In July this year myself and a group of 10 extremely keen divers from lets go adventures embarked on a trip to the beautiful Timor Leste. Now when many people hear the name East Timor or Timor Leste war and tragedy is normally the first thing that comes to mind not a world class dive destination, but that is slowly changing thanks to the extremely fast growing economy bringing more and more tourists to the young nations shores every year. The people are very friendly and although poverty amongst the locals is still an issue that hangs over Timor, the people shine through all the heart ache and tragedy they have suffered through over the years and are extremely welcoming and friendly towards tourist without the constant begging you see in places like Bali and Thailand. 
We started our journey with everyone meeting up in Darwin where it is only a short 1 hour flight to Timor Leste, we were all very surprised of the short trip ahead of us and in no time we were there! Flying into Timor over the mountains you think to yourself how can anyone live in such rugged terrain and then all of a sudden as we flew over the mountains and saw the Beautiful sunrise over the ocean we caught our first glimpse of Dili, a small stretch of land at the base of the mountains we were here and ready for the adventure ahead.
Once we had arrived we were greeted by staff from the Dive Timor Lorosae dive centre who were great the entire trip and look after us very well. They took us back to the accommodation and talk of when the first dive was going to be was already underway. With no hesitation at all the crew took us out that afternoon for a lovely dive at one of their favourite local sites which is famous for the macro critters and nudibrach’s so our photographers and nudi specialists were in their element! For the next week our group split into two taking it in turns boat and shore diving and exploring around the area. Now there is diving in Dili itself and it is wonderful with lots of macro and beautiful colourful fish life around the area and corals that grow as far as the eye can see. But the highlight of the diving for myself personally was when we ventured around to the other side of the mountains into the less populated village areas that were absolutely stunning and pictures. Every morning we would make the hour to two hour journey around the other side of the mountains only to come across these little tracks that you would be thinking to yourself there is no way this dodgy old van that the door just fell off is ever getting down there, but surely enough we did and it was worth it! Eventually a small tropical paradise would open up in front of your eyes!
When you say shore diving to most people they normally cringe a little bit as we all know sometimes it can be challenging getting in and out but TRUST ME you will WANT to shore dive if you ever visit Timor. The Diving off the shore I experienced was some of the most pristine visibility I have ever come across along with the fish life and structures the diving was just spectacular! One of my Favourite sites off the shore was in front of a little village called Bahaul. One of the coolest things about diving in these little remote villages was the excitement from all the children when you would set up your scuba equipment, they were all so intrigued and excited to see what we were doing. At this particular site we found the most amazing bomies absolutely covered in Anemone patches (I’m a sucker for the anemone’s) where you could spend half an hour in the one spot and continually find more and more critters and fish popping out to say hello, just like the local kids we donated our spare gear to so they could also enjoy the this magical underwater playground in their backyard for many years to come.
Aturo Island was another place we visited while exploring the dive sites around Timor Leste. Aturo Is an Island that can be seen from the shores of Dili and has some amazing diving. Aturo is know for its magical walls that descend a couple of hundred metres in some spots and the crystal clear visibility of the waters surrounding the Island. We ventured out to the Island a couple of times where we experienced some amazing dive sites and spectacular conditions but unfortunately the time of year we picked (july) is very windy in the afternoons making crossing the large shipping channel very challenging and weather dependant that time of year. All in all though the diving we did get to experience while diving around Aturo has made me just want to go back and continue to explore these magical waters.
After a weeks worth of beautiful diving, great hospitality and meeting some truly inspirational locals I would have to say Timor Leste is defiantly a destination that still has a long way to grow but I would love to go back one day to see how it has developed and to see what other dive sites they discover. Being still so young and new to tourism there are many parts of the Timor region that are still undiscovered and unexplored it is an exciting time in their history and a very different place to travel to if you can imagine what Bali would have been like 20 years ago then you can start to imagine what Timor Leste is like today. If you would like to see a short clip from our Timor Leste Adventure please click here.
Lets Go Adventures would also like to give a massive thanks to the crew at Dive Timor Lorosae for their excellent service while looking after our group.
If you are looking for a holiday destination with a difference check out our dive travel page with many different dive travel options and some great destinations for the whole family follow the link : Dive travel
