Lembeh...meh...

[Wingy]

The first one is the blob - had no idea what it was, but the guide was excited.
In this one you can see the octo - barely.
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Great shot Darnold...hey lol maybe thats the trick to muck diving....wait til you see your guide get all excited and just point and shoot in the general direction and hope for the best.....one day some guide is going to wise up to this (if not already) and there are divers who have had the great luck to see the hairy..algae..thing..passed off as a genuine hairy octopus

 

[Cali_diver]

Luckily @Wingy my hairy octo was much larger than a hairy shrimp!!! I had no problem seeing it was an octo!

 

[Lorenzoid]

My wife and I LOVED Lembeh, and we are NOT photographers. We are crazy about muck and tiny critters! As others have said, the key is a MAGNIFYING GLASS. I finally invested in a good one: Underwater magnifying glass

Lately we have added a GoPro with a macro lens to our repertoire, but it's not a replacement for the joy of simply situating ourselves above some tiny animal and getting a good look through the magnifying glass.

 

[Wingy]

Looking back I'd say mine was around 2 - 3cm. Against my own advice of learning to slow down and take a moment to watch behaviours where I probably would've been able to make him out if I'd been able to get my magnifying glass out but no...someone's afraid of titan triggerfish haha.

Lesson learned - heed the advise of a really good diver who pointed to another diver and said, watch him, he may hardly move at all during a dive.

- heed own advice and don't put magnifying glass in pocket because Aleuji was deep green and cold that day

- heed own advice re things looking bigger in pictures

 

[drrich2]

In Bali we were told "this is muck diving" but there is plenty of coral and color to see that can be seen unaided. In Lembeh, pretty much that is not the case.

Sounds like of 2 destinations where at least part of Bali was billed as muck diving (note: is that how people generally think of diving Bali, or just part of it?), one had some coral & color, and one...just muck?

On a broader note, is it pretty much assumed a muck destination excludes interesting nearby structure such as reef? Or do some places offer good opportunities side by side?

Sometimes it's good to mention what a popular destination doesn't offer as much of. Never been to Lembeh...whenever I've seen it mentioned, it was usually with glowing praise.

Richard.

 

[Wingy]

Bali is a mixed bag, from drifts to muck to deep big animal encounters - Mola Mola for example. Of course I'm including the nearby islands of Nusa Penida etc in this statement.

Muck and Reefs and Walls and Pinacles can be found in quite a few places - Milne Bay while the "home of muck diving" has some stunning reefs eg Deacons reef. MIke Veitch also mentioned reefs at Anilao.

While Lembeh is generally muck focused there are reefs & pinacles a short boat ride away at Bangka.

Again, do your research - I tend to over research but I will watch as many YouTube clips of a dive destination before I decide if it's for me or not.

 

[WetPup]

There are non-muck sites in Lembeh. There's a couple of small wrecks around. It's just that you'd struggle to get the dive ops to take you there unless you could convince everyone on your boat to do it. Which is unlikely, since that's not why people go to Lembeh. Same with Ambon - there are wide angle opportunities (reefs and wrecks) just out of the bay, but you'll struggle to get the dive ops to take you there unless you can convince enough other people at the resort to go.

 

[Darnold9999]

You can always do Angels Window - not a muck dive, but frankly if I am in Lembeh I am not really that interested in such a dive.

 

[Luko]

Same with Ambon - there are wide angle opportunities (reefs and wrecks) just out of the bay, but you'll struggle to get the dive ops to take you there unless you can convince enough other people at the resort to go.

Unless you're not diving with Maluku divers or Blue Motion... Dive into Ambon is closer to the reef dives than the muck dive into the bay.
This is also why I am not interested going with Maluku divers.

 

[AlMitch]

You can always do Angels Window - not a muck dive, but frankly if I am in Lembeh I am not really that interested in such a dive.

Butterflies flying from the sun by Angmo Al, on Flickr

Angell's window is a very pretty dive... and on the western side of Lembeh the coral dives are actually really good! Just no one can tear themselves away from the magnificent mucky-ness!!