SULAWESI PHOTOGRAPHY EXPEDITION 1999

I had raved about North Sulawesi for years. I had shown slides. I had talked about it. I had written about it. Now was to come the moment of truth.

There was I, at the Singapore Airlines check-in desk at Heathrow Airport leading a group of twelve diver-photographers, all seemingly with overweight baggage and looking to me to literally take the weight off their minds. "That was easy", someone commented as the last bag went on the conveyor belt. No queuing, no excess baggage charge, no hassle. What they didn't know, of course, was that I was at the airport very early making advance arrangements for ticketing and baggage acceptance.

The group had travelled into Heathrow from every direction. Roger Telford and Jane Picton from Belfast, Bob Cave from Guernsey, Nigel Benning and Derek Clark from North Yorkshire, Lydia Vulliamy from East

Anglia, Steve Smith from the Midlands, Bob Soames, Chris McTernan, Peter Ladell and Peter Tatton from the Home Counties. Oh, and me, of no fixed abode. Most of the group it is fair to say knew each other before the trip, many having been on Divequest group tours before. For others it was their first meeting with the rest of the group and their first experience of a Divequest holiday. None of that seemed to matter. From the camaraderie during that first meeting I could sense that this was going to be a good trip. I was lucky to be leading such a great group of fellow travellers.

Travelling to long-haul holiday destinations can be a drag, often taking more than two days out of the holiday. Just 18 hours after lift-off from Heathrow runway we were met at Manado Airport by our hosts from Nusantara Diving Centre. Half an hour later we were sipping coconut milk straight from the fruit as we went through the reception procedures. Meanwhile the 'house boys' were carrying all the baggage to our rooms.

No two rooms are the same at NDC so it was quite amusing hearing the reactions as everyone compared each other's rooms. All are quite spacious, modestly furnished but clean.

Most have 'garden bathrooms' which proved very popular - bathrooms roofed over but open to the very private garden.

Arriving mid-afternoon, the rest of the day was generally spent discovering the environs, preparing cameras, settling in and, for some, sleeping. In the evening, before dinner, I put on a slide show to illustrate the marine life that we were likely to see over the next few days - just to get the juices flowing so to speak!

Dinners at NDC are a truly Indonesian experience. Five nights out of seven it is a hot buffet - well, a warm buffet. Soup, a good choice of meats, mostly spicy, vegetables, noodles and, of course, rice. On the other two nights, one is a DIY barbecue - the buffet displays uncooked meats and vegetables which diners cook themselves on a gas-fired contraption at the table; and the other is a 'steamboat' dinner which is another self-cook arrangement. Indonesians tend to add meat to everything including vegetable dishes and noodles, and this did cause an initial problem for the vegetarians in the group. The requested vegetarian dishes were apparently rather bland. But problems such as this are easily put right - we formed a 'focus group' that met with the chef. Result - highly pleased vegetarian diners who rated NDC as tops in cuisine.

Diving started in earnest the morning after our arrival. Morning starts are quite relaxed. Breakfast first and then down to the boats between nine and half-past. Most of the dive sites we chose to dive during our stay at NDC were around Bunaken Island or on the mainland shoreline a boat-ride away from the Centre.

Steep plummeting walls packed with life, sloping reefs and a very accessible wreck that is a living reef, all that I had promised. Crinoids and tunicates in profusion on the reef walls, barrel sponges, gorgonians, anemones, encrusting sponges, sea whips, a myriad of colourful reef fish, endless species of nudibranchs, crabs, shrimps, sea snakes, pipefish, scorpionfish, clownfish, Blue Ribbon Eels, batfish, sweepers, frogfish, the list goes on, and on and on And on several occasions pods of dolphins in the bay.

We had two dive boats earmarked just for our group, two or three dive guides to each boat, our choice of dive sites, three, often four dives each day including night dives. And some dives

lasted 90 minutes plus! Plenty of photo opportunities.

I have dived those waters many times before. I have endless photographs of Blue Ribbon Eels. So many that for the last few visits to Manado I have told Idrus, my regular dive guide, not to bother to point them out to me. But I have so desperately wanted to photograph two eels together in the same hole. A very rare sight but I had seen such a photograph so knew that it could happen. I had counted in my logbook that we had dived on this mission along the Tanjung Pesok Reef, where blue ribbon eels are regularly sighted, seven times without success. That is something like ten hours searching. Several of the group were anxious to see Blue Ribbon Eels and so I arranged for a dive along the Tanjung Pesok Reef. Idrus was with us. I was first in the water, followed by Idrus. As soon as we were in the water Idrus was gesticulating with two fingers! I knew what he meant. Two Blue Ribbon Eels in one hole! What was I to do? I was leading the group, not there for a holiday. I looked at the two eels and looked up to see three divers approaching. Yes, I did the honourable thing, and stepped back to give the others all the time they wanted to photograph them. But I did lurk around in the

distance and when everyone moved on I spent the next one-and-a-half hours photographing them.

Not everything went to plan. At the end of the first day, a very full day of four dives, having stayed out on Bunaken Island to have a night dive, we returned to the dive centre feeling pretty weary. The tide was out which meant walking the full length of the narrow concrete jetty back to shore in the moonlight. The crew carried our gear for us which was a great help - something that we should introduce into novice diver training back at our branches. Most in the group, particularly on the first day, were not prepared to trust their cameras to the crew so carried them themselves. The weariness, the darkness and the narrow concrete jetty conspired together and Bob C. mis-footed, falling over the edge of the jetty onto some concrete steps. A nasty fall with his camera gear spewing into the few inches of water of the ebbing tide. Bob was very badly shaken, knocked about, grazed and bruised. When he did 'come round', his first words were 'how's my camera gear?' Fortunately it was OK. An unfortunate accident indeed, but within minutes very competent first aid treatment was administered by a medical guest assisted by the Centre's

staff. NDC took the accident very seriously and arranged for examination and treatment by a local doctor at their expense. Next day a string of lights were strung along the jetty.

