Divine diversity at Walindi Resort

Life at Walindi Resort is idyllic. Your private tropical bungalow is set in a beautiful lush jungle garden that Max and Cecile Benjamin have been cultivating for thirty years. The diving is even better...

I spot a beautiful blue-girdled angelfish, Pomacanthus navarchus. Man, would I love to get a good shot of this stunning fish! I know not to pursue fish. It makes them skittish, they panic and bolt for cover. 
So I pretend to ignore the fish, hoping it will quickly get used to me. I breathe slowly and try to hide behind a coral head. Does it work? Of course not! These fish are too elusive and shy and my bubbles are too noisy.

Overhead, lazy schools of blackfin barracuda, bigeye trevally and black snapper hover in the current. Resident grey reef whalers patrol the reef below. Inquisitive whitetip reef sharks come and go. Predatory fish are so abundant that you find it hard to imagine where they all find enough food.

Kimbe Bay with its gigantic submerged volcanic crater is unique. Inglis Shoal is one of many magical sea-mount reefs that rise up from six hundred fathoms. The dive circles the reef, gently spiralling upwards, revealing all sorts of amazing creatures.

Inglis Shoal is a wonderful dive on many levels. Once you take in all of the larger fish, all sorts of smaller creatures begin to be revealed. I spot a green moray eel with a coral banded shrimp. There are resident broadclub cuttle. Lazy racoon butterflyfish peck away at the corals. A white-line cod hovers above some staghorn coral. The sunshine pours down from above in shimmering lines of spectacular light. The magic of Inglis Shoal is all around me.

The deepest underwater seamount is Bradford Shoals. It has huge schools of barracuda and trevally. The top of this reef is nineteen metres and is covered with incredible coral life. It is a captivating dive and many divers rate it as the best dive in Kimbe Bay.

It is all too easy to be overwhelmed by the fish life. I noticed that many reefs have completely different coral species dominating them. The variety is astonishing! When Professor Charlie Veron, the recognised world authority on corals wrote his coral identification bible, much of it was based on this magic place.
Our next dive is Lumu Reef. My dive guide, Freddy, knows the reefs and where the good stuff is. He showed me lots of great subjects to photograph over the course of my one-week stay.

I notice the photogenic clown anemonefish, Amphiprion percula. There are eight kinds found in Walindi’s reefs. Like all damselfish, they have a matriarchal social structure. The dominant female colonises the anemone and protects her much smaller mate. If the anemone has five clownfish, four are male. The largest male is the dominant breeding male. He bullies his three subordinates constantly. This serves two purposes:

1. Firstly, it keeps them sexually immature. He gets exclusive mating rights with the female.
   
2. Secondly, the constant harassment actually protects and controls the younger males, helping to preserve the social group.
   

If either dominant male or female dies, the next in line takes over the breeding role. For example, if the dominant female dies, the dominant male changes sex and develops fully-functional ovaries. She then mates with her younger brother. This is why fish have a short memory. They do not want to remember what they were doing yesterday.
I muse at the thought of these females adopting the role of protector and defender of their territory. She does aggression and protection very well indeed and fulfils the role of warrior princess with the utmost determination.

Lunch is usually at the idyllic Restorf Island, where we are delighted to witness a spectacular performance by a sea eagle. Our next dive is here on Restorf Reef. Apart from the blue-girdled angelfish teasing me again, it is a photographer’s paradise.A huge colony of garden eels live in the shallows. Razorfish hover over colonies of red whip coral. Big barrel sponges hide shrimp. Two-metre wide mauve elephant ear sponges have resident gobies on them. A spearer mantis shrimp is discovered at 14m. A long-nose hawkfish hides deep within a large black coral tree. There is a cornucopia of wonderful reef creatures to photograph.

Many anemones have glass shrimp living amongst their tentacles. I found a pair of Koror shrimp, Periclimnes kororensis which live on one type of mushroom coral.

