DIVE TRIP REPORTS

Breakas Resort, Port Vila, Vanuatu

Komodo, Indonesia – August 2024

After a late withdrawal of one group member, everyone else made the early morning flight with plenty of time.

Flight was pleasant, Garuda Airlines was lovely, arrived at Denpasar and checked into the Hilton Garden Inn.  A few of us went and checked out Kuta Beach and the shops, others stayed poolside for the afternoon and had massages, whilst others still explored the local vicinity.  Then we did a tag team: some went out for dinner, others had dinner by the pool which was lovely and relaxing.  In contrast, I’m told Kuta on Saturday night was sheer chaos.
Day 2
The hotel buffet had enough food on offer to sink a ship, including some exotic fruits.  Off to the airport in plenty of time to get our flight.

We arrived at Labuan Bajo, as did our luggage and our transport to the boat.  Our first view of the port was beautiful, as was our first view from the tenders of the formidable Sea Safari VI boat – a 36m, two-masted, seven-sail Indonesian phinisi ship.

Welcome drink, settle into our cabins, safety briefing and first dive at Bidadari Island. We ironed out all the wrinkles and sorted our weights and buddy groups. With the number of dive guides aboard, we were so lucky to have no more than four divers per guide in each group.  The crew took care of our gear: they carried it onto the tender for us, lifted it out of the water, and carried it back into each individual’s spot on the dive deck from the tender after the dive.  We felt like royalty!  After a delicious dinner, we were ready for bed, eager to do a lot of diving the next day.

Day 3
Up early for a light breakfast and a dive at Manta Alley. Mantas! Mantas! Mantas!  Up close, far away, singly, in convoy, lots and lots of mantas!  Amazing! Mind blown!

A second, hearty breakfast and another dive with more mantas!  Also a bunch of other marine life such as nudibranchs, maori wrasse, bumphead parrotfish… and it was Dotti’s 100^th dive!
A satisfying lunch and then relax on the sundeck before an afternoon dive at Pink Beach.  Lots of reef life and macro stuff, mantis shrimp, a huge octopus, and Wendy’s 100^th dive! (This may have been where one of Wendy’s key phrases of the trip, 100%, originated from)  Then more relaxing and a trip to Pink Beach.  The beach is named for the pink particles in the sand, very unusual.  We hung out on the beach, befriended the local pigs, and walked to the top of the hill – what a view!  Thongs were not ideal climbing footwear but the view was worth it.

Back to the boat for a night dive – so many things to see!  Lots of different types of shrimp, a white V octopus, flounder, decorator crab, squid, rays, weird things on anemones and some pretty nudibranchs.  Also on this dive, bobtail squid!
Dinner (delicious as usual) then bed, ready for the next day’s adventure.

Day 4
Three lovely macro dives, saw all sorts of unexpected things: frogfish that just look like lumps of sponge, scorpionfish, turtles, rays, tiny little shrimp living on sea cucumbers, purple squat lobster, orangutan crab, and the very rare coleman shrimp – all really enjoyable.  People were starting to get a bit tired, and some made the sensible decision to pace themselves and not do every dive on offer, but have a bit of a break instead.  In lieu of a night dive we trekked to the top of Padar Island to see the view at sunset.  815 steps, 500m, 150m elevation.  View was spectacular – a pink beach, a white beach and a black beach, islands, bays, ships and a native deer.

We were welcomed back on board the boat with a young coconut to drink, followed by the usual high-quality dinner.

Day 5
Two lovely drift dives, then an afternoon dive at popular site Batu Bolong.  Incredible bommie dive done in the lee of the current.  So much to see, but the highlight was a pod of dolphins swimming past followed by several grey reef sharks.  With plenty of other marine life as well, everyone was blown away by that dive!
Just as well that dive was a great one, as we didn’t have a night dive that night.  As we were relaxing and chatting after the afternoon dive, Dotti came to us and said her face was numb *.  We called DAN and checked for other signs and symptoms while the crew got the oxygen set up.  There was plenty of O2 on board, two G sizes and a D size cylinder.  Dotti was on oxygen for the three-hour trip to port, which helped reduce her symptoms.  Mark, our onboard manager from Sea Safari, was great, he got the boat turned towards port quickly, organised transport from the port to the hospital in Labuan Bajo, and sent two of the dive guides with the patients to the hospital.  Amy was a star, she was all over packing overnight bags with phone chargers and essential documents for herself and Dotti, her warm and caring demeanour provided comfort, and her command of the Indonesian language was very reassuring in the hospital.   Dotti was a trooper, she maintained a calm and positive attitude during what must have been a scary time for her.

