Donggala
Donggala, a small city located approx 40km north west of Palu, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. Little did we know this place was very beautiful, and it was truly unfortunate that we were only here for less than a week.
We should have stayed for longer... AND, We should come back!
We should have stayed for longer... AND, We should come back!
During our stay in Donggala we stayed at Prince John, the only dive resort around. It is humongous and the cottages were very cozy, although you should keep in mind that there may be several mosquitoes. However, Donggala isnt actually as remote as you would think, rIght next to the resort are small villages where you can purchase some mozzy repellant or other necessitie... We thought it would be pretty remote and out of civilisation, since it said that electricity is only available at night times, but turns out they have electrcity 24h long (AND WIFI).. So In the mornings when everyones out diving, we just asked if we could charge our batteries (or whatevs) in the front desk; they did this so they can make sure your stuff is safely kept. Anyways, Prince John is a great dive resort with super cozy wooden cottages.
Pictures on the right --------------------------------------------------------> |
Prince John Dive Resort |
The view outside your room is soo amazingly gorgeous... the water seems so calm and has such beautiful shades of blue. The House reef, that is literally 10 steps off the beach, is also stunning. With giant moray eels hiding in a barrel coral at the depth of around 4m. The clear visibility and shallow reef, also allows snorkellers to enjoy this house reef. In which we did, on our last day in the resort, because we couldnt dive so we just snorkelled around. At which, most of our times were spent spotting out the numerous flounders hiding beneath our fins.
The house reef is very much alive, with colourful hard corals and soft sponges, as well as hosting a wide diversity of marine life. From a small cleaner shrimp, to a 40cm crocodile fish, to a 2m long moray eel; all can be found here within 15m of diving depth. |
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Our last dive in the House reef was a night dive. AND we were super lucky to have encountered THE MOST VENOMOUS CREATURE on earh, The Blue Ring Octopus. Although i;ve seen one before in Tandu Rusa, Lembeh; i was glad i saw it again. This one was a little different than the one I saw before. It was just breathtakingly beautiful. It was much smaller than the one i had seen before. Firstly, this one appears in a much lighter colour, but you know octopus can change their colours; im guessing its because the sand here is white, so its lighter in colour. Secondly, its size is a major difference. The one in Lembeh was about as big as my palm, but this one, was a third of the size of my pinky. IT WAS SOO TINY! at first when our guide showed it to us, I just assumed it was another common octopus, since earlier that dive, we saw 2 more octopuses. It was soo small i could barely see its blue rings, until, i took a few photos of it and realised that it is actually quite different than the ones before. HMM i wonder. So i zoomed in, and zoomed in. OMG its a blue ring octopus. The guide said my sudden realisation was hilarious, he said i was singing..?
It was all very exciting to me, so i snapped a few photos, though i must say, it was really difficult to get a clear shot at it. Firstly, because it;s so puny. Secondly, because there were so many smallER animals around it. I realised we were on a night dive, and that all those animals are attracted to the bright light of my strobe, and torch. Thus crowding around, and almost ruining every picture i took... |
I realised we were on a night dive, and that all those animals are attracted to the bright light of my strobe, and torch. Thus crowding around, and almost ruining every picture i took... LUCKILY i managed to take a few decent shots. (PICTURES BELOW)
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On our last day of diving, we decided that we would go on a day dive trip to Marantale. Its not too far away and is approximately a 3hrs journey by car from Donggala.
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NEXT PAGE: MARANTALE
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