The Banda Sea is one of the most remote areas of Indonesia to go scuba diving, and the location of Ganung Api, the famous Island of the Snakes

Next week I'm heading off for a month's worth of diving in Indonesia on various assignments. First off I'm headed to see Mike Vietch and Simon Buxton, who have taken over the NAD Lembeh resort in Lembeh Strait since my last visit in August 2008. (Read my Lembeh trip report if you're interested in more info). Both Mike and Simon are renown underwater photography pros, and I'll be writing a story about their one on one teaching methods - and hopefully managing to start taking better photos too!

After that I fly from Manado to Ambon in the Spice Islands to join the MSY Seahorse for an epic two week Banda Sea crossing. where the boat travels over 1000 kilometres from Ambon to Maumere, stopping at several extremely remote atolls along the way. After that I might spend a few days in Maumere, diving and sightseeing with Sea World Club, and then head maybe head out on the Seahorse to explore Alor. It depends on how the Banda trip goes. After that, I get to Bali for a couple of days, then return to Bangkok to collapse.

I have long dreamed of doing the Banda trip, so I am extremely excited about it, not least because I'll get to finally see Ganung Api, home of hundreds of sea snakes that are not afraid to come and investigate divers. Most people are scared of sea snakes (and to be fair they are highly venomous) but I have a real fascination for them - and, of course, an extremely healthy respect. The full itinerary for the Banda trip is on the MSY Seahorse site.

Ganung Api was one of the key locations shot for the recently released IMAX 3D film Under The Sea 3D by Howard and Michele Hall. The process of filming underwater with the insanely bulky IMAX gear - a bit like having to steer a washing machine around at 20 metres - is an epic production in itself. You can see photos of the IMAX equipment in this short feature about the Halls on the Scuba Diving magazine site and more in their own journal of making the movie) . There's also some great pix and a report on diving Banda on Graham Abbott's Diving For Images site.

This Google map shows the location of the key sites in the Banda Sea crossing. If you drag the map around you can see how the Banda Sea relates to other Indo dive destinations - Raja Ampat is quite close by, and Komodo further along the same chain of islands from Alor.

Wetpixel's Ultimate Indonesia expedition also just got back from crossing the Banda Sea and Wetpixel moderator Cor Bosman wrote up this great trip report detailing each of the sites they visited day by day

In November I will be doing the Banda Sea crossing again - this time in the opposite direction from Maumere to Ambon with Dive Damai, the ambitious new boutique dive liveaboard that begins operations in September and will be specialising in providing top notch facilities for underwater photographers, as well as your own private dive guide. There will be a maximum of 3 guests to one guide. I'm already looking forward to returning to Banda a second time before I've even gone there the first time round - I think it's going to be the sort of place that needs to be explored more than once.

When I get back I will do full trip reports on the Banda Sea crossing, Maumere and Alor.

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