Indonesia: Sulawesi - July 2007
Dear English-speaking readers, this page is an automatic translation made from a post originally written in French. My apologies for any strange sentences and funny mistakes that may have been generated during the process. If you are reading French, click on the French flag below to access the original and correct text:
Français These first two days in Bunaken have been going at full speed. The dives are up to my expectations: drop-offs covered with a variety of incredible coral. Side fauna, all the tropical panoply colorful is there.
A falling wall teeming with life
Angelfish and butterfly-fish, scorpion-fish, nudibranchs, and the much sought-after leaf-fish are numerous... I did not see many "big ones", except for some turtles and napoleons, as well as a nice eagle ray... A graceful black triangle seen in the blue - too far away, unfortunately - which seems to "fly" under water.
The first day was hot and sunny. But that night, the rain came back in the wee hours of the night.
Gusts of wind creak coconut palms. The sound of the surf is impressive. There are real tides here. Which insulate my beach end when the sea is high. A gray, cottony sky has settled over the bay. That I look at leisure from the terrace of my overhanging bungalow.
The gray weather does not affect the quality of the dives. Grand luxury exploration outings, with a guide for me alone, Salim. He has the eye to spot the most tiny creatures. Suspended above the blue, we float in front of the falling, teeming with life.
The visibility is quite good, even very good. A vague feeling of vertigo and the very strong feeling of being a tiny thing that makes bubbles, a few meters from the surface, while below the "wall" descends endlessly ...
I got used to the camera underwater again by immortalizing an electric green nudibranch. I had never seen one like that before!
I share the first two days the boat with Bettina, a very nice German who travels alone, like me. She left today for Gangga islandanother island famous for diving, two hours north of Bunaken. She broke her piggy bank to buy Gangga. On this island, there seems to be only one diving resort, for luxury stays. Bettina was looking forward to it!
Starting tomorrow, I'll be on the same boat as Bert and Jeane, the Australians who don't like stinky cheese I mentioned in the previous post... Fifty-somethings, nice and courteous, but much less talkative than Bettina.
Peaceful atmosphere on Pantai Liang
On the way back, we "debrief" the dives with our guides, provided with books of identification of the underwater fauna, by devouring cakes quite freshly taken out of the oven. As all the books are in English, the little game consists for me in finding the names of the bugs in French
Dives occupy most of the day. Other than my end of the beach, I do not really have time to explore the rest of the island.
Everyone knows each other here, it's very small. The people are adorable, greet me the morning of a "pagi" nonchalant, call me by my first name. Kids who play at the water's edge happily take the pose when I take out my camera.
