For Those in Peril of the Sea

Trip Start May 15, 2006
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68
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Trip End Nov 2007


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Flag of Philippines  ,
Tuesday, January 23, 2007

We managed to escape the Island of palawan but it was tough. Last time I wrote option 1 of a big passenger ferry was out cos it was cancelled so we were planning to get a cargo ferry to the next island. Things were complicated by the fact that I had booked flights from the next island (Coron) to manila so we had to get to Coron or lose our money (I also really wanted to go there). the cargo ferry was meant to go Monday night but on Sat they said it wouldn't go til thurs and we heard that it hasn't sailed for weeks so we decided to give up on option2! Option 3 was to fly, expensive but fast but the flights were full for a week so it was option 4, the last resort, chartering a fishing boat for the journey. We put our names down with another couple and luckily for us 3 dozy Korean girls missed their flight on Sunday and came on our boat which made it a lot cheaper for us. The boat was big for a fishing boat but small enough to make us worry we wouldn't make it, I felt much better when I went into the cabin and saw a radio! The journey took 8 hrs and once we got out into open water it was pretty rough, we got soaked from all the waves coming over the boat cos we had to sit outside (The koreans had comandeered the cabin and were all being sick into the same plastic bag!) I've never been so happy to get back onto dry land. one of the crew told us it was the roughest journey he'd done but he did have the grace to tell us once we were over the worst! As usual I has a cast iron stomach and while everyone else was puking I was thinking it was annoying that i wouldn't be able to eat my crisps without them getting soaked! The boat dropped us at the door of the dive center in coron and they had a room so we just crashed out for the afternoon and felt lucky to be alive!

The reason to go to Coron is wreck diving, towards the end of WW2 the Japanese moved a lot of ships to a safe ancorage in Coron bay and the next day the Americans launched a suprise attack and most of the ships were sunk. I spent 2 days diving the wrecks, my first time wreck diving and a pretty cool introduction. I loved going inside them and didn't have any problems at all, its really eerie and spooky, totally different to diving a reef. i also saw Lion fish for the first time, they r really spectacular. On the 2nd day I was lucky enough to meet a great American guy called jim who was my "buddy" and is an enthusisatic wreck diver. We had an excellent day diving and in the evening, dean, jim and i went to a French run restaurant where I treated mydelf to a steak and chocolate mousse and red wine. Luckily we left the next morning beacuse between the french restaurant and the pizzas in el Nido our clothes are feeling a bit tight!

This morning we flew back to manila in a tiny plane with 12 passengers (no wonder the flights r always full!). unable to face manila we went straght to the Cebu Pacific airline desk and got dome cheap flights to Dumaguete on negros island. The flight was leaving in 2 hours and was the same price as the ferry! We are staying in Dumaguete which is a pleasant town tonight and tommorow we're off to Apo Island, a tiny island with a marine sanctuary with excellent diving and snorkelling.
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