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We are in the the tropics and this morning we have a tropical shower, in the UK we might call it a monsoon!

It’s easing now so we made our way to breakfast via a brief stop at the camere room to set things up for the first dives of the day.

Corned beef day today which I tend to give a bit of a wide berth so I dined on an omlete with everything, various juices and some fresh fruit. Jo had eggs over-easy with toast.

It’s clearing all the time and getting much brighter, not that we really care that much, it’s all very wet below the surface.

I am determined to have a better start to the day photography wise, everything is switched on and tested It seems I was a little rusty Yesteday which had me popping back to the surface to flick a little switch on the camera. To have done this in the water would have caused nothing but tears and upset as the camera housing needed to be opened, switch flicked, housing closed and the vaccum reinstated.

Some people leave today, others arrive (fresh meat!) but the resort remains mostly empty (it is low season), not that it ever appears that busy, even when full. It does mean that there’s less of a fight for the bacon on bacon day.

I mean, how can you have a decent bacon sarnie with less than 10 rashers?

Now the rain has nearly stopped, the sky is clearing. Who knows, the sun might even shine!

It remains very warm though, mostly 29 degrees in the water, I did see 28 degrees at one point, that soon reverted to 29, phew!

Dive #1 Twin Rocks

This was a great bimble just out from ‘The Barge’ end of the TW dive site, several nudi’s, one monster and the turtle put in appearance!

Back to base after the dive to drop off a guest who is leaving today then we head around the corner to dive Mainit School though we end up at Mainit West for a great dive where we find all the usual suspects.

I think I’ve taken a whole bunch more pictures today and we are only half way through it!

Back to base for a swift dip in the pool before lunch which today consists of pasta carbonara and the ubiquitous B. L. T. for Jo.

After Lunch we head back to our room for camera work and some R&R before we regroup for the afternoon dive which ends up being bubbles, another favourite that never dissapoints. Lots of nudi action, a large black frog fish (which is impossible to photograph) and other critters as well as the mysterious bubbles which are a consequence of the volcanic activity just below the seabed.

Back to base for a swift drink before we head out for a night dive on the house reef where we enter via boat but step out by foot!

Now it’s prinks at the bar before dinner, honestly, such sophistication!

Dinner is Shanhai rolls, pancit canton with chicken and fried rice. I followed that up with Mago Float which is a popular Filipino desert.

Cameras are now prepped for the morning and Jo is offloading today’s catch.

It rained last night.

It really rained.

I actually turned the light on in the room as it sounded like a waterfall coming through the ceiling. Everything was dry, thank goodness.

Richard slept through it.

Alarm went off at six.

Early start, setting up cameras first. Everything went well. We remembered everything, which is always nice.

Breakfast was good, as always. Eggs, various from the egg station, with melon juice.

Here is the view from our table…

This morning just us with Nanny and Jiu Ling, from Singapore, with Dood, on the boat.

On the way out to the first dive, it rained. Hard and sideways! Completely soaked. Didn’t matter as we were going to get wet any way…

Dive #1

First dive was Kirby’s Rock. The water was so warm. 29 degrees.

We stayed on the top part of the wall and then on to the slope on the other side. We finished, doing our safety stop on the top of the pinnacle.

Lovely first dive, saw frogfish, nudis, shrimps.

Won’t mention the camera issues that Richard had, as they were basically user error.

It had stopped raining by the time we finished the dive. Short trip to Agahuta, where we spent our surface interval.

That made it snack time! Coffee, Oreos and bananas. Nice!

Dive #2

Agahuta

Very relaxing dive. A bimble in the shallows and on the coral covered slope. Sun came out at the end. Nice!

We saw a psychedelic nudi, Richard’s favourite. The very photogenic grey/silver nudi. Long thin red and white spotty snail. Shrimp in bubble coral.

Sat in the sunshine on the way back. It was lovely and warm.

That made it lunchtime! BLT and fries for me, whilst Richard had Kinilaw na Tanigue, raw fish with vinegar, ginger, finely diced onion, cucumber and chilli.

Sun was still out so we sat on our balcony in the new, really comfortable chairs, drifted off very briefly.

Before we knew it, it was time to go diving.

