Richard & Jo's Blog

There will be a pause in the holiblog.

Todays dives were:

Gasang
Bubbles Point
Koala
Twin Rocks

Coverage will resume tomorrow.

Welcome to another day in Anilao, breakfast completed, I can confirm that all equipment has been checked and is currently in operational mode (the day is only just beginning, plenty of opportunity for failure!)

Dive gear is loaded on to the boats and we have 29 minutes to deal with that post breakfast bloated feeling that seems to plague us daily.

Clear skies and sunshine at the moment, could be a great day for burning….

We headed out to the first site ‘Mainit School’ which is a slope with coral outcrops down to a sandy seabed at around 20m. We spend most of the dive playing with various nudi’s including a couple of large pink ones with yellow and red rhinophores and gills. A small turtle was hiding from us but failed as we discovered it quite easily.

Back on board for tea and biscuits and we make our way down to the next site Mainit Corner where all manner of Nudi’s were found amongst the various stunning coral outcrops which were festoon with brightly coloured featherstars as well as all sorts of other equally colorfull things.

Back on dry land we have an hour until lunch so it’s pool time, lovely and warm and ideal for a pre lunch bob-about.

Lunch was BLT and fries for Jo whilst I enjoyed chicken chop suey, yum! Then with over an hour before the next dive we spend time soaking up the rays, scorchio!

We awoke to some disturbing news. Judy had been viciously attacked by a gekko last night.

On returning to their room after dinner, Judy pulled the curtains and a gekko ran from behind the curtains and across the ceiling. From there, the gekko leaped directly onto Judy’s head! Much exclamation was to be heard, from Judy not the gekko.

🦎🦎🦎🦎🦎🦎🦎🦎🦎🦎🦎🦎🦎

We were down in the camera room about 6.30, prepping the cameras for the morning’s dives

This was shortly followed by breakfast of omelette on toast with a couple of glasses of watermelon juice.

🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉

We set out early this morning. Left the resort just after 7.30 for Kirby’s Rock on the other island.

Two pinnacles, one close to the surface with the top at about 2m and the bottom at about 24m,the other has a top at about 22m and the bottom at about +40m.

The second is absolutely covered in small yellow sea cucumbers.

Yellow pygmy seahorse at 26m.

Lots of other critters, slugs, frogfish and Christmas tree worms.

Excellent dive.

We moved over to the Olympic dive site where we had our surface interval. Hot drinks and biscuits.

Olympic

Sand and coral outcrops at the top and rubble further down.

We saw two harlequin shrimps and a tiger shrimp

Lots of fire urchin
Lots of mushroom coral

We got back to Buceo by about 11.30, so Richard and I went for a dip in the pool before lunch. Lovely and warm.

My lunch was the usual BLT with fries but others tried the tomato soup, ham and cheese sandwich with fries and a burger with mushrooms and fries.

We had time to relax on our balcony before the next dive. It was rather hot, hot, hot.

The next dive was at 2.00pm.

Arthur’s Rock

We saw a bloody huge current fish

Have a new buddy with us this afternoon. Has yellow fins, just saying.

At one point, Richard had to move in to protect me when I was taking a picture of a nudi under a ledge, the nudi was not so lucky. 😔

Generally, it is not easy to take pictures in a raging current. This dive was no exception

We had a quick stop off at the resort for hot drinks and biscuits before setting out for the fourth dive.

Bubbles

One of our favourite sites, where bubbles come up from the ground due to tectonic activity. One area is so hot that you can’t put your hand there for any length of time.

A bit of current and Viz was down.

Lots of slugs. Took pictures of yellow cup coral on the wall and a friendly slug in the sand.

Found the boat eventually.😊😊

Another good diving day.

Cocktails at the bar before a very comprehensive dinner.

Dishes on the table were Pork sisig, Shanghai lumpia, vegetable lumpia, sweet and sour chicken, vegetables in coconut sauce, fried rice, mash potato and coleslaw.

Plenty!!

Some photo work before passing out. 😊😔

Welcome the first full days diving at Anilao – the start to which was somewhat sub par as the routine camera prep failed at the first hurdle when the camera displayed the type of message that you never want to see – a bit like that one on your car when the engine stops and the display says ‘critical error – return card to dealer immediately’. As you can imagine, this caused much spitting of dummies and many toffee apples were thrown in the corner – breakfast was not the usual joyful experience, especially for those around me. Apologies to all.

There was no option to accept the fact, that was it for me and photography, much upset.

