Siau - a pristine destination off the beaten track

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Immeriswas

Contributor
Messages
123
Reaction score
97
Location
Germany
# of dives
200 - 499
After 2 years absence, Indonesia was calling us again.Finishing 12 days in Lembeh ( see the report below ) ,we took the fast ferry from Manado. 4 hours of smooth ride with nice views into the archepilago north of Bangka.
In Ulu, the little Siau habour town, we checked in the "Little house " guesthouse ,400 m from the harbour.
Basic rooms with good matrasses and - surprisingly - the best AC we ever had: silent and effective without blowing your hair away.
Breakfast is Indonesian style , but we asked for fruit and omlet - no problem. So together with selfbrought oats and milk it was okay for us.
For a bit more comfort, but still not really fancy, you could try Hotel Jakarta up the road.

The Limangu Dive Center is run by Harry, who worked as a dive guide in many different locations in North Sulawesi as well on liveaboards, which went to this islands, and so discovered the potential here.
His daughter Nadya does the adminastrative work and - as divemaster herself - also helping out, if there are more than 6 guests.
They pick you up at the guesthouse around 8am (or later if you prefer) and drive with a pick up van to the boat, which either lays in Ulu or , if the sea is calm and allows the diving at the west side of the island, in Pehe the harbour on the other side. The drive over to there takes about 25 minutes.
The dive boat is spacy with a toilet, camera basin and a place for the things, which are to stay dry. 6 Divers fit comfortable, 8 would be the maximum to my point of view.
Nitrox is not available nor a big tank (what I - always finishing the dives with 50bar less than my wife - missed a bit )
Dives are kind of limited to 60 minutes, although the shallow muck dives for example went to 80 or 90 min.
The rental gear is in good condition and the 11 l tanks always well filled - often with 220 or 230 bar.
Two guest per guide.
On the West Coast the sites are mainly colourful and very healthy walls with huge sponges, seafans, soft coral and a lot of small reef fishes as well as the small stuff like nudis, crab etc.
The places have all a different appearance. Some just sheer drop , some with caves, swim thru, overhangs, hot underwaterwells, canyons or a slope in between .
For the one of the best walls I have dived so far.
A deep ( 35-45m ) ferry wreck lays south of Pehe and due to the good visibility a great sight. You can swim thru and ,if the bottom time allows, around as well.
Big fish or great schools are not so abundand- you notice that the people there live from fishing.
Some napoleon, makarel, barakuda, bumphead and a few turtle.
The visibility was the best we ever had on all our Indonesia trips. 30 to 40 m on nearly every dive.
Even at the muck sites under or near the Pehe and Ulu pier it was 25 and more.
Muckdiving is comparable to Lembeh or Ambon in aspect of the black sand, rubbel and rubbish.
We saw many different critters, but not the numbers per dive you get at the places mentioned before.
The few dives we did on the East Coast were slope or muck.
If the weather is calm the trip to Mahoro island - it is supposed to have the third most scenic beach in Indonesia - and Makalehi island, which won a Solarpower plant for beeing the cleanest village in the country, is definitively worth the extra charge.
Great walls, caves and a place with chance of big fish ( we saw a barracuda tornado with arround 200 species )

The absolut highlight for me is the underwater vulcano Mahangetang.
After 2 hours boatride to the north it comes up to 5 meters below the surface and the topography reminds me a bit of " Lord of the Rings" places. Drop off, canyons, old vulcano slote looking like towers ,outreaching ridges.
Difficult to place the impression into words. Even the pictures dont give you the atmosphere. Visibility again 40+. The safety stop is at the still active bubble field with hot water wells and many pearling cracks.
We did 2 dives there and during the surface Intervall, the snorkeling right in front of Mahangetang island shows, how healthy the reef in this area are. Almost no plastic on the reef! !

The prices for the diving are quite reasonable ( a link to their web page below) and Nadya is working on their webpage to make the costs for the boatrides more transparent.
The most exspensive ones are to Mahangetang and Tangulangang Island, where is a big underwater lava Flow and a impressive wreck in only 15m depht. ( We mist that due to the weather - rough sea.)
These trips are around 350 $ per boat.
The other trips are according to the length of the ride.

Currents we often slight to medium never strong - the reef hook went back home unused. Once a bit of downcurrent (Mahoro island ). Some places totally calm - a photographers delight.

About my plans to do some " Black Water Diving " :
Harry did not offer it at the moment , but promised to get the gear together, so next time.....

Because there are only very few sandy and accesable beaches on Siau itself, snorkeling, which we normally enjoy a lot was limited to the surface Intervall.
The Kalea Beach resort near the under construction airport, which will open 2020, has a nice beach, but so far I heard no nice reef.
And to stay there makes diving due to the distance a bit more unconvenient.
So I ended up doing 3 dives a day rather than the 2 of my "normal resort stay amount" at places with a nice housereef for snorkeling - like Salibay 2017.

As to the topside two things are quite exceptional: the endemic Tarsius and the very active vulcano Karangetang.
The little cute mamal was easy to spot and unbelievable patient ( see the pictures with a Sony compact camera! )
At night you could watch the red lavaflow/rolling huge lava pieces. I would have liked to get closer, but there was a safety perimeter from 700 m to the end of the lavaflow.
The last time somebody has been to the top of the double peaked mountain is more than 4 years ago. That's how active he is!

Being there at the end of the dry season, we had nearly no mosquito and only one day rain in 2 weeks.
In all we liked Siau so much, that it is the first destination in Indonesia (been there 7 times at about 13 different places ), we are planning to return to.
Two reasons : first the pristine underwater world . We both love colour and intact reef as well as small things more than big fish ( maybe because the landscape is definitively in place on every dive )
Second because of Limangu Dive Center, which offers the best service with a relaxed atmosphere.
Harry organized the land progam (tour to the Tarsius as well as thenight session for the lavaflow) as well as dinner for the guests.
He even lend me his strobe the whole 14 days, as I told him my mishap in Lembeh.

For more information this are two links

Limangu Dive

https://www.limangudiving.com/

Youtube video of guesthouse Little house


Hope you like the report ,even if it is a bit too long maybe ,and excuse my English( no automatic correction Software ,Sorry ).

Feel free to ask any questions.

Some pictures on flikr

P. Lie


 
Great trip report.
Looks like a really interesting spot!!
40m viz!!! In Indo!!! Wow!!
That is one active volcano...hope your travel insurance covers you near active volcanoes!!

Would you suggest a LOB would be the way to see this area or stay on land?
 
I would say a LOB is definatly a way to explore this quite big area.
We both are not too great fans of LOB , because there have been too many times , that one of us could not dive due to various illnesses.
And in that case the LOB could be not only a bit boring but although a lost of money ( they are quite exspensive compared at least to our way of landside vacation)
Therefore we always prefer a landbased dive vacation, where are normally more alternatives.
Like in Lembeh where my wife missed a whole week due to ear infection, but at least could visit Tangkoko NP , the Tomohon Highlands and other sights.
 
Awesome trip report, thanks for sharing!
I find that it is always exciting to get out a bit further from the better known locations. The diving might or might not be better, but the overall experience tend to be very fulfilling regardless. In this case it seems the diving was great, Siau is on my list!
 

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