Water
Indonesia · October to April
Raja Ampat
The richest reef on earth, seen from a liveaboard among islands like green teeth
Raja Ampat · Okavango · Lençóis Maranhenses
Water
The richest reef on earth off West Papua, a river that floods a desert and evaporates in Botswana, and white dunes in Brazil that fill with turquoise lagoons every winter. Water as the reason and the timetable.
Water sets the calendar in this realm. The Okavango floods in the dry season because the rain fell in Angola months earlier. The Brazilian lagoons fill in June from rain that fell in March. Raja Ampat’s boats cross in the calm season and sit out the trade winds. The Budget Simulator is the tool here because the same water is reached at a twentieth of the price by a homestay, a mokoro or a village guide, and the model shows the bands honestly.
Currents in the reef, hippos in the channels, sun on the white sand: the hazards are specific and the guides know them.
Everything in Water
Water
Indonesia · October to April
Raja Ampat
The richest reef on earth, seen from a liveaboard among islands like green teeth
Water
Botswana · June to October: the flood peaks in July and August while the land dries
Okavango Delta
A river that never reaches the sea, flooding a desert every winter and filling it with animals
Water
Brazil · June to September: the lagoons are full and the rain has stopped
Lençóis Maranhenses
A desert of white dunes that fills with turquoise lagoons every winter
Climate by month
Raja Ampat
Okavango Delta
Lençóis Maranhenses
Which water?
Questions people ask
Which water place first?
Lençóis Maranhenses: cheap, warm, empty, and reached by bus and boat. The Okavango needs the budget, Raja Ampat needs the flights and the calm season.
Do I need to dive for Raja Ampat?
No; the snorkelling in the Dampier Strait is the best on earth. The liveaboards are for divers, the homestays welcome both.
When is the Okavango flood?
July and August, in the dry southern winter, from rain that fell in Angola in summer. That is why the animals gather.
The Simulation Brief
One place, one simulator, one honest number. Every second Sunday.
No newsletter theatre. A short e-mail with the place we modelled, what the model said and what the ground said back.