Raja Ampat 1 - Raja Ampat 2 - Bunaken - Lembeh

The next day it was time to say goodbye to my new australian friends as their week was over and they had to leave. Monday I went diving with two southafrican women and we expected the new guests monday evening. They didn't arrive though. In the night we had an earthquake. My bungalow shook for about 10 seconds. Not a big deal... when I came to breakfeast the next morning I asked whether the other guests had felt the earthquake and I laughed when I heard that one of the southafricans hadn't known what it was and she had taken a lamp and checked under the bed if somebody was lying there shaking the bungalow. Her friend had known what it was but didn't tell her because she knew that her friend would have freaked out...

When the new guests arrived early on tuesday morning we heard that the motor of the boat had exploded when fortunately nobody of them was on board. So nobody was hurt except the motor... I had been told that a new dive guide from Manado (Sulawesi) would arrive with them and when I saw somebody walking over the jetty I thought 'Is that possible???' I went over to check and when I was close I said ''Handry???' He turned around and it was 'Aaaaaandreaa....' I knew him from my vacation in Sulawesi last year. If you check my the report from last year you will find a guide with dreadlocks. That was Handry. It was so much fun to see him again since I thought I wouldn't see him during my vacation.... small world.

I have only dive pics from two days and I finally spent some time in my hammock in the afternoons... Started to play around with my macro lense for my camera too...

Don't have a lot of pics from the next day as I didn't take the cam in the water for the first dive as there was a strong current. When we came up after 30 minutes we could barely see our boat any more. I think it was that day that I had two situations that were not easy and without the experience I easily could have panicked. The first situation was during the first dive. Towards the end we wanted to go up to our safety stop. We were at 16 metres (45 ft). Suddenly I saw only bubbles around me and couldn't see the other divers any more. When I checked my computer I was going down instead of up. I put air in my jacket so I would go up but my computer was beeping like crazy because I went up too fast. I didn't care in that moment because I needed to go up... Once the current didn't take me down anymore I stopped the fast ascent and went up slower. When I thought back afterwards it was somehow scary (but I had known that something like that could happen).

After the first dive we went (as most of the times) on a deserted island to spend the surface break there. Next year I will bring my big camera for these breaks more often....





The flabellina-picture reminded me of the second not fun situation on that day. The southafrican had seen something at about 28 metres (82 ft) and I went down to see what it was. When everyone else was already going up I checked but couldn't see anything... so I tried to go up after them but couldn't. Tried again but was stuck. It was a 'what the heck???'-moment but then I looked down and saw that my reefhook had fallen out of my pocket and was stuck in the reef. I got it out and was able to go up. Since I didn't want to go up too fast I stopped for a moment and that was when I saw the flabellina. Working on this pic for the report I just discovered that there were probably two of them....




Pregnant shrimp...

Btw. here is one of my companions that I saw from my deck very often... the lagoon is a kindergarden for all kinds of fish. This is a baby blacktip shark.


One evening I heard a noise on one wall in my bungalow and what I found was this little guy. That's what you get when you stay in an eco-resort...


Let's continue. The next day we went back to the passage. That day the ocean was so calm that the sky was mirrored in it. Haven't seen anything like that before....


Checked on manta point again but for the 3rd time no manta...
The pearl farm


Then it was hidden bay again. The entry to the canal...




This looks like a half and half but I was not in the water when I took this pic...


I didn't take the cam in the water this time and just snorkelled without it. After everyone was back on the boat we went over to the passage and were happy to have only a slow current. Went in the water and geeeez did we have a strong current after about 5 minutes. So it was plan B again and I was glad I had brought the reefhook. Not easy to take pics when the current is so strong....


Small beautiful flatworm




After the dive we went back to our 'lunch place'. My companion had a shower first.


This is the shower. One person can stand under it.






Then we went to the mushroom islands again. They looked nicer in the sun but still not as nice as I would have liked...


After this pic the batteries of my 'big' cam died. Little did I know that it had problems with the akkus afterwards and that I would have to send it in for repairs after my vacation *sigh*


Then we went over to dive on Mioskon Island but Dex decided to check out the current on Sardine's (one of his favourite dives) and he came out of the water smiling all over his face. Then we did one of the best dives I have had in Raja Ampat. Normally you have lots of fish only with strong current. But that day we had lots of fish without current. It was perfect for photographers....

Buffalo parrothead - LOVE those guys...






We swam by those barracudas and they didn't move - it was amazing...




Beautiful fans as well...














