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Less than 24hours before departure

Puerto Galera and Anilao – brace yourself!

It’s 05.30, the typhoon is on its way and it’s a little wet and Windy.

During the night the power went off several times (emergency lighting comes on which bathes they room in bright light). Once power had been restored and appeared stable, the air conditioning has to be reset (a skill I now possess what with being management and all)

Breakfast today was a super Leisurely affair, probably had more than was absolutely necessary though we thought it would be a good idea.

Our exit route is now a path through the forest to the small car park, that’s going to be exciting!

In the absence of any boat transport you will usually walk along the beach but right now, the beach is full of boats and it’s approaching high tide, so the perilous jungle path it is for us!

This is the scene down at the beach.

A wild and woolly day indeed. Some good news, the flight before the one we need has just left Singapore bound for Manilla so they’ve not closed the airport yet….

It’s time to leave and we take the centre path as planned, wow, that was a crazy scramble across a hill side in the pouring rain on a path which was littered with slippery stones and covered in a raging torrent!!! But we make it through to the waiting vehicle and our baggage is not far behind us.

The journey to the airport was swift at just under 3hrs although the rain was torrential and there was a lot of water on the road. No queue at checkin, all good, we even bumped in to Rene and Honey at the airport security.

…. And then the weather happened, we are at the gate where the previous flight was still waiting to go. After a while we start to hear of local flights being cancelled. We’ll be OK we thought.

We get called to another gate at the other end of the airport for news, of which there is nothing at all positive, just told to wait for an update. Eventually we are sent to our original gate and told to wait there for an update, so we make our way back and wait. After a while we hear from someone else that we have to return to the far gate for more news.

When we get there we hear that our flight has been cancelled, we need to collect our luggage and go home!!!

A new level of mayhem ensues as we make our way back through security and find our luggage amongst all the other passengers, everyone is asking for help, the ground staff are doing everything they can.

Eventually, after 7 hours at the airport, we are told to leave and ring the office for updates on Monday.

There is a handy hotel booking desk at the airport but all they have to say is that everything by the airport is fully booked. Then one of the staff there says, don’t worry, I’m going to get you a taxi, they will take you 20 minutes away from the airport and they will find you a hotel, don’t worry, it’ll be fine!!!!

So I commit to a £45 taxi for 4 of us (fleeced) and we head out to this area which turned out to be quite high rise and happening.

Point of reference, Rene and Honey are Swiss, Honey only speaks German, Rene has been learning English for a year and speaks a little.

They booked through a travel agent so the airline do not have any contact information for them, we decide to stick together.

After about 20 minutes we see the signs for several hotels that had been suggested, we check the first one, City Garden. They say that there is no exhibition on so that have plenty of rooms. All very nice, better than Holiday Inn and only £55, result!

I wake at 0430 and find that everything has been rebooked, we are coming home just one day late, things are looking up.

We met up with Rene and Honey, after a nice buffet breakfast we take an affordably priced taxi back to the airport and now we are waiting to join the queue for checkin. We are assuming that Rene and Honey have also been rebooked for this flight, we have no idea at this time.

Finally we are checked in, the flight is delayed further from 13.30 to 15.05 but we have made it through imigration and security and managed to find some of these…

As time moves on, confusion mounts once more as our flight is displayed on the large board but not on any of the smaller ones.

Its now 90 minutes before we are supposed to fly. We are sat at gate 107. There is no information at the gate to suggest that our flight exists and no sign of a plane though staff assure us it’s inbound. The volume of flight traffic is being blamed for the lack of information, that being said, it was equally bad yesterday….

Well, it’s been quite a few hours now, during which time, precious little, or at least little of any relevance has happened. In the last hour or so, a few milestones however, have been reached:

We have a plane, its on the right stand and we are at the right gate (or at least that’s what we are assuming).

There was an announcement citing operational delays in ground operations being the latest reason for the latest delay.

