Diving - The adventure continues!

Indonesia April 2016 - Lembeh

We were up early for breakfast and all our kit was then loaded onto one of the boats.

A few photos were taken and we bid our guides and the staff at Bunaken farewell.

Back in Manado, we climbed aboard 3 mini buses and started off across country to Bitung, the city on the east side of North Sulawesi, where we would travel out to Lembeh.

The journey was mixed, with towns and countryside to pass through, thousands of mopeds with 2, 3 or even 4 people on board were passed and, once again, the driving was chaotic, but it all seeemed to pass off without serious incident.

After a couple of hours we travelled through the large port town of Bitung and then out into the hills beyond, before descending, through the grounds of a naval college (it seemed) to a small pier in a boatyard.

Our kit (and us) was loaded aboard another boat and we travelled the 15 minutes or so across the Lembeh Straights to Two Fish Lembeh.

There we were welcomed by our two American hosts, Scott and Robyn, and our guides.

Luggage was despatched to our chalets and rooms (In Lembeh, my accomodation was in a room in the main building, but large and very comfortable).

We decided not to squeeze in a dive on this day, to let the accumulated nitrogen have a chance to leave our bodies, but by the end of the day we were all tired and ready for an early night, ready to experience Muck Diving in Lembeh for the first time.

The next morning, we were back in our usual routine of rising by 7:00 for breakfast and then getting onto a boat by 7:45.

Some sites in Lembeh have a limit on the number of divers allowed on them at one time and, apparently, 12 is a big group, so we aimed to be the first one there (and once or twice another boat did arrive at a site and leave when they found we were already there, so I guess it's followed fairly strictly).

Our first "Muck Dive" was on a site called "TK3".

My log book says "Seemed to spend a lot of time looking between finding things" and that's what I say to people when they asked me what I thought of Muck Diving. Some of the creatures we saw in Lembeh were quite remarkable and worth seeing, but, for me, it didn't compare to the diving at Bunaken.

On that first dive, we did see a Hairy Frogfish and a Flamboyant Cuttlefish, though.

The second dive was better, maybe I was getting a little used to it. We dived at Tamjung Tebal and whilst we looked at and photographed things, the guide would whizz off and find us something else, so we'd move from place to place with less aimless searching.

On this dive we saw an inflated Pufferfish, Giant Frogfish, a large Seahorse, a number of blue spotted rays, a ribbon eel and had our first encounter with Mantis Shrimps.

The third dive, at Serena West, gets a short entry, but was obviously OK as I said "Plenty to see on this dive". This included Stonefish, Frogfish, Leaffish and seahorses.

One of the benefits of Lembeh is a house reef and 4 of us set out as the sun set to explore it. Mostly we saw the kind of fish we'd seen elsewhere, Clown fish, Puffer fish, Damsels and a big shoal of large Razor fish (who swim vertically, head down).

Towards the end of the dive, with the water now dark, we came across a blue spotted ray in the shallows (which focussed the mind a bit, it would have been easy to tread on it!), followed very shortly by a huge purple nudibranch.

This was quite a fun dive, actually and we returned to the house reef on other evenings.

Opinions were divided at the end of the first day. Some on the trip are keen "Nudi-hunters" (Nudibranchs, apparently, not a desire to stalk people at naturist sites!) and they were loving the tiny critters they were photographing, but others of us, hankered for something a bit more 'big picture' and we were told of a wreck nearby, which we asked if we could visit later in the week.

The next day we dived at Critter Hunt, Aer Prang II and Police Pier.

Critter Hunt was good as we saw a Blue Spotted Octopus. These are the deadliest creatures in the sea according to some, with poison so strong that even being close to them can cause illness and a bite is often fatal. We were all surprised that it was so small, but the guides were (as they proved to always be) and, without really aggrivating the octopus, got it to display it's gold and blue colouration (sadly this was the one dive where I didn't take EITHER camera!).

Sadly, and what became a bit of a trend, I guzzled air on this dive, getting through my tank in just 40 minutes without any real explanation.

At Aer Prang 2, my air consumption was more in line with the others and we say Cardinal Fish, with eggs in its mouth and more Mantis Shrimps.

The day ended at Police Pier and my logbook says "You know you're Muck Diving when you swim past a discarded, used nappy...". This is right by a small village and, as we'd been warned, the locals tend to assume that anything they dispose of in the sea is 'out of sight, out of mind' and will just magically vanish. This was certainly the worst site for litter and I was getting a little disillusioned with "Muck Diving" as a result.

We saw lots of tiny slug like nudibranchs, too, on this dive, but my enthusiasm was waning and the Titan Triggerfish (which we'd see in abundance in Bunaken) and some Congers were the highlight of this dive, which had far more lowlights...

I wasn't sorry to have to end my dive a little sooner than others due, again, to higher than usual air consumption, partly due to strong down currents towards the end of the dive.

I skipped the house reef and had a snooze, thinking maybe I was just getting tired and this was accounting for my higher than usual air consumption.

The next morning we rode out to the WW2 wreck, another Japanese (or maybe Chinese) cargo ship. It lies on its starboard side and we descended to the lower edge and swam to the stern, to explore the propellors and then turned along the deck and swam back to the bow, looking in, but not entering, the holds as we went.

There were schools of Batfish here and after swinging back around the bow, we turned back along the starboard hull, finding a large Stonefish, before returning to the shotline to surface.

Most people enjoyed this dive, it was much more like UK diving (except for the warm, clear water and colourful fish), but there was enough for the nudi-fans too.

