Lembeh Strait Muck Diving: A Five-Day Dive Plan

Lembeh Strait rewards five to seven nights if you love cryptic invertebrates and macro photography. If you prefer reefs, current or big pelagic fish, three nights in Lembeh followed by Bunaken or Bangka makes a better trip. The plan below shows which sites deserve a full week and which days call for only one or two dives.

The strait is narrow. It is a channel of black volcanic sand, roughly 16 km long, between the North Sulawesi mainland and Lembeh Island. Some divers find three nights enough. Others find even that a waste of the flight. Before you book, ask yourself one thing: is muck diving the kind of diving you want?

Muck diving explained

In muck diving you move very slowly over sand or silt and search for well-hidden small fish and invertebrates. There is no coral wall, no current to ride and no school of fish. At Hairball II, a typical dive lasts forty minutes and covers about two metres of seabed per minute. Your guide probes the sand with a metal stick, hoping to spot the eye of a frogfish buried underneath.

When it pays off, you see animals that ordinary reef dives never show you. The stars are the flamboyant cuttlefish, the hairy octopus and the wonderpus.

Lembeh does not suit divers who want to rack up dive numbers. Visibility is only moderate. The seabed looks empty until the guide finds something. Briefings name species, not underwater landscapes.

Day by day

Day 1: settle in, north strait

Do two dives at slow, familiar sites in the northern strait. Your guide will know every corner of them.

• Aer Bajo: the daytime octopus route.
• TK1: small bottom-dwelling fish, including the pegasus (sea moth), dragonets and the rare shortpouch pygmy pipehorse.

After lunch, you can add a third, gentle dive on the house reef to check your gear and buoyancy.

Day 2: central strait

Spend the morning at Hairball II, the strait's most famous site. The morning light is best. Plan two dives in a row with an hour on the surface between them.

In the afternoon, dive Nudi Falls. It has some reef as well as muck, which rests your eyes after a day of grey silt.

Day 3: south strait

The two small islands at the southern mouth, Pulau Sarena Besar and Pulau Sarena Kecil, have the only real coral fringe in the strait. Bring your wide-angle lens. Do three dives if your operator offers them. If not, do two and enjoy a long lunch.

Day 4: rest

Lembeh tires the mind more than the body, because the work is constant close looking. Four days of three dives each wears down even strong divers.

Do one dive in the morning. If the wind is calm, visit the wreck of the Japanese Maru. Then rest for the remainder of the day.

Day 5: your choice

By now you know your guide's strengths. Choose the morning site yourself instead of following the operator's plan.

• For frogfish: return to Hairball II.
• For octopus, squid and cuttlefish: ask to dive Police Pier.

Choosing a resort

Lembeh has about twenty-five resorts, split roughly evenly between the mainland and the island. The rooms matter less than the guides.

The strait has only a small group of senior guides. Resorts employ them, and they decide how good your trip will be. Four resorts that rotate senior guides are Bastianos, Critters at Lembeh, Lembeh Resort and NAD Lembeh.

• Island side: the boat ride to the central sites is shorter.
• Mainland side: close to the town of Bitung, for an evening out.

Skip any one-off "introduction to muck diving" trip. It wastes a morning. If muck diving is new to you, book five days with a senior guide. Treat the first two days as training for your eyes.

Combining Lembeh with other dive areas

Bunaken. This is the obvious partner. Drive about three hours over the volcanic ridge, then take a boat to the marine park. You get one week of muck and one week of walls and current. Most divers go to Bunaken first, because its diving is easier.

Bangka. This island lies off the northern tip of Sulawesi. It has healthy soft coral and is the nearest current diving to Manado. The transfer takes half a day.

Getting to Lembeh

Fly into Manado. From the airport, the drive to Bitung takes about an hour. The boat to your resort adds twenty to forty minutes. Most resorts include this transfer in the room rate, but confirm it when you book.

If possible, do not arrive on a Sunday afternoon. Weekend traffic heading back to Manado crowds the road, and the transfer can take twice as long. The easiest arrival day is Saturday.