Tiki

Pregnant lemon shark slowly passing by on the first dive and great viz at Tiki for our second dive, with enough blacktips and gray reef sharks to actually keep me attentive the whole time.

Together

Overcast windy weather drives us to Moorea's north side, past Cook's bay, without a single blow to be seen two hours into our watch.

Jerome's hunch proves to be a good one though, when two plumes suddenly greet us not too far off. First dip's in vain, but on the second drop, in barely 10m of water, I get to see an imposing humpback mother with calf in her wake gliding by right beside me! Nobody else got in the water in time. Back on board, we wait for the baby to breach again. Sure enough, a few minutes later it briefly surfaces in our neighborhood and we all slip in.


Luck's with us as the mother no longer seems to see us as threat and decides to hang around. Letting her baby pop up every few minutes while remaining below. Only when she needs to come up for air too, about every twenty minutes, do we need to climb back onto our boat to be dropped off where she dives down again. An adult whale easily covers hundred meters or more between ascent, 3-4 breaths and descent. Four times we had the privilege to float in the water near mother & calf, before having to head back to base, due to time-out.

Lemon valley

Training dive with a couple of lemons, blacktips & a gray reef shark.

Stingray city

Whale song

Michael having flown back home, I've taken his place as spotter beside Jerome. Watching is one thing though, seeing another. We've been cruising for almost an hour when, as I take a look behind us, a movement way back briefly catches my attention: a tail gliding into the ocean? Jerome immediately turns the boat around and heads towards the place I've pointed out.

As we approach the supposed dive spot, there's nothing indicating the presence of a whale. I'm already doubting my imagined sighting as Jerome stops the engine and jumps overboard, soon popping up again saying the magic word: singer! And from the sound of it relatively near. It's just a matter of waiting for it to surface. Incredibly enough it indeed breaches about 20m away for 3 or 4 breaths before diving down again to continue its song.

As soon as it submerges we slip into the water too, head below water we're immediately engulfed by the whale's strangely beautiful song.

The whale itself is nowhere to be seen, so I just let myself float around while listening and staring at the sun's rays plunging down in the ocean's unfathomable depths.

Twenty minutes later the whale re-surfaces for an encore...

Family day

Double shift, meaning morning & afternoon watch without a break, a good 8h at sea on a small boat. Early sighting of a solitary whale, but no luck seeing it below the waves. Later on we find a mother with calf and male escort. They're not in a playing mood though, shying away from the boat each time we approach and diving down when we slip in the water and swim towards them.


After a short pit-stop at Linavera, we return to the same spot and soon find both the lone whale and the family again. This time we're allowed in the inner circle and get to swim close to the baby as it slowly comes up to the surface for a couple of breaths, while its mom and her escort remain below.

Baby humpbacks can measure up to 6m and weigh about 2 tons at birth... so keeping a respectful distance isn't a bad idea, unless you don't mind being accidentally bumped into. [ → humpback whales ]

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UPDATE: Yesterday a tourist tried to pat a baby humpback. It patted back. The lucky tourist got away with only a few broken ribs.

Feeding time

Every day, at 5pm, Roland strolls to the end of his jetty, a bag full of fishy appetizers in his hand. Awaiting him eagerly, besides his guests and resident small fish, are some local big girls and cool guys, a.k.a. nurse and blacktip reef sharks.

Today, the sun being in a shiny mood, I decide to dip into the water myself, 5 minutes before show time, for a closer look at the action below the waves. Positioned right below the jetty, I ask Roland not to throw the morsels too far off, the viz not being that great, i.e. less than 5m. He gladly obliges and I'm promptly rewarded with a nurse slowly swirling around and around in front of my camera, trying in vain to get a free snack, while a handful of blacktips keep darting in for a quick snatch, when not outdone by a few opportunistic remoras.

Sometimes there are up to three nurses in attendance and a dozen of blacktips all competing for a bite, not to mention some daring seagulls snapping the food away in mid-air or as it hits the water.

Close encounter with two giants

Two impressive close encounters with a pair of 10-12m humpbacks.


I actually had a sensory overload as once both slowly rose up from the blue right in front of me, my still jet-lagged brain alas rather unable to fully register that overwhelming moment.

Plumes, dorsals & tails

Fortified by a big french breakfast, consisting of an extra-large cup of coffee, home baked bread & jam, baguette, croissant or chocolatine, plenty of fresh local fruit & juice, we set out at 13:30 for our first whale watching tour, together with four other german tourists, boat captain Jerome and Michael, owner of Tauchertraum, accompanying us as guide & spotter.

Basically, whale watching is scanning the horizon while cruising along the coast, in this case the outer reef, until somebody sees a plume, dorsal or tail of one or more breaching humpback whales, then head towards it, wait for one to come up for air, then slip into the water and snorkel in its direction, hoping to intercept it, for a brief look before it plunges down again on its endless journey.

Our first dip was in vain, with no whale to be seen underwater, but on our second try we actually saw two shapes slowly gliding by below us.

Check dive among blacktips

We're picked up at 07:45 by Catherine from Moorea Fun Dive, for the short drive from Linareva to the dive center, where her husband Greg is waiting for us to gear up and board the dive boat.


