12 replies to this topic

[echeng]

Placeholder for Misool Eco Resort coverage. Stay tuned!

[shawnh]

Hey Wetpixel Misool Team,
Would love to see some of your imagery and videos from this trip!
shawn

[cor]

Sorry that it's taking so long. Eric has been preoccupied and I think most us were just happy to get home after more than a month on the road.

I really liked Misool Eco Resort. I never looked at the website, so I had no idea what to expect. When you hear 'Eco Resort' you kind of expect the basics and not much more. But I was pleasantly surprised. I think the team at MER can be proud of what they've achieved in such a remote location. The resort was lovely and full of very nice ideas. Most resorts get the basics right, but MER even got a lot of the little details right. The camera room was almost perfect, and so was the restaurant. The food was wonderful and Im still amazed at how the chefs are able to produce that food in such a remote place.

The cabins were very nice with huge outside space, airco, fans, and the most wonderful part, a stairs down into the lagoon. We used that every day either to just swim, or to see what we could find in the lagoon. What I also liked is that they were open to suggestions about little changes to make things even better. When I suggested they put a hand rail on those stairs because they become slippery due to the tides, they put them in the next day, and by the end of the trip almost all cabins had them.

The diving around Misool was awesome. Mostly geared towards wide angle, but if you made an effort, you could find critters. Night dives are obviously a perfect time for critters The house reef had 3 distinct parts, and was pretty good as house reefs go. Julie was on a roll and kept finding cool stuff right underneath our cabin. She found pipehorses, a ball of some kind of krill that created a frenzy of feeding, a baby sauron shrimp, and coolest of all, floating sargassum with about 10 tiny sargassum frogfish and lots of other cool critters.



A look at part of the resort, with the dive centre on the right, and some of the cabins on the left. Each cabin had stairs leading right into the lagoon which was shallow enough to walk in.




The reefs around Misool Eco Resort are very healthy. We had quickly found out which sites we liked the best and kept going back. This one is called Tank Rock and had huge amounts of fish combined with lush corals. But be prepared for high current diving, which is necessary to get these kinds of shots.





At Gorgonian Passage you could find the reef right underneath the foliage of the island. It was also a nice place to shoot reflections. Unfortunately only one of our 2 dive groups caught the site at it's best.





There is a Manta cleaning station near the resort that was particularly productive for our group. We had encounters almost every time we went there, with some of the largest mantas ive ever seen. The mantas were very friendly, one parked himself right above Julie and wasn't bothered by her bubbles at all. My fish eye was sometimes not wide enough to capture them!




There was plenty of macro if you were looking. Julie was particularly happy to find this Tozeuma shrimp because they'd never seen them before at the resort. Our dive guide Lauren did a bit of an underwater dance when Julie showed it to her




Eric and Don hard at work in the lagoon. Eric is using his insect eye lens to shoot a crab right underneath our cabin.

[John Bantin]

Just got back from a trip on Mandarin Siren. We thought that the diving in th Dampier Strait more dynamic.

Edited by John Bantin, 17 December 2010 - 02:43 AM.

[cor]

Liveaboard and resort diving are different beasts. I like both. What I like about resort diving is being able to re-visit the same site again and again, trying to get a specific shot.

[Drew]

Exactly! And you'd want to with the Fabiacet/P. Boo area, which is probably the highlight of R4 according to my book. But I'm very partial to very healthy fish life, big schools of baitfish and hunting behavior. Then you have the corals and transient fish (the only place in Indo I've seen a huge school of bonitos swim right past me.)

[John Bantin]

Actually, we were island-based at Kri for a week before going on the livaboard.

Edited by John Bantin, 17 December 2010 - 09:36 AM.

[Drew]

Well then at least you have an off-gas day on saturday while other resorts are diving Having been to both areas quite a few times, I'm much more partial towards South East Misool. I'd much rather stay on a boat than a resort though... no mossies on a boat and open platform diving! that's the life.

[echeng]

Hello, all. Here is the group slideshow for the Wetpixel Raja Ampat / Misool Eco-Resort expedition! We had a wonderful time and came back with fantastic imagery.

[vimeohd] 17530241[/vimeohd]

[xariatay]

Beautiful video & a wonderful selection of songs!
Merry Christmas!

[scubamarli]

Great stuff; very enjoyable. Cor, as usual stunning stuff, and Eric, those snapping shrimp rocked! I feel the pull of video... oh nooooooo!

Cheers, and thanks for sharing.perhaps someday, I will get there, barring spamming Brazilians. (You know of what I speak ... )

Cheers,
Marli

[rabbit fish]

Howzit all! Finally finished the images from three weeks in Indonesia. The first half of the trip was on the MSY Seahorse. The second half was spent at the Misool Eco Resort with Wetpixel. Resort and liveaboard diving each has its pros and cons but both ended trips ended up being fun and productive. It was great to see old wetpixel friends again! All images can be found here: http://www.bluereefp....org/p495366572.

[shawnh]

Stunning images...vibrant colors, beautiful water, great composition.