Takabonerate

Takabonerate lies south of Selayar in the Flores Sea and is an atoll of about two thousand two hundred square kilometres, generally ranked the third largest in the world after Kwajalein and Suvadiva - a ring of reef enclosing a lagoon with around twenty small islands on it, some inhabited by Bajo and Bugis fishing communities. The reef is extensive and the fish diversity is high, and it is a national park. What keeps it empty is access: Selayar first, by ferry or a small flight, then several hours by chartered boat across open water, with no scheduled service. Accommodation is homestays on the inhabited islands or a liveaboard. Blast and cyanide fishing damaged parts of the reef badly in past decades and enforcement remains the park's central problem.

Highlights

• The third largest atoll on earth - reef ring, lagoon and around twenty islands.
• Bajo and Bugis communities - the fishing settlements on the inhabited islands.
• Extensive reef diving - high fish diversity with almost no other boats.
• Blast damage in places - the legacy of bomb and cyanide fishing.

When to go

April to October; the sea closes it outside that. Five days.

Practical notes

Access is genuinely hard - Selayar, then hours of chartered open-water boat, no schedule. Facilities are homestays with no power at times. Enforcement against destructive fishing is incomplete.

Nearby

Selayar island is north; Makassar is the mainland gateway.