Dive #3

Coconut Point

Sandy slope with a black coral garden at about 17 metres.

We saw shaun the sheep slugs, seahorses, dragon shrimp, zebra crab on a fire urchin. A cuttlefish, giving it all that.

Good dive.

Back to the resort for our surface internal. More coffee and hot chocolate.

Rain, but still nice and warm.

Dive #4

Dusk Dive on Manit Corner

This is a brilliant dive site both during the day and at night. A coral covered rocky peninsula.

We saw lots. Big fat slugs, green and orange stripes, green stripes, and green spots. Lots of other nudis. Beautiful cup coral, yellow, green and brown. Massive slug at the end, brown, about the shape and size of a dinner plate.

After a quick shower, time for a drink at the bar. Richard had a red horse and I had a fruity cocktail, containing Malibu, pineapple and orange juice.

Dinner was tuna sisig (hot), a new pork and tofu dish (hot) and fried rice. Lovely. Richard didn’t have the mango float that was on offer, maybe tomorrow.

Camera stuff, pictures on to laptop and blog, shortly followed by sleep.

Just heard on the dive group WhatsApp that today the club has had the best dive of the year. I think that we can say the same. ??

So nice to be back.

Well, following what can best be described as a bristling crescendo of calamaties and drama over the last few days (best discussed over several beers and not here!), today is going remarkably well!

We were all washed, packed and weighed well in advance of our pickup and enjoyed a relatively painless ride up to Heathrow.

Our first time with Etihad which meant departing from Terminal 4. The last time I departed from T4, I ended up meeting Jo for the first time in Las Vegas!

The terminal is really quiet and after being fleeced at Cafe Nero, we make our way to the checkin, still no queue!

That was a lot of fun, apparently now All our baggage is classed as oversize as it does not look like a suitcase so we check in and drop our over sized bags at the nearby area that is dedicated to the handling of such monsters.

Security was a breeze, still no queues, I pass through un hindered. Unlike my carry on bag, apparently not everyone carries 20 AA batteries.

All sorted, we find ourselves in ‘Spoons’ and despite publishing details of our table number, we were not besiged with drinks bought for us by well wishers, so that’s an urban myth then.

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Exciting update, our gate has just been announced and despite T4 being the length of 10 football pitches, our gate is immediately opposite Spoons, what a result!

Another 20 mins and we can all pile on to the thing. It seems that a consequence of the booking debacle (not being touched on here, only happy news!), we now have extra legroom seats and nobody sat next to us. Let’s see how that pans out then…

London to Abu Dabi flight was great, oodles of leg room and the row to ourselves, in fact, the plane seemed about half full.

The service was good though not quite the standard of Emirates/Singapore. The food was really good but they were not as forthcoming with the drinks as I was hoping. Chardonnay in a paper Cup, that’s class!

Anyhow, great flight, easy transfer in AD and then on to the Manilla flight.

This time it’s a 777 and out feels fully loaded (we still have our row to ourselves and lots of leg room).

Just taxi-ing for takeoff whilst I dial back in to the next movie, 2001, I kid you not. Just spotted Leonard Rossiter in it, ooh Miss Jones!

A few movies later and after an all too brief sleep they’ve put the lights on and are serving breakfast. Jo has taken the vegan option as a means of delivering option is consistently pasta as this is the third meal and it’s pasta again! Our last meal at home was pasta too. Did we take the wrong flight? If the next stop Rome?

It’s not all bad news as I see that breakfast is being served from a fully laden drinks trolly, perhaps a G&T with my full English?

The second flight completed, landed on time, off quickly and bags in hand shortly after that.

What looked like some saudi vips boarded the flight before us and there was lots of brass and papperazi at Manila when we arrived. More on that of we find anything out.

We were met by our transfer driver and before long we were back at Buceo Anilao, Red Horse in hand and dinner on the table.

We had the usual short boat trip around the corner and we’re welcomed ashore by the friendly staff.

Back to the room, everything unpscked and currently in the process of passing out in readiness for our first door dive day in Anilao.

ZZZzzz…

One week to go!

Thanks to Jo there has been much sorting and packing activity to the point where we are mostly there.

