Northern Sulawesi: reefs and rainforest

Celebes crested macaque – Tangkoko Batuangus Nature Reserve

In 2025, after finishing up on Disney Sea Lions, I managed to bag myself two months off work before starting on a new project. So Edu and I and started planning our dream trip to Indonesia and the Philippines! As wildlife enthusiasts and scuba diving-junkies, our itinerary had to involve a lot of time underwater and in the jungle seeking out weird and wonderful creatures on land and below the waves. We spent a long time umming and erring about where to go and after plenty of research decided that Northern Sulawesi was a must for us! 

Heading off in January, we knew it would be the rainy season across Indonesia, but mostly in the more southern and western regions. While our transfer through Singapore brought us the most biblical rains of our lives for three days straight, when we arrived in Manado – the capital of Northern Sulawesi – it was a very different story. After arriving by air, we headed straight out on a dayung – a traditional local outrigger boat – to our first island destination Bunaken. 

In the Dayung on the way to Bunaken

It is a stunning island off the northwestern tip of Sulawesi with lush tropical forest and ringed by fantastic coral reefs. It was wonderfully easy getting there – we found while booking all of our stays that you can request pick up by the accommodation, and wherever we went there were people waiting to pick us up and drive or sail us there. After a short boat ride, we arrived on the island and got straight out onto the sandy beach where we were welcomed by our hosts at Panorama Backpackers.

Arriving at Panorama Backpackers – Bunaken

They’re a local, family-run homestay and dive centre; the accommodation is a friendly, casual, backpacker-style retreat. We were so happy to arrive in such a peaceful place with fantastic views and a great family running the place with a loooot of puppies running around!

View from the dining room – Panorama Backpackers Bunaken

Puppy alert! Panorama Backpackers Bunaken

We spent our days there diving the glorious fringing reefs and drop offs with Panorama’s dive centre. We found the guides to be excellent and a joy to be around, and the dive kit to be safe, so would highly recommend diving there! The dive guides, being local, had grown up around these reefs and were able to show us the most wonderful critters underwater – like Pontoh’s pygmy seahorse. 

Pontoh’s pygmy seahorse – Bunaken

Despite it being the so-called rainy season, only the occasional shower came each day, with plenty of sunshine in between and the sea was calm for diving, helped by the barrier reefs. The underwater visibility was exceptional, seeing 20+ metres at least every day. This was our first experience of the ‘coral triangle’ and it did not disappoint! Each day we dived, we saw many green and hawksbill turtles, an abundance of every kind of fish you could imagine and discovered tiny macro secret surprises nestled in the nooks and crannies of the reef.

The reef – Bunaken

Green turtle – Bunaken

Bubble coral shrimp – Bunaken

After a beautiful few days spent on Bunaken, we got the boat back to the mainland, and got picked up to drive to our next spot – THE macro photography paradise: Lembeh. Famous for a particular branch of diving called ‘muck diving’, it may not sound as appealing as the achingly-beautiful bustling coral reef cities we all think of when diving in the tropics, but it is VERY special diving. Muck diving refers to exploring dive sites that may look unremarkable at first glance—often made up of sand, silt, rubble, and the occasional coral patch—but are home to a spectacular array of unusual and highly sought-after marine life. These unique environments are a haven for rare and cryptic species, many of which are masters of camouflage. This is what has made Lembeh a big pull for underwater wildlife photographers with expert local guides there to look for the most weird and wonderful and rare critters. 

Catering for photographers, Lembeh is on the more expensive end of diving in this part of Indonesia, so we only planned to stay for a couple of days – but it was well worth it and I will have to go back again as soon as my bank account allows! We stayed with Two Fish Divers Lembeh, staying in a beautiful wooden cabin with a veranda and hammock overlooking the gardens and the water – again hosted by lovely, friendly people.

Two Fish Divers – Lembeh

The next two days we spent with a fantastic dive guide who showed us some of the species I’d always dreamed of seeing – the famous mimic octopus who contorts and shapes itself into all manner of forms to hide or sneak up on its prey.

Mimic octopus – Lembeh

And, of course, the iconic Bargibanti and Denise’s pygmy seahorses. If you ever want to see the ingenuity of evolution, you only need to spend some time underwater trying to spot these tiny fish in amongst their sea fan homes (the only place they can live), expertly camouflaged to match the colour and texture of the coral. Denise’s pygmy seahorse was named after Denise Tackett, one half of a pioneering couple of divers who happened across Lembeh Strait and spent lots of time diving there. She discovered this seahorse on a different species of sea fan to the one where Bargibant’s pygmy lives, and proposed it as a new species – she was right! We were treated to endless nudibranchs and other macro delights – but we still need to go back for the elusive blue-ringed octopus!

