Up early on the transfer day to commence throwing things into boxes and bags and jumping up and down on the lids until we could zip them all up.

We headed out for breakfast which was then followed by the rest of the packing. 

Finally, we could take it no more, into the pool for a swift broil followed by a light lunch.

It was all very sad watching the new guests arriving as we counted down the minutes until our departure 🙁

We settled our bill, said the last round of goodbyes then we boarded or transfer vessel that would whisk us away.

In only a few short moments we had rounded the point and headed in to the beach and up some steps to what is actually the resort car park. 

Willing helpers bought our baggage up at which point they asked which was our car, our car? No we should have a pickup but before you could say “two deep fried lumpia” they had got back on their boat and were heading out of sight.

Hmmm we thought, this must be just fine, we’ll just hide from the sun as best we can and hope that some transport turns up soon.

After a few short moments a local woman made her way up the steps to us as passed a phone to Jo, “it’s for you” she reassured us, good news, transport arriving in two to three minutes, Jo handed the phone back, the woman disappeared.

Sure enough, three minutes later a swanky Toyota mini bus turns up, just for us, with the A/C set to max, the journey to Manila commences.

The first half is spent winding through small villages, up and down hills, avoiding dogs and small children. Occasionally we would get stuck behind one of those chrome clad extended jeep bus type things which we could overtake when they stopped.

When we arrived at San José (apparently our driver knew the way already and didn’t need to ask) we turn on to the main super highway to Manila which after about 40 minutes grinds to near complete standstill as the various toll plazas and Saturday afternoon traffic do their best to stop us reaching our objective (the airport) however, after more than a few twitchy moments, we arrive with much time to spare.

Emirates check in was a breeze, or so it was until they weighed our baggage, we now scored an impressive 84kg out of an 80kg limit, not only that, our hand baggage was slightly over too.

Panic sets in as we are given the opportunity of purchasing an additional 4kg allowance at $64 per kg.

So there we are, at the front of the queue desperately pulling stuff out of the hold baggage and either wearing it or stuffing it into our carry bags or secreting it around our personage.

Bags weighed again and accepted, I agree with Jo that it must be down to wet items as we had taken nothing back that we didn’t bring out with us.

We check in to the lounge and to my delight a bottle of yellow tail Chardonnay is sat there in the fridge, I soon process that as well as some JD and coke and a light snack. In our excitement we manage to check in to a different lounge than Barry and Judy are in, they had just flown in from Coron. 

Regardless, we meet up on the way to the departure gate and exchange stories of our adventures. Once on board it’s the usual non stop movies+food+drink all the way to Dubai, 3 hours in a lounge in Dubai doing exactly the same thing then back on board for the last flight to LHR with even more of the same.

Taxi pickup was fine and we arrived back here some time just before 09:30 I think.

An epic adventure and a place that we would really love to return to. 47 dives with an average of 75 minutes dive time.

We used 32% nitrox for all dives which was mixed on site using the continuous flow method and computers were clear before takeoff.