The plan was to travel to Lembeh by boat and do two more dives en route, however the weather was still too rough for the itinerary and arrangements were made to travel to Bitung by road then take the boat across to Lembeh.
I was okay with this and decided to have a day off from diving to give my ears a rest as I had already done 17 dives since we arrived in N. Sulawesi. Yanni and Joe however wanted to do another dive and this was arranged near the drop off point while I had a snooze.
Yanni, Oce and Joe after the last dive before heading to Lembeh
The drive to Bitung took over two hours in rather mountainous territory and then once at the beach near Tanderusa we waited for the Lembeh Resort boat to come and pick us up. The crossing takes around 10 to 15 minutes and we arrived to a new welcoming party since Ana and Miguel had now left and the new managers were Morton and Petra. We also met Kristine who had been at Murex Manado when we were at Lembeh last year, and of course our requested guide Iwan, who had been great with Yanni last year.
Our accommodation
We were also in time for lunch and an afternoon dive which I decided to go on as I had now been out of the water for over 24 hours.
After being shown to our rooms and the dive gear sorted out we had a superb lunch. Lembeh Resort and the dive op Critters @ Lembeh are run separately. The dive op is the jewel in Murexs crown, this is well set up and run by Sasha and Lauren who unfortunately were on holiday, but suitably managed by Julz in their absence and of course they have a resident marine biologist Dimpy, who will find out what any critter is if you cannot identify it.
The camera room is also one of the best that I have used too, plenty of space, as well as lighting and plenty of sockets and adaptors for all types of plugs (US/EU/UK).
The afternoon dive was at the house reef and we found a peacock mantis shrimp with eggs, as well as many juvenile sweetlips, which are really difficult to focus on, especially when using manual focus.
I also discovered that Yanni, Joe and I were to be sharing the following days boats with the Saffers that we had met in Bangka, however a quick word with Julz and Iwan and that was soon changed, and from then on we dived with a group of three elderly Americans, well they were older than me
We had Iwan as our guide and they had Jhoe.
Subsequent dives were amazing with plenty of nudis, frogfish, ghost pipe fish etc., but the best dive was certainly the night dive where we found two bobbitt worms as well as two stargazers however the most exciting find was .. scroll down a bit to find out
And here is the best find
two bonking blue rings
Sadly, all good things come to an end, and after four days diving (I had extended the first and last sectors by an additional day - Manado and Lembeh), we left Lembeh to move on to Siladen.
Julz, Petra and Morton
The total cost of the Passport to Paradise was USD4,762 for two of us sharing over 11 nights, and I personally did 26 dives during that period, I think Yanni did around 24 dives.
Would I do it again?
Probably not, bearing in mind that this is originally set for 9 days and with all the changes in accommodation over the short period of time it was too much like the business trips I frequently do for work, although I did not break down either of the two housings once I had set them up in Manado. When we were leaving Lembeh I really wished we were staying on for the additional 4 days and not moving on to Siladen even though our friends Ana and Miguel were now there and the water was going to be warmer.
Water temperatures during the trip were around 28C in Manado to 27/28C at Bangka and a chilly 25/26C at Lembeh, and doing several dives per day requires a decent wetsuit. Unfortunately my Fourth Element 3mm Proteus had not arrived in time and I had to make do with an old Mares 3:2:2 with a Fourth Element Thermocline Explorer under it plus a hood.
In retrospect one week at Lembeh and one week at Manado or Bangka would have worked better with only one move, however it would have been disastrous if we had gone to Bangka after Lembeh at this time due to the weather.
Leaving Lembeh for the long journey by road back to Manado and another boat trip to Siladen.
And yes, all of that gear is for only two of us
I was okay with this and decided to have a day off from diving to give my ears a rest as I had already done 17 dives since we arrived in N. Sulawesi. Yanni and Joe however wanted to do another dive and this was arranged near the drop off point while I had a snooze.
Yanni, Oce and Joe after the last dive before heading to Lembeh
The drive to Bitung took over two hours in rather mountainous territory and then once at the beach near Tanderusa we waited for the Lembeh Resort boat to come and pick us up. The crossing takes around 10 to 15 minutes and we arrived to a new welcoming party since Ana and Miguel had now left and the new managers were Morton and Petra. We also met Kristine who had been at Murex Manado when we were at Lembeh last year, and of course our requested guide Iwan, who had been great with Yanni last year.
Our accommodation
We were also in time for lunch and an afternoon dive which I decided to go on as I had now been out of the water for over 24 hours.
After being shown to our rooms and the dive gear sorted out we had a superb lunch. Lembeh Resort and the dive op Critters @ Lembeh are run separately. The dive op is the jewel in Murexs crown, this is well set up and run by Sasha and Lauren who unfortunately were on holiday, but suitably managed by Julz in their absence and of course they have a resident marine biologist Dimpy, who will find out what any critter is if you cannot identify it.
The camera room is also one of the best that I have used too, plenty of space, as well as lighting and plenty of sockets and adaptors for all types of plugs (US/EU/UK).
The afternoon dive was at the house reef and we found a peacock mantis shrimp with eggs, as well as many juvenile sweetlips, which are really difficult to focus on, especially when using manual focus.
I also discovered that Yanni, Joe and I were to be sharing the following days boats with the Saffers that we had met in Bangka, however a quick word with Julz and Iwan and that was soon changed, and from then on we dived with a group of three elderly Americans, well they were older than me
We had Iwan as our guide and they had Jhoe.Subsequent dives were amazing with plenty of nudis, frogfish, ghost pipe fish etc., but the best dive was certainly the night dive where we found two bobbitt worms as well as two stargazers however the most exciting find was .. scroll down a bit to find out
And here is the best find
two bonking blue rings
Sadly, all good things come to an end, and after four days diving (I had extended the first and last sectors by an additional day - Manado and Lembeh), we left Lembeh to move on to Siladen.
Julz, Petra and Morton
The total cost of the Passport to Paradise was USD4,762 for two of us sharing over 11 nights, and I personally did 26 dives during that period, I think Yanni did around 24 dives.
Would I do it again?
Probably not, bearing in mind that this is originally set for 9 days and with all the changes in accommodation over the short period of time it was too much like the business trips I frequently do for work, although I did not break down either of the two housings once I had set them up in Manado. When we were leaving Lembeh I really wished we were staying on for the additional 4 days and not moving on to Siladen even though our friends Ana and Miguel were now there and the water was going to be warmer.
Water temperatures during the trip were around 28C in Manado to 27/28C at Bangka and a chilly 25/26C at Lembeh, and doing several dives per day requires a decent wetsuit. Unfortunately my Fourth Element 3mm Proteus had not arrived in time and I had to make do with an old Mares 3:2:2 with a Fourth Element Thermocline Explorer under it plus a hood.
In retrospect one week at Lembeh and one week at Manado or Bangka would have worked better with only one move, however it would have been disastrous if we had gone to Bangka after Lembeh at this time due to the weather.
Leaving Lembeh for the long journey by road back to Manado and another boat trip to Siladen.
And yes, all of that gear is for only two of us
