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Anilao dive day #5

I woke up, it was 6 hours in to Tuesday, so I thought I better go and see the man. (The man being our dive guide). I said ‘hi’ he said ‘yeah, you got your kit ready?’, I said ‘No’, he smiled at me and said ‘I understand, but now we’ve both got problems, and gonna need to get wet’ I said ‘why don’t we just go’ he said ‘move quickly and don’t fret’, he said ‘look I’m an understanding guy, it’ll take 4 to 5, there’s no need to cry, sometimes it’s real hard to get out of bed’.

(Apologies to Mr Jones)

I had indeed failed to set the alarm though by some quirky twist of events, I managed to open my eyes at 06.01, good news indeed.

Upon packing things for the day I realized that my log book folder (which contains lots of important stuff) for left in the restaurant last night.

Is this an age thing I wonder, firstly the room keys and now my log book, or are we simply spending too much time in there πŸ§€πŸžπŸ‰πŸπŸŽπŸ“πŸ…πŸ•πŸŸπŸ”πŸ—πŸ–πŸ›πŸœπŸπŸΊπŸΊ?

For today’s breakfast I took the leap of faith from fried eggs on toast to omelette (with everything) and very tasty it was too. I shall be going there again.

Todays weather, all good hot and sunny etc.

On to the diving, the briefing was for the two morning dives, firstly ‘Bethlehem’ which is just off a fishing village on the other side of the main body of water and even ‘layag layag’ which is not much further on. When we arrive we find that the current is stronger than desired so we end to doing the same dives but the other way round. Both dives were relatively shallow <20m and were amazingly colourful thanks to the myriad of different colour feather stars that sit on every outcrop or lump of rock. There were shrimps (including peacock mantis), nudis galore and all manner of other critters to keep is busy. We spent the surface interval moving into (and then out of!) the brilliant sunshine whilst necking water almost continuously.

After the second dive we head back to base for a swift shower, dip in the pool and then a light lunch.

On the way back to the room we count what we now know to be 128 steps, which explains why we are a little short of breath each time we have to nip back to the room (we do try to minimise this for safety reasons). The moral of this particular story is to book your stay well in advance, we will next time!

In other news, Darrall has picked up a new 60mm macro lens in Adelaide and it will be with us soon, than goodness for Darrall, credit cards and international travel!

Just back from a dive on manit corner, only 2 minutes from the dive center, a spectacular slope with many outcrops turned out in the usual feather stars and other fauna. A turtle joined us briefly, otherwise it was a collection of nudi and Coral photo opportunities.

Back at base we are relaxing with coffee before the night dive.

The sea is flat, the sun hot and the coffee going well with Oreos.

For the night dive we will be heading west a little to a place called (name) which will be a muck dive in the black, just what we like. I will also be confidence testing the camera housing without camera or lens before I put the new (and yet to be delivered) lens in there.

Night dive completed, confidence test completed, all good. Along the way we saw many things including tiny coconut octopus, shrimps. Crabs, bizarre nudis and other critters.

In other news, in case it was not already mentioned, it’s 128 steps to our apartment which is almost 12 flights of stairs. This explains the huffing and puffing that is heard every time we reach the summit!