I suppose I should be focusing on the positive rather than dwelling on the negative – it’s been a great adventure, we have seen many unexpected things including the inside of taxis we didn’t know we were taking, hotel rooms that we had no idea we would be booking and hotel breakfasts that we did not expect to eat. Not only that but we got to enjoy the whole Manilla airport departure debacle twice and not the once that we had originally planned. Add to all this the typhoon, incessant rain and a fair to moderate breeze and you have our adventure, full of surprises, and we’re still no closer to getting on the plane.

More soon from your dispondant on the scene…

Well, time continues to pass and nothing happens, we are sat at a departure gate which by now is creaking at the seams – so many people waiting for this flight – the departure information still says that it’s a Cebe Pacific flight to Dubai – though now we actually see our Singapore Airlines plane on the gate, it’s been fuelled up and had baggage loaded.

Then – out of the blue – the announcement comes that we can board – so we jump up and immediately head to the desk and before long there are a couple of queues waiting to board though I note that most folk are still sat down (see later).

Passports checked – we get on the plane and find out seats – after stowing our carry on bags we sit down and relax – somewhat overjoyed that we are actually on the plane home now.

A third passenger joins our row of three seats (I knew it was too good to be true) and there is an announcement that they are waiting for the final passenger – then moments later they announce that they are closing the doors – I look around – the plane is less than half full – the passenger to my right moves to the row behind – I move over one – deep joy – roominess was in much abundance!

There is an announcement that that we might need to wait 30-40 minutes for a slot to take off but we are on the plane and going to Singapore – what’s 40 minutes compared to the many hours we have waited so far?

Finally we take off – we are on our way. At least with all the super additional delays – we wont need to be swanning around Singapore Airport for 5 hours – actually – I like Singapore Airport and was a little sad to miss that opportunity. We even had our swimmies packed so we could take a dip in the rooftop pool!

I don’t remember what film I watched – but I do remember it was a good choice!

We get our tea, have our drinks and watch movies – before we know it – we are descending into Changi Airport – bonus news – our arrival terminal has changed from terminal 2 to terminal 3 – which is handy as we are departing from terminal 3 to the UK.

Once we are on the stand we find that we are on gate A3, our next flight is from gate A2, our luck continues to improve.

We exit the plane and say goodbye to Rene and Honey as they are off to Zurich – we move to the A2 departure gate and await updates.

At this point it becomes apparent that the typhoon has followed us to Singapore as it is now pouring very heavy rain ☔☔☔ and there is much lightning ⚡⚡⚡- our departure is delayed. Here we go again….

After another hour – boarding is announced – we get on the plane – once more – our pre-paid seats were unavailable, and we end up with the middle two of a central block of 4 – our least favourite option. The people either side seem nice and are helpful with bag stowage and access.

Announcement: Due to the risk of lightning strikes – loading of baggage has been suspended – we will keep you posted. OK, long story short – we end up watching the new movie ‘Bullet Train’ which is 2hrs long BEFORE we even leave the gate.

Finally (again, there are a lot of finally in this entry) we push back and taxi for take-off – moments later we are in the air and on our 13.5hr flight back to the UK. Phew!!!

Oh, another moan – WiFi at Manilla was non-existent – WiFi at Singapore was OK though I could not connect – so Jo is left to liaise with Ibo our driver to make sure that he knows we are going to be a few (like 2 or 3) hours late (OK, well, thats a day plus 2 or 3 hours late!).

Once airborne, I make movie selections, eat, drink and sleep – all good. Being ‘stuck in the middle’ we take every opportunity for comfort breaks whenever one of the passengers outside of us gets up – thankfully we were both able to engage ‘camel’ mode and needed very few breaks.

Descent is announced – we land, hike about 20 miles to Passport Control where we play the snake game.

We get our bags and are met by Ibo – a quick dash to M&S Simply Food for road snacks and we are headed out on the final leg of our epic adventure.

Arrive home – bags dropped in kitchen – breathe – relax – sleep……

The last day! Very sad but we have done lots of diving. ?‍♀️??‍♀️??‍♀️??‍♀️??‍♀️??‍♀️?

This morning was just as it should be. Breakfast followed by camera stuff.

We had the choice of which sites we would like to go to. I chose Darryl Laut and Aguhuta.