Special mention to Ivan, Wendy, Sara and the others who had been relaxing in the dining room with Dotti, for encouraging Dotti to speak up in the first place rather than ignoring her symptoms, and to Dr Judith for going straight to DCS and decisively confirming that we needed to set the whole process in motion.  Sue’s calm command during this challenge helped put everyone at ease, and her ability to communicate effectively with everyone throughout, made the whole process as smooth as could possibly be.

Dotti stayed overnight in the hospital and had a session in the hyperbaric chamber (fortunately there is a chamber in Labuan Bajo) early in the morning, during which she made a full recovery.  Amy stayed with her and made sure all the necessary paperwork from DAN arrived in time for the hyperbaric treatment.  Engel, one of our dive guides, also stayed ashore, he lived locally so he went home to sleep and rejoined them in the morning.  Despite a local fuel shortage, Mark managed to organise a speedboat to bring Amy, Dotti and our guide back to rejoin us on the boat, much to everyone’s delight.

The incident highlighted three things:
1) the importance of having DAN insurance – DAN organised admittance to the hospital and the hyperbaric chamber and provided a timely letter of guarantee to cover the payments, without which Dotti would have had to wait for treatment until she could pay around $20K up front.   Travel insurance is also important, in this case to cover the $700 cost of the speedboat to rejoin us.
2) the importance of a good dive operator – there was ample oxygen on board for much longer than the three hours that we actually needed it, the crew were able to put the gear together and administer it, there were working communications, and transport and guides once in port were organised by Sea Safari.
3) there is no guarantee for any diver that they won’t suffer DCS.  Dotti was probably one of the youngest and fittest of the group, she had much the same dive profile as the rest of us and didn’t do anything particularly out of the ordinary to “deserve” what happened.  Hence the importance of points 1 and 2.

Day 6
Three lovely relaxing dives today, reasonably shallow, everyone was happy to have a conservative dive profile after a few days’ diving and the previous day’s events.  The dives may have been relaxing but they certainly weren’t boring as we descended into a seascape of beautiful healthy coral reefs teeming with life.  Lots of small stuff: porcelain crabs, clownfish and other small fish.  Also turtles, manta rays, turtles, sweetlips, turtles, triggerfish, turtles…  Our night dive was in a popular spot with lots of lion fish.  We saw a juvenile batfish that looked like a scrap of red and black fabric waving in the breeze, nothing like the adult batfish; also different types of tiny shrimp.  Bert reached the milestone of 50 dives.

Day 7
We got an early start to the last full day’s diving for the trip, both to catch slack water for the first dive and to beat the other dive groups. The early start was absolutely worth it, the dives were amazing!  Manta rays, reef sharks, sweetlips, giant trevally, snapper; but my personal favourite was the baby reef shark resting under a ledge.  When I peered under to get a better look, I saw another four little shark heads under the next ledge.  So cute!
A powerful drift dive saw us being shot from The Cauldron over a ridge by the current, which was a lot of fun.  Our last night dive of the trip was a beauty, with so many things I had never seen before.  A spiky little pipefish that blended beautifully into the surrounding coral; a huge cuttlefish not far away from the tiniest cuttlefish I have ever seen; a baby coconut octopus; a tiny red shrimp; several long-legged stripy shrimp; a pair of fish buried in the sand with just their eyes showing; tiny floating worms; krill floating around; decorator crabs; tiny crabs hiding in anemones; and some bioluminescence to top it off.

