In the Shadow of Manado Tua

Day 9 – Macro

• Gabet
• Wori Bay – Ebbing Tide
• Wori Bay – Flooding Tide

In a desperate attempt to put right the problems from yesterday we found ourselves back at Wori Bay to get those Leaf Scorpion fish but the first dive found us swimming through a blizzard of silt as the tide was ebbing. We quickly moved onto the reef area where we found another of the creatures I was keen to see – Mantis Shrimp. We found one sitting in its burrow and I very cautiously approached – I had heard they could easily smash a glass port but I had no idea how long there reach was. Clearly this was not a fully grown individual so I could get reasonably close.

These things are beautifully colored and have the most amazing, highly evolved eyes – this one was a ‘smasher’ and when it moved you could clearly see the highly calcified elbow that it used to hit its prey at lightening speed. And every time it did move, I jerked fearful that it would try and smash my lens port. Eventually I had taken enough photos and moved on relieved that my camera was still in one piece. I was to get the shock of my life from one of these later in the week.

On the third dive the pain returned and we surfaced slowly.

That evening, I spoke to a couple of the others at the centre and I learned that I had a sinus blockage. Bugger. I knew that I shouldn’t dive with the risk of a reverse blockage but I also know that I could be a stubborn so and so. Drugs would help.


Day 10 – Macro

• Tiwoho
• Popo

Only two dives today. Sinus trouble so didn’t push it with a third dive especially as tomorrow was a trip to Lembeh. Nothing would stop me doing that.


Day 11 – Macro

• Nudi Falls – Lembeh
• TK3 – Lembeh

I woke early and excited all ready for the trip to Lembeh, the legendary dive destination for macro photography. All manner of weird and wonderful creatures were waiting for me there. No corals, just black volcanic sand – pure muck diving heaven.

The dive centre had booked an MPV for the 90 minute drive across North Sulawesi and it was full of guests: Myself, Kieran (a Brit brought up in Perth) and a group of divers from Singapore, 6 fellas and 3 women. I had heard stories about their legendary diving abilities (note the heavy irony here) and was not looking forward to diving with them in potentially silty conditions. Nevertheless, there were enough divers for two boats and Kieran and myself found ourselves on the second boat – result.
Now I didn’t really know what to expect from topside Lembeh Strait but certainly didn’t expect a very busy port with literally hundreds of ships moored along the dockside and in the straits. It is not a good first impression but like many first impressions, it was totally deceptive. One little chuckle I did have on the journey came from two large towering silos with huge logos painted on the side proclaiming “Semen, Indonesia” – Wow, I thought, that’s one hell of an export. Other than that I didn’t see much as I jumped straight to the back of the MPV not wanting to see the driving.
Anyway, on arrival at the dock the crew set about loading the gear onto the two boats and we quickly drew an audience from the other ships nearby and a host of onlookers along the dock side. All just watching the activity. And then it became clear that they were also watching the three Singaporean girls who were very skimpily dressed and flaunting their, admittedly very attractive assets, around on the tops of the dive boats. For the crews of the ships – who probably spend a great deal of time at sea – this was ‘must see’ entertainment and they were going nowhere until we had pulled off.

Nudi Falls was surprising for two reasons. Firstly, because it actually had a wall and coral and secondly because we saw almost nothing except a rather large nudi at the end of the dive. Thankfully we didn’t see the other group but then even if we did there seemed to be nothing for them to silt-out. The next dive at TK3 would turn out to be the total opposite. Pain returned again but went during the surface interval.

TK3 was fantastic fun. Grubbing around in the black sand and coming across some freaky fish. It would have been exceptional had it not been for the fact that we saw everything through a cloud of black sand. You see, we were following the other group. We were clearly told in the briefing about keeping off the sand and being gentle so that you don’t kick anything up and ruin the viz. Now cue a group of nine divers finning up to a subject grabbing hold of whatever to come to a stop, slamming into the bottom, flash, flash, flash then fin like crazy to pull off and swim to the next subject. Yep, Kieran and I were following this around the site – consequently all the photos from this dive were all clouded with a black mist. Superb. Ah well, I’m sure I’d be back, this dive had really given me a taste for Lembeh and I wanted more.

Too much pain now. Tomorrow I would take a rest from diving and hope that things would settle down.


