Dive Review of
Walindi in
Papua New Guinea/Kimbe Bay

[Unspecified]

Dive Conditions

No deco.  Dive your own profile after DM saw your ability.  

Boats only had fresh water tubs for photo gear.  No area to work on gear on
boat.  Bring converters.  

Overall Rating

Walindi was the first resort of a two week PNG trip with Loloata
immediately after.  See the Loloata review for more on that.  It is a long
trip to PNG from the US with connections in Australia or Fiji.  Got stuck
in Port Moresby one night because Air Nuigini cancelled flight.  Port
Moresby is as bad as described and is far worse than any other Central
American or South Pacific city of its size I have been in.  The resort is
an hour from the small airstrip by van.  The accomodations are quite nice
with bures set apart in a lush landscaped setting on Kimbe Bay.  Our bure,
the largest, was three large rooms including a couch, several chairs, a
dining table and separate kitchen area.  Meals are taken in a central
communal area with an air conditioned small dining area and library.  A
small pool centers this communal area with a bar to one side and a larger
outdoor dining area on the other.  The pictures and descriptions on their
website are accurate.  Breakfast is cereal and fruit or made to order eggs,
pancakes or french toast.  Fresh coffee is always available.  Lunches are
on the boat or on a small island if you do three dives a day, or back in
the dining area if you do two.  Dinner is banquet style.  The only
significant complaint, and this was a problem for us, involved dinner where
they ran out of food, or certain basic items like soup, several nights. 
They do not cater to night divers and although they offer night dives there
were no arrangements for late arrivals or holding of a plate.  So, there
was somewhat of a rush for the soup and then the main courses.  The meals
were filling and offered good variety but the food tended to be bland and
uninspired.  Not what I would expect from a resort of this price.  

The diving was quite good.  All the diving is done from one of two boats
that depart from their jetty.  There were only four or five people doing
three daily dives so the boat was not crowded.  Our DM Keiko, captain
Martin, and deck hand Peter were all friendly and accomodating.  Once she
saw our skill level, Keiko let us all dive our own profiles.  On about half
the dives we ended up splitting up between photographers and cruisers.  The
reefs are in excellent shape and the deeper bommies held attractions like
schooling batfish, sharks, dogtooth tuna, trevally, mantas, cuttlefish, and
healthy schools of the usual reef fish.  In-shore reefs sported
mandarinfish, cuttlefish, several types of pipefish, lots of lionfish,
anemonefish, numerous species of shrimps, nesting titan triggerfish,
several species of shrimp gobies, razorfish and nudibranchs.  On one dive
about 10 dolphins joined us on a reef for a minute or two checking us out
before moving on.  Reef fish life is on par with Fiji outer islands.  The
corals and fans are in outstanding shape although with little current they
are not huge on the inshore reefs.  Typical days were 45 minutes out to the
first site, a 60 to 75 minute dive depending on depths which were 75 to 100
feet, a cruise toward shore for your interval followed by another 70 minute
or so dive in shallower water.  Lunches were usually taken on a small
island followed by a dive close-by in shallower water.  Then motor back in
for 30 minutes or so.  Night dives departed about 30 minutes before sunset.
 Visibility was over 100 feet on the outer bommies and the worst was still
30 or so on an enjoyable WWII Zero near shore.  The dive shop really is not
one so bring repair kits or backup gear.  Kimbe Bay is fairly protected and
we never had combined seas over about three feet.

Walindi is pretty far removed from anything so you should not plan on
activities other than a visit to the local village or a birding hike.  Most
of the guests were divers with a few trekkers and birders in the mix.  Bugs
were not a problem although we did use DEET when we went out.  Free
internet was available on one very slow connection in the library.  Overall
we enjoyed Walindi and would recommend it.  Just make sure to be first in
line at dinner!   

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