My guide Salim, looking for the little beasts stuck on the fall of Bunaken. Sulawesi, Indonesia, July 2007.
My guide Salim, looking for the little beasts stuck on the fall of Bunaken. Sulawesi, Indonesia, July 2007.

Bunaken: Drops... to fall!

  Indonesia: Sulawesi - July 2007

Dear English-speaking readers, this page is an automatic translation of an article originally written in French. I apologise for any strange sentences and funny mistakes that may have resulted. If you read French, click on the French flag below to access the original, correct text: 


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.

My guide Salim, looking for the little beasts stuck on the fall of Bunaken. Sulawesi, Indonesia, July 2007.
My guide Salim, looking for the little beasts stuck on the fall of Bunaken. Sulawesi, Indonesia, July 2007.

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.

A pretty pink leaf fish, photographed on the Bunaken hills. Sulawesi, Indonesia, July 2007.
A pretty pink leaf fish, photographed on the Bunaken hills. Sulawesi, Indonesia, July 2007.

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!

Very photogenic, this big nudibranch (sea slug), with its electric green pustules. Bunaken, Sulawesi, July 2007.
Very photogenic, this big nudibranch (sea slug), with its electric green pustules. Bunaken, Sulawesi, July 2007.

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.

The children of Bunaken. Sulawesi, Indonesia, July 2007.
The children of Bunaken. Sulawesi, Indonesia, July 2007.

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.

  Indonesia: Sulawesi - July 2007

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  1. I am bluffed... in every way! Your two stories are fascinating, for me, poor two-legged earthling. I guess that for you everything is only happiness and discovery, which I am delighted about.
    Mil maritime and colorful, Lydie.

  2. Well... This is the third comment I've written... And I guess I'm not good at it, because so far I don't think any of them made it through... ZUT!!!!!!!
    So, I'm starting to get pissed off, and I'm going to end up writing something so disgusting! Well, yeah... understand me... Here, it's raining like crazy and it's cold... I'm sick, my feet hurt, I'm tired, and I won't be on vacation for over a month!
    That's it, I ventured !!! I'm better!!!
    Thank you, thank you, thank you for these moments that you share with me, it is a real pleasure after a day of work; I escape a little with you! Enjoy!!! Big kisses!!! See you soon !!!!!

  3. Great!!! The last comment worked!!! So I'm just sending you a few lines, just to tell you once again how much I enjoy reading you, and seeing your pictures!!!
    Swiss Kisses !!!!

  4. I've been looking at your "nudibranchs" tag since, like many divers, I'm addicted to these little colorful and fragile creatures!

    If I am not mistaken, this green and black nudibranch is a "Nembrotha cristata", a variation of the Nembrotha kubaryana that I often met in the Indian Ocean. I just found it in the famous book on nudibranchs, written and illustrated by Debelius, of course, a must if you like these little creatures.

    Your nudibranch can grow to 12 cm, he says, and is common from the Maldives to Western Australia, all the way to Indonesia and the Southwest Pacific. The photographer who immortalized it in Debelius' book says the photo was taken in... Bunaken! 🙂

    See p. 177 in this book.

  5. Yes, I definitely couldn't refrain from the "nudibranchs" tag!
    😉

    For my part, I offered Neville Coleman's book "1001 nudibranchs" at the diving show, which gives the same identification for this pretty slug (p.43).

    The "mine" was of good size, not far from 10 cm, I think. I stayed long minutes to flash it all the way ...

  6. I will pass by sailboat in Sulawesi around March 2014. Coming from the Philippines and going down to Lombocq - Bali... I will have on board two blocks and the gear that goes with it and a compressor. It's a guide like you that I need... Best regards...JB

    1. @Jean-Baptiste: nice trip in perspective... I would not be ideal as a guide, too busy as I am with my underwater camera...
      Good bubbles !!!
      🙄

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