Balicasag Island

Well... Unfortunately we might have caught the bug for another expensive hobby... At least while we're in the Philippines the cost isn't too bad, so we took the opportunity to book ourselves on a dive trip to the nearby island and marine reserve of Balicasag.

The trip included 3 dives, two at Balicasag and one more back at Alona Beach. It was an early start, at the beach by 7.50am and headed out to the island on a large Outrigger (which looks a bit like a giant water skater bug). We were kitted up and in the water by 9.15 for our first dive.

The difference from back at Panglao was immediate.

The crystal clear water. The white sandy bottom. The water filled with amazing brightly coloured coral and teeming with brightly coloured little fish. It was awesome.

Within 5 minutes we were swimming with turtles. There were so many that Nathan was busy filming four swimming, and completely missed the one a metre in front of him chilling on the reef.

We left the turtles alone and headed over the edge of the reef, checking out the amazing corals and fish life. We saw more garden eels, a nudibranch, and plenty of other aquatic life.

Dive two came around, at a site called the "Royal Garden" and it lived up to its name! The current blew us across the sand and over the edge of the reef. Floating past the wall, heading deeper to check out some cool blue tube coral and massive fan coral. We saw turtles again but none up close. The most exciting thing we spotted was an octopus. It was a little bit shy and hid in his hole, but very cool watching it change colours while hiding. Nathan got a little too close to a territorial clown fish and it gave him a little headbutt to tell him to back off... Oops...

Back on board the Outrigger and it was lunch time before heading back to Alona beach for our third and final dive. It was a bit disappointing heading back into the murkier water after being out at Balicasag, but still very cool checking out some more eels and crabs, and even taking the time to check out the sea cucumbers and feather stars pushing food into their mouths with their feathery appendages. It was insanely hard to get everything into a 1 minute video from today...

So after four days we completed 7 dives, spending a total of nearly 7 hours underwater. Very surreal to look back and be able to say this. Looking forward to planning some more diving in the future!Read more