gee13
Contributor
Recently made a trek out to North Sulawesi, to visit the islands of Bunaken, Bangka and Lembeh and discover what they had to offer. Most of my recent trips have been done using mostly wide angle. Any macro photos were predominantly close focus with wide angle lenses. This time I had decided to do something different and focus in purely on macro photography setup. I was tempted to take out the wide angle on only a couple of dives.
So the diving in Bunaken involved a lot of big walls, great visibility and very healthy corals. There wasnt a lot of current about overall on the sites visited, though we did a high voltage dive on Sachikos one early morning. This time there were plenty of Black Tip Reef Sharks and Barracuda at that site including a host of other pelagics. Generally there were not many bigger fish out around Bunaken but there were plenty of smaller tropical species abound surrounding the healthy corals. I was surprised to find quite a number of interesting critters in the crevices. Its also a short ride to Manado coast where some good muck diving was to be found. We saw painted frogfish, yellow boxfish, ghost pipefish, flying gunards.. Waters around here were generally averaged at 29C, around the beach in shallows it was around 32C.
We also did a day trip out to Bangka Island for 3 dives around the area. Quite amazing dive sites with stronger currents, endless visibility and many colourful soft corals. There were schools of Blue Banded Snapper and many Oriental Sweetlips. The highlight was Sahaung with massive table top corals, pinnacles and a strange looking layered volcanic plateaux. We also managed to see a rare Hippocampus Pontohi Seahorse unique to the area.
Then it was on to Lembeh Strait for some serious treasure hunting. Lembeh is for the most part not the prettiest of diving topographies mostly in black volcanic sand. (Though there are some nice coral dive sites toward the north) However the type of critters found are out of this world. Fortunately we managed to get to see most of the prime list of critters that make Lembeh famous - Mimic Octopus, Wonderpuss, Flamboyant Cuttlefish, Ornate Ghost Pipefish, Banggai Cardinalfish, Hairy Frogfish, Stargazer, Orangutang Crab, Ambon Scorpionfish Pygmy Seahorses, Harlequin Shrimp There were also many healthy species of nudiranchs, especially at Nudi Retreat and Nudi falls, kind of a heaven for Nu-dists. Slightly cooler in this region with bottom temperatures around 27C but still very nice. Here are some of the photos from the trip.
Thanks to Seabreeze and NAD for looking after us.
So the diving in Bunaken involved a lot of big walls, great visibility and very healthy corals. There wasnt a lot of current about overall on the sites visited, though we did a high voltage dive on Sachikos one early morning. This time there were plenty of Black Tip Reef Sharks and Barracuda at that site including a host of other pelagics. Generally there were not many bigger fish out around Bunaken but there were plenty of smaller tropical species abound surrounding the healthy corals. I was surprised to find quite a number of interesting critters in the crevices. Its also a short ride to Manado coast where some good muck diving was to be found. We saw painted frogfish, yellow boxfish, ghost pipefish, flying gunards.. Waters around here were generally averaged at 29C, around the beach in shallows it was around 32C.
We also did a day trip out to Bangka Island for 3 dives around the area. Quite amazing dive sites with stronger currents, endless visibility and many colourful soft corals. There were schools of Blue Banded Snapper and many Oriental Sweetlips. The highlight was Sahaung with massive table top corals, pinnacles and a strange looking layered volcanic plateaux. We also managed to see a rare Hippocampus Pontohi Seahorse unique to the area.
Then it was on to Lembeh Strait for some serious treasure hunting. Lembeh is for the most part not the prettiest of diving topographies mostly in black volcanic sand. (Though there are some nice coral dive sites toward the north) However the type of critters found are out of this world. Fortunately we managed to get to see most of the prime list of critters that make Lembeh famous - Mimic Octopus, Wonderpuss, Flamboyant Cuttlefish, Ornate Ghost Pipefish, Banggai Cardinalfish, Hairy Frogfish, Stargazer, Orangutang Crab, Ambon Scorpionfish Pygmy Seahorses, Harlequin Shrimp There were also many healthy species of nudiranchs, especially at Nudi Retreat and Nudi falls, kind of a heaven for Nu-dists. Slightly cooler in this region with bottom temperatures around 27C but still very nice. Here are some of the photos from the trip.
Thanks to Seabreeze and NAD for looking after us.
We have been planning a trip to Indonesia (from South Louisiana) for the past few months and finally decided we would dive Bunaken, Lembeh AND Bangka. It's so great to hear that apparently we made a very good decision 
