Maratua Atoll off the Indonesian half of Borneo is one of these jack-of-all-trades destinations – exceptional big fish encounters, tons of turtles, a jellyfish lake, walls, macro and amazing reefscapes make Nabucco and Nunukan, two picturesque island resorts under the same professional umbrella, ideal places to simply fall off the grid, reckons Daniel Brinckmann, who starts his adventure in Nabucco
Photographs by Daniel Brinckmann
The early bird may catch the worm, but let’s face it – sane minds demand a good reasoning for dives at sunrise. Fruit bats are still feasting and screeching under the night sky when a bunch of neoprene-cladded sleepwalkers jump the jetty of Nabucco Island Resort.
Ten minutes later, when the sun meets the horizon and divers hit a reef channel mouth reasonably dubbed Big Fish Country, the water is still pitch black.
Once hooked onto the edge of a barren flat at 20m, three grey reef sharks and a few tuna whizz through the moderate current.
As the rising sun lends the water an emerald hue, the reef comes alive with schools of surgeons and red-tooth triggerfish appearing and a mysterious mass behind it, slowly changing shape like a cloud of birds gathering for migration.
Upon the Extra Divers’ dive guide’s call to unhook, us sleepwalkers-turned-wide-awake-divers are drifting right into it – a giant column of chevron barracudas that stretches from about 40m all the way up to the 10m-range.
The resident army of shape-changing saltwater pike is rumoured to be one of the three largest of its kind in all of Asia, and yet it is also the reason why Nabucco’s prime dive site is renowned as one of the best, if not the best, spot for big fish encounters accessible from an island resort in Indonesia.
Did you know?
Getting to Maratua Atoll will involve a flight from Heathrow via Singapore and Balikpapan to Berau, or via Surabaya and Jakarta. It is a four-hour boat transfer from Beray to either Nabucco or Nunukan (and a one-hour boat transfer between both islands).
After all, a local armada of elusive bigeye jacks, reef sharks, dogtooth tuna and eagle ray are mostly present and occasionally even the odd hammerhead makes it to the early morning show.
“Daniel, are you going for continental or Asian breakfast today?”, kitchen magician Randy asks laughing as we reach the fateful junction between restaurant and camera room.
For days it’s been our personal ‘Groundhog’s Day’ joke: every morning same time, same procedure. And same result: once the camera gear is sorted, ramen noodles, dragon fruit, mango juice and coffee are readily sitting right on the table of my favourite spot, overlooking Nabucco’s huge turquoise and fjord-like lagoon with sand banks that vanish and reappear with the tides.
Resort and dive centre managers Friska and Martin can’t resist the smell of coffee and waffles either and recollect their very own ‘welcome to Nabucco’ tale – the Austrian-Indonesian couple took over duties on the picturesque small island for Extra Divers right before the pandemic hit and literally got stuck in a five acre golden cage of coconut palm tree groves, boulders and sand.
Instead of dwelling on isolation, they ploughed forward, brought the resort up to speed and took up gardening, growing anything from chilis to tomatoes, basil to lemongrass and including rare orchids and other flowers to make for a colourful ornamental garden scape.
No matter if waterfront room, garden villa or fabulous suite on stilts – on this square barefoot island, none of the 12 spacious bungalows with 18 rooms total is more than a seven-minute walk from seafront bar, restaurant and dive centre.
About halfway, at the heart of the island, a huge roof canopy gives shade to the sitting corner with library and WIFI signal, office and souvenir shop.
For dedicated no-limit dive amphibians, it might be unspeakable, but the general proximity on the island translates to – yes, brace yourself – serious beach or sunbed breaks on the veranda without missing out on any of the three daytime dives, let alone the tasty meals.
Equipment storage rooms and rinse tanks right on the jetty and the dive boats’ powerful yet eco-aware fourstroke engines speed up the daily diving routine to the point of a well-oiled operation that earned Nabucco quite a few travel awards.
Example trip with Dive Worldwide
Dive Borneo Special Package – 15 days from £3,145pp including flights from the UK, five nights Nabucco, five nights Nunukan, two nights Kalimantan, ten boat dives, some meals and transfers. Book by 28 February 2024. Visa on arrival – $35.
www.diveworldwide.com
While the frequent turtle crossings usually happen in the first 10m of water, the drop-offs are covered by barrel sponges, sea fans, as well as soft, whip and black corals.
Wherever a bommie rises from the deep or two walls are interspersed by a stretch of even seafloor, there are cleaning stations with a fair chance of greater barracudas and bumphead parrotfish looking for service and sizeable feathertail, mangrove or marbled stingrays taking a nap.
Macro lovers who like to tick off their personal bucket list of critters might be better off elsewhere as there are no pygmy seahorses, Sean the Sheep nudis and resident rhinopias at call.
Still, Nabucco and the surrounding Maratua Atoll is right in the middle of the global marine species capital of the Coral Triangle, so macro life and general diversity is stunning.
Situated about four boat hours east of Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo), no fewer than 872 species of fish, 507 species of corals and invertebrates inhabit the sea between the 31 islands, sandbanks, seamounts and outer reefs that plunge directly into the deep Sulawesi Sea.
The tidal range of up to three metres brings about strong currents and, with them, nutrition, blue open sea waters, predatory and pelagic fish, but divers cruising the reef wall with the flow and the boat following have no reason to worry.
Next month: In part two, Daniel explores Kakaban’s Jellyfish Lake during a weekly triple-dive day trip from Nabucco, and then moves on to the neighbouring Nunukan Island Resort, which is also operated by Extra Divers.
Extra Divers
You can expect two boat dives in the morning and single boat dive in the afternoon, unless a half-day or full-day tour is on schedule. Early morning, night dives and daytime house reef diving in buddy team on request. Nitrox at surcharge. Oxygen in case of emergencies available (first aid in Berau).
www.extradivers-worldwide.com
This article was originally published in Scuba Diver UK #82
