Anilao Diving Again!

Well, we have had the joy and privelage of another wonderful dive weekend here in the Philippines.

Although the diving was great, the weekend was rather sad.  It's was officially the last dive trip with Karin and Sadri, as they are heading to Vienna soon after their stint in the Philippines. We will really, really miss them!

Once thing is definitely certain, living as an expat means making great friendships, but also, saying many goodbyes.

All in fun was had by everyone.  The dive weekend started at 5.15am, getting up and doing the final packing.  Our pickup was at 5.45am.  The drive to Anilao was quicker than ususal, including the standard stop and McDonalds for a snack.

The accomodation was a little rougher than the previous places we had stayed, which added to the adventure (we stayed at ScubaBro, which used to be known as the Outrigger).  It was an adventure when everyone's gear was rearranged and/or missing the second morning of diving. We actually found mine on another boat. One of the other groups diving there had understood it to be theirs...hahaha.

The food left quite a bit to be desired, but was adequate to keep our energy levels at an appropriate level.

The plan was as follows:

1 x house reef dive. This included a refresher for one, the final practical for a new Open Water diver, and a navigation dive for Vesna and I to wrap up our PADI advanced open water.  Yah, we can now dive to 30 meters.

Brad silhouette

1 x Boat hire to go diving out at Sombrero Island and a wreck dive (hard name to spell).  This was a fun, but tough dive.  The current was rather strong so we ended doing a proper drift dive, and going into the deeper parts of the reef.  In fact, it felt like a completely different place to what we recall from the last two times diving there.  The second dive was out at twin rocks which was also good fun, apart from the stupid headache that I had.

Vesna and Karin

Brad and Sadri

Saturday  came and went and was followed by some dinner and monopoly deal for some...  yes, Vesna is addicted.

Sunday  started early for some, with a 6am dive.  We didn't quite make that one, and missed out on a sea snake sighting and some other good stuff.

We took some pics on our Sunday dives, but the camera was getting misty inside the casing because of moisture. But at least you can get an idea of what we saw.

Karin eating fish? not

Fish swarming 

The boat was loaded at 9am and we headed out once again for some more diving.  2 dives were done, the first at Twin Rocks and the second at Cathedral.  Fish feeding was on the  cards for the Cathedral dive, and boy, were there fish.  We spotted what must be the biggest trigger fish in the business, as well as some rather aggressive little clown fish.

Anyhow, here is a quick video.

Enjoy.