A few important items are yet to be delivered like the holiday Tee shirt, various medications and snacks but with 40kg luggage allowance each, I think we are going to be OK!

It’s 04.15 and I’m sat on the balcony having woken at 03.00 and not managed to get back to sleep….

Akthough it’s still dark, no-one appears to have informed the cockerals that its actually not time to get up yet and they are in full song, I say song….

On the plus side (if there were such a thing) it’s dark, no wind, flat calm with just a notion of waves lapping the beach. Lights are visible all along the shore line from dwellings that are mostly invisible during the day. Now and again the cockerals chorus is broken by the sound of a small boat engine, most likely fisherman at this time of day (night).

It’s been another awesome adventure with so much seen, so many friends, old and new, we have met some of the nicest people through our travels.

During our time here we have seen so many people come and go from all sorts of places including Germany, Hawaii, America, Australia and Malaysia, all bought together by a common interest, there’s always something to talk about!

The staff here have been exceptional as usual from the dive guides, boat captains and crew to the admin team, kitchen and restaurant staff, all under the watchful eye of Dave Santos, the resort manager.

Nothing is too much trouble,  everyone is only too pleased to help. Our newly refurbished room was very nice indeed, all new furniture, doors, blinds, fridge and kettle (the old one seemed fine to me!), a swanky new bathroom mirror with built in lighting and clock, USB sockets everywhere, new air conditioning and swanky new Starlink fuelled broadband, very handy for keeping up with things!

Buceo Anilao rightly remains our No. 1 dive destination and we look forward very much to getting back here as soon as we can.

OK, I seem to have veered off the main subject of today’s post and into the land of the epilogue, getting back on track…..

This mornings activities will include (but are not limited to)….

Breakfast as usual then drying everything we can, as much as we can.

Disassembling camera gear, packing that and all the dive kit, charging batteries for headphones, paying the F&B bill and then finally pushing the two T shirts and toothbrush into the bags and we’re off!

The journey back to Manilla Airport is usually 2 to 3 hrs depending on traffic then it’s check in time, sometimes a swift and enjoyable experience, sometimes not so. Then its the usually challenging passport and security check (depending on how busy the airport is) then finally into the departure lounges which are generally OK though this time last year it was the Typhoon debacle which was possibly the least fun I’ve ever had at any airport ever.

Things are starting to brighten up, slightly fewer lights along the coast, slightly more cockerals, daylight is on the way.

Our new friends Mike and Daneen from California leave in about 15 minutes and I can hear the boat being prepped for their departure.

06.00 – OK, everybody up, lots to do!!!

A slightly larger  than normal breakfast as we don’t know when our next meal will be, later we find that out will in fact be 11.30, whoops!

Then its off to dissemble and pack camera stuff and then make sure that it dive kit soaks up as much sun as possible, we don’t want to be taking any more water home than we absolutely have to.

We said our goodbyes to D&D as they were heading out for diving at 08.00 then we went for a dip in the pool as things were starting to get a little sticky then back to the room to commence operation ‘packing’.

Packing went well so back in the pool for one more rinse before we check the final packing.

Now we are just waiting for 11.30 when we shall be taking a pre travel lunch of B. L. T. Lumpia and fries then we shall be whisked away by boat and our journey begins!

11.30 lunch and we meet our new restaurant neighbour, Mei, from Las Vegas. During our short chat (whilst I was eating my lunch) we established that she was an acrobat working on a Cirque Du soliel production at the MGM grand.

So over the entire trip we have met movie stars, Ballroom dancers and an acrobat, how exciting!

Lunch done, more goodbyes said and it’s time for Wendel to whisk is around the corner in Buceo #2 to Secret Bay where our driver is waiting to take us to Manila.

As I write e are making our way along the twisting and turning coastal road which is extremely twisty and turny making very hard to write, I trust you all appreciate my efforts!

It’s Saturday and there a lot of Jeepnies about, all of which need to be overtaken. This makes for some exciting passenger moments!

We get to the airport, total journey time 2hrs 30 mins, a good run. The airport appears none to busy though the entire planet seems to be checking in for our flight. On line check in gives us a competetive edge though. Our queue is moving almost impercriviably faster than those who have not checked in already, go us!

