Returning to the main land from Taveuni on a twelve hour overnight crossing we had half a day to stock up on supplies before moving on to Caqalai (pronounced Thangalai, obviously). This small paradisaical island, described as the near perfect backpackers resort in the guide book (I can’t bring myself to write those two words), is east of the main island of Vitu Levu and is part of the Lomaiviti island group. On a par with Koh Wai in Thailand and if it wasn’t for the weather we had I might even had said that Caqalai was better.
The island’s only resort attracts the backpacker crowd with cheap basic accommodation and all inclusive packages, the cheapest of which, provided us with a dorm bed each and fantastic food for a mere £25 a night. Not Asia prices but extremely good value compared to everywhere we had been to in the previous four months.
To get to the island we had to make our way up the Kings Road by bus to be dropped off at a bridge crossing the Waidalice River. Within half an hour a boatman turned up and took us on our way along the river, winding through the mangroves before emerging in the open sea. Twenty minutes later a tiny little coconut palm tree covered island, that was to be our home for the next four days, grew in our sights and a feeling within told me this place was going to be pretty special. A few moments later the boat deposited us on the beach amidst a warm songful welcome from the locals.
Beautiful sandy beaches, clear blue water and incredibly friendly staff greeted us to the island. We were soon to meet some of the other guests which included some real characters (in fact the place was the busiest location we’d been to so far) who we were to get to know quite well over the forthcoming days.
The snorkeling off the beaches on Canqalai was incredible. This was one of the best places I’ve ever snorkeled, second only to a marvelous spot on Koh Phang Yang (which may be better only in memory as it was the first coral reef I ever snorkeled on). I always go on about the diversity and health of coral but this place was incredible. Within metres of the beach there was splendid soft and hard corals stretching some 100 metres before the outer reef dropped off to the deep blue below. I didn’t spot any rays or turtles though (the later of which are apparently quite abundant).
On one particular morning I was surface diving down around the outer reef. The coral was four metres below the surface which I was following quite closely. I suddenly swam over the drop off and got this immense sense of vertigo as all of a sudden I could see nothing but blue stretching out endlessly below me. As if this wasn’t enough of a surprise, in the corner of my eye I spotted a banded sea snake foraging for food.
After surfacing for air I ducked down for a second time to get this photo of the snake, but when I returned to the surface it seemed to spot me and follow me up. This was just a tad unnerving as Banded Sea Snakes are poisonous with enough nasty stuff in them for it to be fatal to humans. Apparently they don’t attack humans but I didn’t really want to be close enough to find out. Once I was back on the surface the snake continued up towards me so I moved pretty quickly. It, thankfully, didn’t follow me and surfaced where I had just been. It was then that I realised that it was just coming up for air. Obvious really but having never seen a sea snake do this before I hadn’t figured they needed to. Like regular snakes they need air. If they were able to breath underwater then they would be eels… Obvious but I hadn’t thought about it before. It is a great feeling learning about something first hand by seeing with your own eyes, especially something so charming as this fine creature.
Our time on Canqalai was spent snorkeling, reading, socialising or playing cards. Due to the rain we had (varying amounts everyday) the later two took up more of our time, but it wasn’t all bad as we got to know Alex and Owen well (two very different and very interesting British lads who are travelling the world together) along with a whole host of other people including a stunning and friendly Dutch couple and several Canadian girls. There was a young Swedish couple who we didn’t get to know at all as they spent all their time in between eating, watching DVDs on their lap top. I understand that Heroes is addictive viewing by why spend loads of money crossing the world to do something that you can do better in your own living room?
It was a shame to leave Canqalai after so little time there. Without the rain the place would have been near perfect. In fact, if it wasn’t for a particular Fiji “must do” we would have spent three more days there. So, amidst a traditional Fijian goodbye of music and flowers we found ourselves boarding the tiny boat, this time covered up in sowesters ready for the journey back to the mainland.
We had yet another bus trip via Suva where we once again made full use of internet cafe’s and the wonderful hot bread kitchen, before continuing our journey to Pacific Harbour where we were booked in for the must do Shark Dive the following morning.
The Shark Dive
This was something that Jon did on his round the world trip and insisted that I check out. Additionally I read a lot about the Fiji shark dive and was somewhat psyched up for the event. The Shark Dive at Pacific Harbour is reported to be the only place in the world where you can see so many different types of sharks feeding without being tucked away behind a cage of any sort. This is high adrenaline stuff with the dive guides feeding the sharks by hand only metres in front of you.