After breakfast Barry sneaks off to try and resurrect things but the situation does not improve. Some googling reveals that others have endured this calamity and found it to be related to dampness in the flash attachment area. I blow a prodigious quantity of dry air into the offending area – et voila – it works!

I elect to leave the whole setup in our room to suffer the abuse of the air conditioning and all the dryness that can conjure. Time to go diving.

We get ready and head off to the boat, a trip of some 20 metres or so, during which we learn that we are headed off to ‘Gasang’ – a wilderness of sand and nothingness 🙁

As we head off in that direction we approach one of our favourite sites ‘Red Rock’ and I note that Saldy (crew) was up the sharp end preparing the forward anchor.

Technical interlude: When anchoring in sand, the rear ‘fishermans’ anchor is used, when anchoring in a reef or rocks, the forward anchor (a cunning device assembled from re-bar, a rock and some string) is used.

Accordingly I deduce that we might just be anchoring at ‘Red Rock’ – and I was right – well, that’s mighty fine by me and we have an excellent dive at Red Rock (albeit me without a camera). Fear not – I spent my time seeking out targets for Jo’s lens!

Back on board we learn that the adjacent boat (which had previously offloaded a bunch of first time divers for our entertainment) was in fact carrying a mixture of Russian and Ukrainians – that sounds like a bunch of fun!

We head off to the next site for teas and coffees etc – it turns out to be ‘Gasang’ – joy – not!

We arrive, have our drinks and biscuits and after the required service interval, we drop in.

… and – not 5 minutes into the dive, I brush the back of my left hand (which was not holding a camera) across the back of the aptly named Fire Urchin. Imaging someone driving 1000 white hot needles into your hand – like that – but not as much fun.

It might be that no-one can hear you scream in space – rest assured – underwater, sound travels well! So I spend the next 5 minutes clutching my hand and generally complaining about the situation. Eventually it dies down, much to the delight of all those around.

After that, the dive actually turns up loads including nudis, ornate ghost pipe fish of varying colour, robust pipe fish, shrimp, octopus and an interesting clam like thing that is out feeding.

Whilst thinking about how good the dive had actually turned out and that absolutely nothing else could go wrong, my podger (steel bar) just snapped in two whilst anchoring me in the sand – surely – that cant happen can it? Well, it did and I was left with 5″ of stub!

Back at base, podger is replaced – spag bol for lunch, the mood is improving.

After lunch, a quick check and camera operation appears to have resumed so, armed with new podger and functional camera, we head out for the first dive of the afternoon over at Apolls Point. This is a lovely site with lots of absolutely everything to see and once again, it failed to disappoint. Lots to see including many nudies (including some new ones) and other interesting critters. This dive ends in an area of coral pinnacles, each festoon with the brightest coloured featherstars that you ever did see, awesome.

Back on board we head back to base for the surface interval and second dive of the afternoon, this ends up being at Heidy’s Point. A muck dive in a sandy area though there was stuff to be seen.

Back at base it’s time for dinner. From the menu tonight we have:
Tuna Sisig, Fried Rice, Fried Lumpia and Vegetables in coconut milk. All very nice indeed. From the bar we had Amaretto Sour, Red Horse and a Negroni.

So this is transfer day!

We have had a lovely time here in Fisherman’s Cove.

Being collected at 10.00

I thought now was a good time to show the ambiance of the place.

So about 9.00, we were having a drink at the restaurant watching other divers getting ready when we spotted a boat they looked very much like a water taxi.

Time to go!

Well, thank goodness that we have an enclosed boat. Video to follow.

33 mins resort to resort. Amazing.

So, here we are again, back in Buceo.

We received such a warm welcome from the staff here. 😊😊

Pretty much the first question was when do you want to go diving. Our answer, of course, was ASAP!

Quick trip to the cameras room, then the room. Then out for a dive at 10.45. 😊😊

Secret Bay

Great dive!

Muck dive on a sandy slope

All sorts of critters.

Lunch, followed by more diving

Daryl Laut

Lovely wreck

Low Viz at the top but on the wreck it was fine.

Beautiful Christmas tree worms
Lots of different nudis

After a surface interval in the boat we did Olympic Point

Sand with coral outcrops at the top going down to a rubble area

Harlequin shrimps
Coleman shrimps on a fire urchin
Many different nudis

Drink at the bar before dinner. New and exciting dishes on the menu. More info to follow…

Asleep by 9.00 pm.

Last day for diving in Puerto Galera.