First dive, Darryl Laut, for the Christmas tree worms, my favourite.  Had a couple of near misses on this dive. I had gone out to look at the bit a wreckage that was just off the bottom of the wreck and had the first close encounter with a very pretty Scorpion fish. Once I had spotted it I took its picture. The second was that while I was engrossed in taking photos of a Christmas tree worm, a very inquisitive sea snake snuk up on me, within a couple of inches of my hand that was holding my podger. I managed to take its picture too. Great dive!

The surface interval was full of coffee, Oreos and the last of the sweeties.

When we went to get in the water the current had arrived, so we had to change site.

Second dive, Olympic point. Lovely dive, mainly on rubble. We saw Coleman shrimp on fire urchins and Tiger shrimp.

Time for lunch (BLT and noodles) and a check up on the typhoon situation. Yes, it is coming! Tomorrow!

So we wait to see how that will affect our travel plans.

We have brought forward the third dive to 2pm to give us plenty of time before flying. We planned to do Sun View and Manit Corner.

When we went to the dive centre we are told no more boat diving! Boats are being brought up the beach to get out of the storm surge height.

Actually we were the last boat out, dropped in up the coast with the view of drifting back to Buceo with the current. Not my best dive, as my ears were playing up and I was feeling dizzy (no pain)!! A pretty noisy dive too, as the boats were making their way out of the water.

We decided that this would be our last dive. Time to wash and dry the kit and the cameras.

Now time to do cocktails!

On the way down to the bar we can see that the hatches are being firmly battened down!

At the bar, I had an Amaretto Sour, then I was ready for bed. So, a quick dinner and an early night.

Dinner was sweet and sour chicken with lumpia, fried rice and chop suey.

As we are unsure what the night and tomorrow may bring it is best to bank some sleep.

This is it, the penultimate dive day 50+ dives completed, up to 8 more to go.

It’s 05.00 here at the moment, I didn’t sleep so well despite my apparently ‘good’ start!

Not a breath of wind, tiny waves lapping along the shoreline and the local cockerels really quite going for it.

I think the plan for this morning is to head across to Kirbys Rock though anything can (and usually does) change.

We are joined in the boat by Nina and Anne (just in from Malaysia) and Tony who was with us yesterday.

We were talking about our next trip out here in February, apparently its the depth of their ‘winter’ time here and although it’s nice and warm top side, the sea temperature plummits to a chilling 25 or 26 degrees ??? so some time between now and then I feel investment in 3mm wetsuits might be wise!

In other news there is talk of a Typhoon coming, hopefully it’ll give us a suitably wide birth….

First dive is indeed Kirbys Rock, though we are moored in a slightly different position which makes the dive more interesting as we are approaching the rock from a different direction.

All the usual suspects are there. Jo and I took a tour around the outer and deeper pinnacle. On the way back we see a particularly large octopus, which was novel.

On the way back to the boat we see a juvenile rock grouper  which was quite a fun thing.

Back on board for coffee and oreos whilst we make our way over to the next site Minilog.

At Minilog we see a variety of new nudi’s including another mahoosive purple fella which was about 5″ long. I also spotted another large octopus which I persuaded to come out of its hiding place. A trick that I was able to repeat once more whilst Jo was watching – and I thought Octopi were supposed to be smart!

A group of three pink and yellow nudi’s were posing so the photo opportunity was taken!

Back to shore for lunch which today features B.L.T. And Pancit Canton with Chicken, washed down with a Royale and Coke Zero.

Just sitting on our balcony now soaking up a few rays before heading out to sea again getting for theft 3.00pm dive, phew its warm?

For the afternoon dive we hard across to Apolls Point which is a lovely scenic reef dive with plenty of life – this time we dive the west side of the site only to discover new nudis (well, unseen by me) as well as a few exotic ones that we had seen elsewhere – a really nice dive.

Back on board we head back to base for the break before the night dive so we had a quick bob in the pool before heading out to dive ‘Bubbles’ but when we get there – there is sufficient current to warrant moving to a different site so we had off to Siam Sim where we do get in for some Mimic Octopus and Wonderpuss action – not to mention my particular interaction with a sea urchin – oh wow – did that hurt.

