Yellow Wall, Komodo: Macro Diving in Horseshoe Bay

Yellow Wall in Horseshoe Bay is a steep southern Komodo wall smothered in yellow and orange soft coral. Cold water, dense macro, bring a 5mm.

Yellow Wall of Texas, usually shortened to Yellow Wall, is the other signature dive of Horseshoe Bay in southern Komodo. It is a steep wall covered so completely in yellow and orange soft coral that bare rock is hard to find.

Cold water, dense life

Like Cannibal Rock nearby, Yellow Wall benefits from cold nutrient-rich upwelling. The trade-off is temperature and sometimes visibility; the reward is invertebrate density that photographers travel specifically for.

What you see

Sea apples in numbers, crinoids, frogfish, pygmy seahorses, nudibranchs, and abundant shrimp and crab species living in the soft coral. Torches are useful even in daylight to bring the colour out.

Practical note

Plan warmer exposure protection than the northern sites require, and expect this dive only on longer Komodo itineraries.

Experience level

Experienced divers with good buoyancy, since the wall is fragile and the best subjects are small.

Conditions

South Komodo is measurably colder than the north: 24–26°C, caused by deep upwellings that also drive strong currents. That cold water is exactly why the invertebrate life here is so rich. A 3mm suit is not enough for most divers on repeat dives — bring a 5mm, and a neoprene hoodie if you feel the cold. Season is June to September from Labuan Bajo. Open Water divers are limited to 18m by law and insurance.

Visiting with Teman

The KLM Teman carries 12 guests in 5 ensuite cabins with a crew of 10. This stop features on our Komodo itineraries from 4 days upward.

More Komodo dive sites

See all itineraries and dates on our Komodo liveaboard page.

Salah Teman

Salah writes for Teman Liveaboard, the owner-operator of the KLM Teman. The Teman is a 36-metre Indonesian phinisi, handbuilt in Sulawesi and launched in 2017, carrying 12 guests in 5 ensuite cabins with a permanent crew of 10 and a Cruise Director. The team behind her has more than 20 years sailing the Indonesian archipelago. The boat works Komodo National Park from June to September out of Labuan Bajo, Raja Ampat from November to April out of Sorong, and runs Banda Sea and Ring of Fire crossings between the two seasons. The dive site guides on this blog are written from the operator's own logs and itineraries, with conditions, seasons and equipment guidance checked against the dive team who work these sites every week. Where a detail depends on the day — depth on a given tide, or where a current will take you — we say so rather than guess, because that is a briefing the Cruise Director gives on the boat, not something a web page can promise.

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