April 12, 2026
Day 3 started with a trip out to see Manta Ray. Sure enough we saw one in the first few minutes. The only thing disappointing was the amount of trash in the water here - plastic everything. The guides clean up what they can, but it appears to be a losing battle. SO SAD!
Next we had our morning tea and cake break at a Homestay island in the area. There are several of these primitive camps on the small islands. Long, open, wooden, outboard motor boats pick up Homestay guest for excursions they may want to do.
Day 1 @ Eco Cove Resort we met this lovely young couple, Camille and Timothe from France. At the 6:30 pm nightly briefing, we found out we were randomly paired with them for the next day's excursion to the famed Melissa's Garden in the Fam Islands, which is about a 35 minutes boat ride from resort. We sat with them at dinner and instantly connected.
Getting to Cove Eco Resort on Yeben Island in Raja Ampat , Indonesia took us three plane rides, a ferry and finally a private boat ride to the resort. We left Perth, Australia on Easter Sunday Morning and we arrived at Cove Eco Resort at sunset on Tuesday night. It is a beautiful spot, but like alot of places in Raja Ampat remote and your biggest cost is fuel / transport to get there and back. We got hit especially hard for having to change our flights on Easter due to the weather we hit in Australia, delaying our departure by a day. But all is good and we are excited to be here!
Monday April 6th is another travel day for us on our destination to remote Raja Ampat . We started the day at 5am to make our 7am flight from Denpasar, Bali to Sultan Hasanuddin Airport in South Sulawesi for our brief layover to connect with our flight onto Sorong, Indonesia.