“When you’re down in the sand and an Eel bites your hand – that’s a Moray,
When you’re down in the sea ad a Eel bites your knee – that’s a Moray,
Unless its a vicious spiny and extremely stingy sea urchin…….”

Recovery is made – though the wound is still highly visible!

Back to base for drinks at the bar with Nina before enjoying a sumptuous feast of Chicken Adobo, Fried Rice, Tempura Prawns and Chop Suey – all super yum.

We then head back to our room for picture processing, blog writing and falling asleep – at which I appear to excel!

Not too many dive days left so we need to make to most of what we have!

Cloudy today, but still.

Normal start to the day. We have Tony on the boat today, a Filipino who worked at Reuters in New York before returning to Manila to retire.

First dive of the day was Red Rock. We did the North side of the site, which we had not done before. Lovely dive with lovely critters to take pictures of including some Beautiful Risbecia.

Same surface interval as all the other days with the added job of force feeding everyone on the boat with sweeties.

Second dive of the day was Manit School. A gentle bimble around the site. Whenever I didn’t have a picture to take I was searching for shrimps in Blue tunicates. Didn’t find any! Plenty of pyjama slugs though.

Back at the dive centre early so once the cameras where dealt with, we had time for a coffee before lunch.

We saw the boat go out to get “fresh meat”. We waited to see if it was Nina and Anne, our friends from Malaysia. Not this time. Three new guests.

Normal lunch. We are so predictable!

An update on Dawn. She is feeling much better after two 5 hour sessions in the chamber. Now she is in isolation, which here is 10 days. It doesn’t look like they have found any other reason for the DCS apart from COVID.

It is quiet here at the moment. No one by the pool, although there is rarely anyone but the pool…

This afternoon we were on the boat for two dives.

First dive was Koala. We dived this a couple of days ago and it was fabulous. Again, it was fabulous. We spent time bimbling around, taking pictures of nudis and Christmas tree worms. Then the current picked up. We went with it like skydivers. Then it became calm as we went around the corner.

Surface interval was more coffee, more Oreos and more sweeties! Whilst waving at all the new guests that were being picked up by the boat at Secret Bay and taken around to the resort in case Nina and Anne were on board.

Second dive was Manit Corner. You can only do this site if the tide is going north to south on the Buceo side. If it is going the other way, there will be current.

This is an amazing dive! Loved it! Lots of nicely positioned slugs and loads of yellow cup coral! Just brilliant!

Anne has arrived but Nina’s plane was delayed by five hours so she is not here yet. Lovely to have a quick catch up with Anne before we retire to our room for photos, blogging and sleep. As it is my day to blog, you can guess which one of those Richard did!

Another gloriously flat calm day with not even a ripple on the water right now (but it is only 05.24 and still mostly dark). You can hear the occasional tiny wave crash into a few pebbles though this is mostly drowned out by the cockerels who clearly have something very important and very detailed to discuss ?

Who will be on the boat? Where shall we go? What shall we see?…. All will be revealed….

After dining on eggs, sausage and other breakfast related items we head out to dive Daryl Laut (current at Kirbys Rock) and have the entire site to ourselves, very nice.

Nudi’s and Christmas Tree worms kept us busy!

After the dive we head over to Agahuta for the second dive and work out our surface interval there dining on the usual coffee and oreos though this time we have some freshly cooked pre ripe bananas (still warm), yum, thank you Saldy for cooking them.

The dive at Agahuta was full of things to see including various tiny fish posing on plant life and a plethora of Nudi’s including another psychedelic nudi, doubling my personal number of sightings to two.

Back to base and the resort is warm and mostly deserted as we are first back. It’s just Jo and myself on our boat (luxury!) the turn around time is quite quick and no time is wasted!

Today’s lunch consisyed of B. L. T. For Jo whilst I went off piste once more and had Pancit Behon with chicken – awesome!

That was a nice lunch!

14.00 and we’re back on the boat heading over to Mainit West, a good 30 seconds boat ride.

We drop in on slope with rocks. Sand and coral outcrops on the west side of the southern most tip of land in the area. Again, much to see and once more we are dive bombed by a turtle ??