We just arrived at our table for the penultimate breakfast here at Fishermen’s Cove and as you can see, the tide is out.

The food here has been absolutely amazing, mostly fish based, lots of things we’ve not had before including all manner of Carpatchio (beef, fish and octopus) as well as last night’s starter of calamari with spaghetti in squid ink!

I’ve decided to go all super healthy for breakfast and am having pancakes along with a couple of chocolate croissants which last time came covered in a mountain of icing sugar!

Hmm, well, it seems that the super lovely pancake and banana followed by the two croissants was a tad on the over enthusiastic side. Regardless, I held up my end of the bargain and ate the lot.

Needless to say, I was reminded of my breakfast extravigance during the entire dive, which was at A Laguna, a coral reef and wall which was festoon with shoals of current fish for the first part of the dive.

Eventually things settle down and we commence the hunt!

Many different Nudi’s were seen along the way! We make our accent and are picked up by the boat.

The surface interval is spent moored to outside Sabong Point with teas and coffees etc, after which we roll back for a dive at the same spot.

Not so many current fish at the start of this one, lots more Nudi action, including one which our guide is very happy to have found.

Imagine a kind of purple broccoli shaped thing and you won’t be too wide of the mark!

Several other interesting finds before we head back to the surface and back to base for lunch.

Lunch is salad and bread followed by more awesome kebabs (pork this time) with rice, water melon for pud.

At the time of writing we are taking some R&R before we head out for a night dive which will be our last dive at Fishermen’s Cove.

We are sitting in the hut at the end of the Jetty when the swankiest of all Ribs (you know the sort, long, black, 5 rows of twin air cushioned seats and a pair of 350’s on the back) arrives at the Jetty.

The passengers disembark leaving the two crew on board.. As they walk past they say hello and we start to chat. We talk about the diving and before long we are all invited to his place for dinner the next day, nice, if only we weren’t leaving the next day…..

We get on our boat for the dive and I ask our guide who the owner of the Rib was. Turns out he is a Philippino TV star, singer, game show host and movie star.

We have seen his mansion with the helicopter and swanky monster motor cruisers moored near by.

Wilfred Revillame is his name, he also owns and stars in a game show over here called wowowin!! He scores 7.5 on Imdb!

Maybe another time…..

Then the night dive with all manner of weirdness. At the end we encountered huge frog fish and octopus, all very exciting.

Dinner consisted of more lovely pasta, fish and potato in a white sauce, fruit cocktail and ice cream, all very lovely, washed down with a Negroni and a bottle of Red Horse (which turned out to be on the house, bonus!!!)

Penultimate days diving here at Fishermen’s Cove.

Here is a map of where we are.

Interesting fact…

The Philippines has 126 different languages and those languages have different accents on different islands. Without English they wouldn’t be able to talk to others in different parts of the country!

Anyway, yesterday Richard got his head burnt, so today lashings of suncream, and a hat.

On the boat before 8.30 for the first dive of the day which was Ernie’s Cave.

Went to see the cave. Not the biggest cave, in fact more of a ridge. It was filled with hatchet fish and Joseph, our guide, spotted Ernie, the grouper.

Also saw, dragon shrimp, various nudies and the current fish.

Pretty wall/slope with pretty coral garden at the top

Second dive, Dungong Wall, now known as the wall of Korean divers.

Did this site again as Barry missed it when he was unwell.

Unfortunately there were divers everywhere! Absolutely, hoards of them!!

Briefly saw the back of a seahorse’s head.

Beautiful coral garden at the top and no divers.

Richard found some treasure. a very nice podger!

When we got back, the room was in the process of being cleaned. So we had a swim and a quick lay in sun.

Lunch was a seafood kebab, savory rice and lettuce. Excellent.

Back out in the boat at 2.30, to the dive site, Secret Bay.

Bit embarrassing… Richard and I tried to put the wrong wet suits on!!

This was a better dive than when we did this site before.

Sandy bottom.

We saw lots.

Small red frogfish
monster nudis
tiny cuttlefish
Two beautiful risbecia both with large emperor shrimps

Tonight’s dinner might not have been to everyone’s taste.

A starter of squid ink pasta with calamari.

Followed by carpatchio of fish with salad.

We watched a couple of fireflies at dinner. Something that we had not experienced before this holiday.

Here is a shot of the jetty at night.

Today is of particular note in as much as we forgot nothing and arrived early at the boat!

