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.