Coron Town

Day 266 – Proud Aussies

This morning we were down at the Australian Embassy at 10am exercising our right to vote in the forthcoming Federal Election. We passed through security at the entrance to the building, had our identification checked at a second post, were buzzed up to the 23rd floor where our bags were scanned and then taken off us (except for our passports) and then were walked up to the 24th floor. The first thing we heard when we entered reception on the 24th floor were three Aussie blokes in their 70’s or 80’s speaking broad ocka – weird to hear after so long! We filled in a form with our address so the lady knew where to send our votes and which papers to give us, but no one bothered to check our ID for the voting bit! There was a huge gold coat of arms in the lift area that I asked politely if I could photograph – of course the answer was no! So we had to settle for this one outside:

But even then they were about to called security on us!!

We hurried back to Makati Apartelle, said goodbye to Dharma (below) and then back to the airport for our flight to Coron Town.

We landed in on the island of Busuanga in a tropical downpour and rolled our eyes at each other before scurrying across the tarmac to the terminal building. Before we knew it we were shuttled into Coron Town, checked into Sea Dive Resort and organising a dive for the morning.

All that was left to do now was have a beer in the restaurant downstairs and enjoy the view:

Watching as another storm rolls through. We’re still hoping for sunshine at some stage in the Philippines, although we can’t complain too much – it is rainy season!

Day 267 – Scuba Review

Although we are both Advanced Divers it had been about 2.5 years for me and at least 18 months since Matt had been diving, so we did a “Scuba Review” day today which was aimed at getting us back in touch with our Scuba Zen.

After passing a written exam and practicing our Dive Table calculations, we headed out to CYC Beach with Borge our very smiley instructor to practice some of the safety signals and manoeuvres like recovering our regulators, mask emptying and buoyancy, etc all at about 6 metres. Demonstrating that we haven’t lost the touch and with plenty of air left we got to spend a bit of time exploring the nearby reef and saw lots of clown fish families playing in soft pink coral, a Juvenile Sweet Lips (fish) which was black with huge white spots, a Barracuda school swimming by and two Lion Fish stuck together. It was so disappointed not to have the dive camera with us this trip – no photos sorry!

Given neither of us had any troubles with skills, Borge took us on a second dive at Seven Islands Marine Park just to get some more buoyancy practice in, ready for “Wreck Diving”. Near Coron in the bays and inlets around the islands, several WWII Japanese warships thought they were safely hiding, but were subsequently bombed and sunk by the US on 24 September 1944 via a daring long range air attack. Some of the planes sent to bomb these ships even ran out of fuel on the way back! Anyways, these ships now make the area well known for wreck diving, something we’ve never tried before.

(Photo courtesy of Google images.)

The highlight of the Seven Islands dive was a Hawksbill Turtle resting on a huge coral table, but we also saw lots of fluoro coral, a giant clam, one tiny black and white nudibranch and lots of fish including Batfish, Titan Triggerfish, Snapper, Groupers, Emperor and Damsel fish.

Hawksbill Turtle (courtesy of Google images).

At the end of the day Borge said he thought we would have no worries getting in and around the wrecks, which made me feel a lot more confident as I wasn’t sure about wanting to go inside a sunken ship!

Sunset from our room on the third floor of Sea Dive.

And from the restaurant again…

Day 268 – First wreck didn’t wreck us!

Enthused that we hadn’t “lost the touch”, we signed up for some wreck diving today. There was a big group headed out on the boat, although the first part of the journey out was rather quiet for us - between the Filipino, French, German and Japanese all speaking to each other in their native tongue, we were the only native English speakers!

Our dive launch – was more of a dive raft!

First stop was the Irako, a Japanese refrigeration container ship about 200 metres long. Not only was this our first wreck dive, but probably one of our deepest also (inside 40 metres, deck 28 metres). So needless to say we kept a close eye on each and the Dive Master, although visibility wasn’t too bad.

The Irako! (Courtesy of Google images.)

We saw stuff like this! (Courtesy of Google images.)

And back in the day… (Courtesy of Google images.)

We didn’t get to spend too much time inside as there was a bit of mucking around at the start of the dive with one of the other members of our group of four. He said his ears were playing up, but we suspect he freaked out a little bit and started back up the mooring line without signalling to the Dive Master – a pretty big no-no. That then meant that we had to wait while the DM went to look for him and waiting at 30 metres you obviously go through more air.

It was a little freaky following the mooring line down into nothingness and then this huge thing appearing! We entered the wreck though an opening on the deck, swam along a corridor for a bit and then into a larger space with lots of pipes and valves. We exited through a damage hole and back up onto the deck for a poke around before heading back to the mooring line. A nice intro for our first wreck.

(Courtesy of Google images.)

We saw lots of Lionfish like this guy! (Courtesy of Google images.)

