Raja Ampat 1 - Raja Ampat 2 - Bunaken - Lembeh
Lembeh
After the two morning dives I went on the boat to
leave Bunaken. We went over to Manado...
At the harbour
And then we saw this bus...
On the road over to the other side of Sulawesi Island
A couple of pics from the resort on the Island of Lembeh (it is only a couple of
minutes boat ride over to Sulawesi mainland). The resident baby lizard once I
had a bungalow in that resort as well - same problem with mix up in booking of
the room....
View from the bungalow over to Sulawesi mainland
The resort
And now underwater... Lembeh Strait is known for the strange creatures that you
can find there. I have the impression that for all fish that exist they have a
hairy and/or a pgymy version of it. It is pretty amazing what you can find there.
Lots of the creatures are poisonous though and since a lot of them are very good
in camouflage too it is a good idea to be careful...
Two pygmy seahorses
Liked how the fish took on the same colour as the sponge
Hairy ghostpipefish
Swarm of cathfish (and this shows why visibility was not good close to them
).
Not sure what exactly this is (fish, yes, bit don't know which one)
Fireworm
Orang Utan crab
mimic octopous
Baby coconut octopus
Pufferfish
Pregnant shrimp in bubble coral
Little fish on a whip coral
Colourful nudi
Pygmy lionfish
Eggs of a flamboyant cuttlefish - you can already see how it will look like
Adult flamboyant cuttlefish
Ambon scorpionfish
Upside down jellyfish
Dragonet
Babies everywhere...
Nudi
Mantis shrimp - I stay away from them because they can jump out of their wholes
with 100km/h and they are VERY strong...
Looks like the are kissing, right?
I find them really cute...
And a yellow one...
Something interesting going on outside?
Lembeh seadragon - looks a little bit like pygmy seahorses but it is longer and
has antennae on it's back
Love the texture...
nice starfish
White frogfish
This crab was very tiny...
Robust ghostpipefish
Two nice nudis...
And that pygmy cuttlefish was maybe 3 or 4 cm long...
Leaf fish/Schaukelfisch
Spider crab
Different spider crab
I think this is a white V octopus
Mototi octopus (one of the rarer species)
Little crab. In reality it was maybe 1 cm long
The mantis shrimp in the most common colours
Demon stinger
Have to look u pthe name of that one as well - forgot, sorry
Ambon scorpionfish - can you see how well this is hidden? I had to look several
times before I saw it
Stargazer snake eel
Nudi
Kauri shell
Never saw a seahrose in this 'typical' position before.
Emperor shrimp
Frogfish
Murray eel
This cutie was about 2 cm long... really small.
Frogfish who.....
walked over to a banded shrimp. Idiot me didn't stay to see if there was a fight
between them *argh*
Robust ghotspipefish (two)
This floudner seems to have a crab leg in it's mouth
Banga cardinal fish
I guess this is a snake eel too
This one is missing an eye
The finger is just so you have a comparison at how small the seahorse is
Pregnant shrimp on a whip coral
Hairy frogfish with a half open mouth. Let me tell you something at this point.
Last year I saw a similar hairy frogfish at the same dive site. This year I
heard that dive guides fed it because underwater photographers wanted to have a
pic of it with the mouth open. There was a meeting of the Lembeh dive guides to
talk about this because it was obvious that this was not good for the fish. It
died anyway. So if you read this: PLEASE do respect the nature and don't mess
with it just for a picture.
Polonaise
Trying out fishportraits again
Ugly seacucumber
Hairy orang utah crab
Coconut octopus
Ghostpipefish again
Another nice nudi
Teenage clown sweetlip
Mandarin fish girl
Pipefish duo
Mating mandarin fish
Hermkit crab
Since it was my last day I could decide where to go. I hadn't been too happy
with the dives of the day before (especially the mandarin dive was not good
since there were too many divers there - due to shops not sticking to the
schedule that had been set up in order to avoid these crowds). So I asked if we
could go back to the flamboyant cuttlefish eggs. Which is where we went for the
first dive...
Why do the legs remind me of a beard?
Balloonfish
Another coconut octopus. This was a really funny one as it lowered the shell and
in the end it looked like a turtle to me.
And this is the first hairy frogfish that I FOUND MYSELF!!! *yeehhaaawww* But
only because I put my stick close to it and therefore it moved. At first I
thought it was a scorpionfish but then I had a closer look and saw what it was.
So it was 'ding, ding, ding' at my tank.
I need to add that the day before we had been looking invane for a couple of
things. Like giant and hairy frogfish but we didn't find them. For the second
dive we went back to the dive site that by now is probably famous for it's hairy
frogfish. And we found this one...
And that one. We didn't find the big one again.
Snake eel
Mimic octopus trying to fake a lionfish...
And then the dives were over and I had to dry my equipment for the dive back
home. Since that day I was diving for the last day I went in the water although
my ears were hurting. Bad idea... The next morning I finished packing and at 10
AM after I had said my goodbyes to everyone I went on the the boat towards
Bitung. Last glance at the resort.
Fisherman
Eiffel tower in Bitung
And a fountain (not sure there is water in it) in Bitung...
At the airport I checked in and it was business 'as usual'. Flight to Singapore
was uneventful but I was in pain. So as soon as we arrived in Singapore I went
to the clinic in the Transit Area and was given antibiotics and strong pain meds
for my ears. That helped (no pain in my ears but a stomach in uproar for the
rest of the trip... ). Arrived in Frankfurt, got my luggage, took the train and
- was home again after 4 weeks.
As a final remark I would like to say that once again I had a wonderful time in
Indonesia. I loved the Papua Paradise resort and loved the underwater world in
Sulawesi. People in Indonesia are just sooo friendly and unspoiled by tourism (yet).
And I met a lot of interesting and nice people who were my companions for part
of my trip. I would like to thank all of them because they made my trip very
special.
THE END...