As beautiful as it was, the night dive wasn’t for everyone.  Others chose to have a quiet beer, or relax in the jacuzzi on the top deck with a Pina Colada.  Ivan earned the title of Harem Leader after being spotted squeezed into the jacuzzi with four scantily-clad women. Just as well he is trustworthy, I wasn’t missing my night dive for anything!

Day 8
Sadly, all good things must come to an end, and Day 8 marked our last two dives.  We went out with a bang though: our first dive revisited our favourite site Batu Bolong, but on the other side of the bommie as the current was running the other way.  This made it feel like quite a different dive site to when we dived it previously, but certainly no less spectacular.  There were many, many shrimp, nudis, lion fish, sweetlips, anthias, and plenty of other colourful reef fish.

Several moray eels were out and about, one eel tried to get into another’s hiding place but was fought off.  When I saw a third eel approach a fourth eel’s rock crevice, I expected a similar outcome but it was allowed to slide into uncontested – in fact they were getting quite cosy together!  I have it all on video, Ivan laughed at me for shooting eel porn.

Our last dive was at Makassar Reef, aka Manta Reef.  A risky dive they said, if the mantas don’t come there is not much else to see as the bottom is rubble.  Well, the mantas came in droves, and up really close as well – I could have reached out and touched one!  And even the rubble bottom had so much to see: sharks, turtles, eels, lionfish, cuttlefish, many other small fish.  A lovely cruisy dive to finish up on.

The crew then washed our BCs and regs and hung them up securely to dry along the railings.  Then lunch and the Komodo trek on Rinca Island.  We saw three Komodo Dragons up close, well plenty close enough, those things can kill you – the rangers said a person wouldn’t survive a bite to the belly because all those teeth would remove too many innards.  The island also has populations of deer, monkeys and water buffalo.  There are no enclosures, the wildlife is free to roam anywhere on the island.  We were lucky because the tour group just behind us didn’t see any Komodo Dragons at all!

We were all also treated to Vanessa’s expertise in animal scats – plenty of scats to be explored while looking out for the Komodos!

This day was also Indonesian Independence Day – so Sea Safari was decked out with extra flags, and
Fandi was very patriotic underwater.

We also shouted “merdeka” (“freedom”) from the top of Rinca island.

Back to the boat for a gentle cruise to see the sunset flight of the fruit bats, and to jump off the deck for a refreshing swim.

Then the last dinner for the liveaboard, and they sent us out with a bang! A huge yellow rice cone, satay skewers, barbequed fish, vegetables with satay sauce and platters of grilled rock lobster.

After dinner,   entertainment was provided by the crew, the highlight being a traditional Balinese dance by Alit in a very ornate costume.

Two cakes appeared, one for Dotti’s and Wendy’s 100^th dive, and one for Ross’ 200^th dive.  Then dancing for everyone to Indonesian popular music, led and instructed by dive guide Fandi.  Turns out the lyrics were actually the dance steps, which helped most of us not at all but gave our Indonesian speakers Amy and Bert a good laugh.  Once it devolved into a Conga line it was time to have a break and a few rounds of trivia, drinks and heckling.

There remain questions over the validity of certain point systems that some teams chose to use – but luckily (due to Sue’s expertise as quiz master) all remained friends after the tight competition of the trivia!
Last Day
After a sleep in and a substantial breakfast, we had a trip around the boat to get photographs with the sails up.

Pack, group photos with the crew,
then disembark for lunch in town at the Copper Bonnet.

Off to the airport for our flight to Denpasar.  David and Gary had a few days’ extension in a very impressive Balinese villa.

The rest of us coped with the long layover at Denpasar by relaxing at the Airport Novotel, or massages at the airport, or paying a small fee to use the Garuda lounge, or buying many large stuffed animals.  After a couple of delays we made it to Melbourne, so did our luggage as an extra bonus.

