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Flores,
lying east of Bali between Sumbawa and Timor, is an unspoiled
tropical island occupying a unique position at the junction
of the Australasian and Asian submarine ridges and between
their distinct faunas marked by the Wallace Line. The island
boasts active volcanoes, including Mt. Kelimutu, with its
three craters each water-filled and strikingly different in
colour - blue, black and white.
During
the last two years the Sao Wisata resort on the north coast
of Flores has staged an international underwater photographic
and video competition. The event is organised and sponsored
by the Indonesia Subaquatic Sport Association (ISSA) under
the patronage of the Minister of Tourism, Post and Telecommunications.
This year I was invited along as a member of the jury. Unfortunately,
due to lack of participants, the video competition had to
be cancelled at the last minute, but the photo competition
went ahead as scheduled with an anticipated 30 participants.
To
get to Flores we flew with Garuda, the national airline of
Indonesia, from London Gatwick to Jakarta, Java stopping en
route in Zurich, Abu Dhabi and Singapore. In Jakarta we met
up with Jos Audenaerd, also a member of the jury, and some
fellow Belgians and Hollander Marion Haarsma for the onward
flight to Denpasar, Bali, where we spent the night. The following
morning we flew onto Maumere, Flores via Bimi, Sumbawa where
we were met by the staff of the Sao Wisata Resort. Greetings
over, we were whisked off to the resort over rough tracks
through agricultural land.
At
the resort our accommodation comprised a spacious and clean
wooden cabin with bathroom en suite cooled by an electric
fan, although air-conditioned cabins are also available.
That
evening a splendid barbecue was held on the beach prior to
a meeting of all the participants to go over the rules and
collect films. Each entrant was issued with ten rolls of Fuji
Velvia slide film and had four days and ten dives to expose
it in Flores clear waters. The competitors were split into
groups, at least one member of the jury accompanying each
group, to visit the same sites but on different days on different
boats.
On
the first day of the competition I joined the "Osprey
0", an air conditioned deep-sea fishing vessel from Cairns,
Australia, skippered by Mark Patterson and crewed by his wife
Tove. For our first dive we went north to Pamana Kecil where
we anchored on the reef top in 25m for a wall dive dropping
through clear water to 130m. The wall was covered with large
colourful sea fans, sea whips, featherstars and sponges with
shoals of fusiliers hurrying along the reef face in lines
like excitable school children. A hawksbill turtle resting
on a ledge departed gracefully as I approached, Other fish
seen on that first dive in Flores included two species of
anemone fish, humphead wrasse, moorish idols, damsel fish
and goldfish.
After
lunch we moved to Pasir Sari and anchored on the atoll to
dive a second wall. Here I photographed glass fish, white
gorgonians, soft corals, lion fish, goldfish and fusiliers,
with my Nikonos and 15 mm lens.
The
same site was chosen for a dusk dive when I switched to a
28 mm lens and supplementary close-up lens to photograph the
brilliant yellow dendrophyllid corals, small crabs, large
Pleurobranchus, lion fish and scorpion fish.
Over
the next three days I joined the "Osprey 0" and
two other boats - one an old, but sound, wooden fishing vessel,
the "Kowaria II" and the other a smaller fibre glass
boat the "Eka Putra". We dived at Maragajong, Mageramut,
Pulau Babi and Wair Mitak.
Megeramut
is a particularly fine tilla rising out the sandy sea bed
not far off shore to within 7 or 8m of the surface. Here I
spent 105 mins exploring and photographing some of the prolific
marine life including three species of sea slug, ribbon eels,
featherstars, corals, hawkfish, anemone fish and lion fish
with a housed Pentax LX. The night dive, however, was a real
knock-out. I photographed hermit crabs, decorator crabs, egg
cowries, Spanish dancer, Diadema sea urchins, red urchins,
sea cucumbers, and sleeping fish, this time using 28 mm plus
a supplementary close-up lens.
Meanwhile
the competitors had been, hopefully, enjoying similar dives
and doing their best to capture some of the wondrous creatures
on film.
A
brand new dive centre with its own darkroom had just been
completed in time for the event and film processing continued
non-stop throughout Friday and much of Saturday in order that
the competitors could choose slides to enter in the three
categories - macro, portrait and wide-angle. Light boxes and
a projector were made available to all to facilitate their
choice.
The
jury, comprising Lufti Zahar (Indonesia), Jos Audenaerd (Belgium),
Rudi Kuiter (Australia), Goro Takano (Japan) and myself, retired
into the dark on Saturday afternoon to view and judge the
entries during the heat of the afternoon, cooled by four electric
fans. Rudi's wife, Alison, had collated and numbered all of
the slides and she alone knew which slides had been taken
by which competitor right up to the announcement of the winners
that evening.
Following
a splendid barbecue, again on the beach, the awards ceremony
began. Dr Frans Seda, the resort's owner, and a representative
of the Minister of Tourism made speeches before the winners
were announced and the awards presented. The evening concluded
with a colourful exhibition of local dancing, in which all
present eventually joined.
Fourth,
third and second place and a total of US$1250 in the macro
category went to LIONEL POZZOLI (France) for his spotted cowrie,
magnificent shrimp and tiny toby amongst fan coral respectively.
No first prize was awarded.
Fourth
and third prize in the portrait category and US$500 went to
LINDA PITKIN (GB) for her anemone fish and close-up of a featherstar
respectively. Second place and US$750 went to Lance Adrian
(Australia) for his close-up of barnacles and their reflection
in the waters surface. No first prize was awarded.
Fourth
place in the wide-angle category went to LIONEL POZZOLI (France).
Third place and US$500 went to LINDA PITKIN (GB) for scenic
shot dominated by red sea whips. No second prize was awarded.
The winner of the category and overall winner of the competition
with a prize of US$1000 was LIONEL POZZOLI (France) for his
scenic shot dominated by sea fans but with a distant diver
on the surface.
The
event, which is extremely enjoyable, is scheduled to take
place again next year between 9-16 May and is offering a total
of US$6,750 in prizes. For further details please send a stamped
addressed envelope to Brian Pitkin, 12 Coningsby Road, South
Croydon, CR2 6QP. |