You can imagine my frustration when I was unable to equalise and it took me 6 minutes to get down to 26 metres to join the others behind the flimsy rope that was in place to keep us back from the hungry sharks. By this point I had the worst seat in the house and the action had already started. All I could see was a frenzy of fish swimming around all over the place. During the twenty minute dive, I did spot one nurse shark, from a distance, obscured by what seemed to be a thousand other fish. I was disappointed.
This was an expensive dive and we were guaranteed sharks, but one nurse shark from a distance was very poor (I mean, Nurse Sharks don’t even look like proper sharks). In fact, I’d had closer, scarier encounters in Thailand, Australia and the Philippines. In retrospect, the sheer number and variety of fish was unlike anything I’d seen before, as was the frenzied fight for food, but if something has been hyped up and you have high expectations, it is very easy to be disappointed.
I think our guide must have picked up on my disappointment, as on the second dive I found myself closer to the chief shark feeder (a very cool job title) than anybody else. From here I was to see all the action and I was blown away. They take down a wheely bin full of fish scraps that they try to feed the sharks with. Pretty much everything in the water comes along for some of the action so before seeing any sharks a frenzy of super fast Giant Travellis were whizzing around us accompanied by rainbow runners, Ramoras, a loan huge Hump Moari Wrasse along with loads of others that I couldn’t even begin to try and name. Seeing this mad feeding frenzy take place metres from my face was quite something.
And then along came a shark. This was just the nurse shark from earlier, but being this close it was a lot more fascinating to see it feeding from human hands and attempt to eat directly from the bin. A few minutes later and along came a collection of Grey Reef sharks and Silvertips (much more mean / cool / shark looking that the nurse) which was thrilling. Then we were treated to something big. A Lemon Shark, who’s size, to my eyes at lest was incredible. Feeding from the Fijian with the wheely bin it was easy to see what sort of damage this beast could do, yet the sharks here were the most calm and relaxed things in the water. A complete contrast to all the fish hurtling about at incredible speeds and the fast erratic hearts beats and breathing of the humans witnessing all the action.
Within what seemed like five, our twenty minutes were up and it was time to return to the surface. During the ascent and safety stop we were treated to views of five or six reef and silvertip sharks swimming around us. Back on the surface on a high we all spoke at once discussing what we had just seen. I found out later that there were bull sharks down there. One dive master claimed that there were six of them. This I find very hard to believe as I didn’t see a single one. Bulls are bigger and more aggressive looking than the mighty lemon shark that passed in front of me many times. If there had been one bull shark feeding from the man with the wheely bin, I would have seen in.
So I didn’t get to see any Bull or Tiger sharks (the Tigers really are something else… they are one of the few sharks that are dangerous to humans and are immense) but they are seasonal at Pacific Harbour and we weren’t there at the right time. Apparently when the Tiger comes in close, everything else scatters, leaving a clear view for all. That, especially having seen video clips on You Tube, I have to see.
It was absolutely incredible, and despite my initial disappointment it was one of those unforgettable experiences. Due to the madness, my photos and videos are rubbish. My eyes struggled to see passed the masses of fish to focus on the sharks so my camera really had its work cut out. None the less, the following should give you some idea…
This video shows how hectic it really was down there. A lemon shark does actually swim by left to right, shortly after the hand (bottom right) points it out. Unfortunately the youtube compression makes it very hard to make out.
A much better clip, as in you can actually make out the shark. Search on you tube for shark dive Fiji to see some really good footage including the incredible Tiger Shark.
This excitement was pretty much the end of our time in Fiji and our time with Nathalie (who is off to New Zealand armed with all the advice we could throw at her), but not before we took advantage of a rather swanky resort who had the good sense to build a budget dorm for people like us.
Our next flight was to be hard work. Air New Zealand had canceled the direct flight from Nadi to Rarotonga which we originally had booked so instead we had to go via Auckland in New Zealand to get to the Cook Islands. Instead of a three hour direct flight we were looking at ten hours, seven of those in planes, three hours at the airport. On top of that we had trouble at check in as the guy only checked us in as far as Auckland. When I quizzed him, he suggested that we cleared customs, collected our bags, check them in again and pass back through immigration. I wasn’t having this and after a while he gave in and checked us in correctly to our final destination. The fun continued though. On the flight they forgot me when serving the dinner and by the time they realised they had ran out of both the chicken / veg dish and the chicken pies leaving only the pasta dish. Not in the best of moods I winged about it as this was exactly what happened on the flight out to Fiji. To be fair to Air New Zealand, the got their act together and obtained for me an excellent Chicken Paninni from business class. I also got to keep the salmon pasta from cattle class while I waited. End result? One satisfied customer.