Now I am home, waiting for the shower to stop swaying, and dreaming of the next trip.  Nusa Penida… Palau… Puerto Galera… Tahiti… which to choose?  It will be hard to top this trip, but we’ll give it a go!
Our wonderful group of Scuba Culture divers:
Amy, Bert, David, Dotti, Florence, Gary, Ivan, Judith, Kylie, Reza, Ross, Sara, Sue, Vanessa, Victor, and Wendy
The fabulous Sea Safari guides:
Dedy, Engel, Fandi, Oby, Mark, Yardin
Special mention to the non-diving crew, they were awesome and looked after us very well.

More text here etc etc. Add photos as you like!

Voli Voli Beach Resort, Fiji – June 2024

With month 1 of a dull, grey, cold Melbourne Winter now behind us, 36 of us are looking back with smiles on our faces at the fun in the sun recently enjoyed on the Scuba Culture Fiji trip.

Once again, Voli Voli Beach Resort delivered in bucketloads with superb diving, incredible service, stunning accommodation and fabulous meals and once again, we’ve been overwhelmed with fantastic feedback from our divers and non divers alike who enjoyed the Fijian hospitality.

After 25 years of running international dive trips we’ve been able to get a feeling ahead of time as to how the trip will run, it all starts off with a thorough information session.
Step 2 is knowing that all travellers are super keen and all travellers arrive on time at the airport!  We ticked that box too…

Once through the international gate, it’s time to hurry up and wait, browse the duty free isles, and casting an eye around the place, a sense of excitement could be seen with the Instagram and Facebook posts going nuts with selfies and providing the world a minute by minute count down of the day as we neared boarding time… Even once boarded and seated, the selfie frenzy maintained a constant momentum.  Soon enough, we were up and away, on our way to sunny Fiji.  Once landed, the wait started again as we filed through like sheep meandering through the sheepyard race until processed and with our passports stamped, moving through to collect our luggage.

Finally, after gathering the crew, putting Jack and Lachy to work in assisting our travellers to the appropriate bus, we were on our way to Voli Voli Beach Resort…. The bus ride was enjoyed by some more than others, especially those who decided to sample their duty free purchase on the journey. Two hours and 45 minutes later, we finally arrived at Voli Voli Beach Resort and by this time (12.30am) we were all keen to get to our rooms to get some shut eye.
The standard of accommodation is great, divers staying at this resort for the first time were all pleasantly surprised as to the quality and cleanliness standards of the rooms.

On day one, we were able to get a 9am start on the boats as opposed to the normal 8am allowing us a little more sleep, but all divers were keen to get cracking and demonstrated that by all who were diving that day fronting up at the dive shop on time with all dive gear ready to go.

On day 1, the diving is done at local protected sites with these dives being acclimatisation/check out dives for divers to get their buoyancy right, ensure that all cob-webs are blown out in readiness for a week of great dives.
With a group the size of this one, we were split up over 2 boats in groups of between 4 and 6 divers to a guide and over the week we were spoilt with diving sites such as Golden Dream, Amazing Maze, Purple Haze, Mellow Yellow, Why Not, Gee Six, Pot Luck, Purple Rain, Instant Replay and the stunning Black Magic Mountain.

The days ran smoothly with Ra Divers being an incredibly well-oiled machine delivering amazing service in all areas, whether on land, on the boat or underwater.  With the two first dives completed, divers were back on Terra-Firma by about 12.30 to 1pm, it’s time for lunch, divers doing the 3 tank days would typically dine at the Ra Bar restaurant whilst the others would mostly lunch back in the main restaurant.

The 2 tank dive days allowed those divers the ability to relax in the afternoon, enjoy a swim, a snorkel or a paddle in either the complimentary kayaks or SUP’s.

One afternoon, several of our crew decided to do the village and waterfall tour as well as visiting the grave of Fiji’s most renowned historical chief “Udre Udre” who’s occupation is described on some web sites as the world’s most prolific cannibal with a recorded consumption of 99 humans!

As part of our package, we were all entitled to a complimentary foot massage, with several people taking it a step further at the spa and enjoying a range of pampering massages to soothe and re invigorate the aching bodies, by all reports, I’m informed that the massages and associated pampering treatments were fabulous.

