Adventures at High Sea

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I already wrote a blog about Tour A. Over the course of a few weeks, we did the other three boat tours. Here's the scoop...

Tour B - Caves

We did this trip with Saldi as our guide again (although Tom called him Salty!) but this time it wasn't a private tour. We had a Spanish couple on board too. They seemed nice but couldn't speak a lot of English. At least Scott got to practice his Spanish!



The first stop was snorkeling from the boat. Somehow we'd not gotten around to having the kids practice, so now was the time! Jake flatly refused to put his goggles on but Kyla tried it, holding her breath for a second or two to look under the water. She loved it, and kept popping her head up and excitedly telling us what she'd seen. It wasn't the best snorkeling, but it was fun to see her reaction.



The next stop was a cave. You had to scramble through a small hole to get into it, which Saldi lined with towels and life jackets. It was nothing special inside though. The other cave of the trip was Cathedral Cave, but Saldi told us we couldn't try swimming into it as there were sea snakes and barracudas at the entrance. I think he just wanted to skip it to be honest!



We then stopped at Snake Island, so called because of the snaking sand spit feature. Jake and I went with the guide to the viewpoint while the others had a quick stop at a floating bar for a fresh coconut.



A quick jaunt on the boat took us to yet another white sand beach for a BBQ lunch. Jake and Kyla were happy to find another beach swing!



Our final two stops were at a sand bar island and a beach. It started to rain, however, making it less appealing to hang out so we soon headed back home to Corong Corong. Saldi then gave Jake and Kyla an anklet of blue shells each!

Tour C - Shrine (although we dubbed it "Adventure Tour")

Tours A and C are the two famous ones. I loved A so I had high expectations for this tour. Unfortunately, Saldi had a day off and it turned out that they were overbooked so we got bumped to another company. We just had two crew this time, Tom and Jay, and a tiny boat. This was a little worrying as tour C is the only one that goes out into the open ocean, but they assured us they'd checked with the coastguard and it was fine to go. It certainly looked calm from Corong Corong beach.



Our first stop was supposed to be Secret Beach. There is a small opening in the cliff that you can swim through at low tide and it opens up to a secret beach inside, which is completely enclosed. Within 30 minutes of setting off, however, our guide Tom told us that it was too wavy to attempt it. It was disappointing but it wasn't worth taking the risk. We later went by it and saw groups of people being basically dragged through the opening between waves engulfing it - scary!



Next stop was Hidden Beach. As we approached it, we could only see the huge steep cliffs characteristic of this area, but no sign of a beach. There were already several boats here and we watched as people struggled through the surging water to make it behind a huge rock that acted as a curtain to hide the beach. We debated what to do. Papa Tom instantly said he'd stay on the boat so we decided that Kyla and Jake should stay with him while Scott and I attempted it. Jake instantly protested as he's such a momma's boy right now, so in the end Scott went on his own. When he came back he said it was a good job I'd not gone as it was really scary. He was walking knee deep on sharp coral heads (long dead now of course) while trying not to get bowled over by the surging waves. Each time the water receded into a new wave, the sharp rocks were clearly and menacingly visible from the boat. I'd be surprised if there were no injuries that day!



We now had to venture out into the open sea. The further we went, the bigger the waves became. Jake was sat at the front, laughing with delight as the boat was lifted up over huge rolling waves and then slapped down on the other side. It was also very choppy on top of the swell, or "angry" as guide Tom described it. The little boat was being tossed all over the place, and I have to admit I was getting a bit worried. It didn't help any time I looked it guide Tom's face. He definitely looked alarmed, even though he assured us it was fine. The next day, we heard from his girlfriend that he'd been worried! Finally we entered a calmer patch of water between islands and I could finally breathe again!