Moorea's reef suffered a lot of damage when cyclone Oli blew over Polynesia last february and is in a rather desolate state. Luckily the sharks are still there: blacktips, grays and lemons. The latter are currently in mating mood, meaning they're mostly busy elsewhere, i.e. in deeper waters beyond recreational limits. One paid us a courtesy visit though, attracted by the irresistible smell of a frozen tuna head, which Roland, acting as dive guide today to help out his wife's nephew Greg, brought down to get some special attention.

Résidence Linareva

Our 37h journey started yesterday at 6am, by car to Munich, jet to Paris, jet to LA, jet to Tahiti, aircraft to Moorea and finally bus to
Résidence Linareva, our first stop on this three islands tour.


Owned, managed and run by Roland & Edmée, two very hospitable and friendly Alsatians, Linareva is a small garden resort located right at the coast on Moorea's wild south-west side.

Recreational SCUBA gear

Booties, fins, 3mm neoprene suit, hooded vest, swim trunks, gloves, regulator, power horn, DIN-to-INT adapter, SMB, belt, aluminum backplate & harness with utility pouches, weight pockets & two CAM bands, single tank wings* (12l), whistle, strobe light, mask, snorkel, reef hook and pointer... all in all about 12kg of SCUBA gear.

The Underwater Photographer

Ordered online monday morning from amazon.de and delivered at my door today by the postman: "The Underwater Photographer" by Martin Edge (4th edition, ISBN: 978-0-240-52164-0, 25€ incl. free shipping).


Here's what others have to say about it:

→ book review on wetpixel by Steve Williams
→ customer reviews on amazon.com and amazon.de

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UPDATE: And here's my opinion after having read it from A to Z.

Martin Edge's rather heavy 500 pages book isn't quite as encyclopedic as its not-meant-for-traveling weight might suggest, it being more an inspirational guide book to the art of underwater photography than a referential source of dry facts and educational how-tos.

Though not always as detailed or in-depth as I would have liked (*), the text's very easy to read, covering most aspects of underwater photography and always well illustrated with plenty of exemplary photos. (* internet links often point to additional online resources, but on paper these aren't clickable of much help)

I don't know about experienced underwater photographers, but for amateurs wanting to make underwater photos rather than just take snapshots, I'd say Martin Edge's "The Underwater Photographer" is a recommendable book to get started. Without a doubt much more so than e.g. "An Essential Guide To Digital Underwater Photography" (1st edition) by Michael Aw & Mathieu Meur, which I personally found disappointing from every point of view.

Sulawesi, Indonesia, April 2010

Wonderful muck diving in Lembeh's famous strait with Two Fish Divers and relaxed reef diving near Donggala with Prince John Dive Resort.


travel blog

Indonesia - info sheet

Visum	Belgian citizens can get a 30 days visa-on-arrival for 20€ or 25$. [ → Indonesian embassy in Berlin ]
Time	Indonesian time = CEST + 6h
Weather	Air temperature: around 30°C, with occasional tropical downpours. Water temperature: 28°C.
Currency	1 Euro = 11200 Indonesian Rupiah
Language	English is barely spoken by some.

Videoclip: Lembeh critters

It took me about a day and a half to go through my 244 critter clips, sort them down to 193, i.e. 6.4GB or about 70' of WVGA resolution Motion-JPEG footage (taken with a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS5), rate, import into iMovie 08, select, cut & paste the best passages, edit and export them into a short 6'56" 960x540 MPEG-4 video of 193MB.

Exporting & uploading to YouTube took almost half an hour. For an optimal viewing experience, be sure to watch it in 480p.

— Lembeh Critters (video removed)

Singapore - Sonthofen

Door to door it took me 30h to get back home. I actually arrived early, despite Iceland's volcano outburst having messed up european airspace and as a consequence all flight schedules the previous week.

Donggala - Singapore

One hour sweaty drive from Prince John Dive Resort to Palu's domestic airport (dept.tax: 20'000 Rupiah), followed by a cool 45' flight to Balikpapan (int.dept.tax: 100'000 Rupiah), where five hours later I can board my two hour flight with Silk Air to Singapore.

Note that Singapore-Balikpapan-Palu is the normal route into C-Sulawesi for most divers, e.g. in combination with a stay at Maratua Paradise Resort, off Kalimantan's east coast.

One more time

Dive #15 [ 9:15 | 76' | max.25m, avg.9m | House Reef ]

Last dive of this trip, leaving me with 24h to off-gas, dry & pack my gear, before boarding the first of three planes on my way back home.

Sightings: angelfish, sweetlips, butterfly fish, goatfish & jacks.

Busy night

Dive #12 [ 9:52 | 58' | max.25m, avg.15m | Pasi Pome * ]
Dive #13 [ 14:18 | 68' | max.25m, avg.11m | House Reef ]
Dive #14 [ 18:38 | 65' | max.13m, avg.8m | House Reef ** NIGHT ]

Very nice reef top at Pasi Pome seamount, half an hour away from the resort, with lots of sponges and nine cuttlefish in mating mood.

And another great private night dive straight from the house beach.


Sightings by day: cuttlefish gathering, crocodile fish, moray eel, mantis shrimps, small sea snake and a lone turtle.

Sightings by night: several moray eels prowling around, cuttlefish, tiny blue ringed octopus on the hunt, crab with a sponge plate as cover, camouflage boxer crabs, seapen with two tiny crabs, nudibranchs and of course plenty of basket stars & crinoids.