About Divers Lodge Lembeh’s Location

Located on the south west tip of Lembeh Island. Divers Lodge Lembeh is surrounded by our own 16 hectares/39.5 acres of lush forest and mangroves, while only 1 hectare/2.4 acres of it is used by the resort itself. You may see a wide variety of big butterflies, many species of birds like the king fisher and sea eagle, monitor lizards, and with some luck you could find the rare Tarsier primates.

We’re situated between Lembeh Strait, the open ocean and Walenekoko Lagoon. The resort is only accessible via boat as there are no road access to the resort. As a result the surrounding area of the resort is peaceful and completely undisturbed, with the only sounds you’ll hear are from nature itself.

The resort is split between two parts, the peninsula we reforested and the resort itself. In recent years the growth of the forest at the peninsula has been exponential and new trees are growing by themselves, as a result more and more species of birds and insects have been sighted at the resort. With most of our Bungalows featuring an excellent view over the peninsula, and the surrounding nature, it also became a delight for birdwatchers and butterfly enthusiasts.

Green outline highlights the area owned by Divers Lodge Lembeh

Beaches

The beachfront of the resort features an excellent house reef, rich with corals, large schools of fish, and also with Mandarinfish and is quite nice for snorkeling.

Please note however: The resort is not suitable for a beach holiday, due to wind and currents that often bring waste to our beach. We do our best to clean it everyday, however despite our best efforts it is still not appealing for anything like a beach holiday.

Fortunately this does not affect our house reef, and during July – September the currents turn and as a result the beach is cleaner. Photo below is the beach during late September.

We also have white sandy beaches on the other side of the peninsula, which you can get to with our kayaks or on foot when there is low tide.

Wildlife

The resort is a true butterfly paradise and over the years more and more birds made it their home. Tarsier Spectrum (very small primates), Civets and Monitor lizards are permanent residents here.

The species of birds we’ve found at the resort are:

• The Great Billed Kingfisher (Endemic)
• Brahminy Kite
• Oriental Dollarbird
• Pied Imperial Pigeons
• Grey-sided Flowerpecker (Endemic)
• Night Heron
• Collared Kingfisher
• Pink-necked Green Pigeon
• Channel-Billed Cuckoo
• Sooty-headed Bulbul
• Koel Bird
• Chesnut Munia
• Sulawesi Bubler
• White-bellied Sea Eagle
• Philipine Scrub Fowl
• Buff-Banded Rail
• Sulawesi Nightjar (Endemic)
• Sulawesi Hanging Parrot
• Red Billed Hanging Parrot
• White-Faced Cuckoo-Dove (Endemic)

Kayaking

Enjoy kayaking around our peaceful bay surrounded by mangroves and picturesque coves that are a home to many birds, making it a delight for birdwatchers too. The bay also offers a great view of our resort. Early morning before breakfast or late afternoon is a great time for kayaking. At other times it often gets too hot and the sun is very strong. Our easy to handle and stable “sit-on-top” kayaks do not require any experience with kayaks.

Please note however it is most important to not swim inside Walenekoko Lagoon. As there are Box Jellyfish that spawn from the mangroves. Fortunately we’ve never seen them go beyond the Walenekoko Lagoon Inlet since the 23 years we’ve started Divers Lodge Lembeh. From our observations the last decades we assume they have their entire life cycle within the lagoon and spawn from there, perhaps most likely because it is protected from currents.

A map for the kayak routes around the resort.

Reforestation

We started building Divers Lodge Lembeh in 2002. Very soon we were able to start planting trees at this peninsula. Earlier people tried to make gardens here by the traditional slash and burn method. However the soil was not good for growing much more than some coconut palms.
At the left, the situation when we came here. The right image shows how it looks now. Unfortunately the location of the resort was not visible yet in the data of 2002. That part was completely barren when we started. But it shows on the recent image.

Left (2002) – Right (2024