After more than 2 hours trip by car from Nabire finally we arrived at the Tanjung Kwatisore where... read more

After more than 2 hours trip by car from Nabire finally we arrived at the Tanjung Kwatisore where... read more
Nabire is hard work to get to but it is worth it. We swam with over 12 Sharks in a two day period... read more
Brief summary:
Where: Nabire, Indonesia
What: daytrip to see whale sharks
Duration: 2h by boat one way, depart 6am, return 3-4pm
Price: 4.5 million IDR for a couple
included: nothing but the transport
Overall experience: Spectacular / once in a lifetime
Further remarks: if you expect American standards of safety and service (knowledgeable guides, food & drink, life jackets, safe boat, general feeling of safety and control over the situation) go to Australia, this is not for you.
Long review:
Since a few years, a corner of Cenderawasih Bay close to the hamlet of Kwatisore and the town of Nabire, in Indonesian Papua, is gathering major buzz as probably the best place in the planet to swim with whale sharks.
Here, whale sharks don't just pass by seasonally, like in most other places, where expensive tours drop you in the path of one shark for 5 minutes (and you better swim fast).
Here they stay year-round, gathering nearly every single day to circle under fishermen platforms called "bagans", in the hopes of sucking some fish out of their storage nets.
Here you have a very good chance to have not one, but SEVERAL behemoths CIRCLE around you.
Here you'll have to swim to AVOID the sharks bumping into you (which happened to me and my wife).
However, at the time of writing this review, Nabire remains a VERY remote corner of Indonesia: we saw NO westerners over our entire stay there. There are few hotels, catering mostly to Indonesians, and who very surprisingly have no idea of how to get you to the whale sharks. Most people who see the Cenderawasih bay whale sharks come on liveaboard boats. Very few people organize trips to see the whale sharks from Nabire, and those who do are difficult to contact.
The only person who replied to our emails was a Rudy from Kali Lemon, a "guesthouse/dive resort" near Kwatisore, but he asked for more than 800 dollars for an overnight trip (no, thanks).
So we landed at the Nabire airport with NO reservations, nothing booked in advance. One option to go see the whale sharks is to ask taximen at the airport; they can put you in contact with fishermen who'll take you. We instead finally managed to reach a person listed in our guidebook, Merry Yoweni and her husband Chris, who organised the trip with local fishermen. She's a local, speaks great english, and is very knowledgeable about the region, it's politics and economy, etc, since she worked for several NGO's.
So the next day, we sat aboard a narrow wooden fishermen longboat rigged with two 40hp outboards (a configuration the Lonely Planet calls “a recipe for disaster”), while 15 papuans were dragging it to the water at Nabire beach. We then left with 3 papuan fishermen, one of which (the captain actually), we soon realized, was mute and deaf. 10 minutes later, the boat started taking in water, which to our great surprise they fixed successfully with a knife and a piece of plastic bottle. Luckily we had good weather, but the experience could have been a lot less comfortable in rougher seas.
After 1h45 of navigation we arrived in the zone of the bagans. After asking 6 bagans unsuccessfully, we finally arrived at one that had 3 whale sharks under it: 2 “juveniles” and one enormous (Apparently 3 is not a lot for Cenderawasih, where many people report from 5 to 10+) .
It was of course magical as you can imagine. The sea was flat like a pool, the visibility was forever, the sharks were slowly circling around us through the rays of light that plunged in the blue as far as light can reach. Our guidebook said to “discourage the locals from interfering with the animals” but we failed miserably: the Papuans were out of control jumping around joyfully, riding the whale sharks, even divebombing from the bagan next to the whalesharks (they must think they love the bubbles).
Last point: juvenile whale sharks are quite curious, and seem VERY attracted by shiny/white masses, such as untanned European tourists. Wear a wetsuit or expect some collisions. One of them pushed my wife's head against a bagan floater with his humongous mouth, an experience she did not appreciate as much as I did…




