Galley Rock is an excellent manta ray encounter dive site. It’s located on the volcanic island of Gili Banta, just above the Komodo National Park.
Two Manta Rays, Galley Rock, Gili Banta, Indonesia © [email protected]
Gili Banta is an island off the coast of Sumbawa. It’s just above the Komodo National Park, but it’s not within the National Park boundaries. But it certainly looks and feels like Komodo – the steep crescent of brown volcanic cliffs rising out of the turquoise waters are stunning. Supposedly there was volcanic activity spotted here back in the 1950s by a passing plane, but there’s been nothing confirmed since.
Manta Ray, Galley Rock, Gili Banta, Indonesia © [email protected]
There are several well-known Komodo sites around Gili Banta like GPS Point and Star Wars. Galley Rock is well known as a manta ray hotspot. There are strong currents around here which bring in the big pelagics, but, as ever with Komodo, care must be taken on when to enter and exit the water.
Manta Ray, Galley Rock, Gili Banta, Indonesia © [email protected]
The sweet spot of Galley Rock dive site is to drop in to the part of the reef that is in the middle of the island. That protects you from the current if your guide gets it right with the tide tables.
Manta Ray, Galley Rock, Gili Banta, Indonesia © [email protected]
There’s a big flat area of the shallows with then gently slopes down to 12 metres before properly dropping off into the deep. The mantas love to come in to this gentle slope as it’s got several big coral bommies on it which are perfect for cleaning stations. The richness of the reef is striking, especially in contrast to spending time on the Sumbawa coastline.
Manta Ray, Galley Rock, Gili Banta, Indonesia © [email protected]
The mantas also like to go up into the shallows too and then wheel back around out in the blue and onto the slope again.
Manta Ray over reef, Galley Rock, Gili Banta, Indonesia © [email protected]
On our visit, the manta rays were quite skittish even with just four of us including our guide in the water. We were all experienced on how to behave around mantas – try to stay still, stay low, don’t chase after them etc – but while curious, they didn’t like to get exceptionally close, unlike the manta rays at Mawan or Manta Alley in the Komodo National Park.
Black Manta Ray, Galley Rock, Gili Banta, Indonesia © [email protected]
Don’t get me wrong – Galley Rock is still a fantastic manta ray encounter site, and I was really surprised at how many we saw – four in total, including a beautiful small black manta ray – and how they stayed for the entire dive.
Coral reef, Galley Rock, Gili Banta, Indonesia © [email protected]
They were very active and liked to move around to different parts of the site and then move on again, as if testing out where to settle. The viz was so clear we could see them approaching from all directions if, of course, one of us was facing in the right direction as they glide in completely silently.
Manta Ray, Galley Rock, Gili Banta, Indonesia © [email protected]
The first dive was so good we asked to repeat it again and the currents were on our side. The second dive was just as good, although Alex, our guide, had noted we needed to get out of the water around 50 minutes – and the current went from zero to quite strong during our safety stop, so he timed it to perfection.
Manta Rays, Galley Rock, Gili Banta, Indonesia © [email protected]
We dived Gili Banta as part of our stay at Kalimaya Dive Resort, which is based on the coastline on Sumbawa. It was about 45 minutes to make the crossing over to Gili Banta and we had fairly choppy seas that day due to the wind. On a flat calm day it would probably only take 30 minutes. You can read my in-depth Kalimaya dive resort review of what to expect from the diving and the resort itself.
Galley Rock is also sometimes visited by Komodo liveaboards along with other dive sites around Gili Banta, although the Komodo manta hot spots of Mawan and Manta Alley are more likely to be where a liveaboard in Komodo would go, due to their proximity to other classic Komodo dive sites.
There are other manta ray hotspots in Indonesia – see my guide on where else you have a good chance of encountering them.
