Fourth year going to the fifth anniversary of Komodo Resort & Diving Club.
April 2012 two friends from Italy both passionate about diving, snorkelling and trekking saw their dream solidify with the official opening of Komodo Resort & Diving Club.
Komodo Resort & Diving Club opened with only 14 beachfront high quality huts, restaurant, kitchen, diving & snorkelling centre, 4 boats for transfers (Sebayur Putih and a small speedboat), diving, snorkelling and trekking trips (Sebayur Senja) and water transport (Sebayur Mariona) from Labuan Bajo and a pier. All majorly made from natural local materials. Earthy paths leading up to the huts with on the surrounding grounds only a few trees dotted around on the beach and between some of the huts with the colours of sand and different shades of green dominating the scenery.
With the idea of sharing the experiences with equally passionate divers and snorkellers who like to experience the wide diversity of marine life in the Komodo Marine Park and trekkers who like the jurassic experience in the Komodo National Park with the famous Komodo Dragons you can find on both Komodo and Rinca Island, they soon realised that there is a large number of people alike. And though their energy was focused on creating more comfort and facilities for different activities, insuring the guests to have plenty to do, they now had to add additional transportation giving more flexibility to our guests in exploration options.
Under supervision and with his own hands Pak Niro, with an incredible love, passion and knowledge of gardening, turned the grounds into a colourful paradise garden included with an all organic vegetable and herb patches for our guests to enjoy in their lunches and dinners. For those who have been here, during the rare times when the sky’s drench the grounds with tropical rainfall, know that you can end up with clumps of mud stuck to your feet after walking the earthy paths leading up to the huts. At the beginning of this year this problem was solved by lying more then 500mtr of decking style walk ways from the central beach area in front of the restaurant to the huts. Currently the construction of sun lounge platforms is in progress making sure that our guests can enjoy the views without being disturbed by passing guests or staff.
A gym, filled with professional equipment suitable for any level of training, was built in 2014 for the more fitness inclined guests who like to built-up a sweat, which admittedly in this archipelago is not very difficult, just above the kitchen. This is what I call killing two birds with one stone! Getting fit whilst building up an appetite for the beautiful Indonesian lunch or Italian/Indonesian dinner. In case of the appetite built-up before dinner is not enough you can always have a gin tonic, or any other preferred drink from the wide ranged menu, at the beach bar built in 2014 whilst enjoying the stunning sunsets. If relaxing is more your cup of tea recovering from the hard graft back home, a beach spa was built in 2015 for a good pampering. To insure keeping these beautiful memories alive for years to come you can find something in the shop that was built in 2013 or for gifts to entice your family or friends to join you on your return to Sebayur Besar.
In 2013 two more huts where added making it, together with the staff accommodation and the two huts for Stefano and Antonello (the two friends and owners of Komodo Resort & Diving Club) the maximum number of accommodation insuring space and privacy for our guests. But as I mentioned earlier, only Senja and a small speedboat isn’t enough if the resort has only got half occupancy and everybody wishes to dive and snorkel let alone when the resort is full. That is why in 2013 Sebayur Fajar and in 2013 two more speedboats joint the small fleet. Due to variable wishes of our guests and the fast amount of dive and snorkel site’s including the dragon, pink beaches and flying foxes trips, more transportation was much needed. That is when in 2014 Komodo Resort & Diving Club saw the arrival of Sebayur Indah. There were also other factors to be taken into account. First of all the food supplies needed to sustain the varied menu, the materials to maintain and improve the resort and the laundry being cleaned in Labuan Bajo. Then the fact that in Sebayur we don’t get a lot of rain and though we have a water maker, turning salt water into freshwater by method of desalination to use for showers and toilets, and a Water boat transporting fresh water from Labuan Bajo to Sebayur. This meant the fleet was still to small. Sebayur Biru was already added in 2013 for transfers, shopping and laundry where as in 2015 a new water boat with much more capacity. But why stop there right ??? In December 2015 two more speedboats arrived at Komodo Resort & Diving Club which one of them added for private transfers and private trips and the second 500 hp speedboats enabling us to take up to 8 divers to any dive or snorkelling site in the Komodo National Park and even further abroad. Further we are currently rebuilding a 30mtr traditional boat, Sea Dragon, offering our customers liveaboard trips around the beautiful waters in this amazing scenic archipelago commencing in April 2017.
As a final note the construction of a stand alone solar system is in planning with the aim of making Komodo Resort an ultimate gem of eco sustainability! This last in my opinion is the most exciting project!