After being greeted by a live band in Nadi Airport and passing immigration (the passport is looking pretty good now) we were met by Nathalie, an old Uni house mate and as of recently girlfriend of a very good friend of mine back in London (I think I can claim some credit for that ). Nathalie, once recovered from the shock of how much hair I’d amassed over the last 11 months or so, lead us to our nearby hostel, serving as our local guide. She had just started her own round the world trip, going the opposite direction to us, Fiji being her first stop. By part coincidence, she arrived two weeks before us. One day during our stay in Fiji happened to be one month in for Nathalie and one month left for us of our respective trips. Seeing Nathalie so fired up about her trip reminded me of what I was like at the beginning of our’s and served to show how tiring this traveling lark can be (not that I’m complaining mind).
Without a guidebook we were relying on what Nathalie had discovered and wanted to see and so we made our way over to Suva before getting on a boat for a sixteen hour voyage to the Island of Taveuni. Not before we spent a night in an old Colonial era hotel (now a backpackers) along with a large group of Indo-Fijian laborers who invited us to join them for the national drink, Kava. A relaxing slightly narcotic drink made from roots of some kind of plant (kava plant?) which the locals drink by the bowl full, or in this case, washing up bowl full. This was a pleasant way to spend the evening and Nathalie was especially impressed as although she’d tried Kava on numerous occasions before we arrived, they were all specially put on for tourists. This was drinking with the locals, about as authentic as you can get.
We spent the best part of a week on Taveuni, a pretty remote and judging by the number of tourists, untouched island. We tackled the Lavena Coastal Walk after an arduous two and a half hour bus journey round the island on a potholed and gravel track. The walk was good taking us past some strange rock formations and rock pools (filled with bizarre minuscule life forms) and at the end we were treated with a pair of waterfalls with a large plunge pool for swimming in. After twenty minutes of having the place to ourselves a small tour group turned up. The braver amongst us (not me) after being shown by their guide slid down the small waterfall. And the very brave (only the guide and Nathalie) jumped from the top of the big pool, some fourteen metres. Something of which, Nat was understandably proud.
Also while on Taveuni we went diving on the much heralded Rainbow Reef but I have to admit I was somewhat disappointed. It was our first time in the water for a while so took a little while to get comfortable but the organisation of the dive masters was a bit poor and the dive briefing missed several key points (things I should have asked about… the joys of hindsight) which culminated in Espe and I due to a number of factors being separated from all the others for the whole dive. This would normally have been no real problem, except that the other group saw a hammerhead shark. The second dive was better but the coral and fish life didn’t live up to the “world class diving” status this place claims. Espe and my thoughts were echoed by those of Nat who had just completed her open water course elsewhere in Fiji surrounded by all sorts of colourful, pretty and moving stuff.
We also managed to visit the natural water slide at Waitavala. Fiji’s equivalent of an aqua park, the gradual waterfall has carved some smooth channels and at weekends loads of local families turn up with the kids hurling themselves down it. We naturally had a go. A few bruises were inevitable however over one fall I rammed my toes into a boulder shortly followed by my shin. At this point I retired to heal my wounds and watch the locals do it their way. Instead of sliding down on their arses, they go down standing up, surf style. Once again, very impressive.
We were lucky to time our visit with the Indian festival of Diwali. Given the vast number of Indians in Fiji this was bound to be a good celebration. The Brit’s shipped Indians over to work the plantations back in the coloneal days and although race relations are good at the public day to day level, most of the recent military coups (of which there have been plenty) are race related. We wandered up to Somosomo, the island’s biggest town to see what was going on. Besides all the fancy illuminations on the houses to celebrate the festival of light, the kids were out in force playing with fireworks. Everything we were told not to do as children growing up in the UK, these kids were doing with fireworks. They were lobbing sparklers at each other, catching spent fireworks as they fell from the sky, hurling bangers in every direction and shooting rockets across the street to opposing groups. It almost felt like a war zone. Needless to say the kids were loving it, as were we with our $5 butterflies and 20 cents sparklers. As the night went on the bigger kids came out to play and things became even more chaotic. Espe was not surprised by all this madness as she was brought up on Las Fallas, but for Nat it was a little too much excitement, running away like a proper girl (which from the abuse she hurls at JB we know she’s not) every time someone (including herself) lit a firework near her.
From such a small community I wasn’t expecting much in the way of celebrations (especially having witnessed the celebrations of 30,000 Indians at Wembley for Diwali several years back), but it was a fantastic evening and a true highlight of the stay on the island. Coming to Taveuni instead of hitting the uber-touristic Yasawa group was definitely a good idea.
