Currents traditionally run from North to South or South to North in the Raka Ampat region, but where the mighty Pacific Ocean forces itself through the Dampier Strait, between mainland West Papua and Waigeo Island the currents run West to East and East to West. Lying at the heart of the Dampier Straits between Waideo and Batanta Islands is the little island of Kri. A thin island about 2 miles long, it is orientated into the currents that wash through the Straits twice a day. At the Eastern end a reef juts out into deep water, with plunging drop offs. Here can be found Sorido Bay Resort, a luxury property with just 7 bungalows, nestling amongst verdant trees along a small snady beach. Off the beach can be found shallow sea grass beds full of seahorses, pipefish and other weedy beaties, before coral takes over to the reef edge, some 300 yards off shore. A jetty meets a 100ft deep sink hole in the middle of the reef, allowing dive and transfer boats to reach the resort.

Sorido Bay Resort has two type of bungalow; 6 Sentani and 1 Kaimana. The Sentani bungalows have en suite bathroom and a large bedroom with small seating area, tables and chairs. The Kaimana bungalow is larger, with a separate lving area. All the bungalows have air conditioning, are tastefully decorated with traditional Papua carvings and locally produced furniture and have a large dedicated camera table with 220v surge protected electricity & freshwater sink for you to fiddle with your camera! Each also has a shaded verandah with beach chairs, so you can relax and watch and listen to the sea lapping gently on the shoreline. (The sun sets the other side of the island, but if you get up early enough you can watch the sunrise!)

The main reception area houses the restaurant, up on the second floor with commanding views over the reef, where delicious local produce is turned into even more delicious gourmet meals! The well stocked bar offers a variety of beers and spirits and wines. A photo shop and gift shiop is also housed within the main complex. The dive ship is unobtrusively tucked away from the main resort area, so the sound of generators is almost on existent!

Sorido Bay Resort has perhaps the finest house reef in the world. Cape Kri reef thrusts out into the deep waters of the Dampier Straits and is flushed by nutrient rich waters twice a day. To say marine life is prolific here would be an understatement! Dr Gerald Allen, esteemed fish expert, counted 283 different species of fish in ONE dive at Cape Kri. Cape Kri has also recently been "awarded" thge accolade of having the highest biomass of any reef anywhere in the world. It is quite simply the richest and most diverse reef in the world. In fact, there are so many fish it is often impossible to take pictures of the reef because the fish just get in the way. Huge schools of barracuda, snapper, striped and spotted sweetlips, fusiliers, jacks, surgeonfish, batfish - you name it, they're here! Amongst the beautiful reef formations bedecked in exquisite hard and soft corals, sea fans and sponges can be found an incredible diversity of fish and invertebrates; numerous species of seahorses, nudibranchs, flatworms, crustaceans, anemones filled with shrimps, porcelain crabs and clownfish; whip coral gobies, longnosed hawkfish, anthias and glassy sweepers; lionfish, leaf fish, ghost pipefish, weedy and lacey scorpionfish, crocodile fish... err.... you get the message! ;) The reefs are bedecked with a kaleidascopic array of soft corals of every hue, festoons of sponges that look like melting wax, seafans of all proportions and colour, all home to numerous critters and so much more.

And not content with offering all this, within a 5 mile radias of the resort can be found three manta dives, where you can see large congregations of these graceful creatures swooping in to be pecked clean by cleaner wrasse. You'll also find wobbegongs lurking under coral overhangs, snuggly bunched schools of striped sweetlips hanging out on cleaning stations and bommies, turtles swoooping across reef tops and the occasional shark patrolling the deep.

Words are hard to find to describe just how mind boggling the reefs around Sorido Bay Resort are. You really do need to visit to appreciate that this is quite simply the richest reef diving in the world!