It took a total of 90 minutes to get checked in, through passport and security control so now we are enjoying a well earned Red Horse beer and a Royal!

By some amazing stroke of luck, most likely because we have seats at the back of the plane, we are some of the first to board.

Regular readers will know that this offers the distinct advantage of getting half a chance to get our carry on bags in the overhead lockers as we have boarded in advance of the army of locals who seem to think that ‘one piece of cabin baggage weighing no more than 7kg’ actually translates to at least two slightly oversized cabin bags plus a host of other bags, flat screen TV’s and microwaves they seem to be inseparable from.

.. And here we are, 10 minutes in to boarding and all the overhead storage around us is full though strangely the seats are not, go figure?

We actually book seats at the rear of the 777 aircraft because as the aircraft narrows, they reduce the side aisles from 3 seats to two. Thus the route to all required facilities is clear at all times. It’s not that I’m trying to keep up with the guy in front of me on the way out who consumed 8 tins of beer during the flight without getting up from his seat once, I guess he had a leak!

Honestly, I really do plan to sleep. I’m very pleased, nay, excited to report that Jo is actually following my first movie recommendation (Asteroid city) , I’d better don my headphones otherwise I’ll be left behind!

Just arrived DXB after an uneventful flight, well, when I say uneventful, the absolute knob in front of me corps not sit still with his fully reclined seat he kept putting his hands behind his head and hence all over my screen so I had to ease them out of the way gently (the first time).

Back on tetra firma we have transferred to the departure gate area and have bagged some reclined seats, nice!

I do actually manage to get my head down a little at this point, I have about 35 minutes before our planned move to the departure gate – I close my eyes and in an instant open them again to find that 40 minutes had elapsed – thus we make our way to the departure gate. We arrive to find that I could have slept for another 10 minutes at least – oh well!

Emirates randomly (seemingly) select passengers for an additional search (mostly looking for drugs I suspect). Jo fails to be invited for this additional fun whilst I (yep, you guessed right) clearly looked like a drugs mule and am invited for some additional scanning!

At one point I am asked to remove my shoes – I am in a hot airport, having just walked a hundred meters or so – I feared for safety of their equipment and its operator!

All tests passed I move on to find Jo and wait to be called for boarding. In stark contrast to our journey out on this plane – we are in the last boarding group and not the first – regardless – before long we are seated, carry on baggage stowed and ready for the 7hr hop back to London,

This section is relatively un-entertaining – it’s one of these flights that starts in the middle of the night and because of the direction of travel, remains in the night time until our arrival at LHR – great I think – much sleep to be had I thought – I get my head down – I awake – relatively refreshed and check progress, not even half way through – Doh,

I then drift in and out of consciousness – interspersed with snips of whatever movie I was watching and the occasional meal/drink offer.

There is the usual debacle of the reclining seats though I have to say I got off lightly and the seats on a 380 are super big anyway – even in economy so no real complaints there. The chap in front of Jo however was not quite so lucky, the (small) person in front of him reclined to the max as soon as they were on board and refused to respond to any requests to sit back up – even at meal times – not so much fun for him.

we land at LHR only a few minutes behind schedule, passport control was super quick (it’s all machine based now) and we got two of our bags quite quickly – just the camera gear in a Peli case to turn up.

We noticed that several very similar looking cases were on the same flight so whilst I watched the luggage arrive – Jo checks out the people grabbing those – you know – just in case (sorry!) they took ours by mistake – admittedly – we did not have an Australian 7 News network sticker on ours!

They had not taken it by mistake though ultimately then did point to one which had been hand delivered with all the push chairs etc – that’s the one!

All bags in hand we manage to travel past the scary staring eyes of all those folk in uniform and wearing latex gloves and we move into the arrivals hall – I get my phone out to call our taxi driver so that he can swoop in and pick us up (rather than paying to park) at which point my phone battery dies 🙁

A slight panic ensues before Jo finds that, not only does she have a fully charged battery – but she also has the required number, the call is made, phew!

Before long we are collected and make the relatively short trip (70 miles?) home.

We unpack the bags, get two loads of washing and drying done, put the dive kit out for more drying and then spend the rest of the day wandering about like a couple of zombies suffering from extreme sleep depravation, we finally crawl in to bed at around 8.00pm and pass out.