I must admit I was surprised by how expensive things were here in Fiji. It is cheaper than New Zealand but way more expensive than Asia which I was foolishly expecting. Also a bit unexpected was the weather. It was really changeable with fierce sun and high humidity usually followed by cloud, wind and rain.
That was more than made up for by the friendliness of the locals. The Fijians have a reputation for being some of the friendliest people on the planet and it is easy to see why. They will happily stop for a chat, and unlike some of the places we’ve been to on this trip, none of them were out to scam us. Add to that the free lifts we were given about the island and the free food that was often thrust upon us, one can’t help but feel welcome here.
And on a final note, typically, I find out about Camper Van Racing just after I leave New Zealand…
I write this from Sydney. I have a headache and I am absolutely shattered. I’ve spent the last week and a bit attempting to fix the van, running between mechanics, stressing, frequently visiting Super Cheap Auto (Australia’s Halfords equivalent), faffing and abusing the hospitality of friends. Needless to say, I will write up about all that at a later date when I’m able to look back at it and smile but for the moment I am over a month and some 10 posts behind with this blog.
Casting my mind back… The Great Barrier Reef. The worlds largest living collective organism, the only living thing visible from space, stretching some 1600 miles. (I’ve no idea if the above is correct or not, but I’m just to tired to bother checking it.) The reef is not actually continuous but made up of some 3000 individual reefs.
Mention the Barrier Reef to any diver and it should evoke an excited reaction. Diving The Reef was on my 100 things to do before I die list but I’d been warned by several travellers that, at least with regards to individual dives go one shouldn’t expect any better than what SE Asia has to offer. Still that was no reason not to find out for myself. The cost of dive trips, however, was.
Thankfully through our camp site we found out about a “Hosty” program where by we could go out to a live aboard boat for 2 days as guests and then stay on as hosts for free, cleaning the rooms, making the beds, washing up etc, in return for food, accommodation and some free diving. I couldn’t sign up fast enough…
We were taken out to our boat, Reef Encounter, by a day tripping boat owned and run by the same company. It was old, small and slow… about three other boats steamed past us on the way, but “no worries”, we got to see some more whales, once again nice and close.
After the old banger that brought us out to the reef, I wasn’t expecting anything special. As a result I was more than pleasantly surprised when I saw our gleaming white home for the next few days surrounding by pristine blue shimmering water. This was a big luxury catamaran. With large dive platform, sun deck, hot tub (I can’t spell jacusy) and helipad, I was amazed by the size and levels of comfort aboard this vessel.
The boat also had a huge dining room and lounge, ideal for enjoying the well prepared meals and tasty beverage afterwards lounging on the comfy sofas. I couldn’t help but feel that despite being quite an expensive trip, it should have cost more.
Being on board for four days meant we got to meet a lot of people. Most spent only one night aboard before returning to terra firma but there were a few who were on board for longer, especially other hosties who we were working with and the crew members who, with the exception of our second boss, were all good fun. It was really pleasant socialising with people with similar interest in diving and travel. My only gripe here was that with all the diving, eating and ‘hosty-ing’ there wasn’t enough time for anything else.
On our third day on Reef Encounter two Spanish chaps came aboard. My attention was first drawn to them when the dive master was trying to tell off one of the guys who had surfaced without his buddy and had no air, absolutely none, left in his tank. With less than basic English I ended up having to translate and tell the guy off myself. These guys were relatively inexperienced, but this was was not the only time we saw them diving carelessly. Unfortunately I’ve got the impression from Chris and others, that this is quite common in Spain with people not having a great deal of respect for the rules.
That said, I can’t take anything away from Ignacio & Miguel-Angelo. Along with spending time with them on Reef Encounter, we shared the return trip to Cairns together. Top chaps, especially Ignacio who started learning English 15 days before coming to Australia and despite having very little grasp of the language wasn’t afraid in the slightest to try.
I suppose I should mention a bit about the diving really. The reef’s were good, the turtles and sharks abundant and with giant clams (and I mean giant), barracuda, lion fish, super fast giant travelli, bat fish and wonderfully diverse and colourful coral there was plenty to see.
After hearing so much hype about the Great Barrier Reef, I’d dumbed down my expectations so not to be disappointed. At the end of the day, when up close it is just another reef. The most impressive reef I can recall was in Thailand, but that was my first ever experience of coral reefs so of course it seemed incredible. The Great Barrier Reef is incredible, mainly because of it sheer size (best seen from the air no doubt but our budget just couldn’t stretch to that), but after spending the two months leading up to this diving in Asia it had a lot to live up to. Add to that that the fact that we only visited two different dive spots meant my experience of The Reef is very, very limited.
