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The month of August 2006 brought us a lot of excitement and surprises. The water temperature seldom went higher than 27 degrees Celsius and sometimes we had to put extra protection such as head-masks because of the lower temperatures. Even when driving the boat we (local people) needed to put on more than just our swimming clothes because of the wind chill. After all, we are used to the very tropical 35 degree Celsius here!
This month was an exceptionally good month for baby critters, it seems for many species the breeding season just finished and now Lembeh Strait is blooming with young new life. We are very glad to know that this bloom of life illustrates how healthy the waters in Lembeh still are!
Even though our resort isn’t completely finished yet (we’re now finishing up with the final rooms), we are already having guests from all over the world. Just this month we had exciting guests from Germany, Poland, America and off course, Indonesia. Either Bernard or I went with them on dive trips where we often came across rare species unique to the strait.
The Bungert family from Germany especially had fun Muck diving or floating above black-sand bottoms looking at all the strange creatures of this strait. I especially enjoyed the times when I was snorkelling with their kids Paul and Emma along Nudi Retreat looking at the very colourful coral formations, Nudi branches, mantis shrimps, juvenile bat fish and all the other unique marine species.
Roy was very active with his camera, and I am sure he is extremely happy for the modern wonders of digital cameras. Surly he would have run out of film very long before the end of their dive trip in Lembeh. Judith became very well trained with her eyes and proved herself when se spotted a very well camouflaged Twisted Body Clown Frogfish in Hairball dive site. You can see some of their excellent photos on our website gallery under the Guest’s album.
On one very beautiful sunny morning we were diving in Jahir Bay and were lucky to find a shy Hairy Octopus in Bernard’s shade. As soon as it realized that we spotted it, it instantly changed its body, shape, texture and colour in order to mimic a coral branch! Soon after we were fascinated by a long arm Wonderpus, when in a flash it was eaten by a naughty Flounder.
We were all very hopefull of reaching Bangka to dive around its well renowned pinnacles. Unfortunately right after our BBQ lunch (among fantastic island scenery) the weather acted against us and we had to head back to the mainland as fast as possible. The weather became quite windy and we had to face large waves and a very rocky boat all the way to the nearest harbour. Needless to say, the kids were all excited on this “Rolercoaster Ride” and we older, more experienced people, were only considering the emergency steps should the boat capsize! Fortunately we reached safe harbour and fond our way back to the resort over land in a sturdy car.
In the middle of the month we were diving with our Australian/American guests who are presently living in Jakarta. One evening we took them to our “New Spot” and found dozens of Mandarin fish. I think they were probably surprised to see divers for the first time in their life, a bit shy in the beginning but soon mating in their entertaining dance of love. During this amazing theatre we saw a few Saron shrimp and a very beautiful blue Nudibranch with split back, which we haven’t seen before in the strait.
In the last days of August we had divers from my country – Poland! Unfortunately their visit was very short and we couldn’t show them everything. However, we dit get to show them some Baby Thorn Seahorses, Clown Frogfishes and other critters unique to Lembeh at Jahir Dive-site.
We also went to climb the towering Mahawu Volcano in Tomohon, which gave our trained underwater, high-pressure muscles a thorough workout at high altitudes and tropical heat. When we reached the highest safe point the view was definitely worth-while and al the efforts of climbing seemed to vanish. To stand 1,300 meters above sea level and look all around North Sulawesi with clear skies was truly an amazing experience, especially the sight of Manado Tua Island, Bunaken National Marine Park, Manado City & Tondano Lake. Knowledge that just 300m higher was the crater of a still dormant volcano added a sense of thrilling accomplishment to our journey.
Now it’s the new month of September and we have more hills to climb, dive sites to explore, seas to conquer and guests to tantalize, so I’m off and hope to have you joining us on our next excursions soon!
Julia Socha
www.bakricono.com
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