One thing is for sure, and in as much as diving doesn’t appear to be a very physically demanding form of exercise, diving certainly works up an appetite and the resort restaurant knows that only too well.  The menu is top notch with food offerings to tempt every taste and served in copious quantity with the infectious smile of the attentive waiting staff in a relaxed restaurant environment with live music played in the background.  Whilst on the topic of live music, I want to acknowledge and thank Joshua (the resident musician) for inviting my son Jack to accompany him on guitar and harmonica and on several occasions literally letting Jack take over the entertainment during his breaks

Other people that I need to extend a HUGE thank you to are Ahmad for compiling a reel and allowing us to make use of that reel on our social media and web site as well as Liz and Charles for being so incredibly generous in allowing us to share their stunning underwater photos with the world via our website gallery and social media.  See photos from this trip and others at:  https://www.scubaculture.com.au/dive-travel/dive-travel-galleries/

All too soon, it was time to leave with our group splitting up with some travelling south to Pacific Harbour whilst the rest of us returned home, leaving sunny, 27 degree Fiji to awake the next morning in Melbourne to ice on the windscreen of the car… Reality hit pretty hard!

 

The Galapagos

The trip of a lifetime!

Firstly, I truly do believe that the more you can remove yourself from civilisation, and the further you can travel into remote areas, the diving gets exponentially better.  The Galapagos is not just an example of this rule, it is the example of this rule.

After experiencing this truly unparalleled, completely unique, once in a lifetime trip. I really am now spoiled for every subsequent holiday to come.  I can now assure you of one simple fact with the upmost confidence.  You have to go to the Galapagos!

I would like to start this story as we walked out of the airport in Guayaquil, Ecuador.

Yes, we did start our travels a few days before, but the adventure started here. Even with our jet lag addled minds it was hard to ignore the excitement that comes with the first breath of damp warm humid air that tells you, “yes, you are on holiday again!”.  We landed in the early hours of the morning. For the first day we only had one mission in mind (beat the jetlag!). This was made far easier by the fact that Guayaquil is a vibrant South American city, that we were able to dive head first into.

Our first day had us exploring the Iguana Park, an open-air bus ride around the most scenic and historic parts of the city, a walk along the city’s waterfront, and then of course, all washed down with some glorious cold beers!

The next morning, we were collected by our local guide Simon.  We were to learn later Simon is known amongst his colleges as “The Crazy Monkey”.  First stop was a boat tour around the Ecuadorian wetlands. Wetlands make up one of the four environments you can experience in Ecuador.  This was a fantastic spot for bird watching and bird photography.  Ecuador has over 1600 bird species.  Contrast that to Australia with only around 850.

This was a great soft introduction to the multitude of wildlife we were to encounter over the next 10 days!  If I were to list all the bird life we had encountered on this trip, I can guarantee you would not make it to the end! This wetland area is also a mecca for Blue Mud crab.

As we were leaving the boat we came across a group of locals collecting and washing large numbers of them.  We were not long from discovering that these guys are amazing when put into my favourite South American street food item the “Empanada”.

Next, we went for a short hike to look for Howler Monkeys.  The flora in the Ecuadorian rainforest is not too dissimilar to that of the wet tropic areas of Australia.  This is because they all find roots in the dispersed supercontinent Gondwanaland (dating back around 500 million years).  However, the fauna could not be more different!  As a Native Englishman I did find it hilarious to watch the explosion of excitement that came from the Australian team each time a squirrel was spotted! Leader of this infectious excitement had to be Wendy!  Who would also become a leading expert on differentiating between bananas and plantain!  This was not always as clear cut as you might think! After around an hour or so walk into the jungle our hopes of Howler Monkeys were starting to dwindle.  We could hear groups calling off in the distance, but so far, we had no luck at actually spotting one. Until Vanessa, (drawing on her days living on safari parks in Africa) spotted the first large male moving through the trees.  Once we locked in on one, we realised they were all over our heads.  Big males basking in the sun, young mothers and tiny cheeky baby’s clumsily making their way around the trees.

Even after all this the best part of the day was hands down the Cacao farm.