Rojos was the next dive site and there was hope we'd see a Mimic Octopus, but all we saw was a Coconut Octopus, who wasn't interested in venturing out. We did see some rays and numerous Nudis (some too small to clearly see!) and I found that I got close to my NDL, so we were up into the shallows with plenty of air to spare.

The next dive was Jahir, which my logbook reminds me was "quite a good dive".

We saw a Devilfish (aptly named!), Golden Cuttlefish, a Coconut Octopus (a bit more active than at Rojos), Mantis Shrimps, a Leaf Fish or two and some Blue Spotted Rays.

As we started to surface, I was aware of a boat engine overhead and quickly descended a few feet, as a local fisherman sped overhead - No harm, no foul, but the boat crew weren't happy about how close and fast he'd come to a dive boat. A reminder that it pays to look up and around as you surface!

We ventured out for a night dive, too, on the third day. We went back to Aer Prang 2 and I think this was one of my favourite dives at Lembeh, if not the very best.

There was plenty of life around, Devilfish, Cuttlefish, Moray Eels, Snake Eels, a Large Crab (something we rarely saw in Indonesia) and Algae Octopus.

The critters seemed more active in the dark and there's something exciting about moving around underwater in the dark, with torch beams flashing around you.

The following day we started at Nudi Retreat 1. This was a bit different, starting on a white sandy slope, descending to 30M.

There were a few outcrops of coral, but we ended at a reef with a steep wall behind it. There were some lovely coloured corals here and plenty of reef fish, which was unusual for Lembeh.

Next up was Batu Sandar, a very typical 'black' sand Muck Dive, but the guides predicted we'd see Octopus and we did.

We saw two Mimic Octopus here, a couple of Coconut Octopus and a small one (I think an Algae Octopus) which repeatedly buried itself in the sand.

Final boat dive of the day was Trikora, a strange monument kind of place (Trikora Monument Lembeh Island was built in the late 80s at the initiative of the local government to commemorate the historic event in an attempt to seize West Papua from the Dutch colonizers, I subsequently discovered), but essentially it was like doing a dive under Swanage Pier (Lembeh style!).

There was quite a lot of litter, but my logbook doesn't mention much else, although I seem to recall we saw the most around the legs of the Pier.

I do recall we drew a crowd of local kids (people were seemingly waiting for a boat 'bus' here) who seemed fascinated by the odd people with all their dive gear.

I had another evening dive on the house reef, but it was quite uneventful compared with the first.

April 20th was our final day's diving.

We started out at Nudi Falls (The joke was wearing a little thin by now), which was a nice dive, a bit like Nudi Retreat the previous day, but even more alive with reef fish.

We saw two very large octopus hiding in caves on the reef (typically others reported they ventured out after I moved on!) and a Lembeh Velvet Fish, which is rare, but really not that exciting to see as it tends to just lie around...

Second dive was back to Critter Hunt, in the hope of seeing a Blue Ringed Octopus again, but without luck.

However it was stil a good dive as we saw a Wonderpus, as well as Devilfish and Lembeh Velvet fish.

The dive ended on a lively, colourful reef and I had plenty of air to explore it.

I'll quote from log book for the final dive, at Serena Point

Coral & White Sand
Found some Octopus (Algae) and some other weird critters, tiny crabs, etc.
Ended on Coral Reef, which was nice. Ribbon Eel also seen.
Final Lembeh dive typical of here, lots of looking, some finding...

After the last dive we stripped down and rinsed all our kit and left it to dry over the next night and day, not least because we needed it dry to meet our weight allowances.

Trevor and Bethan were staying in the area for a week, so went diving the next morning and Dave and I went snorkelling over the house reef for half an hour. This was interesting as we'd mostly seen it, below water, in the dark and also because we were repeatedly stung by something, explaining why 30 minutes was enough!

After lunch, we took a boat back to Lembeh and picked up a couple of mini buses, which took us on a long drive to the Tangkoko reserve, home to Black Macaques and Spectral tarsiers.

We arrived late-ish in the afternoon, as the Tarsiers are nocturnal so you need to be there at dusk to see them.

A few minutes after walking into the reserve, we came across a troop of Macaques and, led by our guides, followed them for a while. They didn't seem worried by us at all, which was good and hopefully a sign that they are safe here. Trevor came back with photos of many primates being sold for food in a local 'bushmeat' market...

We walked on after that for a long time, and eventually were led into the dense bush, with the sound of the sea somewhere close. There, up in a hole in a tree were a couple of the small, but rather cute and bushbaby like Tarsiers.

Apparently you're quite lucky to see these (or so we were told, who knows?), but it was certainly an enjoyable way (If rather hot!) to spend the afternoon of our 'off-gassing' day.

A rather basic 'water taxi' returned us to the Two Fish resort in the dark, which was an adventure in itself (not unlike a scaled up version of the crossing of the Dubai 'creek' we took a few years ago).

Beers were consumed, bags packed, dinner eaten and a few more beers consumed before we all made our way to our rooms for our last night in Lembeh.

The next morning, the guides loaded our kit and luggage onto the boats and we gathered for a Lembeh team photo.

Overall, I'd have to say I enjoyed the diving in Bunaken much more than in Lembeh, but it had been an interesting experience and seeing some of the unusual creatures in Lembeh had made the journey worthwhile, but for me it was a bit too much searching and not quite enough finding after the abundance of life in Bunaken.

That said, the staff and guides at both centres were lovely people and we wholeheartedly enjoyed our time with both teams and I would fully recommend them to anyone looking to dive in this part of the world.

They adapted the diving and their style of guiding to suit us and nothing was too much trouble it seemed.

It certainly had been an adventure to travel almost all the way around the world, but it had been worth the trouble and then some!

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