We see many slugs including some Beautiful Risbecia (in abundance) and all the usual suspects.

Back on the boat we make our way the short distance to Heidi’s Point for the last dive of the day. We moor up and then sit out the surface interval, drinking coffee and finishing off the oreos and the sweets that Darrell and Dianne left with us.

The hour is up and we drop in on the sandy slope and end up spending time with shrimps, crabs, octopus, frog fish and Lemon Blennies.

We’re out of the water by 17.30 and back at base less than 10 minutes later for washing, drinks and dinner.

I go for my new favourite cocktail ‘Amaretto Sour’ and Jo has her favourite ‘Mango, Banana and Malibu’.

Dinner consists of Fried Lumpia followed by shrimp soup. The soup is actually a broth packed with large prawns and vegitables, yum.

The view from the balcony is looking pretty good…

Up early and down for breakfast at 6.30. Eggs and bacon for me today, with watermelon juice, the best.

A little camera work before getting ready to go diving.

Quite boat today as Darral and Dianne are going home. We have Tim from Singapore and his guide, Elmer, on the boat with us today. A trip out to one of the furthest dives…

Red Rock

This site when there is no current has to be one of my very favourites anywhere in the world! Amazing dive! Clear water and no current! So much to take pictures of and on such a beautiful site. I love mushroom coral and saw a tiny fish sitting on one.

The surface interval was filled with coffee, Oreos and sweeties. Darral and Dianne left the spare sweeties with us to take on the boat each day. We took a slow journey to bubbles.

Bubbles

This site is also becoming a firm favourite! We went out to the wall from the east side rather than the normal west side. Lots to see and take photos of.

Back at the resort, we had our last lunch with Darral and Dianne, followed by sad goodbyes, before they left at 2pm.

As they left, we got our boat to go diving. We have brought forward our afternoon diving and by only doing an hour surface interval means that we have finished our diving by 5.30pm. This allows us some extra time in the evening and allows Nanni, Wendel and Saldy to go home earlier. We are diving for 15 days and feel if you can do these little things, it can help them. Of course, if we have other divers on the boat then this probably wouldn’t happen.

We did Sun View first. I slope with small coral outcrops and rubble. Nicely positioned nudis and shrimp in featherstar. Richard has camera issues so returned to boat for some camera fiddling. Whilst looking at the shrimp below, Richard and Nanni had a very close encounter with a large turtle. So close,that instead of the turtle going overhead it swam straight into Nanni’s head then kick Richard on the head. Oops…

Second dive was Arthur’s Rock. We went down the slope, along the wall, over the top where the current was strong so we went with it. The boat collected us.

We had cocktails at the bar followed by Bico Express, lumpia and fried rice.

So what did we do with our extra hours and a half? Well, we were asleep by 8pm, so not much!!

It’s another nice day in Anilao though there was bad news at breakfast, yes, they have no bananas, they have no bananas today, this is a great shame as I had adopted them as my breakfast of choice.

In other news we learn that Dawn had spent 5hrs in ‘the chamber’ overnight following her symptoms from yesterday, oh, and she tested positive for Covid though it is not known at present whether the two are related, she was coughing a lot yesterday.

Today is Darrall and Diane’s last dive day so they should be picking the sites. We are happy wherever we go.

Let’s see how the day unfolds.

In the meantime, here are pictures of the wall art in our room which is ‘C2’ or ‘Ghost Pipefish’.

We head out for Kirbys Rock but found that the current fish had beaten us to it so we change direction and head across to Olympic Point only to find that the Current Fish had followed us ll the way there. We get in anyway.

On the seabed Jo realised that of all the little nooks and crannies into which you can hide silica gel packs, that small gap between the front of the lens and the glass of the front port is, perhaps, not the most conducive to photography.

That teeny tiny faux pas combined with the Current Fish which was in abundance tipped the balance for Jo and she elected to ride this one out topside. Meanwhile I show willing and soldier on…

Overall, things improved slightly, I even took photos of Tiger Shrimp, Donald Duck Shrimp and Mantis Shrimp.

