UKDIVING TRAVELSPECIAL
A spotted porcelain crab on its host anemone
east side of the island of Sulawesi , but both my luggage and I made it . Once we arrived in Manado , it turned out that my type of dive bag was a popular choice for those wanting to dive there and someone had accidentally taken mine . Thankfully the airport staff managed to find him before he left the airport , and I was gratefully reunited with my luggage .
Rick and I usually dive in the UK , where we do everything ourselves , but here we didn ’ t have to lift a finger . All we had to do was to
54 drop our kit into the box outside our room and the kit was magically put together on the boat . I still checked to see that it was set up correctly , but I had nothing to worry about , the staff knew what they were doing .
With the dive kit assembled , I could turn my attention to my camera . Now , I ’ m used to setting up my camera wherever I can find any space . It ’ s usually the floor of my hotel room , but here at NAD , there was an entire room
The jetty at NAD Lembeh
Saddleback anemonefish looking after her eggs
separated into cubicles for underwater photographers to tinker and fettle to their hearts ’ content . I was so impressed that I took up two cubicles , one for my camera and the other for my laptop ! The camera room was monitored 24 / 7 by CCTV , so we all felt very secure in leaving our electronics in there . It was so nice not to have to worry about space and whether my camera was in anyone ’ s way . This was clearly a resort created with underwater photographers in mind .
I ’ ll be honest with you and admit that neither of us researched the marine life in the Lembeh Strait before we got there . From our friends ’ photos , we knew there were lots of amazing small critters around ,