When we reached Puerto Princessa we asked the van to drop us at a medical centre. Our travel insurers had asked me to obtain a fit to fly certificate which seemed an unnecessary request after 19 days since my treatment in Coron. We struck lucky though as the clinic sent me straight in to be seen by a doctor. I had just a 10 minute wait to see the doctor and was amused that when I went in there was a young boy lying on the treatment bed with his arm bandaged up.
The doctor ran through what had happened, checked my breathing and issued me a certificate at a cost of £5 - another wonderful experience with Philippine healthcare. After a late lunch we checked in for our evening 1 hour flight to Cebu.
Colin was most put out that when our flight was called, a young Filipino man gestured for us to join the queue for priority boarding which included old people. To make it worse for the poor chap, he was sitting next to Colin on the flight!
It was 11.30pm by the time we jumped in a taxi from the airport in Cebu City. It's amazing how different each island feels and now on Cebu we were seeing Starbucks and other international chains we'd not seen since Manila. We crashed out in a super cheap but stylish little hotel. We had debated whether to have a day in Cebu city for sightseeing, but thought we'd be coming back through here on our trip back to Manila and instead we opted to catch a bus the following morning to Moalboal, a tourist town about 3 hours from Cebu Cuty famous for its sardine run.
It was a comfortable journey on the bus after the long cramped van trips. Colin looked in horror and amusement at the building sites we passed in the city. He particularly liked the one where they showed a worker in full PPE gear which nobody on site was wearing - all were wearing flip flops. When we arrived at our hotel in Basdiot where the tourist facilites and the sardines are, we discovered we'd arrived a day too early - Colin had been having trouble with his dates and now realises the date and time on his watch were 12 hours out. Luckily they had another room available for the night.
It was just a 10 minute walk to the beachfront area past countless bars and restaurants. It was going to be a tough few days. We called in at a dive centre and Colin booked to dive with the Sardines the following morning. I agonised over whether I should join him, but with my insurance claim still not resolved, decided I should stick to snorkelling.
There is a stunning sunset on the waterfront which we enjoyed each evening.
On the way back to our hotel we stopped off at the municipal basketball arena where a large crowd were getting very excited. We have to confess to knowing nothing about the rules, but enjoyed watching a frantic last quarter of the match.
The following morning while Colin headed off for his diving, I planned to get our last update blog under way, but was scuppered by the lack of working WIFI in the hotel. When Colin returned he looked a bit sheepish - he said it was the most amazing experience.
The sardine run is where they shoal in dense numbers to protect themselves against their predators. They are in Moalboal all year round, and this is the second largest concentration of sardines in the world (South Africa taking top spot). They are literally only about 20 feet from the beach so are very accessible for all. Colin was lucky to be the only one diving with the dive shop he had chosen. He was super impressed that the Japanese dive instuctor was so organised and had all his kit ready so they could beat the masses of other divers and snorkellers into the water. You will see by these videos what an awesome site it is. He also saw some other nice marine life on the reef - a turtle, a lionfish and nemos.
We went snorkelling there in the afternoon which was still impressive, but the light was not as good as the morning and the Sardines were quieter than they had been in the morning.
Colin had booked two more dives in two days time, but with an extra day than we'd planned we weren't sure what else to do the following day. The main activities were canyoning around waterfalls and visiting the whale sharks. We had mixed feelings about the whale shark experience. While we were really keen to see them up close, we'd read the experience was a bit of a tourist circus and unlike the sardines, which are natural, the whale sharks are attracted by feeding them. When we enquired about a trip from Moalboal we were told it was a 3am pick up time which didn't appeal, so we planned to catch a bus there after Moalboal and arrange it ourselves.
We hired a scooter for some more Chips patrolling for an afternoon. We headed down the coast south if Moalboal. While it was nice to be out and about, there wasn't much of interest to see. We ended up in a resort for lunch.
Back in town later that afternoon Colin did a yoga class - he says it was a gentle one but enjoyed it, then more sundowners before being heathens and having chicken burger and fries for dinner - there's only so much rice you can eat.
We also noticed that there were a few things to suggest Moalboal could be twinned with Bolton....