Here we had some of the best food on our trip, and learned how to grow Cacao, ferment the beans, grind them to a paste and make chocolate.  Simon was incredibly knowledgeable about the process and was able to tell us in detail how each part of the process is done and how to make sure you only ever get the best chocolate.

The day finished with each member of the team leaving with a chocolate bar they had been able to craft themselves.  And again, what day wouldn’t be complete without heading back to the bar to wash it all down with a cold beer!

Day 3 was just a hop, skip and jump of 1000km off the coast of mainland Ecuador and over to the real reason we were here.  Landing in the Galapagos was a real “pinch yourself” moment.

The whole team were constantly reminding ourselves that “we actually made it!”.  But there wasn’t much time to take it in because we had places to go and sharks to see!  Once arriving on the boat, meeting our hosts (Master Liveaboards) and getting settled into our home for the next 8 days / 7 nights, it was time to unload our gear.

There was no messing around!  We needed to get wet!  First dive was purely a gear and weight check dive.  But as is with all the dives around the main islands of the Galapagos, you are sure to have a cheeky sea lion demanding all of your attention.  These playful guys really bring some of the best two-way interactions of any animal I have personally had the pleasure of diving with.  Often, they are more attentive than your buddy!  By this point we were well and truly ready for bed.  We had had an action packed few days even just getting us to this point, and nothing really puts you to sleep like the gentle rocking of the boat.

Before we could get off and away to the more remote areas of the Galapagos (that’s right, MORE remote), we had a stop on North Seymore island. Here we got up close and personal with Blue footed Boobies and Magnificent frigates.

As the Galapagos islands have no natural predators you really can get within feet of these unique birds and experience them in a way not possible anywhere else on Earth.  This allows you to not just see the bird life, but also understand the behaviour of the animals.  Watching the male Frigates court females by inflating their throat pouch (a process that takes them up to 30 minutes), and spanning their huge 9ft wings around her, really was like living in a David Attenborough documentary.

We often found ourselves having to duck as they swooped overhead.  Then we had one more dive to really diel in our equipment and weighting before beginning our 20-hour boat ride out to the most famous dive site in the world…. Darwin’s Arch.

The Arch was one of COVID’s many victims (As we know it is safe to blame basically everything in 2021 on COVID).  No longer do these two dramatic pillars stand connected.  However, we were told by our crew that this site will still always be known as Darwin’s Arch.

After our dive briefing, we really were reminded that everything up until this point really was just icing on the cake.  This is what we had come to see and experience.  The first dive did not disappoint. We descended into some pretty serious current.  We did not know this would pale in comparison to some of the current we were still yet to hit.  The plan way fairly simple.  Get down, hold on and take it in.  The Galapagos does not have much corral.  This would normally be a negative, however this played massively to our advantage.  We really did spend most of the next three days horizontally rock climbing through the strongest currents our guides had experienced in over 20 years diving in the Galapagos.  Nothing really compares to pulling yourself through roaring current, feeling your reg shaking in your mouth, gripping onto whatever purchase you can find on the rocks below.  You really would have benefited more from joining a climbing gym before this trip, instead of doing a perfect buoyancy course.  But that’s what we were here for!  The adventure, the life changing dives that are synonymous with this area.  We had only maybe been down for a few minutes when we stopped for our first wall of Hammerheads.

That is the best way to describe it.  Not a school or shiver (the correct collective term for sharks), it really was a WALL.  As we clung to the rocks like limpets trying to take in all this stimulus at once, trying to really take it all in, now, was when I realised that before actually seeing this I did not really think things like this existed anymore.  In most other diving locations, seeing a single hammerhead is an EPIC dive!  Seeing a few is mind-blowing!  And here we are, on dive 1 looking at a group of sharks that probably outnumbers the entire populations of hammerheads in most countries.  And it doesn’t stop there!  Galapagos sharks, silky sharks, huge schools of reef fish, countless turtles all swamped us just on this first dive.  Like all great dives, it was all over far too soon.  Surfacing brought an electric energy to our party.  We were now elevated to a tiny minority of the dive community that can actually say “when I was at Darwin’s Arch”….

