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 now for five live aboard diving trips. But having been to Kungkungan Bay Resort in North Sulawesi Indonesia in 1998, I felt it was time to return and see all the wonderful and weird critters that are found on a daily basis.
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 Taipei or Tokyo. My ultimate preference in airlines is Singapore Air that is a partner of United Airlines. As such, I opted to fly with United to LAX and then Singapore Airlines and their local airline, Silkair for the remainder. One of the amenities of Singapore Airlines that I greatly appreciate is personal video "on demand"; however the meal service and personal attention is excellent as well. The administrative and operations personnel were very courteous and flights were on time. No hassles with baggage despite camera gear and dive gear totaling 130 lbs. 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. I chose to do an overnight in Singapore to get my body on the local time setting. However, despite the one night layover, I was able to check all my luggage directly through to Manado which avoided the hassle of transporting heavy luggage to the hotel.
Finger Dragonet
in mating display
The airport in Manado is new and well organized, clean (bathrooms better than most out of the way places), and efficiently run. No hassles with customs, as they seem very accustomed to divers. 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 one of the staff at KBR with my name on a sign.
Palaemonid Coral
Shrimp Dasycaris
Emperor Shrimp catching a ride on a sea cucumber
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 phases of the moon determine mating activities as well as current and tides so attention to this detail may be of value.
Lembeh Strait “Hairy Frogfish” pursuing juvenile anemone fish
The resort itself is composed of a number of cottages and "houses" that are roomy and comfortable. Since my last visit, four additional cottages have been built and all are comfortable, roomy, and pleasant. They are centered around a central administrative center/dining room area that 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 but the nights were pleasantly cool and required blankets if the ceiling fans were allowed to continue running. 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 my stay. If the resort is full of photographers, camera space would be at a premium. Towels in the camera room are clean but very linty.
Mimic Octopus
(note white line on tentacles)
Wonderpuss
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 four relatively fast boats that 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 with a return to the resort for film changes. Shore diving is available when tides, and hence currents, allow. There is pretty good shore diving right off the boat dock.
Rhinopias Frondosa
The dive operation was designed and set up by Larry Smith, a world renowned dive master of Cehili fame who has since left and moved on to the Pelagian. I was very pleased to find that the dive operation is better even than before with superb dive guides. Nuswanto manages the day-to-day operation of the diving and it runs flawlessly. The dive guides even learn what you can shoot with your particular camera setup and I saw one or two indicate to a guest that something was too small for their lens setup.
Due to the tides, currents in the Lembeh straits can be fierce; this means that there are four boat dives scheduled per day at very particular times. Most people pay for three dives per day although I personally paid for four. Since the second dive is scheduled at 11:15, a wait staff person is waiting when the boat returns to take your lunch order having it on the table about 45 minutes later.
There is recently competition for dive sites in the Lembeh Straits and occasionally a particular dive site is unavailable due to prior occupancy. I expect that the dive operations will eventually coordinate this but for the moment there are occasional disappointments if you have your heart set on a particular dive location.
Nudibranch Menage a Trois
Water 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. However, much of this trash becomes potential homes for unusual animals.
Ambon Scorpionfish
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, Leaf Scorpionfish, various colors, sizes, and shapes of Scorpionfish, a huge variety of lionfish including rare varieties, and various commensal shrimps 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. While dive guides occasionally arrange critters for your photographic pleasure, they do so in a way not harmful to the animals. . If you wish to view images of Mandarin Fish, click this link.
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 June (2001) the weather was sunny most mornings and cloudy most afternoons 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 but hardly to a level worth mentioning. The ultimate months to visit the KBR seem to be May through October for certain types of animal activity but animal activity seems more related to lunar cycles than times of the year and other months bring interesting critters of other types.
As an additional note, the new management team of Kevin and Valerie Tear are a great improvement with vastly improved staff development and happiness. And I can assure you, a happy staff creates happy guests.
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. 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 and have reservations made for next year!!