Our final day in Moalboal saw us down at the dive shop early. I was going to go out on the dive boat to do some snorkelling. The Japanese instructor had some learner divers today, so Colin had another Divemaster. The first dive was at Pescador Island - a small granite island only a 10 minute boat ride away and there were lots of fishermen there when we arrived . It is known for its array of marine life, both large and small. The Dive Master hadn't given Colin a dive briefing, so when they entered the water he just told Colin to descend quickly as there were strong currents. Colin normally descends easily, but this time he kept being pushed by the current upwards and the dive master started tying rocks to him to weigh him down. Not being prepared for the current meant Colin was having to work hard to stop racing past everything and had burnt through a lot of his air much faster than normal. He didn't have time to relax and enjoy what he was seeing, but did well to get some clips as he whizzed past.
I hadn't particularly enjoyed the snorkelling here either. The current on the surface was strong and I was told not to go too far out from the island as I'd risk being pushed out to sea but that was where the best views of fish and corals were.
We returned to shore to drop off some other divers on the boat and we snorkelled with the sardines again while we waited to se off on the next dive. We were told this would be a much gentler dive and snorkel just off a beach (Dolphin Beach). Colin and his guide were dropped off and had a drift dive along a wall of coral. The boat went on to mood on the beach and I enjoyed my best snorkelling experience of the trip so far. The water was crystal clear and I had the most wonderful close up with a turtle just a couple of feet away and its shell lit up by the sunlight.
Colin and his guide were down for nearly an hour - in fact they were getting concerned on the boat why they hadn't surfaced. One of the crew jumped in when he saw their bubbles and surprised Colin by tapping on his tank. Colin had really enjoyed this dive too.
We had one last sunset, and felt more than ready to move on the following day.
We took a tricycle to Moalboal where we caught a bus to Batu Port then a second bus on to Oslob - all in all a two and a half hour journey for less than £3.
We'd booked a hotel in central Oslob by a beach. The whale shark bay was about 9 km before the town of Oslob. When we asked about visiting the whale sharks in the morning the receptionist said it would still be a 3am pick up. When I said 'that can't be right as the boats don't start until 6am' she said ' yes but you have to be early in the queue to best the Moalboal and Cebu City tourists'.
In the end we booked to dive it with a dive operator there who said they can bypass the queues - hotel pickup 5.30 sounded much better.
We had a walk around Oslob that afternoon - it was a pleasant little place. Back at the hotel we chatted to a nice Dutch couple who were diving with us the following day. They had dived it that morning too but said the visibility had been poor as the sea was choppy. We had a terrific meal of fresh mussels and scallops in the hotel that evening.
Ironically we were woken at 3am by a vehicle presumably picking up guests from our hotel. . When we arrived it was a bit chaotic at the dive centre and to make matters worse our names weren't on the divers list even though the owner had WhatsApped me confirmation the day before. We finally got our gear sorted and were led down to the beach past the crowds queuing for the boats. Now our BCDs hadn't been brought to the beach and they finally plonked two on us they weren't the ones we'd tried on and neither fitted properly. We were rushed into getting into the sea, so all in all it wasn't an enjoyable start to the experience. Once in the water we found ourselves with another couple and our Dive Master. The visibility wasn't great (although was much better than the previous day per the Dutch) and with so many other divers it was hard to know if we were still with our DM. We were at a maximum depth of around 10m and when we looked up there was a commotion of boats, flailing arms and legs of those swimming with the whale sharks, and then finally we saw the big outline of a whale shark coming by for the food. After around 5 minutes of this I was starting to think we'd get better views of the whale sharks from the surface, but as we had more and more if them swim by and finally one or two swam down to our level we had more of a feel for what beautiful creatures these are. We were underwater fur the best part of an hour and by the time we finished, the annoyance at the initial disorganisation had evaporated to awe. Colin was doubtful he'd got any good clips - but here's a selection that shows the contrary.
and all of this before breakfast.....
Back at the hotel we had breakfast, showered and got ready for the off, our destination being the island of Siqujor.
This involved a taxi to the port of Liloan 30 minutes away, a ferry to Negros Island, a tricycle journey (wedged on with a couple of young teachers from Newcastle) to another port, then the final ferry trip to Siqujor.
We've now only one week to explore Siqujor and our final island Bohol before being transported back to springtime on the UK.
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