Having switched back to the transfer boat at the end of our trip we got an hour’s snorkeling over one of the reefs. This was such a different experience from all the dives we’d done, and a very pleasant one at that. While diving you are always deeper and at the edge of the reef. While snorkeling over the top. This results in different lighting, different coral and different aquatic life.
Over the four days I got eleven dives in and my log bog is only a few pages away from being full. This was the first time, bar one ill faited experience in Las Islas Hormigas, that I was left to navigate and guide my own dives. Up until now we’d always been following a Dive Master. With Espe and I being on our own we were, after a dive site briefing, able to explore at our own pace looking at what we wanted to see and only surface when we got low on air. Navigating for myself was a real confidence booster, and as Nicky has been telling me for years, it really isn’t that difficult.
I’m still more than dozen dives away from the magic 100 but I’m feeling more and more comfortable in the water with each dive, or at least I would have if the equipment was up to spec. Of the 11 dives, on two of them I was cold. On the others I was frozen. The company charged us extra to hire wetsuits, yet were only able to provide thin, warn out shorties. At 22 degrees, with my frame, a shorty is not going to keep me warm. So I squeezed on a second one to in a desperate attempt to slow the loss of all that precious body heat but alas this wasn’t up to the job either.
Being so lanky very few suits fit me. If they are long enough then they are too loose. If they are tight enough then they are too short. It was better diving with the second suit but I was constantly having to pull the suit down to prevent the suit from castrating me. I actually had to abort one dive due to the pain. Again, it annoys me immensely that companies can provide such good service with regards to comfort and dive equipment (even dive computers were provided) and yet not offer suitable wetsuits. If you are not comfortable to the point that you are not enjoying the dive then what is the point?
Rant over. All in all, it was a good trip and I think that the up close and personal encounters with the turtles will remain in my mind for ever.
This was the first time in the water with my new camera and case. With it’s underwater mode and combined with the use of my strobe, I’m pretty impressed with some of the results. After enjoying the diving so much without the camera in the Philippines, I only took the camera in on every other dive or so to make sure I got the best of both worlds. I’ll leave you here with some of the best pics of the trip. I’m off for a beer, some food and to see what England can manage against New Zealand in the Cricket.
Oh, and on a completely unrelated note, spare a thought for an ex work colleague and friend of mine, Alan, who has been in the wars lately (and here I was complaining of some cut and bruised knuckles).
This, I’m afraid, is a bit of a half hearted attempt at a post. Sitting in the cold in Sydney it is hard to think back to what the 35 degree tropical islands of the Philippines were really like. In fact the last place we stayed at, Panglao Island, was much like the other places we visited in the Philippines. Beautiful soft white sand, coral reefs off the beach, expensive package holiday resorts and distinctly German menus in the restaurants (not a bad thing in itself but while in the Philippines it would make sense to eat Filipino food thus experiencing the local delicacies and saving money… unfortunately not an option on Alona Beach where we stayed).
While in Malapascua we met up with a guy who was on the meditation retreat with us in Thailand back in May. Being a silent retreat although we spent nearly 10 days in each others company we didn’t speak once. By further coincidence upon leaving Malapascua it turned out that Jonny was also headed for Panglao but he had a much easier run than us. We were up at seven to get the 8am boat out. The bus we got once back on Cebu island was driven very cautiously unlike our journey up there. All well and good I thought until about 10km into the 130km journey we were all churned off the bus due to faulty brakes (that explained the cautions driving). The next bus was understandably crammed full so we spent half an hour on foot. Long enough for me to get fed up of the reckless driving and fall over onto a little kid as the driver hurled us round the corners. We also met up with June, one of the people we’d dived with in Malapascua and just to rub it in, she’d had time for a morning dive, during which she spent 12 minutes looking at 3 thresher sharks, before catching her bus (on which she had a seat and we didn’t). Upon arrival in Cebu we made our way to the ferry port were Jonny appeared last minute and strolled onto the boat while we had been waiting for two hours. He had got up at 11, got talking to some Korean tourists on the boat who had an AC minibus waiting and got himself a free ride into Cebu. Not only did he have a four hour lie in, he had a quick comfortable ride and saved on the bus fare. Jammy git.
Our time on Panglao was quite uneventful. We spent some time with Mancunian Jonny who is a keen music student (it is amazing how much interest a blond dread locked white man with a guitar can generate) and did two great dives off the beautiful Balicasag island. These were particularly good as we had an excellent German Dive Master (unlike the idiot in Malapascua) and we were presented with the best coral reef I’ve ever seen. So healthy, so colourful with loads of schools of fish. Add to that the fact that these were effortless slow drift dives, I can’t think of a better way to finish diving in Asia. Otherwise we just laid back and did nothing. There were a couple of touristy things to do but after so long on the road they either didn’t appeal or were way over priced.
