Indonesian Island Odyssey - An Exploration of Indonesia’s Natural Wonders

Fly by scheduled flight to Bali.

Arrive and transfer to our hotel for an overnight stay. The remainder of the day is at leisure.

Enjoy a leisurely morning at the hotel or explore the local area at your own pace. We will check out in the late morning and after lunch will transfer to the MS Island Sky moored in Benoa. Sail this evening.

Over the next few days we will be guided by our Captain and Expedition Leader for the best landing sites whilst we explore the Nusa Tenggara islands. We plan to visit Satonda Island, located between the large island of Sumbawa and the smaller Pulau Moyo. The island is wooded and uninhabited with a fringing reef and a small but swimmable crater lake where the trees are decorated with ‘wishing’ stones, shells and pieces of coral. From here we will sail to Komodo to see the distant cousins of the dinosaurs, the Komodo dragons. These rare, huge lizards grow up to twelve feet in length and were only known to the western world from 1910 when a Dutch lieutenant first laid eyes on them. Escorted by the islands’ wardens in the national park we will walk to the feeding station, witnessing the dragons in the wild. During our walk we also hope to see frigate birds, white buffalo and long tailed monkeys. We hope to include a call on the island of Flores in order to visit the remarkable Kelimutu National Park with its unique three coloured crater lakes. The lakes change colour from time to time and nobody can explain why, but stories vary from a changing mineral content of the water to angry ancestor spirits. Kelimutu is sacred to the local population, and they believe the souls of the dead go to the lakes. We will also visit the small island nation of East Timor (Timor–Leste) which gained independence from Indonesia in 2002. We will explore the island's history and take in the wonderful natural landscape of rich forested slopes teeming with wildlife and the Portuguese colonial towns.

Enjoy a leisurely day at sea to relax and listen to some lectures in the lounge.

Over the next few days we will sail between the Maluku Islands, also known as the Spice Islands. These islands had a thriving trade in spices and other goods in the Far East long before European vessels arrived in the 15th century. Over the following centuries, the Portuguese, Dutch and English fought for control of the lucrative trade in cloves, nutmeg, mace and cinnamon and the Dutch East India Company eventually secured the monopoly over the region’s spice trade. Today the islands are left with the forts these powers built to control the ports and islands as well as the still existent plantations. During our time in the region, we will visit some of the islands including Ambon, once the Dutch administration centre for the islands and known as the ‘Galapagos of Asia’. Whilst Charles Darwin was working on his theory of natural selection in the Galapagos, his contemporary Alfred Russell Wallace was taking up residence in the Spice Islands, primarily Ambon, and coming up with his own version of a similar theory based on his observations of the region’s wildlife. We also hope to visit Band Neira, the main port of the Banda Islands and see the remnants of an extravagant European lifestyle which remain from the port’s heyday as a spice exporter in the Dutch era. It is a charmingly friendly place and almost devoid of tourism as it is so difficult to reach. While on the islands of Halmaherea, Tidore and Ternate we will focus on the natural history of the islands, exploring the places that naturalist Alfred Russell Wallace visited and worked and had his epiphany moment during a bout of malaria when the pieces fell into place for his great work, the ‘Theory of Natural Selection’. Our expedition team and local guides will lead nature walks looking for some of the islands’ many natural wonders and there will also be time to swim and snorkel to discover some of the unique marine life.

On the north coast of the island of Sulawesi lies Bitung, known for its incredibly vibrant, varied and often bizarre marine life that thrives in the coastal waters. Whilst here we will explore the Tangkoko Nature Reserve, a conservation area on Mount Tangkoko that protects 8700 hectares of lowland rainforest. The reserve is known for its unique wildlife including tarsiers, the black macaque, maleo birds, cuscus and hornbills. The nocturnal tarsiers, the smallest primate in the world are only found in Sulawesi and Tangkoko is their last refuge. We will offer a range of guided nature walks here taking in the beautiful rainforest and its inhabitants.

This morning finds us at the Bunaken National Park, which is a treasure trove of biodiversity situated near the centre of the Coral Triangle. Here we will find nearly 400 species of coral, over 90 species of fish including bluestripe snapper and emperor angelfish, whilst seven of the eight species of giant clams are also found here. Meanwhile on land we can find macaque and deer whilst mangrove forests are home to crabs. We will use our Zodiacs to land on a local beach and set up snorkelling platforms to explore the remarkable underwater world whilst our naturalists will lead walks ashore.

Disembark this morning in Likupang and transfer to Manado for the onward indirect flight to Singapore. On arrival in Singapore we will transfer to our hotel for an overnight stay with the remainder of the day at leisure.

Transfer to the airport this morning for our scheduled flight to London. Arrive this evening.

Itineraries are subject to change.