Pura and Ternate are the two small volcanic islands sitting mid-channel in the Pantar Strait, between Alor and Pantar. Their fringing reefs hold several of the region’s best-loved sites — including Clown Valley, the anemone carpet on Pura’s slope — and their coastal villages make the anchorages here the social heart of most Alor liveaboard routes.
Two islands, one current system
The strait’s tidal flow splits around these islands, and that geometry does two useful things. It creates current shadows — leeward slopes where diving stays comfortable even when the main channel is running hard — and it accelerates flow along the exposed points, feeding the reefs with the nutrient supply that keeps their coral cover dense and their fish life thick. Guides use the islands as a tidal chessboard: whatever the water is doing, some side of Pura or Ternate is diveable.
The diving around the islands
- Clown Valley (Pura): the headline — one of the world’s densest sea-anemone fields at 5–20 m, with hundreds of resident anemonefish. Covered in full in our Clown Valley guide.
- The fringing slopes: hard-coral gardens and walls in the 10–25 m band, with reef fish density that startles divers arriving from busier regions — and regular visits from the strait’s pelagics along the deeper edges.
- The channel points: when tides align, the exposed corners run as proper drift dives with schooling fusiliers, trevally, and the occasional shark off the point.
Where the islands fit against the strait’s bigger names — the seamounts, the hammerhead walls, the muck bays — is mapped in the Alor dive site directory and the Pantar Strait guide.
The villages: the strait’s other life
Both islands carry fishing villages along their shores, and the anchorages put liveaboards within paddling distance of them — literally. Children paddle dugout canoes out to visit boats at anchor, waving, trading grins, occasionally singing; village evenings drift across the water. None of it is arranged, which is exactly its value. Guests consistently rank a sunset at anchor off Pura — volcano silhouettes down the strait, canoes on the water — among the trip’s fixed memories.
Snorkelling from the boat at these anchorages is genuinely good — the shallow reef tops are healthy, warm, and calm in the lee — which makes the islands the natural base for mixed groups of divers and non-divers. Pura also carries a small freshwater spring village on its flank and a summit trail with strait views for guests who want their legs back after two days of diving.
Practical notes
- Anchoring nights: most Alor routes sleep one or more nights in the islands’ lee; the strait’s central position makes morning site calls efficient in every direction.
- Village visits: possible with crew arrangement and the usual manners — ask-first photography, modest dress, purchases direct from makers.
- Conditions: lee-side sites suit all levels; the channel points are tide-dependent and briefed accordingly. The 5-day itinerary shows a typical island-centred rhythm.
Small mid-strait islands with villages, reefs, and current shadows are a pattern divers may recognise from Komodo’s channel islands — waters the Pinta Liveaboard crew works daily. The Pantar Strait’s version keeps the pattern but subtracts the traffic: at Pura, the boats at anchor are usually yours and the fishermen’s, and nothing else on the horizon.
Quick questions about the strait islands
Can we go ashore on Pura or Ternate?
Yes, with crew arrangement — the villages receive small-boat visitors graciously, and a walk through a strait island village at golden hour is quietly memorable. The usual manners apply: ask before photographing people, dress modestly, and buy directly if anything is offered. Nothing is staged for tourism here, which is the entire appeal.
Is the snorkelling really boat-side, or does it need a tender run?
Genuinely boat-side at the lee anchorages — the reef tops sit within an easy surface swim of where boats moor, in calm water. Tender-supported sessions extend the range to the better flats when tides suit. For mixed diver/snorkeller groups, these anchorages are the fairest water in the region.
Why do itineraries keep returning to these islands?
Position and shelter. The islands sit at the strait’s centre, so mornings can strike toward whichever site the tide favours, and the lee always offers a calm night’s anchorage. Route planning here is a chess game against the tide table, and Pura is the square that controls the board.