Our return flight to Manila was quite amusing. Half way through the flight the stewardesses ran a competition with merchandise prizes. Passengers had to raise above their head the item that the stewardess called out for. Ticket stubs, books and shoes were being thrust in the air in alarming numbers.
The Philippines was an amazing place to visit. There are so many beautiful islands and as you can probably tell, the diving was the best I’ve ever done. There were some disappointments though. Due to the geographical nature of the country travel is not cheap or easy, so many of the places we wanted to see we couldn’t. The place also seems to be lacking in it’s own culture. The Spanish and American influences are plain to see. Not the Filipinos fault mind, but a shame that so much of their own heritage has been wiped out. Another effect of the American influence is that Filipinos consider any white person to be an “Americano”. Something I don’t particularly like being called. I mean, that is like calling Chris English or Philippe Dutch. My biggest whinge though is that the Philippines do not cater for backpackers, not that I’m want everything laid on as it can be in Thailand or Australia, but It seems to be a two week holiday destination which means more restrictive prices, expensive western food everywhere and many a cheesy club or go go bar. With more time or more money an independent traveller could do the place more justice. Unfortunately we were lacking in both.
Oh, and yes, I am missing my camera. Can you tell?
Our long journey from Coron to Malapascua got worse after the two flights and 10 hour wait in the cramped ill equipped Manila domestic terminal. After an overnight stay in Cebu we boarded a bus bound for the closest port to Malapacua island to be told that we were lucky, we had a “very good driver, very fast”. Not two things that necessarily go together in my mind. The guy had a heavy right foot, full throttle or full braking was all he knew. Add to that the constant swerving in and out of traffic to overtake regardless of oncoming traffic. This was nothing compared to passing schools at above 70 mph on the wrong side of the road (the centre here was divided with big signs with “school slow” plastered all over them) air horn blasting with children running for their lives away from the road. After three hours of reckless and downright dangerous driving we’d had enough and got off early fearing for our lives. This was worse than that Indian journey.
A further two hours in a subsequent bus we saw ourselves fending off the usual tourist trap tricks thrown at us by all the boat crews to extort money from us (been on the road for six months now, not falling for that one mate). After some tough negotiating we saw ourselves on a pleasant Bangka ride across to Malapascua (interesting story behind the name, but I leave that for Espe to explain.
Malapascua is another one of The Philippines beautiful desert Islands. Long white sand beaches, palm trees, coral reefs off the beach etc. Unfortunately we were greeted by a whole load of building rubble. The local government has introduced a new law banning all buildings within 20 metres of the high tide line on all the beaches. Apart from the temporary chaos I think this is a good thing as it will get rid of some ugly concrete monstrosities close to the water and prevent this island becoming like Sabang Beach. There are some exceptions though. There is a Danish run resort on one of the smaller beaches that has some nice wooden huts tidily tucked behind the treeline, but as the beach is smaller these fall into the 20 metre cut off and have to go. With no space to rebuild the huts further back this resort has to close. A real injustice as the rule has been created to generate more resorts like this one.
So why did we come to Malapascua? Diving of course. With almost guaranteed sightings of thresher sharks, who were we to resists? Such promise comes at a price though. This came in the form of a 4:30 am start. We spent 50 minutes searching around an open water shoal in the cold and relative darkness fighting a reasonable current. We were rewarded with little more than a fleeting glimpse of a graceful thresher shark, long tail and all, before it was scared off by some divers hovering at higher depths (the key at this site is stay down on the shoal so as not to spook the sharks). Big fish sighting as I well know are all about luck.
Later in the day we returned to the same dive site. The 20 metre deep shoal has has very deep water all around and very little of interest on the shoal bed. It is however what is known as a cleaning station where small cleaing wrasse fish clean whatever big things come along, be it sharks or divers (thats right, I had a cleaning wrasse nibbling at my wet suit).
