Pygmy Seahorse There are various places in the world that are renowned as muck diving locations; I always considered Milne Bay Papua New Guinea as one of the ultimate muck diving locations, having returned there for four live aboard diving trips. But when people kept talking about Kungkungan Bay Resort in North Sulawesi Indonesia and all of the weird and wonderful critters they were finding, I figured I better check this out.
Pygmy Seahorse Getting to Indonesia from the United States involves traveling to one of the gateway cities of Los Angeles or San Francisco and then going on to Singapore, either directly or through another city like Hong Kong or Tokyo. While United Airlines is able to do part of this travel, I opted to fly with American Airlines to San Francisco and their partner airlines, Singapore Airlines for the remainder. This was my first experience with Singapore Airlines and it was a very pleasant one indeed with a nice plane with excellent amenities such as video "on demand". The administrative and operations personnel were very courteous and flights were on time. No hassles with baggage despite camera gear of 52 lbs and dive gear of 68 lbs as well as a carryon that was of legal size. Once in Singapore, it is a short three hour flight via Singapore Airlines' partner Silk Air to Manado but it is likely that there will be a layover of some number of hours because the domestic flights are not synchronized with the international flights. (Recently, Silk Air reduced the number of flights to Manado to Saturday and Monday which makes getting there a bit more difficult). I heartily recommend staying in the transit hotel for this layover period; it is inexpensive, well run, and very comfortable and quiet. This means that you do not have to recover your bags and do not have to go through immigration or customs in Singapore saving time and energy.
Frogfish
The airport in Manado, while more modern that that of a typical third world country, is still relatively small despite resembling that of a small town in the U.S. It is fairly well organized, clean (bathrooms better than most out of the way places), and efficiently run. Surprisingly, customs opened one of my bags for inspection; not surprisingly they chose my camera case. While there was no real hassle with this, it was unusual none the less from customs in most other locations except Guam. Once in Manado, there is a bumpy but interesting 1.5 hour drive to the resort. After seemingly endless travel, it was a welcome sight to see Merilyn, one of the staff at KBR with our names on a sign.
KBR is located on the Lembeh Straits, a waterway with frequent ship and boat traffic ranging from outrigger canoes to Indonesian warships. Due to the tides, currents in the strait can be absolutely fierce but this transport of nutrients provides an environment for marine animals that is exceptional. The rise and fall of tides is clearly visible as are the currents.
The resort itself is composed of a number of cottages and "houses" that are roomy and comfortable. They are
Unusual Mantis Shrimp
centered around a central administrative center/dining room area which is well lighted, large, and able to comfortably accommodate the resort guests even when the resort is full. The dining area borders the water providing interesting views of the boat and ship traffic as well as an opportunity to feed the fish. Neither the houses and cottages nor the dining room are air conditioned, making hot days a challenge for the ceiling fans. Power was fairly but not totally reliable. Power at the resort is 220 volts but the camera room near the dive area has both 220 volt as well as 110 volts for battery charging purposes. The camera room is large, clean, secure and able to handle more cameras than were present at the resort during our stay. Towels in the camera room are clean but a bit linty.
Leaf Scorpion Fish
The resort is well laid out with living and dining accommodations for nearly thirty people. The staff at KBR is exceptionally friendly and desirous of pleasing the guests despite the fact that tipping is not allowed at the resort. On the other hand, donations of $20 or so to the party fund are gladly accepted and are appreciated by the staff as the party is for all staff including both those who deal with guests as well as behind the scenes workers such as maids, maintenance and gardening staff.
The diving operation uses three relatively fast boats which make travel to the 29 dive sites a matter of a 5-15 minute boat ride. The slower dive boat accommodates 6 divers semi-comfortably (remember there are boat people and dive guides in addition to the guests) while the faster boats accommodate 8 divers. All boats are crowded at their maximum capacity but not unbearably so. All boat dives are one tank dives. Shore diving is available when tides, and hence currents, allow. There is pretty good shore diving right off the boat dock featuring blue ring octopus, pygmy seahorses, etc.
The dive operation was designed and set up by Larry Smith, a world renowned dive master of Cehili fame. When we were there, however, Larry was in his last few days at the resort; he is off to setup and run a live aboard operation out of Bali with a boat similar to the Pindito. As the dive guides are well trained I doubt that the diving operation will suffer greatly in Larry's absence.
"Normal" Mantis
Shrimp Due to the tides, currents in the Lembeh straits can be fierce; this means that there are only three boat dives scheduled per day. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, boat dives are scheduled for 8:15, 10:45, and 2:45. To facilitate being able to have lunch the wait staff comes to the dive area to collect your food order, having it on the table about 45 minutes later. On Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday, dives are at 9:30 and 2:45 with boat night dives available if desired. Most nights have shore night dives available as the tides allow.
Clown FrogfishWater in the Lembeh Strait was mostly warm, about 82 degrees Fahrenheit, but in other seasons or occasionally at certain tides, the temperature can plunge to 76 F. Visibility at the muck diving sites is around 30 linear feet or sometimes less, and at the reef diving sites, can range from 50 feet to 80 feet. Wide angle photography is not very feasible with rare exceptions and photography in general is difficult because the bottom is very silty. There is, quite honestly, a lot of trash in the area. If this bothers you, don't go as it is obvious and not uncommon. Natives are not sensitive to the national treasure beneath the sea and pollute it without thought. Best muck dive sites were: Denise's Hairball (the ultimate in unusual critters), Police Pier (now called Petting Zoo), and Critter Hunt, an excellent night dive.
Mating Nembrotha Nudibranchs
Some of the animals found included: Various kinds and colors of ghost Pipefish, Cockatoo Waspfish, Inimicus devil fish, all sizes, shapes, types and colors of frogfish including painted frogfish, hairy frogfish, striated frogfish, 50 or so different Nudibranch species, many Leaf Scorpionfish, various colors, sizes, and shapes of Scorpionfish, a huge variety of lionfish, and various commensal shrimp and crabs. Photographic examples of the critters found are scattered throughout this trip report. Dive guides are very adept at finding critters and can often return to the same critter multiple dives in a row. Occasionally dive guides are a bit aggressive with their pointers arranging critters for your photographic pleasure.
The resort can arrange various kinds of land tours at moderate prices ($45 USD). Indonesia is safe, scenic, and has natives who are as fascinated with you as you are with them.
In July/August (1998) the weather was sunny for all but 15 minutes of rain, warm during the days, temperate at nights with rain nearly every night. Seas in the Lembeh Strait are protected but during the dry season are normally whipped up a bit by winds. Due to El Nino, winds were minimal and the water was exceptionally calm for the three weeks we were there. April/ May and October/November are probably the ultimate months to visit the KBR but animal activity seems more related to lunar cycles than times of the year.
Coleman Shrimp Pair on
Fire Urchin For those who have been to Papua New Guinea, I would rate the muck diving as better than PNG but similar in quality and type with even more rare and unusual critters. Visibility at KBR on the muck diving sites is considerably less than at PNG and there are virtually no wide angle sites due to the fact that visibility can be as low as 20 linear feet. So you may ask, "is KBR the ultimate muck diving location"? It would be difficult to answer anything but a resounding yes. Would I go again? I sure would!!