Coron

Hi All,

Since catching the bug for scuba diving, we have been looking into doing a ‘live aboard’. A week on a specialist diving boat on which the crew, guests and instructors live and breath the mantra “Dive, Eat, Sleep, Repeat!” As we had just about enough left in our budget for one last splash out, it had to be this. We have indeed spent the last 6 days diving almost constantly (up to 5 times a day), pigging out on huge Filipino feasts, napping on the sun loungers on deck in between and watching dreamy sunsets and dramatic lightening storms. It’s been pretty fantastic. The stunning white sand islands and limestone rock formations that we passed were an added bonus. We even stopped off at a couple to explore the hidden caves and climb a lighthouse.

The trip was divided into two halves, the first around Apo Reef, which is the second largest contiguous coral reef in the world, exceed only in size by the Great Barrier Reef. Unsurprisingly, it was home to a wealth of incredible marine life which we marvelled at on each dive. We jumped in for our first dive at 7am each morning to find white tip reef sharks sleeping at the sandy bottom after a night of hunting. During the day dives we saw: a marbled spotted stingray, huge puffer fish, a school of over 100 barracuda, a highly venomous banded sea snake, green turtles, massive bump heads and an aggressive trigger fish! One of the huge trigger fish took a disliking to Danielle as she swam over its nest, it bit her leg with quite some force; luckily the wet-suit offered good protection and it didn’t leave a mark!

Before boarding the boat, we were under the impression that after the sun had set it was time for bed. Turns out it was in-fact the perfect time to jump into the black waters to see the nightlife of the sea! We have to admit that on the first night, looking down into the abyss this was a pretty daunting concept. Jumping off the boat and into the water felt somewhat scary but we soon learnt that the torchlight was enough to illuminate the sea bed and the wonders below the surface. It was amazing to see fish tucked into rocks sleeping, turtles nestled down for the night, lobsters scurrying under coral and octopuses mating dances.

During the second half of the trip, the boat returned to the bay of Coron where 12 World War II shipwrecks lay at the bottom of the ocean. This convoy of Japanese ships were sunk by American helldiver bombers (task force 38) on September 24th 1944. Swimming down the mooring line to the first boat was a seriously eerie experience. As we got closer, the hull of the 160m long oil tanker loomed into view, a mysterious expanse of metal in an otherwise natural environment. Over the next three days we dived tankers, cargo ships and a seaplane tender. As if just seeing these ships wasn’t enough to make our hairs stand up on end, our instructor lead the way INTO the ships down cargo holes, along corridors and through propeller shafts. At points it was so dark and murky inside that we could barely see a metre ahead! We were surprised at just how different each ship was, not in the obvious terms of size but in the number and variety of corals that have grown onto the boat. Inside, bulldozers, tractors and cars were recognisable as were the machine guns and cranes mounted on deck.

By the end of the trip we had completed both our Advanced Open Water and Wreck Diving certifications. We are now able to navigate for ourselves, plan and manage our own dive so feet rather proud of how far our diving has come in such a short time. We have now spent just shy of 24 hours under water on 31 dives in 3 different countries.

Following the boat trip, we spent a couple of days recuperating in Coron town after drinking a few too many beers in celebration. We then headed to the capital city of Manila for one final night at a ‘luxurious’ Best Western before catching our flights back to London.

Although we are now home, we have one last post coming up to finalise an incredible 9 months worth of adventures. For now we look forward to spending some time catching up with family and friends.

Love R and D xxx