We drifted what seemed quite some way but when we finally surface on the SMB, we are only about 30 metres or so from the dive boat which zooms to our rescue in no time at all.

We decide to head back to base to find tune camera operations before we head around the corner to Mainit School.

Mainit School failed to disappoint – plenty to see including Psychedelic Nudi, Flamboyant Cuttle Fish, all manner of other nudis and interesting and colourful things.

After the dive we head back for lunch, so that was the end of the diving for Darrell and Dianne – they head back to Australia tomorrow. As it’s just Jo and Myself on the boat for a day or two – we decide to bring the afternoon dive forward by an hour and do two back to back – nice!

Lunch is a simple affair consisting of the ubiquitous B.L.T. with Fries for Jo and Pancit Canton for me (OK, noodles and vegetables!).

At the newly arranged tine of 14:00 we head out to Apolls Point which is a spectacular arrangement of hard coral formations and sandy areas where we hunt for different things and get a few nice shots.

Once back at the surface we make our way across to Coconut Point for the second of the afternoon dive but once again there is current – so we cross back to the main land and decide to dive Mainit Corner – which is an absolute favourite. We enjoy more coffee and Oreos during the surface interval and jump in at the appropriate moment.

It’s starting to get dark so some of the cup corals are coming out – as well as some of the other night time performers – these get most of our attention though there is plenty more to see.

Mainit corner is a group of rocky outcrops at the end of a point on land – imagine something like ‘The Needles’ at the Isle of Wight but under water. There are so many different areas to move around and because it is on the point – and receives a lot of current at times – it is festoon with life – a really nice dive.

It is still light when we get to the surface – plenty of time to capture the sunset.

We get back to the camera room to find that care of the stock of ‘lollies’ from Australia has passed to us – two very large bags remain for distribution to crew and guests on the dive boat – we shall do our very best!

Dinner was grilled Snapper in a spicy sweet and sour sauce with traditional sides of Fries and Coleslaw, very nice indeed, thank you very much Darrell and Dianne.

We had such a wonderful time, last night. I am sure Richard told you this on the previous blog but I have to say my bit.

Joanne from the resort invited us to her home for dinner. Joanne is very sweet and very shy so it was a big thing for her to invite us to her home.

She lives about 5-10 minutes from the dive centre, along the beach, through the basketball court and past many of the other staff’s houses. Joanne and her husband, David, live with her Aunt Sonja and other cousins, in a house right on the beach.

When we got there we saw how much work she had done. In fact, they all had done. Richard has put the pictures up.

It was so nice to just chat and laugh. So nice to see Joanne come out of her shell. Such a kind heart and we were very touched by her welcoming us into her home.

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Thought I would post a picture of our door. 

“Not in Frogfish room?” I hear you say. Not this time. Ghostpipefish room is also good although we have to climb another five steps, so that it a real downer!

This is our view today. Looks like a perfect day to go diving.

Oh yes, diving… Missed the fact that my first dive yesterday, Bethlehem, was dive 1600. Oh well, will celebrate 1700 whenever that arrives…

A couple of lovely dives this morning.

First dive was Koala (no idea how it got its name). Coral at the top and sand and rubble at about 20 metres. One of my favourite animals are Christmas tree worms. We saw a variety of colours but I particular liked this blue one.

Quite a noisy surface interval! Got a father and son on board for the day so we were chatting with them. Darral and Dianne were both on form. Obviously coffee, Oreos and sweeties to keep us going.

Second dive was El Pinoy, to see the pygmy seahorses. Lovely dive, lots of viz and no current at all.

Dinner was the usual for me and vegetable noodles for Richard followed by picture work and a nap. I did one, Richard did the other, I shall leave it with you to guess who did what… ??

This afternoon is hot, hot, hot!

Michelle and Timothy have been joined by another lady, Dawn, also from America, for their 3/4 week Philippines tour. Dawn has been suffering from sinus problems but has been able to dive. After the second dive today, we wasn’t feeling so well. Numbness in both forearms and her lower back. She has had some O2 and it looks like they are going to get her checked out at the chamber.