Even when we had to finish the dive there were still lots of fish...


That dive was just AMAZING.

I was getting sadder the more days passed. I think I fell in love with the Papua Paradise Resort and my time there was coming to an end. Three more days to go....

We went to dive the P47-dive site where you can see a P47-plane.


Reef life if beautiful on that dive


Spent the surface break on Wai Island. It is inhabited and the little boy (maybe 2 years old) was a real cutie. There were lots of dogs who always came to find food when we arrived. Dex mostly fed them but a few of them were very thin.


I am amazed at how this nudi could hold up on things that just look like hair... guess there is no gravity under water.


Love these worms...


Transparent shrimp


Nudi


Crocodile fish


I LOVE the dark red clownfish....


Another nudi...


I found it funny how the seastar was sprawled out under the feather star...


Small pipefish


My home is my castle...

That evening we went for the dragonet-dive. The dragonets in Raja Ampat are very silimilar to mandarin fish. Unfortunately we didn't see any... that's nature...

What we found instead (although I really saw them only afterwards on the pics) were the transparent shrimp


The next day was my last full dive day in Raja Ampat. We went on an all day excursion again and it was a day full of surprises. I think I took the camera in the water only for 2 out of 4 dives that day. Let's start with the overwater stops. We went back to the 'honeymoon suite' (which is how we called the house on that deserted island).
Handry playing Sumo-wrestler (yeah, he knows he needs to eat more )


Love the colour of the water


And this is the honeymoon suite...


We made up the most creative breefing board that I have ever seen... For non-divers: before the dive you get an explanation of where you will go under water and what to expect. This here was for Cape Kri, a wonderful drift dive that I enjoyed a lot (no cam though).


After Cape Kri we went to Mioskon Island which is not inhabited either. It was saturday and indonesian families had come over to spend the day on the island too. When we arrived we saw something very impressing: thousands of flying foxes came out of the trees...




Our boat




After lunch we relaxed some and then we went back to Sardine's. Again not a lot of current so I took the cam in the water. I LOVE napoleon wrasses... (but the mackerels look spooky ).




Please - hold the line...


Lots of fish again


Although trigger fish are beautiful I go away when I see them. I know that they attack divers when they are breeding (and you never know if they are...)


Beautiful corals...




And then the swarm was all around me




When Mel and I came up we saw 4 blacktip reefsharks. This is the only one I got on a pic as they were too far away (not that I complain when sharks stay away from me... )


We went back to the resort afterwards. Since we hadn't found the dragonet the evening before and it was my last chance Dex and I went for the sunset dive. Found interesting things but again no dragonet. Well, one more reason to return next october...


Flatworms


Do you see the transparent shrimp?


This here is a very rare creature and when Dex found it he was obviously so happy that I thought he had found the dragonet. But no, this is a mushroom anemone pipefish. Actually there were two of them in that anemone but they are a bitch to take pics of...

The next morning I was able to do one last dive as my flight was only at 10 AM the next day.

Green Starfish


Nudi traffic


Shrimp with eggs


Not sure the nudi knew where it was going...






When everyone else went for the second dive I went into my hammock again. LOVED the hammock on the deck. After lunch I went to take some more pics of the resort. My home for two weeks..


The area behind... there is a stand from which you can watch birds.


They are planting a lof flowers right now...


The numbers on the boat indicate the number of the bungalow so if you see your number you know that you have to leave the main 'road'.




The jetty


The beach


The jetty again (and you can already see that the weather was changing)


So I wasn't really surprised when it started to rain. Happens when you are in the tropics.


Another beautiful sunset...


And now probably think I am drunk... nooooo. I was just not able to catch the fluorescence of the fish better. For next year I will have to find out how I can do that. This is the only pic I have that is not completely black. There was something in the water that reminded me of fireflies: it was glowing and then the glow disappeared. And I DID have a firefly outside of my moscito net one evening. I doubt it went in the water though. It was amazing to watch the glowing lights in the water, hadn't seen anything like that before....


Had to say my goodbyes to everyone after dinner as we had to leave at 5 AM the next morning. I went to my bungalow to pack my stuff. When I turned to go into my bathroom at some point I saw something green and big in the door staggering around. It was the size of a praying mantis but I don't think it was one. Since that insect was too big for my comfort zone I checked on my neighbour and he still had the light on. And he saved me by removing the 'beast'. Thanks again, Jim.

Went to bed happy that I had just spent two wonderful weeks in a beautiful and peaceful spot but sad that I had to leave....