To my extreme disappointment, I wake up and am wide awake at 1.00am – just in time to complete the final post from this trip – what an adventure, what a trip, totally awesome but not what many might conventionally describe as a holiday!

Until the next time……

So here we are. Our final day diving. Sad but we feel that we made the most of it.

After breakfast, we went round to Red Rock but there was too much current, so we headed to Manit School.

Dive #57

Manit School

Lovely dive. Sandy slope with coral outcrops.

We saw lots

Friendly reef octopus!

Shrimps on wire coral

Nicely positioned nudis

During the surface interval, we moved round to Elmer’s Point. All Sorts of yummy things to eat.

Dive #58

Another lovely dive.

Spent about 5 mins with a red octopus. It then came back out again. Nice.

We saw xeno crabs, shrimps and fish on wire coral.

Nicely positioned slugs and Xmas tree worms in the shallows.

Lunch was BLT and spaghetti carbonara.

Will be diving at 2pm instead of 3pm. Both ourselves and Mike and Daneen are going home tomorrow.

We head out to Kirby’s Rock but there is too much current.

Dive #59

Olympic Point

This was the only slightly disappointing dive of the holiday. We have been here before and seen lots but, to shake things up a bit, we head out in a different direction.

We saw a fast moving harlequin shrimp, a tiny psychedelic slug and a new white nudi.

More coffee and Oreos for the surface Interval, once we transfer to Aguhuta.

Dive #60

Aguhuta.

Love this site and it was a fabulous last dive of the holiday.

We saw

White frogfish

Flamboyant cuttlefish

Very large flat brown/green slug.

Many other critters.

That is it. The last of our dives.

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On the way back we are treated to a lovely sunset and a lightning show.

We will be back, again and again.

At dinner we say goodbye to our new friends Mike and Daneen, as they are leaving the resort early in the morning. Perhaps we will meet again?

Now on to planning our next trip.

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Here we are at the start of our penultimate dive day. Another flat calm sea with little or no wind, just the way we like it.

This will also be our last night dive day as tomorrow we bring the whole dive program forward so that we can be out of the water in time for our no-fly time to expire, two dives back to back at 8.00 and another two at 14.00, that usually does it.

.. And because I know you want to know, breakfast was omlete on toast for Jo whilst I went with two eggs sunny side up with spicy sausage, all washed down with fresh watermelon juice.

A light shower of rain just passed through and Jo’s wetsuit that she hung out overnight is, well, wet!

Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, What a great mornings diving!

Dive #53

Daryl Laut

Once again, the casino wreck has much to entertain us with. A painted frog fish at the start of the dive, some very nicely positioned nudi’s and a dragon shrimp, 30.3m, 70 minutes, such fun!

I even found the painted frog fish again towards the end of the dive, or did it find me?

After a short island hop we spend the surface interval at Sombrero which is the location for the second dive.

Dive #54

Sombrero (Batok)

This is a reef which is some way off the nearby island, the visibility, clarity and colours are mind blowing.

So much to see, so many fish, schooling red toothed trigger fish, schooling snapper, feather stars of all colours and what seems like mile after mile of pristine colourful reef. Simply awesome!

All too soon we’re back on the surface and heading back to base.

Lunch today is B.L.T. for Jo and Pancit Canton with vegetables for me, yum!

… and now we have to order dinner…

Scorchio again today so we take a quick wallow in the pool before the mornings crop of photos is checked then before long it’s time to get back under the sea.

Dive #55

Viverie.

This starts with a flat white sand seabed before a slope descends down into the abyss. The highlights of this dive being a microscopic sea pen shrimp and a hairy shrimp, awesome tiny stuff!

Back on board we return to base for a swift hot drink and then out again for the dusk/night dive

Dive #56

Secret Bay

There were a couple of cold spots on the last dive so I finally succumb and put on my wetsuit!!

