Jenny

I was a late addition to this trip – someone had to cancel and I was able to wangle some last minute leave. Now that the trip is done and I’m cooling my heels in Jakarta waiting for my flight home tomorrow, I can still hardly believe my luck. What a fantastic trip – terrific bunch of divers, good boat and great crew, some pretty nice Raja Ampat reefs, wobbegong sharks, a nesting leatherback turtle, manta rays, pilot whales, beautiful, beautiful whale sharks, and of course, the fab Mike Veitch. Really, what’s not to love about Mike.

This was my second liveaboard dive trip and second outing with my Canon G12, Fisheye Fix Housing and single Inon Z240. The first trip, last year’s Wetpixel Ultimate Indonesia, also on Damai II, was fabulous, but left me with a pretty long “what I wish I had had with me” list. This time I was better prepared.

The itinerary for this trip – embark Sorong, 5-6 dive days in the northern part of Raja Ampat then a couple of days diving and motoring around to Manokwari, stopping on the way to check out a rare leatherback turtle nesting site. Down through Cenderawasih Bay to spend the final two diving days and last day snorkeling with the whale sharks, disembark - Nabire, fly to Jayapura, Jakarta and home. This was not just a dive trip, it was a photo workshop with Mike and my aim was simple, try to improve wide angle shots, without backscatter and preferably not green.

Like this -



Not everything went to plan but the experience of diving with whale sharks, and the results of the photoworkshop for me worth the awful travel days.









And you have to have a sunset



Seriously, what is not to love about Mike Veitch ... except maybe that Facebook photo with guns.

I've written a trip report - too long so have saved it to a website, enjoy because it drove me mad to make a website!

Trip report here:

http://oldladyholidaysnaps.com


I’m home now, unpacked and back at work. It was minus 4^oC last night. Nothing left now but to embrace the suitcase within and hang out for November - except maybe buy a new camera.

Shout out to Mike, Mandy, Shallum, Cheryl, Jeffrey, Grant, Dimitry, Lester, Eliana and the Damai II Captain and crew. It was a pleasure travelling with you.
J.