A nice couple of dives. First one on St Christopher’s Point to  wreck at 30m. A proper ship type wreck called Almer Jane. Then a second wreck which was all broken up, actually called St Christopher.

The second dive was on a site called ‘Giant Clams’, can you perhaps guess why?

Indeed. One area is festoon with the giantest of clams, propper Tarzan leg grabbers.

Back on dry land, it’s time (again) for food! Lunch today is Grilled Pork Chop, rice and salad with a panacotta for pud, yum!

Before long we take to the seas for the afternoon dive. We head back to ‘Giant Clams’ to do the sandy side where we met Picachu (the elder and the younger) and their couzen as well as Shawn the Sheep, Christmas Tree Worms, Seahorse and Skeleton Shrimp to name but a few.

Back to base for a wick dip in the pool then camera work to process the days catch.

Tonights dinner is a departure from the Italian Fish Fest as we have Philippino food including soup, chicken curry and a dessert of fried banana.

Whilst between courses we are watching fireflies in the trees next to the diving area, awesome, never seen that before.

Sunny today!!

Today, we started earlier. Breakfast was at 7.00 as normal then as we had no catastrophes with cameras, we were down at the jetty by 8.20.

We went round to Sabong Bay where Puerto Galera is.

The first dive was Sabong Point.

We went down to the top of a wall at about 23 metres to look for an absent slug. We looked around there for a bit then went to a rubble area for slugs. The end of the dive was over a coral garden.

Good dive.

The usual coffee, Calamansi tea and biscuits were enjoyed during our surface interval. We noticed that the goodies box had been named for us…

Here’s a picture of Barry and Judy with the Bikini Bar in the background…

Second dive was Sabong Wrecks.

Quite a large broken wreck and a tender next to it. Also a yacht wreck out a bit. Pretty site.

Unfortunately, too many other, manic divers, and once they disappeared it was so much nicer.

Cardinalfish, we couldn’t spot the ones with the eggs in their mouths.

Good dive.

After the dive Richard says to me, did you see the engines?

Engines?

What engines?

Back at base, it was pizza for lunch. Even for me!

Here are a few shots of the resort…

Barry and Judy are in the room on the bottom right of the large block and we are on the bottom of the small block.

Finally, a picture of our room…

Third dive was at 2.30.

This was the same dive as our first dive here, also known as Pizza Surprise! Dreadful heartburn on the whole dive.

Sandy bottom, muck dive.

Lots of cuttlefish

Two seahorses, fluffy slug that looks like soft coral, big fat green and orange slug. Took some pictures for tiny fan worms.

We have another dip in the pool before looking at today’s pictures.

Time to relax in the restaurant looking out to sea. I ordered a double Malibu and pineapple. Think I got two double Malibu’s and one can of pineapple. Hopefully, that should help me sleep tonight!

Dinner was very different to anything we would have at home.

The starter as always was a pasta dish…

The main course was a carpatchio of octopus. It actually was very delicious.

The pudding was, for those that could eat dairy, was panacotta. Richard said that he would take one for the team and eat mine…

Looks like an early night for us! A little picture work before bed.

Another day starts. Off to a monster breakfast of cinnamon buns, scramble eggs and bacon and fresh fruit, yum!

The we’re off for the first dive which is out to the left and along a bit! A site called Aninuan Beach.

This was a sandy bottom with lots of octopus action (mimic and wonderpus). During the entire dive there were three Ramorus constantly eyeing us up. I’m pleased to report that there were no attachment issues.

We tied up at a sandy beach in glorious sunshine for the surface interval of coffee and biscuits, lovely.

Before long we are heading down the coast a little to the next site which is billed as being a coral area. The site was called White Beach Coral. This was an excellent bimble around coral outcrops with plenty of nudi action as well as a Indian ocean walkman and a mahoosive grey (pink when illuminated) frog fish.

Back to base for lunch which today consisted of BBQ shrimps and rice, some.

Before we know it we’re off out again for the third dive of the day. This time we’re diving on a wreck in the middle of the channel followed by a bimble across coral rubble and then coral outcrops.

The wreck was a sailing vessel, approximately 40′ long had clearly been there some time as it was festoon with soft corals and home to plenty of marine life.

The bimble revealed plenty of nudi action as well as a nice colony of sea squirts.

Back to base for a quick dip in the pool, rinse off then after downloading the pictures, straight to the bar for some blogging action (today’s post sponsored by Red Horse)

Dinner was epic. Pasta starter with vegitables. Main course was calamari with sauteed vegitables and ice cream for dessert, yum!