Underwater, though, East Timor is a world apart. The reefs are a scuba diver’s dream: luscious depths and an abundance of rare sea life. On an early exploratory dive off Dili in 1995, Mike Severns, a prominent photojournalist, encountered pilot whales, melon-headed whales, sperm whales, pipefish and scorpion fish. “I’ve never dived a more isolated and spectacular place,” wrote Severns in a logbook.
The real attraction is the wrecks. During World War II, Australian forces bombed Japanese ships along the coast of the island. More ships went down in 1975, when Indonesia invaded. “It’s not hard to find shipwrecks,” says Donovan Whitford, an Australian who guides scuba divers off Timor and nearby islands. He and his father, Graeme, found several WWII Japanese fuel barges in Dili’s harbor at about 20 meters down. He says groups of exploratory divers have a “good possibility” of finding more wrecks.
The only caveat: they must be willing to risk a trip to one of Indonesia’s most troubled provinces. Fighting between pro-independence groups and Indonesian loyalists has raged for decades. The conflict escalated last week after jailed rebel leader Xanana Gusmo called for a “general insurrection.”
Some divers are still willing to take the risk. “It’s the sense of discovery, of not knowing what you’re going to find” that attracts experienced divers to unexplored spots like East Timor, says Bill High, a former president of NAUI, one of the world’s largest organizations of scuba divers. Even with a war raging in the distant hills, Dili’s unexplored wrecks and abundant marine life are too tempting for some to resist–though still too dangerous for inexperienced divers. The Whitfords, who operate a dive shop in Kupang, West Timor (DIVEALOR@kupang.wasantara.net.id), have arranged for gear, a boat and accommodations in the one decent hotel in Dili for eight groups of divers since 1995. “It’s only the intrepid ones,” says Graeme, “looking for a bit of adventure.”
That doesn’t necessarily mean roughing it. The privately owned Tourismo, where his guests stay, sits in a garden of tropical trees facing the beach and boasts plenty of white Portuguese arches; it also serves excellent barbecued fish and chicken. Now, who was saying there’s a war on?
