Diving along a wall
We were up at 7 today, as we were doing some diving in the Moalboal area. Both of us had breakfast at the hostel, and then walked to the centre of Moalboal to the diving shop. Our instructor of the day was a nice local fellow named Benjim. We talked to him a little bit, then got suited and booted with all our gear. To our surprise, he set everything up for us, we’re used to doing it ourselves. When all our gear was ready, we took everything to the boat and zoomed to the first spot.
The first spot we’d be diving was only 20 minutes away from Moalboal. That’s nice compared to the 2 hours you sometimes have to travel. Everyone had a bit of a chat on the way, quite a few Brits and other English speakers on board. Once we arrived at the dive spot, we donned all our gear and fell in backwards, the way you see in movies. This dive was pretty cool as we were diving parallel to a reef wall, with a huge drop beneath us. There were loads of amazing creatures that called this wall home. These included lion fish, sea snakes, and also turtles, which were nice to see.
After 40 minutes of diving, we went back to the boat and dive centre to fill up the air tanks. Usually you’d have a whole day at sea, but I guess it’s so close you can just nip back to get more air.
For my most recent dives, in Coron, click here!
Beast of the depths
Whilst the air was refilled, we chatted with a few interesting folks from our boat. There are so many cool stories and characters you come across when you’re travelling. Our next diving stop was only 10 minutes away from Moalboal. Even better than before, we were there in no time at all. Same as last time, we were last in the water, but as soon we we dropped in, we saw a sea snake. I believe it was coming up for air, because it swam right up close to me, literally inches from my. It was honestly so cool, I could see its eyes as it swam past me. I’m glad I caught it on camera.
We began swimming alongside another coral wall, still really trippy. We’d heard of numerous whale shark sightings in the last couple of weeks. I made sure to keep an eye out for one in the dark below me, though I knew the chances were very slim. There was more of the same great stuff living in the coral wall, but best of all, I kept glancing beneath me and was rewarded. Out of no where, a huge whale shark swam underneath us. I turned my camera on as fast as I could without taking my eyes off of it. I screamed as loud as I could to get people’s attention. Luckily, Mat heard me and turned around and saw it as well, I was mesmerised and buzzing. I don’t think much will beat this encounter.
We carried on with our dive and finished soon after, returning to the boat, and then the dive centre. There were a few disgruntled veteran divers, some on 1,000+ dives, but yet to see a whale shark. We got it on our 14th.
Walking into deep water
We had a couple of hours for lunch until our next dive. So we went to a restaurant in the town and had a delicious pizza, really nice. Once we’d killed enough time, we headed back to the dive shop and got ready for the next dive. The final dive was to be a shore dive. We simply walked from the dive shop into the water with all our gear on. It was pretty different from a normal entry, and a bit tough when you have to walk on slippery rocks. This time we swam pretty shallow, but we still saw some awesome turtles. Not to mention the sardines we saw yesterday, but this time we were able to swim below them. When we swam below them, they blocked out the Sun completely, and it was really dark. It was yet again another really cool first experience whilst diving.
After marvelling at the sheer magnitude of the sardines, we headed back to shore and called it a day. What an absolutely fantastic day of diving it had been. We got dessert at a nearby place in the centre before we headed home. Mango cheesecake, it was a good way to finish the diving experience. After such an exhausting day, it was no surprise that I needed a nap, and it was well earned I’d say! Mat, Phillip, Kenza, Carla (Argentinian room mate), and I had a few drinks at our hostel and chatted for several hours. It was really nice, though after a few hours we were more than ready to call it a night.