Dive 2 brought stronger currents again.  Here the team started to use more advanced techniques, such as “negative entry’s”.  Hands down the best way to start a dive!  I can honestly say that all the best dives I have ever done in my life have started with a negative entry.  Not just because they are great fun! But because any dive that really requires such techniques means STRONG current! STRONG current means BIG fish!  BIG fish means Great diving!  Another bucket list item to cruise briefly over us on this just our second dive was a large tiger shark. But no sooner than it had been spotted, it cruised off into the ripping current.  This moment was another little reminder that we were diving a site where genuinely anything can happen!

As our first day at Darwin’s Arch continued, the wind picked up.  The sea conditions at this point got pretty rough!  Here the boat crew really showed us what they were made of.  Driving a tender or “panga” (as the locals call them) through high seas really is a skill you cannot appreciate unless you have given it a go yourself.  I can tell you, if it were left to me to drive that boat, I wouldn’t have made it 50ft.  It is also because of these rough conditions that you will not see many pictures from our dives over the next few days.  Both hands were needed for constantly holding onto the rocks and the dive guides strongly discouraged the use of cameras in such strong currents.  This forced us to focus on what we were actually experiencing instead of fixating on capturing it.  I can assure you, these are not memory’s that will easily be forgotten!

Some of the team chose to relax on board the boat and really try to process everything that had already happened, just before lunch!  Even without getting in the water the amount of wildlife that was seen from the boat alone was staggering.  Huge pods of dolphins, heaps of silky sharks circling the boat, sea lions and constant swooping frigates.  It was on dive 3 that I knew we were already spoilt.  You can assume that every single dive here we saw heaps of Hammerheads, heaps of Galapagos sharks, heaps of Turtles as these became the usual suspects on each and every dive.

And so, the diving continued.  On dive 4 everyone was already a current junkie!  Craig came out elated, and Vanessa decided that from now on, the stronger the current, the better!

To add to our ever-growing list of amazing encounters we added HUGE yellow fin tuna.  One of these nuclear war head sized super predators passed right over Craig’s head.  I think the best way to try and convey diving at Darwin’s Arch is. Take the best dive you have ever done, make everything 100% larger, 100% closer and times the amount by 10!

If you are still reading, and not yet sick of my indecent boasting, it’s about to get worse!  When people say things like “as big as a bus”, I am always heavily sceptical.  I have seen many species of mega fauna over the years, including whales, whale sharks, oceanic mantas ect….  But, until this point, nothing had been close to the size of a bus.  That is until I dived the Galapagos.  The whale shark we saw on day 6 of our trip (day two at Darwin’s Arch) WAS AS BIG AS A BUS!  The head could have easily swallowed the whole group!  We also had a huge school of Jack’s that literally blotted out the sun.  Oh, and I almost forgot, we also saw dolphins!  Yes, the diving was that action packed I almost forgot about the Dolphins.  Could you think of any better way for Craig to finish his 100^th dive!

Diving Darwin’s Arch was an experience none of us would ever forget. Although I could honestly dive this site everyday for as long as my body would let me, it was time to move on.  We left Darwin and headed to Wolf Island.

When we think about diving the Galapagos we really think about diving Darwin and Wolf Island.  To reach these islands you have to do a liveaboard and even then, not all of them can get there.  We were lucky to be on a trip that planned to maximise the time spent at these two heavy hitting islands.

We started the day with an extremely calm dive at Shark Point. This was to be our only slack dive at the two main Galapagos islands.  This was a great opportunity for us to remember that “normal diving’ doesn’t involve gardening gloves and rock climbing.  Even with the reduced current we still saw Hammerheads and plenty of reef fish, Moray eels, sting rays, turtles.  This placid first dive did lure us into a false sense of security.

