With its jungly karst islands, like dozens of bright green button mushrooms scattered across turquoise seas, Raja Ampat is perhaps the planet’s most photogenic archipelago.
And this “otherworldly” region of eastern Indonesia is also home to what is thought to be the most biodiverse marine system on Earth, said Lorna Parkes in National Geographic Traveller. Roughly 75% of the world’s hard coral species are found here, and these “forests of the ocean” support more than 1,500 fish species, at least 18 mammal species, and six out of the world’s seven species of sea turtle. For snorkellers and divers it is nirvana, and there’s no lovelier way to explore it than aboard a pinisi, a traditional wooden sailing boat. I went on a five-day trip with Rascal Voyages, a company that owns two specially adapted pinisi in which the five cabins are above deck, with wraparound views. (The boats have no sails, as a result.)
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Guests who can confidently control their buoyancy while diving can join in its “coral gardening” work, which involves transplanting tens of thousands of coral fragments from healthy sites. I stuck to snorkelling, but still saw many wonders, from clouds of colourful fish to hawksbill turtles, huge manta rays and even an epaulette, a “walking shark” that crawls over the reef using its fins. Scarcely less heavenly were our trips on land.
Cabins cost from £1,880 full board; rascalvoyages.com
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