For this dive we dropped down rested on the shole floor. No finning about in the current, just waiting. This was a really different experience for me from the dives I’ve done up to this point. With the visability not more than 6 metres and along with being really rather cold I became fully aware that I was absolutely clueless as to what was out there in the big dark blue open sea, then suddenly it appeared, a huge beast swimming slowly gracefully towards us. No not the elusive thresher but a large manta ray. Another incredible animal. So beautiful “flying” along infront of us with it’s huge wings. Fifteen seconds later it was out of view but those short 15 seconds made the whole two plus hour trip worthwhile. True grin factor. Without my camera I had more time to focus on the ray while it passed by leaving the faffing for someone else, in this case Richard…
… which brings me onto another highlight of our time on Malapascua. As far back as Tioman in Malaysia the places where we have been diving the other divers have not made particularly good company. This was an exception. First I got talking to a chap who shared my name and several of my interests and then later on Richard (who really reminded me of my uni course mate Graeme) who as an experienced diver and experienced traveller had loads to talk about and was full of tips. Best of all, for you guys at least, is that Richard was kind enough to give me his pictures to use here.
Our second day of diving was even better. We went out to Gata Island, a tiny limestone outcrop with an underwater cave running through the middle of it. With only four divers on board, not another boat in sight and accompanied only by a host of bird life, from the surface alone this promised to be a great dive. The coral around the island was incredible and although lacking in large schools
of fish there was plenty to see… scorpion fish, frog fish, lion fish, hermit crabs, anemone fish, shrimps, juvenile harlequin sweetlips (the patterns and fins are as elaborate as its name) sea horses and many of the usual reef fish. Best part for me was peering into a cave only to come face to face with three sharks less than a metre away. Later on we saw two more out in the open swimming about. Incredible.
Coming up to shallower depths we were accompanied throughout our safety stop by a banded sea snake. Not only my longest dive to date, but probably my best. I cannot remember ever being so comfortable under the water.
All three dives that day were excellent including the twilight dive watching very pretty mandarin fish plus the usual night dive stuff; crabs, shrimp, octopi, cuttle fish etc. With all three dives over an hour long we were understandably exhausted at the end of the day.
I’m standing on the back of a Bangka (Filipino style outrigger boat), San Miguel in hand, watching the sun reflect off the beautiful clear blue water. We are passing by the limestone cliffs of Coron Island to my right with the bizarre rolling Windows wallpaper type hills of Busuanga Island to my left. I wonder how two such topographically different islands lie side by side.
After visiting as many “tropical paradise” islands as we have over the last three months they do start to lose their impact but standing back enjoying every sip of my San Miguel, the beauty of my surroundings really hits home. It is hard to imagine a fleet of several hundred US fighter bomber planes flying over this very bay and sinking eight or more Japanese naval ships, yet that is what happened 63 years ago. And that is the very reason we are here.
I’ve just come up diving two of these wrecks. The huge lumps of metal lying on the seabed make for a heaven of marine life and a great dive. On both ships we penetrated the hull (no sniggering please) and explored the inners. Much of the cargo is still visible including in one bay a large bull dozer, caterpillar tracks still intact. Two exhilarating dives although quite erie when thinking of the history.
Along with the wrecks at Coron, we also did two very different dives (sorry if this is becoming a dive blog, I seem to be doing very little else at the moment but then that is the main reason why we included the Philippines in our trip). The first of those was diving to 14 metres before entering a narrow tunnel and then surfacing in a huge cave. The crystal clear water (30 metres vis) was breathtaking as was the limestone stalagmites (or is that stalactites? I never remember which is which) in the cave. The other dive was in a semi fresh water / salt water lake. Along with a very different set of underwater life and yet more incredible visibility the interesting points here were the temperature that rose the deeper we went (up to 36 degrees below 20 metres) and the intricate erosion formed patterns in the limestone cliffs.
Turning round to get myself another San Miguel, I see my beautiful girlfriend sunning herself on deck. Like I said, life is pretty good.
After enduring a five hour bus journey from Manila to Batangas in the Independance Day “Bank holiday weekend” traffic (the driving standards here are second only to India’s, and that is not a good thing) we found ourselves on a “Banca” outrigger boat crossing over to the Island of Mindoro. Spotting dolphins on the crossing well and truly made up for the hellish bus journey.
My first impressions of Sabang beach in Puerto Galera were not good. Concrete right up to the shore, loads of seaweed, expensive accommodation crammed into every available space, go go bars and a much older clientele than that to which I’ve come accustomed on this trip. Very much reminiscent of Pataya. In fact, in four days, I only saw three other backpackers.
Underwater, thankfully, was an altogether different world. Sabang provided the best diving so far of this trip. Loads of macro life, very healthy coral, small wrecks and sharks were all on offer. Going inside and exploring the wrecks was incredible and something that I find hard to put into words (in truth I’m too lazy to do so). Another highlight was a three metre tunnel swim through that was less than a metre in diameter. I saw our Dive Master swim up to a large rock, and then disappear into it. Naturally I followed.
