Sadness prevails as its our last day diving here. Tomorrow we transfer to Anilao.
Regardless, today, after a breakfast of fresh croissant, banana pancake and bacon we head out for the first dive.iju
Dive #16, just this side of sinandang wall.
A lovely clean reef with plenty to see including Nudis, Candy Crab in soft coral and pristine colourful reef festoon with featherstars.
We head back to the usual spot (opposite Secret Bay) for tea, coffee and surface interval after which we dive at:
Dive #17 Secret Bay
Starting a little deeper than usual we find much to keep us occupied including butterfly nudis and a tiny red Frog Fish.
After this we are hunting for some large Coleman Shrimp that we spotted previously. Along the way we find all sorts including a pair of pipe fish.
Right at the end of the dive, when Joseph (our guide) has his SMB ready to launch, I spot them, Hurrah!
Jo go’s in for the pictures and then the dive ends!
We head back for lunch and managed to hit a fairly large block of wood on the way round. Everything stopped but the Stainless props were – phew!
Back on dry land it’s lunch time – grilled calamaris – two of them – so so very tasty!
It transpires that today is the day to replace one of the restaurant roofs so we take our lunch at ‘the other’ restaurant instead, equally lovely, just no sea view. We are joined by new guests (two of them) though they are non-divers so we are still the only divers in the resort.
All out again for the afternoon dive
Dive #18 White Beach
Back here again for our last dive of this section of the trip. Mostly sand at the start, some micro Bob Tail Squid (2mm long!) and other micro critters eventually give way to coral outcrops and then an entire reef which has several well positioned nudies and sea fans (a favourite of Jo’s). We end up with another tiny frog fish an a ‘Jo’ (no not my buddy but an actual creature) we’ll tell more once we have studied the photos.
Back on the boat – all sad faces, kit comes apart and is washed when we get back to shore.
A swift (well, actually not so swift) bob in the pool with a Mango Daquiri and a Negrone (my new favourite drink) before we hang stuff up to dry as best we can and stuff everything into bags.
Because of the extremely short transfer time (<30 minutes) we shall be holding our cameras and wearing our dive kit. We have arranged to jump off the private taxi and right on to a dive boat the moment we arrive. Lets see how the plan is actually executed in the morning!
Right now we are surrounded by drying dive gear and mostly packed bags – time to head off to dinner me thinks!
