Across the Banda Sea

Searching for Hammerhead Sharks in the Banda Sea

Last September, Kudanil Explorer welcomed returning guests on a rare journey deep into Eastern Indonesia. After embarking in Maumere, Flores, we set out across more than 800 nautical miles. The route carried us through Alor and a constellation of tiny, remote islands, before crossing the Banda Sea — one of the deepest seas in the world — and arriving in Ambon, a colonial port city rich in history and culture.

As we sailed northeast, the landscapes shifted dramatically — from the arid, volcanic shores of Flores to the lush, emerald islands scattered around Alor.

Along the way, we explored world-class dive sites and visited forgotten isles where village life seems unchanged by time. At one stop, the beaches were alive with sea snakes — harmless, yet not an encounter for the faint-hearted. Beneath the waves we sought and found schools of hammerhead sharks, graceful manta rays, and a host of rare underwater species. Between dives, some tried their hand at fly fishing, while evenings were toasted with sunset drinks on secluded beaches.

The Spice Islands

The final days of our twelve-night voyage brought us to the legendary Banda Islands — Pulau Rhun, Hatta, and Banda Neira. Here, we dived, wandered through nutmeg plantations, and raised glasses to the evening sky from the ramparts of Fort Belgica, the Dutch fortress built in the 17th century to guard the world’s most coveted spice.

Banda Neira, the capital of the archipelago, is the heart of the Spice Islands. For centuries these islands were the only source of nutmeg on earth — so valuable that the Dutch once traded them with the British in exchange for a distant island called Manhattan.