Indonesia - Nusa Lembongan

The boat over from Bali to Lembongan

After Bunaken we flew down to Bali where we spent one night in Segar Reef beach before heading onto the island of Nusa Lembongan. Lembongan is one of only a few places in the world where you can regularly see Sun fish or ‘Mola mola’. We stayed in a little bungalow on the beach and did two dives with a dive company called World Divers run by a British couple. The first dive was a place called Manta Point and we saw our first Manta rays of the trip…in fact actually our first Manta Rays ever!! They were so beautiful and graceful as they glided through the water – I think we saw 4 on that dive.

Lembongan - view from the bungalow

The next dive site we went to was called Crystal Bay and is the favourite spot for seeing the Mola Mola. Before the dive we had been told that there was only about a 10% chance of seeing the huge sun fish and actually we’d already met several people who had done quite a few dives and been unsuccessful. We were lucky however and about half way through our dive we saw two huge sunfish!! Unfortunately as there were literally hundreds of other divers in the water they didn’t stick around for long and swam off into the deep blue! But we were still completely chuffed by the sighting and did a small victory dance in the water with our American dive buddiesJ The diving in general around Lembongan was very very good with lots of nice corals and fish. The only downside was that the water was absolutely freezing!!! Despite 5mm wetsuits and booties within 10 minutes of being in the water we were shivering…I think we’ve been spoilt with our warm tropical seas – it was a massive shock to the system!

Manta Ray

As well as diving in Lembongan we decided to try our hand at surfing and Mike and I both signed up for a surf lesson at a local surf school. There isn’t any beach surfing in Lembongan so we had to get a little boat out and surf over the reef – fine when it’s high tide! Surfing was really fun and Mike was standing up on his board in no time! I have to admit it took me a little longer and actually I barely stood up at all on those first few daysJ.We also hired some bikes and cycled around the island. Sort of fun but the bikes were so old that ones gears didn’t work and the others breaks didn’t work (at all)…slightly problematic with lots of hills to climb and come down! Not surprisingly we had several overweight, middle aged men on motorbikes ride past and shout ‘Get a motor!’

Indonesia - Sulawesi - Palau Bunaken

Bunaken...Tropical Paradise

Wading ashore island style

For Paz’s 30^th Birthday Adam (Mikes brother) and Paz (his partner) and Laura (their friend) had decided to come out to Indonesia for a two week holiday and with a small flip round of our itinerary we had decided to join them for a week in Bunaken. It was so nice to see them!! After 5 months of travelling and seeing no familiar faces it felt like a mini holiday in our big long holiday J From Manado we all headed over by boat to the island of Bunaken where (thanks to Adam and Paz’s research) we had booked bungalows at the  Sea Garden Resort. After wading in to shore from the boat with all our bags we were met by the lovely Sonia who showed us our bungalows. There were only 7 in total, all set around a big garden over-looking the sea and the view was gorgeous! 

Lush coral gardens

Huge numbers of fish

       

Not wanting to waste a moment we all changed and headed out for a snorkel. The snorkeling was some of the best snorkeling I think we’d ever done...there was so much beautiful coral and thousands of fish! From our beach you could snorkel straight out to the drop off and the following days were mostly spent snorkeling and then identifying the fish we’d seen with Adam’s fish book J

The day after we arrived there was a festival in the village and Sonia invited us to a big shared lunch at her house. There was so much food it was incredible!! And we all tucked in whilst Laura was serenaded by one of the locals on the karaoke machine. After lunch we decided to try and walk to the beach on the other side of the island. We set off in what we thought was the right direction but an hour later, having left the main path behind we were still trekking through what appeared to be slightly overgrown farmland. Making jokes but all getting slightly inpatient for the beach we finally came to a deserted little bay where we could sunbathe and swim. When we later asked for directions and walked the proper way back, we found we had actually walked about 5 times the distance that we had needed.

Paz & Laura on the deserted beach

The Box Bass

The next day was Paz’s 30^th birthday! And we decided to join the dive boat and go to a few different snorkeling spots. In the evening we had a big birthday cake with dinner…unfortunately there was meant to be a party but all Sonia’s staff were apparently too tired after the festivities from the day before so it had to be postponed a night. It was worth the wait though and the next night we were entertained by about 8 locals all playing instruments (some homemade!) and singing. The Bintang (local beer) and the Arak (local coconut spirit) flowed and it wasn’t long before we were taking over the instruments and dancing and singing too! Luckily for us Laura is actually a singer so she was able to hold the tune while we all enthusiastically clapped along (out of time) and provided out of tune backing vocals. Birthday boy Paz even had a go on the rather ridiculous looking but very effective box bass! 

When we thought that perhaps the other guests may not appreciate our crazy partying late into the night, in true island style we all retired to bed…at 10 o’clock.

The next morning we sheepishly emerged, realising in the light of day that we perhaps weren’t quite the musicians we had thought we were the night before, and went off on a dolphin watching trip. For about an hour we saw nothing but blue sea but then we finally spotted a huge pod of dolphins! Before we knew it we were surrounded by about 50 dolphins – it was incredible!! Some of them were jumping up and doing tricks in the water and others were swimming underneath the boat! We watched them for over an hour and we all absolutely loved it. Mike and Paz decided to try and snorkel with the dolphins...unfortunately they were not game for this and as soon as the boys jumped in the dolphins swam away, but they still got an excellent view from the boat! And the rest of us had fun watching them trying to out-swim a dolphinJ  

As well as snorkeling and sunbathing, we had a few games of badminton and volley ball which was fun if slightly tiring in the blazing Bunaken sun! Mike and Adam went on a few ‘brother-bonding snorkels’ whilst Paz invariably went in search of Mangoes and Laura and I relaxed in our hammocks reading.  The boys also all went on a night snorkel which they said was really fun, spotting lobsters, crabs and a sleeping turtle.

