🇬🇧 I’m embarking with this serie "STOP" in stories of a few stopovers. I won’t do them in order, just out of desire and to dust off some old memories.
🇬🇧 It had been a few months since I had traveled through Asia, the Philippines and North Borneo. I was passing from anchorage to anchorage with each time a very warm welcome and the encounter of an Asian culture that I didn’t really know. That had become my main reason for wandering. Because regarding the main reason for my trip, scuba diving, I was in a rather acute state of depression! In vain I tried dives from everywhere where I could, but each time I discovered underwater funds destroyed recently or not by dynamite, cyanide, or made invisible by the mouth of a muddy river and the discharges of ever larger cities...
🇬🇧 But that morning I was presenting the bow of Aurora in front of Maratua Atoll. An info taken a bit by chance from a discussion with another traveler. To put things in their context, at that time certainly the Internet existed, Google Earth was still very young but allowed us to have satellite views of little frequented places, but that’s all. Internet on board a boat was almost impossible, and Chatgpt giving the description of a place, the names of all its inhabitants as well as the color of their hair and their favorite dishes, it did not exist yet! I therefore had before me in front of the Atoll a marine map on which the position of the entry pass to the Atoll was not indicated, and a screenshot stolen from Google Earth and stored on my computer. Great was my surprise in showing up in front of the pass and noting the presence of an incredibly strong current. 4 to 5 knots of current, a real river, in a passage 50m wide at most... I had to wait for the slack to agree to take my chance and launch Aurora into the passage. A first for me, and a patience that allowed me to quietly return to the Mouillage. Here I am in Maratua where my trip will resume its "diving" routine!
🇬🇧 The Atoll is superb. A giant pool with a flat side open to a reef, and on the other high green hills. In the center, an island where Germans have opened a very well integrated hotel and have opened a diving center. Aurora is 1 nautical mile from the islet, which leaves me in total freedom. A village is located at the bottom of the bay with a very discreet population, I will go to them quite often. Fishing is the main resource of the Atoll, tourism does not really have an impact on local life apart from the few hotel employees. Everything seems calm here, it had been a long time since I had experienced that. Maybe since I had returned to Asia the year before. In fact, I am resuming the life I had left in Melanesia made of morning awakenings, a good breakfast, bottle inflation, organization of diving, choice of sites and immersion before 9:00 in the morning. The rest being only writing, rest, photography and a courtesy walk and meetings at the end of the afternoon. That’s fine with me!
🇬🇧 I start my first dives along the eastern edge of the Atoll. A long reef separates me from the edge. I organize my departure and arrival times according to the tide to be sure to return after my dive. Because the large coefficients completely dry out the reef and would leave me stuck at sea if I’m not careful. The weather is nice, the dives keep coming, I start to map the drop-off, to have my preferences too! Many encounters here. The reef life is important and very colorful. It makes me feel great. Many rock fish, many baric sponges and voluminous corals. Nothing to say the reef is in good health. A few big ones sometimes appear. I catch a leopard shark and some big pelagics. In the evening, I join the village or the hotel for some diving discussions and some meetings. But I am not at the end of my surprises, the conversations with each other will lead me to two other exceptional dives...
