Up for first breakfast at 6.00. Slept well. Asleep shortly after 8.00pm and was surprised when the alarm went off at 5.30.

Saw this little fella on the way to first breakfast.

DIVE 1 –  Aw Shucks. 

Reef at the top and rubble below. Temperature about 27-28 degrees. Saw black ornate ghost pipefish, cuttlefish, slugs, shrimps and Cardinal fish (Richard’s favourite).

During second breakfast the heavens opened…

DIVE  2 – Hairball 1

Muck Dive

Black sandy slope.

As we went down I spotted a tiny coconut octopus and then another.

Also saw flamboyant cuttlefish and a brown cuttlefish, brown hairy frogfish, Cockatoo fish, crabs, shrimps, shawn the sheep slug.

Oh, forgot, we also saw a seahorse.

A fair bit of current at the end but we were shallow and close to the boat.

Spotted this creature in the garden.

DIVE 3 – House Reef

Just Richard and I on the boat this afternoon  A bit of current so we tried to go to one of the TK sites in the bay but the fishermen had their nets out.

We came back and did the house reef. Bit of current, but not much, which the guide apologised for afterwards.

The site is a slope with sand and covered in very low Seaweed or algae.

Clown shrimps in a small purple anemone. Hairy shrimp. Boxer shrimps were out on a bit of old carpet. Tasselled filefish.

Shrimps and crabs on featherstars. A very friendly pufferfish which kept between my camera and me.

No forth dive today. So, a dip in the pool instead and then playing with cameras before dinner. Best food this evening were the coconut and galangal soup and the pineapple fritters.

How lovely, when you turn up at the resort and get hugs from the staff. Wonderful to be back. Only us and a nice couple from Oz, Darryl and Diane, who we shall be sharing a boat with.

Qick dip on the infinity pool before we get the stuff sorted…

It is 8.00pm, all kit is deployed, cameras are ready and we are dead on our feet. Dinner done, time to pass out.

Picture of our hut, no. 5 as usual, from the restaurant balcony where we will be eating our four meals a day.

It’s a bit noisy here.  Listen to some night noise…

All kit is deployed, cameras are ready and we are dead on our feet. Dinner done, time to pass out.

We have just arrived in Singapore after a smooth and uneventful flight. Several movies were consumed and the 13hrs just disappeared. Now we are sat in Singapore airport where everyone is convinced it is Friday morning, our bodies are suggesting otherwise. Still, the selfie face made it here OK. 

Two hours until the next flight, someone give is a nudge when it’s time please.

Zzzzzzzzz…

Pre holiday hair cut. Done.

Pre holiday pizza. Done.

Now on to checking all those things we have forgotten…
Our task this holiday… to see how light we can pack.

Results soon!

…

…

And the results are in!

Oh no…

…

After some time and after some moving around of stuff. 

59.6 kg (60kg allowance)

Yeeesssss!

So that means and that next time with our total of 40kg weight allowance we will only be 19.6kg over. Result!

We really can’t take any less clothes… No really, it would not be pretty.

And on that note, we shall take our leave.

Up early on the transfer day to commence throwing things into boxes and bags and jumping up and down on the lids until we could zip them all up.

We headed out for breakfast which was then followed by the rest of the packing. 

Finally, we could take it no more, into the pool for a swift broil followed by a light lunch.

It was all very sad watching the new guests arriving as we counted down the minutes until our departure 🙁

We settled our bill, said the last round of goodbyes then we boarded or transfer vessel that would whisk us away.

In only a few short moments we had rounded the point and headed in to the beach and up some steps to what is actually the resort car park. 

Willing helpers bought our baggage up at which point they asked which was our car, our car? No we should have a pickup but before you could say “two deep fried lumpia” they had got back on their boat and were heading out of sight.

Hmmm we thought, this must be just fine, we’ll just hide from the sun as best we can and hope that some transport turns up soon.