After a long stop and some lunch, our second dive of the day was the Olympia Maru. The Olympia was a 120 metre freighter which ended up lying on it’s side and has lots of nice big spaces to explore. This time we descended to the stern and entered through a cargo hold. We swam through a large area to the boiler room where we could see the two huge boilers, tipped to the side. Then we slipped through a smallish gap at the side of the boilers and swam through a series of smaller cavities and then over and under a series of beams. We exited at the bow and then swam back over the deck to the mooring line. All over the deck huge lotus shaped corals had formed and we saw lots of Lion Fish too. The same guy freaked out again, but this time bothered to signal. Later on deck he was telling his friends that entering the ship reminded him of the tunnels in Vietnam (as a tourist, not in the war…), where he also freaked out, and so he didn’t want to go in. I think this guy might need to admit he’s a claustrophobe and give up trying to wreck dive.

Matt watching me struggle. The worst thing about diving (and surfing)? Wetsuits. Hate em!

The last dive of the day was back at Seven Islands. Visibility wasn’t as good today and we didn’t see anymore turtles, but we did see another black and white nudibranch and some more interesting neon coral we hadn’t noticed the first time round. There was one particular coral that lit up its tips when you swam past – must be a defence!

The nudi was kind of like this! (Courtesy of Google images.)

Two of the seven islands that surround the dive site, making it a ‘marine park’ which the locals are doing their best to try and protect. I still brought back a “fluro light bulb fish” and a “coke bottle fish” with me to the boat though!

Day 269 - Sunset kayaking

This morning we did some internet catching up and general lazing about in recovery from two days diving. You don’t move about much diving, but the long days out on the water and I guess the pressure you place your body under really takes it out of you. Life is tough!

We did make up for our lazy morning in the afternoon though by hiring a double kayak and paddling out to Coron Island to visit Cayangan Lake to swim some laps! We probably should have done it in the morning, instead of an hour and ten minutes paddling into a headwind on the way there and then almost another hour back (with not a breath of wind –damn!) and then arriving back in the dark, but we had a nice day! We saw a sea snake swimming past and paddling into the sunset was very romantic! (Well for us ; P )

We kayaked over to Coron Island and then had to get out, pay an entrance fee of P200 ($5) each to the locals and then take a short hike up and over a hill to the aqua blue lake.

Crystal clear!

The sun setting on us as we paddled!

Day 270 – This day proudly brought to you by Google Images.

Today we were back into diving. The first wreck today was the Kogyo Maru and probably my favourite of the wreck dives we did.

(Courtesy of Google images.)

Once we were down to 30-odd metres we entered into a large cargo hold that housed a tipped over bulldozer – you could still see the steering wheel and the treads were also very clear even with the poor visibility. There were also hundreds of cement bags all in a stack, frozen! It was much easier to picture this ship’s position (on its side) and scale, something I was having trouble imagining on the other dives. We swam into a second cargo hold that housed building supplies and hundreds of bundles of rolled cyclone wire which had formed a cool honeycomb type effect now that it is covered in silt and debris. On the sides on the ship, essentially the top of the wreck we swam through what I call a “fish city” where huge schools of small fish swim together in all directions amongst the swaying coral and plant life all looking very busy. If you wave an arm at them they all dart off course in the same direction! There were also the hugest lotus/lettuce shaped corals I have ever seen and a cute purple and yellow nudibranch that Matt found with a huge yellow branch stuck to his backside. We also did a swim though the empty engine room. Like most of the interesting stuff off these ships, the engine was recovered years ago.

The steering wheel of the bulldozer. (Courtesy of Google images.)

The nudi Matt found looked like this guy, but with a much bigger yellow branch. (Courtesy of Google images.)

After a rest and some lunch, we moved on to the Tangat Wreck, so called as they don’t know the name of the ship, it just sank near Tangat Island. This wreck was largely open and empty, but with huge ladders everywhere and lots of other broken and bent bits to form interesting shapes as we swam through the inside. We saw lots of Lion Fish and a Panther fish and a new coral that was small and purple and shaped like a tall mushroom. You could clearly see the big bomb hole on this one.

When we swan over the deck we could see all the masts poking up. (Courtesy of Google images.)

(Courtesy of Erin van der Peet images.)

(Courtesy of Google images.)

Panther fish. (Courtesy of Google images.)

Our last dive of the day was Barracuda Lake. There wasn’t much to see there, not even a Barracuda, but the interesting thing about this lake was that it was a Thermocline. This meant that there was a layer of freshwater at 28 degrees on the top and then saltwater at 38 degrees at the bottom (usually hot water would rise to the surface). Descending we could clearly see where the fresh and salt water layers meet (at about 15 metres) and the temperature difference was huge! Like falling into a hot spring with all your clothes on! The rock formations around the edges of the lake were quite interesting and it was weird swimming up and down through the layers of hot and cold. The bottom of the lake was like quicksand if you put your hand in it. Not much life though, just some yabbies and a big black and white spotty fish.

We had one beer on the boat on the trip back to Coron which was enough to zap the last bit of energy from me and we were sleeping as soon as we finished dinner.