Indonesia Dive Sites - Kalimantan (Borneo)

On the eastern side of Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo) are a number of islands with dive resorts. The resorts can take time to reach with several boat and plane transfers but divers who make the effort are rewarded with exceptional diving.

The area is renowned for high concentrations of manta rays and turtles as well as a jellyfish lake. As you would expect in Indonesia, the macro diving is also superb.

The best time to dive the area is the April to October dry season. All the islands are close together so it makes sense to dive them all while you're in the area.

Sangalaki Dive sites

Kakaban Dive sites

Derawan is the closest to the Borneo mainland so visibility is lower than the other islands, between 5 and 20 metres. That's not really an issue though as most of the diving is macro diving. The house reef beneath the jetty is home to a diverse range of critters including ghostpipefish and seahorse. This is also an excellent place for night dives. At Blue Trigger wall schools of red tooth triggerfish are always seen. At certain times of the year green turtles come ashore to lay their eggs.

Samama is close enough to Sangalaki and Kakaban that it can be dived from there. It is another macro photographers dream destination. Reefs are shallow with maximum depths of around 15 metres. Currents are weak. So dives can be long in duration and the sun light that filters onto the hard and soft corals illuminates them magnificently. Reef life is very healthy with many schools of fish. Look for blue ribbon eels at the edge of the reef. Pygmy seahorse smaller than your fingernail can be found in gorgonian seafans.

Maratua is a large island shaped a bit like the letter C and has a large lagoon protected by a coral reef. Strong currents sweep through the channel into the lagoon and diving the channel should preferably be timed at slack high tide. Some experience of drift diving is useful here. The fast water attracts schools of jacks and barracuda, tuna and mackeral to the channel entrance. Eagle rays, manta rays and sharks are also seen here.

On the outside of the reef there are walls that drop off beyond 30m with nice soft coral and sponge coverage and large schools of fish.

There is good macro diving inside the lagoon at Nabucco Island. Many different nudibranch species can be seen here as well as frogfish, leaf scorpionfish and mandarin fish.

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