We saw all the regular stuff but the highlights of this dive were most probably the two large frog fish on a coral outcrop at about 22.5m. One was regular plain sandy orange in colour but the other was a monster painted frog fish in amazing colours, never seen anything like it. Oh, and the pair of ornate ghost pipe fish and Jo saw another hairy shrimp

After a short boat ride back around the corner we have a quick rinse, prinks and then our dinner of deep fried shrimp and Teriyaki chicken with rice. Only one evening meal after this one. We must choose wisely!

Side note: All the time I have been eating Kiri Na Tanigui thinking that it was Tuna Ceviche – it turns out that the fish is actually Blue Marlin!!!

Additional note: Online checkin for our flights home is now available, how very disappointing….

Every time I blog, I seem to start by saying what a beautiful day…

What a beautiful day!

No wind and the odd cloud.

Breakfast at 6:30, camera stuff and out on the dive boat at 7:30.

Us with Nannie. Daryl and Diane, and Mike and Daneen with Romnick.

Dive #49

Manit Corner

One of our favourite dive sites, even though we think it is even better at night!

The topography of this site is amazing. We find lots of critters to photograph.

Harlequin shrimp

Big fat slugs

Sexy time nembrothas

Pink scorpionfish

We move to twin Rocks for our surface interval. Much too much engineering talk for my taste. Yawn!!

Dive #50

Twin Rocks

Started off lovely. Just us and Nannie.

As the current picked up so did the number of divers in the water.

Diver soup!

We did see lots of things.

Shrimp cleaning a Moray’s teeth

Three large pink and yellow slugs together.

Pink flabelinas

Large bugs inside blue sea squirts.

Back to the resort by 11:30.

Something we haven’t mentioned is that a lady here had an accident a couple of days ago. On her way back to her room in the evening she tripped and broke both her ankles. Unable to weight bare at all, she has been confined in her room, unable even to get herself to the loo. She has just been stretchered from her room onto a boat. We assume an ambulance will be meeting her around the corner and she will be flying business class so that she can lay down for the flight. Looks like an operation once she gets back to Germany.

Lunch, a BLT and blue marlin ceviche (turns out not tuna after all).

Had a nap for an hour before heading out for more diving.

Dive #51

El Pinoy

It was a chilly 27°.

Wetsuit next time.

Mainly rubbly area.

We saw a huge yellow frogfish, shrimps and nudis.

The surface interval was passed by getting into my wetsuit, drinking coffee and eating Oreos.

Dive #52

Saim Sim

Sandy barren slope

We saw lots

Four octopus, one of which was eating

Two large cuttlefish, one of which was also eating

Bobtail squid

Tiny orange frog fish

Five seahorses

We chatted at the bar for a while before having dinner and an interesting conversation about American gun laws with Mike and Daneen. Really nice people.

Asleep before 9:30!

Another flat sea welcomes us on dive day 12 of our adventure.

A departure this morning, corned beef hash and fried eggs, which turned out just right, followed by fresh pinapple and mango, that should keep things going!

The sun is creeping over the hills behind us, another scorchio day!

Dive #45

Red Rock

Before the dive we brief our guide, shrimps on whip coral and aphids (ladybugs) hiding inside blue sea squirts. Nani did not disappoint! Add to that a couple of monster frog fish and a handful of Nudi’s on this awesome site and that pretty much summed it up. Awesome dive on awesome site, excellent.

Back on board we spend the surface interval munching on lollies from AUS and giant M&Ms from the USA. That along with the bountious banter between all represented nations all conspired against me remembering to change my flash batteries. Bugger!

Never mind, I’ll make it last the second dive!

Dive #46

Bubbles Point

The extremely bright sunshine bought a new perspective to this otherwise gloomy and foreboding dive site as we explored new areas and discovered new things, new nudi’s, more shrimps and more ladybugs.

Yet another superb dive on this fabulous site with lots seen and many pictures taken.

We arrive back at the resort despite having two long dives (well, we did get away early and neither dillied nor dallied along the way).

A quick hose down and it’s time for lunch.

.. Which consisted of B. L. T. And Shanghai Rolls, all very lovely and then D&D hand this monster fish bought out (which they had purchased from someone who got it from someone else!!) so I helped them out with that a little.

Back to the room to review the mornings catch. I know I sound a bit like a stuck record but they really were two most excellent dives this morning. Our guide Nani found everything we asked him to, we’ll have to ask harder, perhaps for the elusive pygmy whale shark!!

