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.