Mandarin Fish

On our last day we decided to do a mandarin fish dive. We set out to the dive point ready to go down at dusk when the Madarin fish start coming out. We were just relaxing on the boat waiting for the right time when suddenly a few other boats appeared on the horizon and our dive master shouted ‘Everyone in the water now! Go! Go! Go!’ Before I knew it everyone was in the water and I was still floundering on the boat…I jumped in quickly bashing my leg on the side whilst rapidly trying to deflate my BCD so I could go straight down. Thanks to our hastened entrance we were the first divers down and we all soon found out why it was important. There was about a square metre sized patch on the dead coral that everyone crowded around and watched for 45 minutes. After about 15 minutes of nothing happening we saw the little mandarin fish start to appear! Then they started to do their courtship dance where two of them rise up side by side and then dart away before repeating the little dance – they were really beautiful and very special to see.

Unfortunately the next day it was time to say goodbye…Laura was heading back to England, Mike and I were heading on to Bali and Adam and Paz were spending the second week of their holiday on a neighbouring island. It was really sad to say goodbye especially after such a good week…Christmas when we’ll see them all again still seems a very long way away! We miss you Adam, Paz and Laura! J

Indonesia - Sulawesi - Tangkoko National Park

The lush jungles of Sulawesi

After Sipadan it was time to leave Borneo L and head back into Indonesia and to the island of Sulawesi! Our first stop after a horrendous connection in Jakarta was Manado and we arrived having had no sleep and struggling to stay awake. We were heading to Tangoko National Park and our guide Iwan came to meet us from the airport at 6am and drive us to the National Park about 2 hours away. The first day we literally slept all day, waking only for lunch and then again for dinner. So we were fresh and ready for our early morning trek the next day! We set off at 6 armed with binoculars and cameras in search of birds and animals and once again we weren’t disappointed…

The butterfly's were often huge

Before long we had tracked down the family of Black Macaques (49 in total if I remember correctly). Black macaques are endemic to Sulawesi so quite special to see and very entertaining to watch! They came very close and didn’t seem to be phased by human presence in the slightest. We followed them down to the beach and then watched a rather brave dog decide to take the whole group on!!It was a game of nerve and they took it in turns to chase each other…first the dog chased one of the monkeys – biting him on the bum!! And then the monkey chased the dog – scratching him on the face. Then they just stood opposite each other, the dog against the group waiting to see who was going to make the first move. At one point the dog retreated and we thought he’d given up but before long he was back to fight some more. We moved on, this time in search of another endemic species to Sulawesi – the unusually named red-knobbed Hornbill. We were lucky to be there whilst the young were still in their nest and relying on the food brought by the male hornbills. We lay on the forest floor waiting by the nest for the hornbill to return…after about half an hour he arrived and he was amazing!! So big and so beautiful! You can hear the hornbills coming a long way off because the wings are so noisy but it’s rare to get such a good viewing unless it’s nesting season.

After 6 hours of walking we stopped for lunch on the beach, exhausted and ravenous! Then we spent a couple of hours swimming in the sea and sunbathing before continuing our trek. We headed on through the forest and came to a huge strangler fig that had completely killed the tree it was strangling leaving behind a huge natural climbing frame! It was amazing! We both started climbing but after weighing up the consequences that falling from the top would have on travelling decided not to go right to the top!

On the way back we also saw some western Tarsias in a tree…apparently they are always there and come out at dusk. They were really cute and quite funny looking with big wide eyes and a permanently startled look. We also managed to see the illusive Cous Cous – a marsupial that lives right up in the tops of the trees.

We did two days trekking and managed to see almost everything we were hoping for plus lots more! Our guide was brilliant, organizing everything for us from transport to accommodation and was also very knowledgeable about the wildlife. We would definitely recommend him to anyone planning a visit to Tangoko! - check out his website - http://tangkokowildlife.wordpress.com/contact-as/

Red-knobbed Hornbill

Western  Tarsier

We decided to travel back to Manado the local way and got a shared car to the nearest town. Unfortunately we were sitting on the back row of the people carrier behind an Indonesian family who were obviously not used to travelling by car. Within 5 minutes of getting in the car both the mother and child were being sick out of the window…at least some of the vomit went out of the window the rest came flying into the back seat and all over me and Mike!!We were on our way to meet Mike’s brother and friends and so had put on the only clean clothes we had left (and been saving specially). Laughing at the horrendousness of the situation as we wiped vomit off our faces with loo roll, we frantically looked for some plastic bags. Luckily we had two and we quickly thrust them into the hands of the family in front just as they were preparing themselves for round 3! Fortunately the journey wasn’t too long and within about 10 minutes we were back in the fresh air looking for our onward bus. Two busses and a short walk later we were in Manado again and heading to meet Adam (Mike’s brother), Paz(Adam’s partner) and Laura(their friend).

Black volcanic sand on the beaches

Iwan working hard!

Huge strangler vine -
can you spot Katy?

The tree inside the vine has died

You can climb to the top
inside the tree!

Waiting for the hornbill

Juvenile Hawk Eagle