After a week in Indonesia diving Manado, Lembeh and Bunaken, all I can say is WOW!!! I have been diving for twelve years now and have travelled all around the world for diving and I can honestly say that the majority of the critters that I saw in the week I spent at Manado, were a first for me. Indonesia makes up what is known as The Coral Triangle along with the Philippines and Papua New Guinea. The Coral Triangle is said to be the most biodiverse area on this planet, meaning that there is more life both above and below water here than anywhere in the world. I have now seen this with my own eyes and can honestly say, it was AMAZING!!!
There were pygmy seahorses everywhere and for those that haven’t seen one (yet) these things are smaller than the nail on your pinky! Absolutely amazing creatures. If you thought that was small though, there were also a variety of smaller, different coloured coral crabs and shrimps that were found on coral whips, feather stars, tube coral, fan coral, in between little cracks, everywhere! We also saw flamboyant cuttlefish, regular cuttlefish, and giant cuttlefish. There were clams big enough for a diver to sit inside, ones not bigger than your hand and even electric clams. Not to mention the boxer crab, endless turtles, regular seahorses, mating mandarin fish, pipefish, octopi, nudibrachs, nudibranchs, nudibranchs, nudibranchs, nudibranchs, frogfish, hairy frogfish, flying fish, and the spectacular reef walls and corals of Bunaken itself.
All in all, it was a photographers dream and a divers playground. From muck dives to wall dives the water was a balmy 29 degrees, the vis was a constant 40m and there was virtually no current. Thank you to all of the divers who joined me for this week away and I look forward to the adventures we have lined up together for next year!
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