Walea is a remote, less-visited island set in the easternmost corner of the Togian archipelago. The Italian-run Walea resort is the only dive operator in the area, and by now the only PADI 5 star Diving Centre in Central Sulawesi.
It was on this island that I fell in love for the first time with the Indonesian archipelago. There I have spent some wonderful months as a regular visitor from 1999 to 2005.

The story

The charm of Walea was firstly discovered by Luca and Simona, who in the 90's reached this deserted  part of the island on a fisherman's prahu, slept in a tent on the beach and visited the villages around. After a while they decided that Walea was without doubt the place they were looking for, and settled down to carry out the hard task of building a dive resort in such a remote corner of Sulawesi. After a few years of struggle against the environment, the Indonesian bureaucracy, the illegal fishermen and various other difficulties, their dream was finally realized and in 1998 the resort started the operations.

The Island

It's not a short trip from Europe, but it's worth the effort.  After a night in Manado, you take a short Merpati flight to Luwuk, then a couple of hours by car to the tiny Bajau seaport of Pagimana and after one hour by speedboat you are finally on the island. There you can put your shoes off and forget about them for a while, for you will know that you are just arrived in a paradise.
The island is strikingly beautiful, ending in a long sand tip to the south, dotted by coconut trees and fishermen's wooden huts. The resort lies a few hundreds meters to the north, along a white beach overlooking the tranquil sea, which is usually flat as oil for it is sheltered from the winds by  the densely forested hills of the island.
 

The Diving

Besides enjoying the perfect tropical landscape, the main reason to come here is for scuba-diving. Just few hundreds meters off the coast, unlike the rest of the Togians -far from the deep water of the Maluku Sea - the continental platform reach here depths of 3000+ meters. Dozens of fringing reefs arise from the abyss, providing an endless source of joy for the divers looking for pristine spots to dive.

Due to the efforts of the Resort management, the area has been officially declared Marine Park by the government and is regularly patrolled by the policemen staying at the resort. This means that most of the reefs are healthy and totally undamaged by fish-bombing and other illegal fishing-methods which have already destroyed a great part of the reefs of the Togians.
The diving sites are along impressive drop-offs or submerged sea-mounds covered by gorgonians, soft corals, black corals and big sponges; the shallow tops of some reefs are among the richest and most untouched coral gardens I have ever seen, a real feast of all sorts of hard corals. The biodiversity, as to be expected in the Indonesia's Golden Triangle, is outstanding.
If you're crazy for the critters, you'll find them! Just go diving on the sheltered side of the island, where the sea is calm and dozens of reefs rise from a 60-70 meters bottom, characterized by an outstanding coral growth and full of many small things, such as clownfish and anemones, well-hidden ghost-pipefish, razorfish, nudibranchs, the casual frogfish, and so on. But to experience among the best macro-diving it suffices to dive along the house-reef: just in front of the jetty, especially at sunset or in a night-dive, one can spot a new species of pigmy seahorses endemic to the island, mandarin fish, the ubiquitous crabs and shrimps, ghost pipefish and - with a bit of luck - even the rare mimic and blue ring octopus.

If you are looking for the big fellows... well with just a little bit of luck and, most importantly, the right current (this sometimes means... strong), in the deep-sea outer reefs you can meet all sorts of pelagics. On several occasions in spots like Gegolan 2 and 3 I saw practically all kind of pelagics during a single dive: schools of huge dogtooth tunas, impressive jacks, platax, barracudas, passing-by wahoos and mackerels, accompanied by the odd napoleon or giant grouper. Eagle-rays and mantas are commonly seen, even in schools, especially during the periods in which the currents bring the plancton upwards (it is unpredictable to know exactly when).
An element of further excitement is that the shark population which, unless other areas of Indonesia, here is still healthy. In presence of the right conditions of current and visibility, grey reefs sharks are a common sight at Gegolan, sometimes cruising around in formation of 3 or more (in one occasion I counted more than 10!). The best period for sharks is probably from July to October, although there is no certain rule; during this time the sights of schooling hammerheads are regularly reported, usually at Gegolan (I've seen them twice there), while solitary big exemplars are occasionally met in other reefs. Once I had a thrilling encounter with a marvelous tresher shark, and with some impressive silvertips.
The farthest spots are reached within max 20 minutes by speedboat, while the majority lies just 5-10 minutes away from the resort. At the moment there are 4 speedboats equipped for diving, which means you will never remain on the island because the engine is broken (as unfortunately happened to me in other locations in Indonesia).

The Tanjung Kramat

The most beautiful and special place is the southern tip of the island, called Tanjung Kramat (which in Bahasa Indonesia means "the point of mystery"). This has been considered for ages a sacred place by the inhabitants; many stories in the local folklore tells about ghosts, spirits and others superhuman creatures dwelling here, attracted by the particular magnetism of the place. Although the inhabitants of the island are mostly devoted Muslims, they still believe in ghosts and even nowadays sights of ghosts are regularly reported.

At the very end of a flat, sandy stretch, a small rocky-hill arises, fully covered by trees; on the hilltop a rough altar has been built, to collect the offerings of the villagers that come here to pray and ask to the spirit of Tanjung Kramat to fulfill their desires. From there the view is wonderful, spanning on the electric-emerald lagoon up to the inner islands of the archipelago. Further down there is a perfect white-sanded tropical beach, ideal for pic-nics.

The Resort

Beyond the natural beauty of the place and the world-class diving, one can enjoy things that you would not expect in this remote corner of the world (and, most notably, that you could hardly find in any other Indonesian resort in such a remote location), namely a delicious Italian cuisine (yes, with home-made pasta, pizza and ice-cream!), cold wine, beer and a selection of home-made cocktails, and even a SPA complete with view over the sea! The resort has only a dozen of wooden bungalows spread out along the beach, a central dining and rest area and a 100-metres long jetty with an over the water bar where one can sip his cocktail while enjoying the sunset. A holiday at Walea will be a truly memorable experience for everyone.

www.walea.com