Day 12 – Macro

• Mike’s Point – Bunaken Island

This place was wall diving utopia. Breathtaking, with unbelievably clear water I wish I had brought the WA lens but I came to see Pygmy Seahorse. Unbelievably we found one where we didn’t expect to see one. I couldn’t get down below about 12 meters and about 20 minutes into the dive we found one on a fan coral and I spent ages taking about 50 photos of this thing – I knew I wouldn’t get too many other chances. The pain returned though and we had to surface. This time we hit the surface with blood in my mask. Damn and blast. That was the end of the diving that day and for the next day too. The day after that was a return trip to Lembeh and I wanted to be pain-free for those dives.


Day 13 – Macro

• Nudi Retreat – Lembeh
• TK3 – Lembeh

Today we were retuning to Lembeh and I had high hopes. The previous group of divers had long gone and today the group was made up of a much more experienced group, 4 from Thailand (including an Ozzie) and two guys from Singapore (both of whom were good fun) we were also joined by Priscilla who was working at the dive centre helping design their new live aboard (remind me to tell you about that – it looks set to become an awesome boat). I had been warned about one of the group nicknamed 747 for his ‘approach, landing and take off’ ability. It was up to me to identify him – it turned out to be very easy indeed.

The diving was just excellent with far too many ‘goodies’ to see to concentrate and spend time on just one. I was like a kiddie in a sweet shop. The group didn’t kick up too much sand I thought and then, just as I was settling down to ‘capture’ a nice frogfish, 747 suddenly revealed himself. I was grabbed on the shoulder as our mysterious sand kicker came steaming in and had to hold me to stop. He pulled out a neat little video camera and proceeded to film despite the fact I was ready to shoot. I waited patiently for him to go and finally he put away his video cam and then whipped out a stills digicam. I was dumbfounded and sat waiting for him to take his snaps and bugger off, which he eventually did in a swirl of black sand. I hadn’t managed to take single photo in that time and now I had the now familiar black sand fog in front of me. Ho Hum.

End of the first dive and I hadn’t had any pain but now we had to surface. I knew from previous dives that I had to be careful over the last 6m and particularly the last metre. I slowly ascended and to my relief no pain and I could feel my sinuses equalizing. I surfaced, no pain at all but a little blood in my mask. No worries, blood I could handle. The second dive was on as was the rest of my diving holiday.


Day 14 – Macro

• Aba Point
• Siladen
• Posi Posi – House Reef

Today the currents were switched on. Not ideal for macro photography although it turns out, much to my pleasure, that Aba Point has excellent muck diving at the far end of the wall in a sandy area.

Today the last dive was to be done at dusk to see the Mandarin Fish. The resort and dive centre is blessed with a number of house reefs that are home to these incredibly beautiful fish. They are very skittish though and trying to take the ultimate picture of them mating requires a PhD in patience. We dropped in at about 5:30 and made our way to the fields of staghorn coral where the Mandarins were to be found. Once there it’s a matter of waiting for the fish to come out of the depths of the coral and start to find each other. Once they’ve done that they start to coyly check each other out and then suddenly they come together and side by side they rise slowly out of the coral and in that moment you have the chance to take a picture. Only, its not easy, there is very little ambient light and so you need a focus light. Problem is, if you shine a torch on them they disappear back into the coral and you don’t have a shot.

So there we were, (myself, Priscilla, Carlene, Kieran and the guide, Andy) all crowded around one small patch of coral. We had been waiting for 40 minutes for two of the four potential candidates to get it on and come up out of the coral. Eventually, as the light was fading to nothing, they made their move and started to rise. Andy, with his fingers over his torch, allowed a slight beam of light to fall on them to help my auto focus. I already had the camera to my eye and pressed the shutter release to focus and shoot but they were disturbed by my movement and shot straight back down. This was to happen several times and each time everybody would visibly go “ah, damn”.

Then, finally, it happened.

The fish came together and started to rise. Andy let a small faint beam of light play across the fishes bodies and I was ready, moving closer I cracked off a shot and moved back as the fish darted back into shelter. I knew I had something and looked into the LCD to see the two fish captured as I’d seen them. I turned to the others and raised my fists in a cheers and everybody followed suit all silently cheering. Then, it happened again, the fish rose and I managed to get closer before cracking of another shot and this time the LCD revealed another better picture “Yesssss”. We all cheered again – we hadn’t spent over 40 minutes hovering over one spot for nothing and we were all dead pleased. Having got the photo, and considering that we had disturbed the poor fish more than enough, we headed back to the boat after what must have been our least active 90 minutes underwater. Several celebratory Bintangs were consumed that evening.