Last fall, my mother and I ventured to Indonesia in search of relaxation, diving and just spending time together. We chose two locations in North Sulawesi: Coral Eye on Bangka Island and Siladen Resort and Spa on Siladen Island, sister resorts that are special in their own ways, but mirror each other in service, luxury and commitment to environmental and social responsibility, plus excellent diving.

As we watched, the cuttlefish disappeared under a discarded coconut shell and reappeared. Opo motioned to me that it was laying eggs. We watched in awe and fascination but eventually left the cuttlefish to its maternal duties in search of other exotic creatures.

This was just the second day of diving Lembeh Strait and I was already starting to realise that despite everything I had read, Lembeh was not at all what I had expected.

To my right was a gorgeous wall of color. Pink and purple soft corals extended fully, reaching out into the current to feed on plankton passing by and numerous giant purple barrel sponges extending away from the wall. Looking to my left into the open water was more blue and thousands of fish. Butterflyfishes, including the largest congregation of pyramid butterflyfishes I have ever seen, fluttered about in the water column, seeming to move in sync with one another.

Dive sites that offer unusual or dramatic underwater topography have always intrigued me. And from what I had been hearing, the site known as Blade was a prime candidate to add to my “favorites” list.

Gorontalo Province lies on a peninsula extending from the northeast of the flower-shaped island of Sulawesi, reaching out towards the Philippines. This peninsula, known as the Minahasa, is bounded by the Celebes Sea to the north and the Gulf of Tomini to the south, and it is on this southern ocean boundary that the provincial capital, Gorontalo City, lies. The term City, however, is deceptive, since Gorontalo is more akin to a rural town, where chickens risk all as they cross roads that are traversed by over-laden scooters and motorised rickshaws, known locally as bentor.

 

A few meters ahead to my left, my cousin, Kate Clark, an accomplished diver and tireless swimmer, senses my fatigue and looks back to make sure I haven’t quit on her. She slows her speed a bit, trying to be a good buddy and stick with me. The girl is wearing snorkel fins and carrying a 40 pound camera for Pete’s sake, I think to myself. How is she swimming so fast?

That was exactly my reaction when I was first told about this vibrant and breathtaking stretch of sea three hours south of the Lembeh Strait just off the Sulawesi mainland in Indonesia. Of course, like nearly every diver, I had heard of Lembeh and the wondrous creatures that call that famous sliver of water home, but Buyat Bay? Nope. That was a name I was totally unfamiliar with.

 

So, when X-RAY MAG was invited to dive in this still unspoiled and undiscovered part of the world, well, we jumped at the chance.

Everybody today knows about muck diving—the concept of looking for strange and grotesque macro critters in coral-poor areas with medium or downright bad viz—but not everybody knows this is where it all began, circa 15 years ago.

Sulewesi came on my radar when I first set eyes on Roger Steene’s book, Coral Seas, published in 1998. At the time, the last thing on my wish list was another coffee table book. I had been diving nearly 40 years and thought I’d seen just about everything I wanted to see underwater. But when I spotted the weird, exotic animals in that book, I realized what I’d been missing. An inordinate number of them were photographed in Sulawesi.

Previously known as Celebes, Sulawesi is Indonesia’s fourth largest island, and it is at its northeastern tip where we find the region famous for having a number of the best dive spots in the world. It can only be the most ignorant or newly minted divers who haven’t heard the names Manado, Bunaken or Lembeh uttered somewhere. Lesser known is it that this region is called the Minahasa, and the inhabitants, the Minahasan.