Lembeh Redux

So, diving in Lembeh is every bit as good as I'd remembered and I'm no longer really missing Komodo. It took all of 5 minutes into my first dive here before I saw a Hairy frogfish and also saw several Flamboyant cuttlefish, Tozeuma shrimp, a Blue-Ringed octopus and lots of other good stuff the same day. I've actually been meaning to get a post up for a few days but the internet hasn't been very cooperative so wasn't able before today.

I'm not posting pictures of any any of the critters I mentioned above yet but here are a few shots of other things. I'm particularly excited about the Hairy shrimp picture, especially considering it's about the size of a grain of rice. If you look closely you can see that it's carrying a bunch of eggs.

So Long Komodo

Yesterday was my last day of diving in Komodo and I leave shortly for Lembeh where I'll be spending the last 2 weeks of my trip. Although I'm really looking forward to returning to Lembeh I'm not quite ready to be leaving Komodo. The diving here has been fantastic this year - particularly on Castle Rock where every dive has been pretty much perfect. Unfortunately what makes Castle so great is all the action so photos don't do it justice.

Anyway, on to the pictures...




And in case you're not sick of Manta pictures yet, here's one more. This is the same World's Friendliest Manta™ shown in the close up above. As we started our ascent it moved off a bit and just happened to end up right next to a school of Bumphead parrotfish. So, while this isn't the best shot I had to include it for the novelty.

Komodo! Hooray!

As fantastic as Micronesia and the Philippines were, it's great to be back in Komodo. My first dive here on Friday was yet another amazing dive on Castle rock which was just as good as it's been every time this year. And of course since then there have been Mantis Shrimps and Mantas too.

The second picture here is pretty much the whole reason for the post. I can probably stop taking pictures of Batfish after this as it's unlikely I'll top this one (at least until I break down and start diving with a full DSLR rig). Anyway, the rest of the pictures here are pretty much filler but I wanted to get a post up tonight as tomorrow I'm off on the Ikan Biru so offline for 3-5 days.

One More from Puerto Galera

I'm back in Bali now and leaving for the airport to fly to Labuan Bajo shortly. The month I spent in Komodo earlier in the trip wasn't enough so I'm headed back for more.

In the meantime, here's the last batch of pictures from Puerto Galera.





Diving in Puerto Galera was great (as I may have mentioned a few times) and only scratches the surface of all the diving to be done in the Philippines. I'm not sure how I never made it there before but I'm certain I'll be heading back.

Nudi Boom Boom

Nothing much to say, other that I still love having a proper macro lens for my camera. Diving in Puerta Galera continues to be good although I'm not terribly sad about heading back to Indonesia in a few days.