đŹđ§ Iâm embarking with this serie "STOP" in stories of a few stopovers. I wonât do them in order, just out of desire and to dust off some old memories.
đŹđ§ ... This is the 3rd and last part of my stop Ă Maratua
My dives around Maratua went on for several weeks. I take my habits between the dives on the reef, those in the middle of the barracuda group when the weather and the tide allow me to do so, the reef that is full of surprises and even an outing on the neighboring islands in search of Manta rays that I will never find! In the evening, I often go to the Hotel Nabucco where I sympathized with the management team and the staff. Time for a beer, a meal and a debriefing on the dayâs dive! Life is sweet here, itâs already been a month since Iâve kept this pace and I donât get tired of it!
đŹđ§ One evening, our diving conversation takes us to talk about a lake that would be a few hundred meters inside the island and that would host thousands of jellyfish. Incredible story told by my friends Rayner and Evelyne. At a time I wouldnât try to specify, the drop in sea level created this lake and imprisoned these jellyfish inside. They have thus survived until today isolated from the sea and without any predators. This last point is very important because he allowed these jellyfish to no longer have a defense system, that is to say, urticating poison. And yes, without an enemy, no need to defend oneself anymore!! So here there would be a lake in the middle of the forest, filled with jellyfish whose tentacles would be harmless... Well letâs see!
đŹđ§ So here I am the next day «hiking» in the forest with a bag containing fins, a mask and a photo box. The situation is quite funny but I love it! I will need a good half-hour to find the lake. The lake is greenish and I canât see anything from the surface. I am alone and the situation is quite grim. I somehow find a bank to put myself in the water and let me glide smoothly through it. The depths are strange. Nothing known to me. Where one would expect to find branches, I find sponges and mosses that I have never seen elsewhere. It must not be forgotten that this lake is still salty and that the underwater life is closer to that found in the sea than to that which one can find for a freshwater lake. The sponge photos are linked but still no jellyfish. Maybe itâs because I am always less than 5m from the edge... Would I be afraid ?!! So I push my curiosity towards the center of the lake and in less than 30 seconds I suddenly find myself surrounded by jellyfish. The situation is incredible! Despite repeating the conversation with Rayner and Evelyne about the harmless side of jellyfish, I still have a hard time accepting contact with jellyfish. And then I try, a finger along a tentacle, and indeed nothing urticant! The same situation in the open sea with the same species of jellyfish would have made me scream and come out of the water immediately. But here, nothing like that. So I continue my visit of the group of jellyfish by trying to take some photos and immortalize this unique moment. There are only a dozen lakes in the world offering the same situation. So itâs really a unique moment!
đŹđ§ Today, a few years after this swim in this lake, Chatgpt listed dozens of "jellyfish" lakes around the world. Palau, Papua, Indonesia, but he didnât list this one! And I made sure not to give him the location!
Bohe Silian, East Kalimantan, Indonesia
