How far are the dive sites?

From a Gam or Kri base, Cape Kri, Manta Sandy, Blue Magic and Mike's Point are part of the daily rhythm rather than distant excursions. Most are inside thirty minutes. That short transit is what lets you dive a site three times in a week until it finally works.

Is diving included in the price I have been quoted?

Usually not at the resorts. The headline rate is accommodation; diving, marine park permits and nitrox are added on top. Get the dive rates in writing and add them up yourself before you commit.

Resort or liveaboard?

A resort gives you second chances at the same site. A liveaboard gives you range: Piaynemo, the far north, sites a resort day boat cannot reach. You see each one once. If your best frame usually takes three attempts, stay put.

When do I need to book?

Raja Ampat is busy from October to April and the good resorts fill twelve to eighteen months ahead. The marine park entry permit is bought on arrival and is valid for a calendar year.

What is the flight actually like?

Two long-haul legs to Jakarta or Makassar, then an overnight flight to Sorong, then a ferry or speedboat. Build in a buffer day at each end. The domestic connection is the one that goes wrong.

Over-water bungalows on stilts above clear shallows, a jetty and a boat beyond them, forested hills behind

Miles Below · Operator · Dampier Strait

Papua Explorers

Sits on Gam, directly on the Dampier Strait, which is the single most important thing about it. Cape Kri, Manta Sandy, Blue Magic and Mike's Point are part of the daily rhythm rather than distant day trips.

01The week 02Photographs 03Scored 04Before you book 05Money 06Prints 07The trip

01The week

Karst islets scattered across turquoise shallows, seen from high ground under a sky full of cumulus.

At the resort

What the week is actually like

The rooms stand out over the water on stilts, facing straight into the strait, with forest rising directly behind them. You wake to birds you will not hear anywhere else and look out at the water you are about to dive. Very little else on this site puts you that far inside the place.

A clear eco-resort identity, and a fixed base that suits photographers who would rather dive one site repeatedly until it works than see a new one every tank. Wayag is a day trip from here, and a long one: around four hours each way in good conditions, longer when it is not, and you will get back after dark. Worth every hour of it for the hike and the view over the karst.

02The place

03The verdict

Operator · Papua Explorers

A−

Grade

The pale band on each row is the range every scored operator on this site covers.

How the scoring works

Operation

Camera

Food

Setting

Value

Sustainability

Total

51/60

The dive team and guests on the jetty outside the thatched dive centre, most of them waving.

04Before you book

The photographer's questions

For the camera

The camera

StationMedium

Camera roomNot temperature controlledMedium area, not temperature controlled, 8+ stations

Power220V

Camera room outlets5

Extra power barNo

Air gunsYes

Camera room chargingIn the camera room

Staff handlingConcierge boat, entries and exits

EntryGiant stride, big boat; backward roll, small

Rinse, resortFew

Rinse, boatYes

The diving

Dive time60 minutes

Guide ratio6:1 maximum

Photography guideNo

NitroxUpgrade

Tanks80L and 100L

Miles to edit

Camera and diving facts still missing: Unguided.
Same shape as Misool's in operator-facts.json: v, n, src.

Miles, 23 Sep 2026, operator-and-stay-facts sheet

Worth knowing

Three things nobody tells you

No air-conditioning, and the room fan isn't enough if you run hot — we brought in a portable fan and I was still warm most nights.

The camera room sits right at the end of the dock — convenient off the boat, but it wasn't air-conditioned when I visited, and I got real condensation on my gear because of it, the opposite problem you'd expect from a cooled room.

The rinse tank water left a bit of rust on my kit by the end of the week — worth a rinse-and-dry routine of your own rather than trusting the tanks alone.

05The money

Flights, transfers and what to sort first

Everything begins in Sorong. From there you either transfer by boat to a resort in the strait or join a liveaboard at the harbour.

DAILY RATE: $300 to $550 a day, USD, at the operator
Flights: Sorong (SOQ). Book first. Miss the group boat and a private speedboat can run well over $2,000.
Wayag: Roughly six hours each way by speedboat. Not a day trip. Plan it as a multi-day excursion or take a liveaboard.
Resort or boat: A fixed base puts Cape Kri and Manta Sandy in the daily rhythm. A liveaboard trades that for range. Both reviewed above.
Marine park fee: Payable on arrival, separate from the trip cost.
Nitrox: Worth taking for the repetition rather than the depth.

06Prints

Prints from Dampier Strait

Every frame here was made in Dampier Strait. Two are limited to editions of twenty, signed and numbered. Prices in US dollars. Printed on Canson Platine and shipped from British Columbia.

$300

Turtles pair fans

Signed and numbered · 17 × 22 in

Edition of 20

$300

Wobbegong table coral fisheye

Signed and numbered · 17 × 22 in

Edition of 20

$150

Manta silhouette

Open edition · 12 × 18 in

$150

Mantas cleaning station

Open edition · 12 × 18 in

07The trip

Would you dive Dampier Strait?

Put your hand up and I will tell you when a trip is planned

There is no trip here yet. Where they go next is decided by who puts their hand up, so this counts as a vote for Dampier Strait — and it also gets you each new guide as it is finished. Four or five emails a year.

Four emails a year, unsubscribe in one click, and the address goes nowhere else.

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