com/

We saw it from the air when we flew in.

We wanted to go but did not get the time

Cool shot eh

Time to board our Garuda Air prop plane

I love walking on and off airplanes

See yah Denpasar

We are flying over Komodo National Park here

We will you later :-)

Nice tiny Airport, love it

It's only a 10 minute taxi drive to Labuan Bajo

The driver stopped to let me take a shot of the waterfront

See this big cloud

I was swimming and saw a Tornado/Waterspout/Watever

Closeup.  It reduced to half it's size by the time I took this

Cool

Nice night time shots KT

A liberated map showing Labuan Bajo and many of the dive sites we will soon see

All packed and ready to get onto our floating home

This shuttle is also our dive boat

Our first glimpse of our floating home

View from our loft/bedroom/living room

Michelle had this smile for hours

With the kitchen just below, that table slides over and plates are passed up, cool

Our first dive sight and spot to crash

As we are not to far into the park, it was kinda busy here

The dive boat is towed from behind and parked on the side for diving

Power for all, nice

We did lots of this between dives

The tides and currents here are strong

Diving equipment well placed on deck

The diving schedule

Two people here are eager to get into the water

Regulators are for wimps.  I free dive

Some Dive+ compensated images from my SJ4000 only I think

If I find more on KT's I will adjust

Time to get some water

Love the colour with the visible sand 

The water boat

Jacob decided to fly

It's an expensive risky flight on the sea as the home base moves

Paul caught it just in case

Up we go

KT has internet so is somewhere in cyberspace

A view from the bow

We dry everything from the mast

The DJI drone can go 4 KM's away, crazy

It's the small black dot in the upper middle

Jacob is flying in front of the mast

Shot from the drone, so awesome

Up early to go check out some dragons

Sander drove

He is pretty good having experience of larger longer boats

Our guide/Ranger

Let's go

Komodo Dragon tracks (apparently)

A deer near their "watering hole"

These things are native and doing well considering they are enjoyed by the native Komodo Dragon

There is a big one

They taste with their tonque

They have a 5 KM range

By crouching like this, the ranger gets a photo that looks cool

Another !

The cafeteria has a dragon break in the night before

Maybe it was this guy

Michelle pointing out a bird

This place is heavily visited

Large docks for the boat visitors

It was hot again

Heading back to our floating home

Nice shot of Sander KT

We met up with the day trip boat for our return home

Small and fast

That's alot of tanks

KT is back on land and the internet

Nice evening shot of Labuan Bajo

Time to rest/pack and prepare for Thailand :-)