Espe felt the time had come for here to do her advanced course. She didn’t make the same mistake I did and completed the course once she had gained sufficient experience and as a result took a lot more away from the course than I did. I did my Advanced immediately after the Open Water yet I was still learning the basics for myself. We spent some time searching for a Spanish speaking instructor and after a lot of “none round here mate” we found the charismatic American, Sky, one of the first divers in the area, who as it turned out, lived 16 of the first 17 years of his live in Madrid. Somewhere he has fond memories of. We were more than happy to help him reminisce.
Given the laid back nature of Sky and South Sea Divers I was able to accompany Espe on all of her course dives, thus getting a good refresher. For the first dive we did a drift dive whereby you get in the water and follow the current. Very little effort was required and it was great fun racing along at about 6 knots over the endless beautiful coral. Along with Wreck and Deep dives we did a Underwater Photography dive with Dave, a Canadian who works at South Sea Divers and gets incredible results with a basic Casio compact camera. Take a look at Dave’s photos on Flickr.
This was my first opportunity to try out my new toys; my strobe and red filter. As I was learning to use them, none of the pictures turned out great (best of the bunch below) but there is potential there. In fact, Espe took many better pictures using Dave’s own camera.
One dive later I was still learning how to use the flash when my Sony T1 took its last ever picture and having left the damn red filter on (which is designed for non flash photography) it wasn’t even a good one.
No, the camera wasn’t scared to death by the prospect at looking at a shark less than two metres away, somehow my underwater casing leaked. A small amount of water seeped into the housing, possibly due to the damage sustained in Thailand. At 28 metres this was the deepest I’d taken the camera and possibly the greater pressure caused the leak. These few drops of water were enough to kill the camera. So now without a camera for the underwater case my new strobe and red filter seem like a big waste of money. Gutted.
Despite feeling pretty shitty about it, I was cheered up no end by friends who responded to a bulk email I sent out to celebrate six months on the road. Thanks people.
I explained previously how Sharks are the coolest animals on the planet, but I have to say, cuttlefish come close. I was fortunate enough to spend ten minutes or so studying one while snorkeling off the beach in front of our chalet, but even more amazing were the two large ones I saw while diving. The way they just “hover” about with their funky fins that ripple all around their body and the mass of tentacles doing their thing at the front is, in my eyes at least, impressive. Even more so is their ability to change colour to suit the surroundings. The ones we saw did just this, including “rippling” different colours down their body to mimic the sunlight rippling on the sea bed. Like I said, cool.
After four days on Malaysia’s Tioman Island, once reported to be one of the top ten Islands in the world, I was actually a bit disappointed. Perhaps due to all the hype or due to a bad choice of location, but it just didn’t seem all that impressive. We would have stayed over in Juara as recommended by Jose, but getting there was just to awkward and expensive. In the end we stayed on Air Batang Beach, just as well, as Salang beach was fully booked out by the hordes who had come up from Singapore for their “May Bank Holiday Weekend”.
Still, not wanting to sound all negative, I had a good time. This started off by meeting an Anglo - Spanish couple, Eli and Martin, on the boat over. Naturally with several things in common we all got on well, with Espe and Eli chatting away in Castellano while Martin and I conversed in English. Another nice couple also doing around the world trip but in the other direction from us. Martin is unfortunately spoiled, having done most of his dive training in the Galapagos Islands, nothing here can even begin to compare. Check out their blog at www.getjealous.com/eliandmartin. (Blimey, just happened across another Anglo - Spaniard travel blog on GetJealous http://www.getjealous.com/kathandmiguel). We also met Christin on the boat, and later on another German who’s name escapes me. Along with various beach conversations, we went out for a pleasant and sociable dinner, swapping stories and tips, on their last night on the island. That brings me onto the subject of food. Twice we went for the seafood / fish BBQ at ABC resort which was simply superb, both in quantity and quality.
For the four days on the island we did little more than play with the kids at Mokhtar’s Place (our resort), relax, read (I started and finished Stephen Fry’s “The Hippopotamus” along with finishing my “short introduction to buddhism book). One one day however, we got three dives in with B&J Divers. The first had strong current and bad vis, the last was also low vis, but while exploring five wrecks this just added to the erie adventure feel. The best dive however was the second, Whale Shark aside, this was the best dive of the trip so far. Excellent vis, incredible coral (including “potato” coral that I’d never seen before), the afore mentioned cuttlefish, a half eaten shark, various funky nudibranches and challenging swim throughs (swimming through caves and under boulders) all made for a great dive.
Excuse the blueness of the images. Underwater photography is not easy. I’ll hope to rectify the quality of my pics with some new toys that I’m looking at in Singapore. Watch this space.
