Trip report and pictures from Lembeh

[John Gulliver]

Eight Swedish friends and I came home from Lembeh (Indonesia) last Thursday after 10 days’ no-limit diving in Lembeh Strait, one of the best “muck-diving” places in the world. We stayed at Dutch-owned Divers’Lodge Lembeh, on Lembeh Island, which I can thoroughly recommend. It probably offers the best value for money in the area – comfortable two-bed bungalows in beautiful surroundings with hot showers and proper toilets, varied and plentiful meals and diving service that is hard to beat, with a maximum of four divers per boat and two divers per guide. The guides are simply wonderful. Just tell them what you want to see/photograph on each dive and they will find it for you nine times out of ten. Without them, we wouldn’t have seen a tenth of the creatures they found for us. We flew from Copenhagen with Singapore Airlines to Singapore, with a 24-hour stopover on the way out, and from there to Manado with Silk Air. Our travel agent had arranged a special deal for excess luggage for us – take up to 15 kilos (over and above the standard 20 kilos plus hand luggage) and pay for 6 kilos. The check-in staff interpreted this generously and we ended up paying £70 each on the way out, nothing on the return flight, which we thought was quite OK. All in all, this was probably my best trip so far.
Those who are interested can see my u/w photos (all taken with a Nikonos V) here: SmugMug - johngulliver's photo galleries The most convenient way to view them is to click Slideshow in the top right-hand corner of each gallery. The whole gallery then takes from 30 to 90 seconds to view. There are six galleries altogether.

[Pen Simon]

Nice images John!

We stayed in Manado in 2001 at the Tasik Ria on the other side of the island, but had a day in the Lambeh Strait - here are a couple of grabs from the video I shot - the first one was amazing - it was strobing light!

[triplefin]

Some lovely shots John. Love the harlequin shrimp and the shots of the pygmy seahorse and snake eel that were not your usual ones taken in profile that are so common, nice to see a different angle.

A wonderful place to go and one that is very high on my 'to do' list. Absolutley a fabulous place particularly as I love macro stuff.

[John Gulliver]

Thanks, Jane. Yes, Lembeh is a fabulous place for macro. We were there for three days in 2001, in connection with a trip to Bunaken (Froggies), and it definitely left us wanting more, so we went back to explore the area more thoroughly.

[Finless]

John,

Glad you enjoyed the trip.

Are there any wrecks there?

Bryan

[John Gulliver]

Originally Posted by Finless

John,

Glad you enjoyed the trip.

Are there any wrecks there?

Bryan

Yes, there are a couple of Japanese WW II wrecks but I didn't dive them. It's the muck-diving that made Lembeh Strait legendary in diving and u/w photo circles. I'm sure there are many better places for wreck divers - I was about to write people that cannot survive a week without seeing rusty scrap metal .

[Finless]

Originally Posted by John Gulliver

Yes, there are a couple of Japanese WW II wrecks but I didn't dive them. It's the muck-diving that made Lembeh Strait legendary in diving and u/w photo circles. I'm sure there are many better places for wreck divers - I was about to write people that cannot survive a week without seeing rusty scrap metal .

Have you tried diving in the English Channel off Dover/Ry/Hastings - nothing but muck!

[yazzyfooty]

Can someone tell me what muck diving is please?

[John Gulliver]

Originally Posted by yazzyfooty

Can someone tell me what muck diving is please?

Muck-diving is diving over what looks like a mucky bottom, often with a fair bit of trash - beer cans, bottles etc. In the case of Lembeh Strait, the bottom is volcanic sand. At first sight, it looks as though you're wasting your time diving there but you soon realise that it is home to some really amazing animals and every beer can, bottle etc is occupied by some fish or other creature. There are also excellent muck-diving areas further south on the west coast of Sulawesi and in various parts of PNG but Lembeh Strait is probably the best-known place for muck-diving.

[Lou]

So you enjoyed yourself again then!? Lembeh remains on my list of tops spots to visit. Maybe 2008!