Third dive was Vivyre, a short way north of the resort, a sandy slope with a area where there is many sea pens. We saw a seahorse attached to a sea pen and lots of tiny crabs (2-3mm) in most of the sea pens. I would say if if you can’t spot your buddy find the nearest lady dressed as a whaleshark and follow her! That’s what I did.

Lovely dive.

As it was only us with Nanni this afternoon we stayed on the boat. Had coffee and Oreos! ??

We traveled to the other side of the peninsula to Saim Sim dive site, another sandy slope. Shortly after getting in we saw two mimic octopus and a wonderpus. I spotted a very tiny coconut octopus. The white shells it is using to hide were about the size of my thumb nail.

Even smaller than the octopus was the tiny tiny tiny orange Frogfish that Nanni spotted, came and got us, returned and found it again.

Amazing skill!

We got an update on Dawn. It looks like she will been going in the chamber tonight. More updates to follow.

Dinner was lumpia, sisig and vegetable noodles. Unfortunately, the sisig was to Richard’s liking which meant that I couldn’t eat it. Bother!

After dinner, more picture work and napping. Again, you can decide for yourself who did what…

Sloely but surely getting  ‘back in the saddle’ after a spell of feeling a little under par.

After a relatively light breakfast (a whole banana and slice of bread) we head out to dive Bethlehem, this is one of those coral rubble areas which hides all sorts of critters.

Immediately after submerging I check the camera. The sharper minded amongst you will not be at all surprised to learn that I executed those two tasks in the wrong order.

What no strobe power on my snoot torch? I must have put the dang battery in the wrong way around (being male I’m qualified for such bafoonery) I take my camera back to the surface and check but, no, it was in the right way around, ok, so it must be flat (I assumed). So I head off to do the dive using my conventional strobe instead. No drama, just different pictures.

We see all kinds of Nudi’s as well as the now ubiquitous (though formerly uber rare) Rhinopia so we take pictures though nothing super clever, I different lens would have helped.

Back on the boat it’s time for coffee and oreos. The mis behaving snoot torch is investigated, the source of the issue being crud on the battery compartment seal.

Romnick takes a knife to it and before long, it’s all polished up and ready for action once again.

The second site is Minilog which this time produces a plethora of the big pink nudi’s with the yellow gills (hugely photogenic) as well as a fair few other species, including one which measured 7″ long, a monster nudi!

We return to the boat and then to base where a number of guests have left so we elect to change positions in the camera room (a failing light and duff power sockets were just too much of an issue!) whilst there are plenty of unoccupied positions.

Then off to lunch where I had chosen something off the menu, yes, I had gone all off piste and chosen noodles with vegitables, it was lovely though it was pointed out that it looked (and tasted) like a ‘pot noodle’. I was happy and shall be ordering that again soon.

For a change we did not have to order our evening meal after lunh as we are dining out tonight at ‘Joannes’. Not a local bistro but actually the house of one of the members of staff here who we have come to know well.

Back on board in the PM for a swift couple of dives (we limited them to 1hr as we had a date night at 7.00pm so first we dive at Sun View where a coarse sandy seabed is loaded with coral outcrops with plenty of critter action. We then stay on board whilst the boat is moved around to Mainit School which is another critter rich site, even more rich now that the light has gone.

Fairly soon we come across a flamboyant cuttle fish which is out on the hunt, after that it’s mostly nudi after nudi, awesome!

Again we curtail activities at 60 minutes which is just as well because when we get back to shore we find that our hosts are already ready for us so it’s a quick wash and change then off we head.

Joanne leads us along the path through the densely packed accommodations, pointing out who lives where along the way. Everyone here is so very friendly.

Before long we arrive at Joannes place where we meet her aunty Sonia and husband Dave and are greeted by a packed table of freshly prepared food which included Pork Adobe, roast chicken deep fried Talapia, rice, fries, salad, Lumpia, all manner of dressings and dips (chili’s were well represented here) and a selection of fresh fruit.

Plenty to drink including water, Royale, coke and Red Horse beer, what an amazing feast.

The doughnuts were a present from us, I was under strict orders not to eat any of them!