Dive 2 (site name – Landslide) came in with a BANG!  This dive in particular was that strongest current dive of all.  At one point I saw Wendy clinging to a boulder.  The bolder itself (and Wendy along with it!) then lifted up into the water column.  Wendy and the bolder then had to be pushed back down to the floor to stop them both drifting off.  The captain told us that it was at least a 6 knot current (our boat travelled at a top speed of just under 9 knots).  Diving in these conditions is an experience in and of itself.  It would be great fun to dive, even if it was a manmade underwater theme park!  Later that day we had maybe our best overall dive. Sharon had been having some trouble with her ears, but had a knack for only getting in on the best dives.  This dive in particular was a sort of Goldilocks dive. The current was just right!  We managed to get ourselves to a great rocky platform area, right under a group of large, Spotted Eagle Rays. Many would argue these are maybe the prettiest of all rays.  As they danced around our heads, they were only interrupted by some of the largest sharks we had seen at any point during our trip (excluding the whale shark of course).

We left Wolf straight after dinner and headed back to the heart of the Galapagos Island.  Leaving Probably the best dive sites in the world was a slightly emotional state of affairs.  But we still had multiple bucket list items still to tick off.

We started our next day with a cold dive for the weird and wonderful.  The Red Lipped batfish is probably the ugliest fish you have never heard of! We were lucky enough to spot two on this dive as the guides told us they had not seen any on previous trips.  This prehistoric little guy really does have a face only a mother could love.

Next was one of the strangest dives you can do.  Diving for Iguana?  For any Planet earth fans, this dive takes place right off the beach from probably the most famous scene on the show. If you remember the Iguanas hatching and instantly being swarmed by hundreds of snakes!  That’s where we were. We could see their small black heads scurrying through the light chop on the surface.  We dropped in groups of two so as not to spook them while feeding. This was a fantastic experience!  Nowhere else in the world can you dive with Iguana. But it isn’t just this, its also the sea lions, the octopus, the cormorants, the turtles, all happening in just 2M-5M of water. This was a dive that everyone agreed was one of our best!

Last dive of this day took us to Punta Vicente Roca.

This in my opinion was the most beautiful, dramatic landscape we had seen both above land and under water.  The visibility was perfect.  The cold water that chilled most the other divers on the boat was nothing for us Melbourne divers.  With a pleasant 17C we happily jumped in for another dive!  The walls were covered in black coral and again we were escorted by sea lions the whole dive.  They would shoot down in front of you and twirl 360.  If you entertain them and spin back like some kind of under water salsa they really will dance with you. One pup would look at me and spin, I would spin back, he would spin twice (as if to say “give this a go then!)  So I would mirror him.  He would then spin three times.  This went back and forth until I basically gave myself vertigo and had to concede my loss.  Another game to play was fetch!  I am sad to say that after almost two years of trying to teach my dog how to Actually bring something back and “drop” he is still not as good as a wild sea lion!

There has been so much for me to talk about in this trip report, it has basically turned into a novel. At this point I still haven’t mentioned the amazing food served up constantly by the talented chef on board.  A liveaboard really relies on having great food, as you really are a captive audience.  I am very happy to say we did not eat a single meal that was anything less than fantastic.  Many discovered their love for Seviche on this trip!

What Galapagos trip would be complete without seeing the world-famous Galapagos Tortoises.  These beasts are what gave the islands the name Galapagos.  With their large saddle like shells they take the old Spanish term for saddle “galapago” (galap – a – go) and names the islands accordingly.  Unfortunately, these animals are still heavily trafficked.  Even two days before our visit to the research centre Ecuadorian border forces had apprehended an individual with large numbers of baby tortoises stolen from the very research centre we were stood in!

We left Santa Cruz Island for our last night on Galapagos Master.  I think everyone came to terms with the fact it was all over differently. But nothing helps you come to terms with finishing the trip of a lifetime like a fine glass of Chilean wine, at the bow of the boat with some fantastic company.  We sat and watched the sun set and talked about how far we had come.  Not just in physical distance but also in diving.  Myself and Wendy chatted about our first dive together a few years back on Brighton Beach.  We saw absolutely nothing and she even vomited after!  And now here we were drinking wine in the Galapagos after the trip of a lifetime.