INDONESIA I first learned about the wonders of Raja Ampat from
my friend Tanya Burnett, who has logged thousands of dives
all over the world. “It’s an underwater photographer’s dream-
scape,” she told me. “The reefs just explode with color and life.
It’s almost overwhelming for some.”
It has been number one on my bucket list ever since. Recently
Tanya told me of some last-minute spaces that opened up on a
charter she was leading. I persuaded my husband to splurge, and
that’s how we found ourselves on the Pindito, a traditional-style
Indonesian schooner, with 15 other divers.
Not long after the boat leaves the West Papuan port of Sorong,
the landscape becomes streamlined. Standing on the bow, I can
see only water and sky and small green islets. The swirling clouds
stage a melodrama overhead, but nothing disrupts the tranquil-
ity. As beautiful as it is, I harbor a feeling of anticipation. I have
come expressly to see something that presently remains hidden:
one of the world’s greatest collections of marine biodiversity.
The next morning, laden with dive gear, I sink under the
surface of the sea, and a fantasy of marine creatures comes into
view. Huge shrimp preside over the reef, their antennae reach-
ing out in all directions. A school of surgeonfish moves like a
cloud until a shark plows through, sending them scattering like
wisps of smoke. At times there are so many fish I can barely see
through the water.
Over 10 days, the Pindito motors 800 nautical miles across
the Upper Banda Sea, stopping at reefs three or four times a day.
It seems impossible that the trip could live up to my expecta-
tions, but each dive serves up new wonders: a manta swooping
overhead, a solitary dolphin rolling around playfully on a reef,
giant schools of snapper and fusiliers whirling around us like
tornadoes, venomous sea kraits wafting through sunlit water.
The landscape is mostly sea, but we occasionally stop on
shore. One day we clamber through a limestone cave and scam-
per down a dark hole to discover a room with a clear, serene
pool. Naturally, we jump in, floating on our backs, suspended
in the stillness. Later in the journey we motor to Banda NeiraGO WITH THE
FLOW—AND
EMBRACE THE
UNEXPECTED
BY
KATE SIBER
OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2019 111Lady Elliot Island and its surrounding reef system prove that
the story of the Great Barrier Reef doesn’t need to have a tragic
ending. When people fall in love with a place and make a con-
scious effort to protect it, we glimpse a sustainable future where
we can all keep dipping our heads underwater to experience awe.