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CORALREPUBLIC
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View also Paul’s Videos from Bunaken and Lembeh in Vimeo |
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Trip
dates: |
13 – 24 May 2010 |
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Boat
/ resort: |
Kima Bajo Resort (the
website seems no longer working) with one night spent at Lembeh
Cottages. Eco divers have now moved their Lembeh
accommodation to the White Sands Beach Resort Lembeh |
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Dive
centre: |
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Photo-friendly?: |
Very. Eco Divers have established an Underwater Photography
Centre with all facilities and rentals on their premises. |
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Number
of dives: |
25, 7 of them in Lembeh, over 9 days
of diving. |
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Diving
conditions: |
Daily downpours, generally right before the afternoon dive in Bunaken, mostly cloudy in the mornings anyway. This made
diving the mainland sites difficult, with very murky water. We did have one
or two days of clear weather early in the day. Water temperature |
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Comments: |
This was a very exciting trip for me because J. Heller editor of
the Dive Photo Guide website
was going to be a guest lecturer at Kima Bajo during our stay. We were thrilled to meet him and
his lovely wife, and had a few good dives together. In fact, it was just us
and another couple from I liked Kima Bajo
very much. It is close to the airport, has beautiful grounds and the rooms
are OK. But it felt a little solitary during our stay. Tasik
Ria felt like more fun – even if in a sort of calm way). We had a standard
room and had to walk a bit up and down the hill to the dive centre and the
jetty, but we did not mind. The Spa is really nice too, but with so much
diving, I only managed to get myself in there once. This was a very exciting trip for me because Jason Heller,
editor of the Eco divers only took with them one of their large boats from
the dive centre in Tasik Ria, where they used to
operate before. That boat is not moored in Lembeh
(more about that in a moment). The boats they now operate in Kima Bajo are smaller because
they can do return trips from each site, as Bunaken
is closer. So now they do one-tank dives, rather than the day out 3-tanks
they used to do with the bigger boats. The operation is efficient and I did
not complain about going back to the hotel for a break and a restaurant
lunch. Eco Divers had opened their Lembeh
Cottages only a few weeks before our arrival and were offering a special no
extra charge overnight there to promote them. The cottages are in the village
and they drive you to the marina, where you board a small boat that takes you
to the big dive boat they brought over from Bunaken.
The day is spent there as a dive base and this is where you have your lunch
and breaks between dives. We enjoyed a superb night dive at In Bunaken, we enjoyed a couple of
dives with turtles in Muka Kampung
and I loved the cracks in the reef in Celah Celah. Great for Wide Angle. |
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