NDC is very supportive of the local community and the Centre is always open to the villagers. Each month a Christian service for the community is held in the dining hall. Guests are, of course, welcome and in fact the service is held whilst guests are dining. Indonesians are very superstitious and have strong spiritual beliefs. Not surprisingly the ninth day of the ninth month of 1999 was a day very much in their calendar. The world, they had been warned, would come to an end at nine minutes past nine. We were there. Over one hundred villagers and NDC staff crowded into the dining hall and whilst we ate, they prayed. They prayed that the world would not come to an end and if it didn't they would rejoice and give thanks. Most of our group had an early night confident in the knowledge that there was to be another day. Bob C. had stayed in his room nursing his injuries and by now knowing that he had a broken rib and resigned to not diving for at least two or three days. Bob S., Chris M., Pete L. and myself stayed on, thoroughly absorbed by the happenings and gradually edging into centre stage. Nine past nine did indeed NOT bring the world to an end and the thanks and rejoicing got under way led by Loky Herlambang, the owner of NDC.

"Thanks be to God and to Mr. Malcolm Hey", he hailed and the four of us were beckoned to the fore and all one hundred and odd locals in the congregation filed past us shaking our hands and thanking us. Then followed a faith-healing session and "in his absence we ask that Mr. Bob be relieved of his injuries and that he regain his fitness"

I got back to my room late that night. I was rooming with Bob C. Bob was setting up his camera gear.

"I can't leave it till morning. An early start you know. Which sites are we diving? Which lenses should I take?" I believe...

For the second week of the expedition we transferred to Kungkungan Bay Resort, just a one-and-a-half hour ride away, which sits in a beautiful bay at the edge of the Lembeh Strait. Leaving behind the informality and real Indonesian culture of NDC, we entered a smart, quite luxurious resort run with American efficiency. NDC and KBR are as different as chalk and

cheese; the diving, the accommodation and the management. Both work well, but they are different. Some preferred NDC, others preferred KBR. But, everyone agreed, both offered excellent diving and photo opportunities and both were comfortable and welcoming in their different ways.

I had promised some unusual marine life in the Lembeh Strait. Again, on our first night there, I put on a slide show to illustrate the creatures that I had seen on previous visits.

Dark, grainy volcanic sand forms the bed of the Strait, sloping down gently from the shores to the deep channel. Isolated outcrops of sponge and coral grow out of the sandy bottom, and occasional bommies, craggy reefs and a few wrecks add to the variety of habitats. Along the shore, rocky cliffs form shoreline walls. Ornate Ghost Pipefish, frogfish, Pegasus Seamoths, Cockatoo Waspfish, Fingered Dragonets, Stargazers, Flying Gurnards, snake eels, crabs, shrimps, and scores of species of nudibranchs - all as promised.

Not as many frogfish as on previous

occasions but nevertheless most, if not all, in the group did take frogfish photo shots. Seahorses, including the cute little Pygmy Seahorses, were not so evident either but we had the Pygmy Seahorse opportunities in Manado. In a location like the Lembeh Strait these strange creatures are transient. They may disappear for some time and then return. Other creatures appear. On this visit I saw many creatures that I had not seen before - file shells, Yellow Lionfish and Coral Pipefish, and more dragonets, snake eels and seamoths than previously.

One of my favourite dives in the Lembeh Strait is the Mandarinfish dive. Mandarinfish are so beautiful and so rarely photographed. Rarely photographed because they are rarely seen and even then flit around so quickly and briefly. KBR have identified a site in the Strait where sightings are guaranteed. A small 'crater' of broken coral where mandarinfish emerge at dusk every night to do their courting and promenading. The 'crater' is so small that dives are limited to six divers and that, I would suggest, is too many. To avoid spooking the

mandarinfish divers need to be in position ten minutes or so before the fish are due to emerge, settle into a position and stay in that same spot for the duration. Any movement reduces the sightings as the mandarinfish stay 'indoors'. The only way to capture one on film is to point the camera in one spot and hope that a fish comes into view. There is just no time for composing and focusing. It's shoot from the hip. Six divers sat in a circle, cameras poised, looking intently at a pile of broken coral for one hour was to me one of the most hilarious scenarios of the whole trip.

The last evening was competition time for the 'Shot of the Trip'. KBR had been kept busy during the week processing our films and each group member was invited to enter four slides. A very entertaining evening and some super photos. No doubt many will be seen in competitions and showings back home. We were fortunate to have in our company Larry Tackett, a well known American photo-journalist who spends a lot of time at Kungkungan Bay. In fact Larry was locum Dive Operations Manager at KBR during our visit. In true form, after a lot of deliberation by the judging panel (Larry and two KBR guests recruited to help him), the results were announced:- Highly Commended - photos by Nigel Benning, Peter Ladell and Peter Tatton. Third place, winning a pint of beer donated by KBR, a photo by Peter Tatton. Runner-up, winning a tee shirt donated by KBR, a photo by Bob Soames. Winner, winning a polo shirt donated by KBR and a trophy donated by Divequest, Peter Ladell with an amazing photograph of the underside of a blue spotted ray set against blue water complete with sun burst. Well done Peter!

All good things have to come to an end and so it is with a Divequest Group Tour. At the end of the holiday most of the group reluctantly made their way home and one or two stayed on for another week to get more diving and explore some of the many land attractions that North Sulawesi has to offer. Current Holidays to MANADO, SULAWESI: 2006

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