After a dip in the pool (scorchio again) we head out for the first dive of the afternoon.

Dive #47

Mainit West

Zero current, which is nice. A turtle greeted us on this dive and seemed unmoved by our presence. We continue our way down through coral outcrops on a coarse sand slope.

Things we saw included (but were not limited to) : nudi’s various, porcelain crabs, Christmas Tree Worms, blue ribbon eels and a barrel sponge crab.

Back on dry land for a hot drink before we head out for the mandarin fish dive, there’s the kiss of death right there, let’s sgee what shows up then!

Dive #48

Mandarin dive!

It’s took around 20 minutes to get to the spot where the mandarins hide out. We dropped in and made our way over to an area that was liberally convered in stag corals, this is where they like to hide. We sit and wait…

After a while we start to see some activity and not long after that, coupling action ensued. They are not as big, plentiful or as highly active as the ones seen in Lembeh but they were there, doing what mandarin fish do at dusk!

After about 7 minutes of action it all came to an end, the manarin fish went off for a cigarette and we went back to the boat and headed home again. The sea was mirror flat, the air warm and the display of light from the various waterside establishments quite splendid.

We arrived back on shore, had a quick hose down then meet at the bar for a swift one before dinner which was a sumptuous feast of minced pork and potato, chicken with noodles and vegetable chop suey. Ask very lovely. This was supplemented by a plate of salt and pepper squid that D&D had over ordered!

After all this excitement, we head off to process the cameras then back to the room where Jo works hard to seperate the wheat from the chaff of today’s pictures (I seem to generate a lot of chaff) then we pass out and recharge for the next day.

During the had the loudest clap of thunder woke us up! It also poured and poured with rain.

On the night dive last night, I was taking a picture of a very beautiful slug when I felt something tapping my arm. I was a little surprised to see a huge basket star coming towards both me and the slug, chasing the tiny animals that were attracted but my torch light.  I moved further away from the basket star attracting the stuff in the water and therefore the basket star away from the slug. The basket star actually went straight over the slug which sat tight and retracted its rhinophores and gills. Once it passed rhinophores and gills came back out and photography began again. It was a really interesting thing to witness.

Breakfast with Darryl and Diane this morning discussing crystal meth and how easy it is to get it in the UK. They assure us that it is easy!

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It also turns out that the Australians invented the lobster!!

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Dive #41

Kirby’s Rock

We went straight out to the outer pinnacle for a tour before heading back into the wall.

This is a really impressive dive site. Not my favourite as well diving is not my favourite type of dive.

An hour of one upmanship was had during the surface interval. Lots of sweeties on the boat now that our Aussie friends are here

Dive #42

Olympic Point

Lovely dive, down to a rubbly area at about 20 metres.

We saw tiger shrimp and harlequin shrimp.

Also, other shrimps and slugs

An eel out hunting with a trevally.

Lunch was BLT and vegetable noodles.

We had an hour’s nap before the next dive.

Meeting at three, so we of course we are ready early. Daryl and Diane don’t dive in the afternoons so it was just us, with Nanny, and Mike and Daneen, with Romnick.

On the boat, reversing away from the beach… Then the boat doesn’t go into forward!

Oh!

We drift along a bit and Nannie and Jake punt us into the shore. Wendal, captain of another boat, comes to the rescue. He picks us up and takes us to the first of the afternoon’s dive sites.

Dive#43

Arthur’s Rock

A bit of current at the top, so it is decided to dive it as a drift.

We didn’t look at too much for the first 10 minutes but then the current started to subside.

Kept in the same direction and after Arthur’s Wall we ascended and were collected by the boat.

Huge turtle

Big fat slugs

Xmas tree worms

Orangutan crab

After an hour of coffee and more biscuits we get back in the water

Dive #44

Heidi’s Point

Sandy slope

I spotted a tiger shrimp!!!!!

It was happy where it was so it didn’t keep trying to run away.

Also saw…

crabs in sea pens

Coconut octopus

Frogfish

Another good day diving.

Richard chose dinner, of Tuna sisig, fried rice and a lumpia each.

A later night tonight. I think I made it all the way to 9.20pm.