After a few short moments a local woman made her way up the steps to us as passed a phone to Jo, “it’s for you” she reassured us, good news, transport arriving in two to three minutes, Jo handed the phone back, the woman disappeared.

Sure enough, three minutes later a swanky Toyota mini bus turns up, just for us, with the A/C set to max, the journey to Manila commences.

The first half is spent winding through small villages, up and down hills, avoiding dogs and small children. Occasionally we would get stuck behind one of those chrome clad extended jeep bus type things which we could overtake when they stopped.

When we arrived at San José (apparently our driver knew the way already and didn’t need to ask) we turn on to the main super highway to Manila which after about 40 minutes grinds to near complete standstill as the various toll plazas and Saturday afternoon traffic do their best to stop us reaching our objective (the airport) however, after more than a few twitchy moments, we arrive with much time to spare.

Emirates check in was a breeze, or so it was until they weighed our baggage, we now scored an impressive 84kg out of an 80kg limit, not only that, our hand baggage was slightly over too.

Panic sets in as we are given the opportunity of purchasing an additional 4kg allowance at $64 per kg.

So there we are, at the front of the queue desperately pulling stuff out of the hold baggage and either wearing it or stuffing it into our carry bags or secreting it around our personage.

Bags weighed again and accepted, I agree with Jo that it must be down to wet items as we had taken nothing back that we didn’t bring out with us.

We check in to the lounge and to my delight a bottle of yellow tail Chardonnay is sat there in the fridge, I soon process that as well as some JD and coke and a light snack. In our excitement we manage to check in to a different lounge than Barry and Judy are in, they had just flown in from Coron. 

Regardless, we meet up on the way to the departure gate and exchange stories of our adventures. Once on board it’s the usual non stop movies+food+drink all the way to Dubai, 3 hours in a lounge in Dubai doing exactly the same thing then back on board for the last flight to LHR with even more of the same.

Taxi pickup was fine and we arrived back here some time just before 09:30 I think.

An epic adventure and a place that we would really love to return to. 47 dives with an average of 75 minutes dive time.

We used 32% nitrox for all dives which was mixed on site using the continuous flow method and computers were clear before takeoff.

Today is the last diving day 🙁 it has been epic and the diving has been great, it is definitely on the list of places to return to one day. 

Not sure where we are diving today but I am sure it will be lovely. We have spent at least 5hrs a day under water each day (dive times regularly 75 minutes) as well as some serious pool time, it’s going to take a while to dry out after this trip.

Dive boat Calypso ready for our last adventure.

So we headed out to Elmer’s point for a spot of reef diving where I got to play wide angle for a while and Jo wrestled with yellow pygmy seahorses @24+m.

Back to base for a dip in the pool which @31 degrees was a whole degree warmer than the sea after which we headed out back to secret bay for some muck diving fun. We picked up a few more guests on the boat. All from Taiwan.

We found all manner of frog fish and a large sea horse along with all the usual suspects.

Back to base again for a spot of lunch then heading out again at three for the last two dives of the trip.

OK last two dives completed, both excellent.  Gear now drying, which it does very well in this heat!

First dive was a bumble amongst coral outcrops, the second was a dusk dive on the house reef, we came up in time to see the sunset and keep the dive computers happy, we fly tomorrow at 18:30.

We have both completed 47 dives. Definitely not dived out. Wish we could stay longer. Another place to which we would like to return.

Diving summary: 47 dives completed, 59.5 hrs bottom time, average dive time 75.95 minutes.

Happy divers.

It’s just gone six, not a breath of wind, a few boats out fishing, cockerals cockeraling, the guy who fixes boats on the beach is fixing boats on the beach (I think he only has one tool and he uses it all of the time).

Today we plan to dive ‘Mainit Corner” which is festoon with Nembrotha then a muck dive then after lunch we are off to Anilao jetty for a dive and a night dive. It’s supposed to be quite special, a full report will follow.

Report #1: Mainit corner was excellent, no current, Great visibility, hugely colourful and loads to see. Apart from the usual suspects we saw a banded sea snake and a free swimming blue and yellow ribbon eel, a wonderful dive. 