Pregnant male Denise’s pygmy seahorse – Lembeh

Bargibanti’s pygmy seahorse – Lembeh

Lembeh marked the end of our diving in Northern Sulawesi, but thankfully not the end of our incredible wildlife encounters. We got a transfer back to the mainland and this time ventured inland to Tangkoko Batuangus Nature Reserve – here our eyes were opened to the special terrestrial biodiversity of Sulawesi. Alfred Russell Wallace, the explorer who alongside Darwin came to the theory of evolution, spent eight years in this region and has a monument dedicated to him in Tangkoko. His visits here finding new species and documenting the importance of this area for maleo birds, babirusa and others in his book, The Malay Archipelago, inspired the creation of the national park.

Tangkoko Batuangus Nature Reserve entrance

Alfred Russel Wallace monument – Tangkoko

Sulawesi is special – it sits between deep ocean trenches, meaning it was never connected to Asia or Australia. Its isolation has allowed many endemic species to evolve, and has a unique assemblage of wildlife that made its way from both Asia and Australia. It’s the furthest west that marsupials live – the bear and dwarf cuscus both live here. Its animals are very different from elsewhere in the world: like the babirusa pig with upward pointing curled tusks, the tailless Celebes crested macaque (made famous on social media for stealing someone’s camera and taking a selfie!) and the maleo bird, which inclubates its eggs in sand heated by geothermal activity. 

A rainy day for Edu and I in the rainforest – Tangkoko

Safe to say, we were pretty excited to be there! Some friends we met at Bunaken recommended a local guide to us, Stephen Bee, so we messaged him and arranged to spend a day in the forest with him. Oh my goodness, it was like being with some sort of superhero – his senses in the jungle were unparalleled, hearing the faintest sound or catching a glimpse as an animal twitched nearby. In just one day we were treated to an array of incredible wildlife encounters, starting with a troop of the Celebes crested macaques moving through the forest, and babies launching and flinging themselves around the branches. Stephen has been part of the team following and studying the macaques, so is excellent at finding and quietly observing them. One even had the audacity to stick his tongue out at me!

Tongue out! Celebes crested macaque – Tangkoko

Young Celebes crested macaque – Tangkoko

All through the day from dawn till dusk we were immersed in the jungle – spotting forest kingfishers, hornbills at their nest, cuscus munching in the canopy and tiny owls hidden between the trees. 

Knobbed hornbill – Tangkoko

Ruddy kingfisher – Tangkoko

Ochre-bellied boobook – Tangkoko

The absolute highlight of the day came around 5pm, just as dusk was falling. Stephen was listening out for another species of kingfisher (our third of the day) but stopped us in our tracks and pointed to a hole in a tree, surrounded by mushrooms. There, peeping out, were two spectral tarsiers – tiny primates endemic to Sulawesi. This was a particularly special encounter since some places in the region have highly unethical tarsier tourism, taking them out of the forest and posing them on fake branches in the middle of the day for tourists to come and see. I wasn’t expecting to see these little guys – they’re shy and nocturnal and I’d researched and purposely avoided all these tourist traps. But luck was on our side, the rainy day meant it was darker earlier and the tarsiers had just woken up. Before heading out for the night’s hunting they perch on the edge of their sleeping burrow, allowing their huge saucer-like eyes to adjust to the gloom, and wait for the cover of darkness to head out into the forest in case there are predators lurking. With massive eyes and ears and long spindly fingers on a tiny body, they’re like some sort of Star Wars creature! It was a huge privilege to see them deep in the forest in their natural habitat.

Gurksy’s spectral tarsier – Tangkoko

I could have spent days in that forest discovering all of the secrets hidden under the canopy, but with limited time we moved on to our last stop in Northern Sulawesi: Tomohon. We drove up into the hills and volcanoes of Tomohon and based ourselves at Rimba Eco Resort – a super relaxing spot in the forest overlooking Mount Lokon, run by a great couple Arno and Angie (and accompanied by Whisky the dog and Snowy the cat). Our wooden cabin was beautiful and quiet, nestled in the gardens with amazing views. And the communal area comes with great food, board games and a pool table – what more could you ask for!

Rimba Eco Resort – Tomohon

We rented a scooter from Rimba to explore Tomohon and Arno and Angie were so kind, suggesting a route to take and the best spots. We drove around taking in lake and mountain views, stopping for a dip at the natural hot springs and for a walk around the crater of Mahawu. It was such a relaxing way to end this portion of our trip in Northern Sulawesi!

Hot springs – Tomohon

Motorbiking – Tomohon

Mount Mahawu – Tomohon

Edu and I loved every place we visited – beautiful scenery, incredible diving, awesome wildlife encounters and such friendly kind people everywhere we went. I would highly recommend Northern Sulawesi to anyone heading to South East Asia. We felt safe and everywhere felt off the beaten tourist track, although we did meet some fantastic people from all over the world travelling through the region. Happy after such a great start to our travels, we returned to Manado to fly out east to diving paradise: Raja Ampat…

Edu diving – Bunaken

Accommodation links:

Bunaken – Panorama Backpackers: https://www.bunakenbackpackers.com/index.php

Lembeh – Two Fish Divers: https://twofishdivers.com/diving-in/lembeh-straits-manado/

Tomohon – Rimba Eco Resort https://www.booking.com/hotel/id/rimba-eco-resort.en-gb.html