Lembeh Resort - Day 1

  Bitung, Sulawesi, Indonesia
Saturday, November 8, 2008

View from Lembeh Resort

 

Typical Lembeh Resort cabin

View from Lembeh Resort

Hmmm.  Kind of a rough start to our stay at Lembeh.  The air conditioning unit and lights in the bedroom went out in our room just as we were making ourselves at home.  A call to the front desk got things back up and running in about 45 minutes, but it was still an inconvenience.

Bedroom in cabin

 

Another outdoor shower!

In the shower area

Of course, be careful what you wish for.  The A/C unit sounds like a tractor when it starts up!  Add some very loud jungle sounds (this resort is much more in the thick of it than Minahasa was) and it made for an unusual first night's sleep.  We'll get used to it and things will be just fine though.  Of course, the lights and A/C conked out again in the morning! 
 
Up at 6 so we could make it to breakfast at 7am.  Eat and be at the dive briefing at 7:30 so we can get outfitted in our gear and pull out on board the boat at 8.

Lembeh Resort dive panga - Abner on the left

Ah, the relaxing life of the dive vacation!  A

Andy looking forward to diving!

ctually, it's a very easy schedule to keep and you can't help but be excited and ready to go, knowing what mysteries await.

And so is Pam!

Lembeh Resort dive sites visited

The Lembeh Straight is home first and foremost to muck diving.  Doesn't sound very appealing, does it?  While some groupings of coral do exist, and in some areas there are entire reefs, the bottom composition of most of this area is dark black and gray volcanic sand.  It's really pretty barren if you just looked at it and didn't take a closer look.  But get closer and things start popping out at you.  There's bizarre life all over the place, and it seems like just about every critter makes its way through life mimicking something else.  It's also home to some of the most venomous creatures that exist in the form of stone fish, scorpion fish, devil fish, blue ringed octopus, and God knows what else!  The basic dive briefing once again is "don't touch anything!", and do not ever stick your fingers, hands or knees in the sand without looking.  In fact, just don't do it!  These fish blend ridiculously well, as you can see in some of the photos.

Scorpionfish BAD!

   
The boat ride out was totally uneventful and what's great is that there really aren't any dive sites longer than a 15-20 minute boat ride away.  It's always nice return to the resort for a short break before heading back out again.  That does beat spending an entire day out on the boat some times.  The scenery really reminded us a bit of Puget Sound.  Obviously it was much warmer, but Lembeh Straight has land very close on both sides giving it that old familiar feel.  From a distance, all hills are green like Washington.  Those are palm trees, however, and suddenly we're thinking this we like November in Indonesia way better than in Washington!  That's when it kicks in, and we remember that it's mid-November and only two weeks to Thanksgiving and a month and a half until Christmas.  Wow.  How are we ever going to go back to cubicle life??

Our guide today, and apparently the rest of the trip, is a local named Abner.  Abner has been diving for 10 years and got his start at another resort.  Lembeh Resort does not like to send out crowded boats because it makes it too difficult trying to lead larger groups of divers over fragile and very deadly poisonous terrain!  So, there are four of us on this particular boat.  Two go with another guide named Oxin, and we go with Abner.  Abner proved to be a very capable spotter, pointing out many, many creatures along the way.  He's also an excellent diver.
 
Our first dive of the day takes us down to about 90fsw to check out the pygmy sea horses.  They like to hang out on the gorgonian corals that tend to be found at that depth or deeper, and are tiny, tiny critters that almost require a magnifying glass to spot.  And they blend incredibly well!  It was like looking at one of those "Where's Waldo" things trying to spot it.  Once you do though, they're quite a sight.  We wish we had photos of our own to share, but they didn't turn out very well.  It was very difficult to focus on such a small object, and to figure out whether or not you truly got a shot of it when looking at a 2.5inch view screen.  All shots had a focal point just a little over from the intended target.  Dang it! 

It wasn't completely without reward however in that there was a tiny baby scorpion fish hanging out on the coral as well.  You would never know this guy is going to grow up to be a killer!  Actually, all of the deadly critters mentioned are totally harmless so long as you aren't stepping on them or placing some other body part in contact with their pointy parts.  We saw many other cool things along the way and can only imagine what else is in store for us what with 10 more dives to go! 

The second and third dives were also fantastic.  We spotted a very small cuttlefish that was nicely positioned on some fan coral, just begging to have its picture taken.

Cuttlefish

There were all kinds of nudibranchs to be found with some very spectacular colors and designs.

Nudibranch

Nudibranch

Nudibranch

There was a tiny lobster with bright blue legs and very white antennae.

Lobster, but tiny!

There were more cute little clown fish with just as much attitude as at Bunaken.  We had fun beginning to take macro shots of the hard and soft corals.  We saw a Pacific monkey fish, which is an over-sized golf ball of a fish that walks around on its front pectorals.

Monkey face fish

We saw and photographed cute little puffer fish as though they were a treasure to find, only to realize that the things are everywhere.

Cute little puffer!

We saw emperor shrimp that basically hitch rides on other critters, like sea cucumbers.  We saw ornate ghost pipefish, which just hang head down and drift along next to plant or coral life trying as best they can to go unnoticed.

Ornate ghost pipefish

Ornate ghost pipefish

Every area that could be dug out underneath seemed to house a moray eel.

Eel!

They are totally scary looking with that evil eye and the gaping mouth, but are very harmless to respectful visitors.  Cardinal fish schooled amongst the anemones.  We saw these black spiny sea urchins that would be totally at home in a Tim Burton movie.  Very weird with an eye right in the middle! 

The evil eye!

Porcelain crabs could generally be found hanging out on the same carpets of anemones as the clown fish.  The protective clownfish made it very challenging to get good photos!  Then the coolest in our opinion was a pair of frog fish.  They are hands down some of the weirdest looking fish there could be.  

Hello, I'm a frogfish

 

I'm a frog fish. Can you see me?

How's this?

Mantis shrimp will definitely creep you out.  

Mantis shrimp - Bugs of the sea!

They're long, fat, and move ridiculously fat.  They look way more like a bug than a shrimp.  Harmless, but creepy.  Can't remember the full name of it, something wasp fish, but this one lives its life just drifting and tumbling across the bottom just like a leaf.  Amazing to watch!  We finally had to end the day, at least where the boat diving was concerned.  It was awesome!

At 5:30pm, we once again slipped beneath the waves.  But this time we did a shore dive on the house reef.  It's typical of a resort to have an area in front that's accessible from shore so you can dive there if you so choose.  This was a night dive, and we had a blast just leisurely swimming around for an hour and checking things out.  There are several methods being employed in an experimental fashion in an effort to grow coral.  It seems to be working, as there was quite a bit of it around and the structures are beginning to show coverage.  It was a great way to end the day!

 

Nudibranch

 

Wasp fish

 

Devilfish - also BAD!

After another wonderful dinner, we finally turned in for the night looking forward to day 2 of muck diving.  How are we gonna top day 1??

Bye for now!

Andy & Pam