Back to the resort for coffee in the pool then out again for a muck dive at Heidi’s point. Loads of frog fish, small, smaller and smallest, nudies, sea horse, a snake eel reversing into it’s home, robust ghost pipe fish, coconut octopus, blue spotted rays.

Editors note: lying on the bed, updating holiblog holding phone in the air, drops phone which hits head, ouch…

Report #2

This afternoon was a bit of a trip down to Anilao jetty with a dive along the way. First dive was around a rock with a sandy and rubble sea bed. Didn’t see much at all apart from a few nudies and shrimps.

Off to Anilao jetty for a night dive, slight detail, there is no jetty, just a sandy bottom with nothing to see at all.

Jo suggests we find the boat and get out, just then it all started, octopus after octopus after octopus as well as a Bob tail squid, proper squid and a shield slug. An excellent dive followed by a long trip back in total darkness and a serious electrical storm, quite exciting!

Another excellent day was had by all, last one tomorrow, oh dear 🙁 

Dive days reach double digits, this is not necessarily a good thing as there aren’t many left.

Jo found this in the bathroom this morning, not her favorite insect!

Today the plan is to cross the bay and go round an island to dive “The Wreck”. Not sure what it was but it is now a box structure with all girders covered in life, a small section lies just off the main lump which looks more like a piece of hull. Did it macro last time, now loaded for the wider angle, let’s see how that turns out.

I am pleased to report that it all went to plan, visited the wreck with the wider lens. On the way back we saw an electric clam, Gabby, you will be pleased to know that we introduced the rest of the boat to the correct and now internationally known sign for these.

Back for a quick dip in the pool then back out for a muck dive where we had a bit of a current both ways. I found a Christmas starfish which was special, well it made me laugh. Jo on the other hand not so amused as at the same time I persuade my find out of the sand (to reveal a small Christmas decoration I had found earlier), Jo decides to take a swipe at a fire urchin with her leg, all needles now removed and the leg is saved though it was all a bit of a nasty shock at the time.

Lunch done, now just off gassing before the next dive.

Dive 3 complete, lovely bimble in zero current, back to the pool for the briefest of moments before we head out to “secret bay” for a dusk dive which was great. No current (always a good start), hairy ar$ed frog fish, normal frog fish, seahorse and a couple of octopus were the main attractions. Not so many shrimps, most probably as I had them for my tea:

 .. And they were great, the green stuff? Freshly slouched chilli, tastey. Jo went for the BBQ pork and a salad of carrot, mango, Apple and a local fruit thing, really nice. The while lot wanted down with a drop picture Red Horse and a Shirley Temple.

Back at the room now for picture processing and related shenanigans!

Fresh meat:

We have watched the divers on our boat diminish as the days go by, first to go was Matt, then Barry & Judy, Arrianne from Australia joined the team, Helen came and went, Martine just hung up her fins and now Julienne has joined the team from France so we are up to 4 divers on the boat.

First dive was a muck dive featuring wonderpuss, mimic octopus and coconut octopus as well as fire worms and various frog fish, then back to base for a brief dip in the pool and we picked up Julienne.

Second dive was “bubbles”, the one with the very hot rock and gas bubbles rising out of the sand. An excellent bimble with nudies, frog fish and a turtle.

After lunch, dive 3 was in coconut bay, so called because of all the palm trees nearby. A great dive with lots of stuff including ghost pipe fish. Ornate ghost pipe fish, razor fish and a garden of white hydrozoas with all manner of supporting critters at hand.

Dive 4, the night dive was at Heidi’s point and once again featured many octopus, crabs, shrimps and all manner of pointless beasts, I mean, sea moths? Completely pointless if you ask me, what a waste of an existence, all night scratching around the sea bed like a half trodden on sparrow!

Dinner was the usual sweet and sour chicken and chop suey chased up by a long island iced tea and a Singapore sling, yum.

Photo processing beckons….