Manta Point — Swim With Giants

Manta Point is the everyday name for a cluster of reef sites in Komodo National Park where oceanic manta rays congregate to be groomed by wrasse and cleaner shrimp. The most celebrated of these is Karang Makassar — a long, rubble-strewn reef strip off the southern coast of Komodo Island, where mantas glide back and forth in a steady drift current, opening their gills and mouths to the tiny cleaners that keep them parasite-free.Mantas patrol this stretch of water all year, but the spectacle peaks from December through February, when nutrient-rich currents pour plankton across the reef and draw the rays in numbers. In peak season it is common to share a single drift with five to fifteen mantas; even in the quieter months one to three individuals on a session is typical, and a close pass from a seven-metre animal is no less breathtaking for being solitary.This is a site that asks something of you. You enter the water and travel with the current rather than against it — snorkellers float along the surface while the boat repositions downstream to collect them, and divers hold gently to the rubble to watch the cleaning unfold. The combination of 4 to 7 metre wingspans, slow banking turns and the mantas' unmistakable curiosity makes this one of the most genuinely awe-inspiring wildlife encounters anywhere in the ocean.