The large football-sized Corallinomorphs has a unique symbiotic shrimp. These tiny tiger-coloured shrimp are called Pliopontonia furtive. They do remain hidden. Fortunately, Freddy is able to move them out into the open for a few photos. Corallinomorphs form a balloon structure with a large frilly hole at the top. When they want to feed, the hole becomes smaller. Some fish may be enticed to hide inside the ‘safety’ of the large ball. If they do, the opening closes up and the fish is stung to death. It must be a nightmare death for the fish. Every attempt at escape causes more stings and leads to its inevitable demise. Judging by the incredible numbers of Corallinomorphs, this is a very successful strategy.

There are many dive sites around Kimbe Bay. They include Joelle’s Reef, Josie’s Reef, Vanessa Reef and a Japanese Zero from WWII. The marine life on show is rich and varied.

I also swam with Risso’s dolphins here on a previous trip. These look a lot like pilot whales but only grow to four or five metres. Pods of spinner and bottlenose dolphins can be seen here – and occasionally orcas. Walindi does special dolphin cruises.

Susan’s Reef is brilliant for wide-angle shots, and features on covers of many dive magazines. It also has fabulous macro life. My dive guide promised me a Denise’s pygmy seahorse. At 24m, we located the pink fan coral on which they live. These tiny seahorses are 6–8mm long and about half the thickness of a toothpick. By waving water across the polyps, you might be lucky enough to see the almost microscopic seahorse move. Sure enough, within a few minutes of searching with my heart in my mouth, we managed to locate one. I am captivated by their incredible beauty and camouflage.

However, getting a photograph of the Denise’s pygmy seahorse is very difficult. As soon as you try to get close to focus, they swing across to the blind side of the fan coral. It is an almost impossible task. The seahorse is simply trying to avoid a possible predator. It takes time and patience to get a good shot. You actually need to work with another diver on the other side so they can make the seahorse come your way. I finally managed some reasonable shots before I rapidly run out of bottom time and am forced to ascend to safer water.

Susan’s has massive fan corals, large red whip coral colonies and big sponges. These big colourful structures beg to be photographed with a diver in wide angle. The beauty of Susan’s Reef is world famous for good reason. This is a dive that is a must to do again and again.

Life at Walindi Resort is idyllic. Your private tropical bungalow is set in a beautiful lush jungle garden that Max and Cecile Benjamin have been cultivating for thirty years. It is filled with flowers, birdsong, colourful creepers and ground plants. Time between dives can be well spent taking a tour of the lush and verdant tropical gardens.Your day begins with a hearty breakfast with lots of fresh New Guinea coffee. You can order a cooked breakfast to fuel your big day ahead. Your dive day begins at 8am – two dives followed by a picnic on one of the islands and sometimes a third dive. You are back home mid-afternoon.

There are lots of common-sense things about Walindi that should be a given for any resort wanting to provide excellent service to their guests. There is a daily complimentary laundry service. Wi-Fi is free at the dining area. Each cabin has ten power points, large camera benches and a private bathroom, serviced daily. Each hut has a private garden, your own balcony complete with daily flower arrangements and personal views of the ocean. Life at the resort is comfortable, relaxed, private and easy.

Walindi’s reefs are a kaleidoscope of colour. They are multi-faceted with much to interest every diver. Small reef fish life is impossibly varied and colourful, the corals are diverse and resplendent.

Each reef slowly reveals its numerous dimensions as each dive day uncovers more little gems. You are left with the distinct feeling that there is so much to see that you need to chalk up many hundreds more dives here so that you can eventually take it all in.

You need to know

Location: Northeast of Port Moresby, Papua New GuineaSeasons: Rainy season is December–April.
Temperature: 22–31°C
Water temperature: 26–29°C
Language: English, Tok Pisin, Hiri Motu
Currency: Papua New Guinean Kina
Regular flights are available to Port Moresby commonly via Air Niugini or Airlines of PNG. A domestic flight to Hoskins Airport (aka Kimbe Airport) will get you to West New Britain. From there, it is approximately 50 minutes’ drive to Walindi Resort – airport transfers may be arranged at time of booking.

For more information, see www.walindifebrina.com.