The South Passage

Good snorkeling here. And a great drift dive. The best place for snorkeling is right at the tip of the peninsula where lots of fish and some turtles can be seen on a very pretty coral reef. A dive can be made starting outside the bay along the wester shore of the Darat Island. The best time is when the current is falling from west to east through the narrow strait between Gililawa Darat and Komodo island. Swimming towards the point at about 20 to 25m. large schools of anchovies and small tuna and trevallies coming in to feed. More and more fish come in sight closer to the point, with whitetip reefshark sleeping on the sandy bottom and garden eels doing their hypnotizing dance. As you enter the mouth of the passage the current gets faster and faster as the bottom rises, you pass over a sand dune and up onto a rock shelf at only 5 meters. After the rock shelf keep an eye out for the rock in the passage, and try to pull in behind. If you make this you will find every fish in the passage hiding in the lee also. Stay there and drift out the back. When the depth gets to 15 meters swim north back onto the reef on the darat island, or you will get sucked out into the bay. The dive ends when the current brings you around the corner. Gililawa Bay is a good anchoring place.