SeaTrek from Raja Ampat to the Volcanoes of Maluku

You will be welcomed to the boat by your crew and tour leaders, and as you settle into your new home, we will raise the anchor and head out into the Raja Ampat National Park.

We go on a pre-dawn quest to spot the remarkable Red Bird of Paradise, where we hope to see this rare bird’s elaborate courtship display high in the trees as dawn breaks over the forest canopy. After this, we will go to a different site to see the ground-dwelling Wilson’s bird of paradise, and it’s equally beautiful, but with a vastly different courtship display.

We will have an epic snorkel adventure on one of Raja Ampat’s best reefs, where hundreds of species can be found, including large schools of fish of all sizes and a massive diversity of coral species.

We will visit a small island group for a short hilltop climb to take in the amazing views. After some great snorkelling on the island’s reefs, we will set course for a local village, where the local children will perform their traditional dances for us.

We can also walk around the village and gain a sense of their culture, which is still kept very much alive by the villagers living in this isolated place. There’s a chance that we may get to see some manta rays as we snorkel, but there are no guarantees.

Snorkel the Dampier Strait, home of some of Raja Ampat’s premier reefs. If the currents are in our favour, we might see some of the area’s larger specimens of marine life, which are attracted to the strait’s nutrient-rich waters.

Visit the chain of islands that make up the eastern part of the Misool archipelago in the south of Raja Ampat. The topography is typical of ‘karst dissolution’, featuring a great number of tiny islets whose bases have been eroded over time by the relentless motion of the tides.

We will swim in a mysterious stingless jellyfish lake amongst the many thousands of animals: undoubtedly one of Raja Ampat’s most memorable activities. We use our tenders to explore more of this impressive maze of karst islands, both above and below the surface, complete with some prehistoric cave paintings, estimated to be between 3,000 to 5,000 years old and depicting various human figures and huge human hands, fish, and flowers.

We visit the small seaside village of Aduwei on Misool, where we can stroll around and meet the local people. We visit the school to learn about the way the Nature Conservancy is working with the village to empower local women with a fishing practice called ‘Sasi’.

We will be snorkelling at a channel that divides two islands, where sea fans hang in the drop-offs, and the current is rich in nutrients.

Spend the day strolling on a white-sandy beach and snorkel the reef where juvenile black-tip reef sharks usually frequent.

We pay a visit to the Pisang Islands. These tiny gems isolated in the vast waters of the Ceram Sea offer us a chance to relax and enjoy the sparkling white-sand beaches, clear waters, and vibrant reefs before making our way to the shores of West Misool.

Visit Bacan, another of Indonesia’s historic spice sultanates. We go ashore to explore the forested slopes where Wallace made some of his greatest zoological discoveries, including the Standardwing Bird of Paradise, and the huge and magnificent Golden Birdwing Butterfly. Wallace described the latter species as the “finest butterfly in the world”.

We will also keep a close watch for these and a host of other animals, some of them endemic to these islands, including parrots, cockatoos, lorikeets, hornbills, the elusive cuscus, and the endangered black macaque – the only monkey in Maluku. It’s the wrong side of the Wallace Line for monkeys; these were introduced hundreds of years ago from North Sulawesi.

Visit the Guraici Archipelago, a chain of islands with white sandy beaches, vibrant coral reefs, and some lovely local villages. We will spend a full day here snorkelling, swimming, and beachcombing. The islands are part of a government-controlled conservation area, designed to protect the reefs and the many beautiful marine species that live there.

Visit the village of Dodinga: the very place where Wallace was living when, in a fit of malarial delirium, he discovered the mechanism which drives evolutionary change – natural selection. Dodinga is a pretty little riverside village with friendly people, colourful houses, and the ruins of an old Portuguese fort, and its importance in the history of science cannot be understated.