By this time we'd been on the boat for two hours and hadn't "done" anything. Next stop was the abandoned Matinloc shrine. The shrine was pretty because of the setting. Our guide told us to climb up to the viewpoint. It was very short but very very steep and involved balancing on razor sharp rock pillars. It was quite scary, but we managed to get everyone up. The guide then grabbed my camera and scrambled to a higher point as nimbly as a mountain goat to snap our photo. I was pretty anxious to get back down though, before anyone tumbled to their deaths!



At a nearby beach, while lunch was cooking, Scott and I did a quick snorkel, leaving the kids on the beach with Papa. We found a nice drop off with some decent coral and fish life. After eating, we asked our guide to position the boat right at the drop off so that the kids could snorkel without having to negotiate the shallow coral near the beach. They did, dropping their anchor right into the coral, along with the other 10 boats. Jake still refused to try but Kyla was excited. The assistant, Jay, helped Kyla at first by holding her up, but he only took her to the shallow, dead coral. We took over and got her out to the drop off where she could float and look around. Jay seemed nervous of deep water and stayed just on the edge of the drop off. To our horror, he didn't once swim, instead stepping on the coral with his flip flops the whole way! It's so sad. I was excited to show Kyla her first "Nemo" fish and then I managed to relocate a bright blue starfish for her from my earlier snorkel. She started to look at it underwater when Jay grabbed it and pulled it out of the water for us to see. Unbelievable! He wasn't the only one though. All of the Chinese and Korean tourists were treading all over the coral the whole time. It's a losing battle really.



Guide Tom then asked us if we wanted to go to Helicopter Island's beach, but that would mean going out into the open sea again. We unanimously decided against it and instead headed out to Seven Comandoes beach, which is near to Corong Corong. The wind was picking up by now, creating a lot of chop. It was a tough boat ride. This time I wasn't worried about sinking, but it was just unpleasant being soaked with water on every wave. Jake freaked out about all the water in his eyes, and Kyla was freezing. I was too! I kept counting the minutes until we could relax in the sun at the beach, and the next thing I knew, Jake was asleep in the middle of it all! I sheltered him as well as I could, but he still got woken up here and there by the water gushing over the boat. After what seemed like an eternity we pulled up on Seven Commandoes beach. It was surprisingly commercial, with a fancy resort being built and several beach bars. When Scott was here eight years ago, there'd just been one little shop selling basic snacks and drinks! Still, it was a lovely white sand beach with clear blue waters lapping it, and would have been a pleasant stop had it not been for the wind. It was gale force and didn't help in warming us up at all, not to mention the kids constantly getting sand blown into their eyes. I think we lasted about 45 minutes before deciding to cut our losses and head for home. A hot shower was very very welcome given that I had a salt farm growing in my hair!

Tour D - Beaches

We had to wait quite a few days to do this tour because of high winds. Not only did we not want to venture out in those conditions, but the coastguard even ordered all tours cancelled one day. We think it was in response to an accident involving two boats crashing into each other at Small Lagoon the day before. Luckily no-one was hurt.



After a rough ride on our last boat trip, Tom took some convincing but finally agreed to join us. We got the Greenviews small boat all to ourselves again and the kids were excited to have their favorite guide Saldi on board! It turned out that Jazz was our real guide, however. Saldi was just helping out on this trip.



We visited four different beaches and a lagoon. The sea conditions were calm this time thankfully, but the day was overcast. This was fine apart from the fact that it didn't bring out the beautiful blue colors in the sea. Lunch was very impressive and even included stuffed squid. I still don't know how they manage to cook so well on a boat with just a tiny barbecue!



Our final stop on this trip was Papaya Beach again. The kids were hanging out in the sand watching Saldi play basketball with his friends when suddenly Kyla stood up and started screaming. It turned out she'd been stung by a bee on her leg. We got some ice from the drink stand on the beach to numb it a bit but decided that was our cue to head home. Poor Kyla. She seems to attract bees as this is the third time she's been stung in her short life. At least we know she's not allergic!



*** please scroll down for the rest of the photos ***

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Comments

[Sheila woolley]

Looks amazing but not sure I'd have survived the boat trips these days sadly!