Of sardines and whale sharks

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We returned to Manila from San Fernando on a surprisingly quick and easy bus . Bizarrely, it was quicker than the taxi we took on the outbound journey and ridicuolously cheap too. On arrival, we transfered to our Airbnb apartment next to Terminal 3 and settled in to watch Netflix and grab an early night before our flight to Cebu the following day.
When the following day came, everything went like clockwork and we landed at 10.30am. Having been stung once by an expensive taxi, we were determined this time to cross the island by bus and it couldn't have been easier although i made the mistake of choosing the back seat which magnified every bump and pothole that we came across on this 4 hour journey.
Moalboal was our destination and we arrived outside a huge supermarket where we stocked up on stuff that we assumed might be difficult or expensive to find around the remote hotel that we had chosen and 20 mins later we chambered out of our rickshaw eager to start the 3 days we'd allocated to this snorkelling paradise. By this stage it was already hotting up so the first thing we did was switch on the room AC and enjoy the sea views from our balcony. We'd chosen Moalboal because of the off-shore sardine shoals but little did we realise just how close to the beach they were. There really is no need to pay for an expensive boat trip. They are right by the famous 'white beach': just swim out to the excited crowd that you will see milling around face down in the sea 30 metres from the beach. This sardine shoal is second only in size to the one on South Africa's Atlantic coast but unlike that one, which attracts apex predators such as great whites and orcas, this one merely attracts the likes of you and me - a huge relief really as having been shark cage diving off Cape Town, I didn’t really fancy being part of the bait ball. Floating above the shoal is so mesmerising. They move in complete unison together creating beautiful swirling patterns and on one occasion parted en masse to allow a jellyfish to float through the shoal, closing up together again as it did so.
Apart from the sardines there is also a good chance you'll see turtles although, once again, there's no need to pay for this. I saw far more turtles swimming off the reef by the hotel by myself than I did with the special 'turtle stop' on the boat trip. Surprisingly, the 3 turtles that were spotted by White Beach (not by me, I hasten to add) were very close to the beach itself. Being Easter Sunday, this beach was absolutely heaving with all sorts of rowdy ball games etc going on in the sea not to mention the awful booming music from competing beach bars. I couldn't imagine how any self-respecting turtle would want to linger in this environment: but how wrong I was! The turtles clearly had a higher tolerance level of my fellow man than I had!
Once back at our hotel on the extreme edge of town we were free to enjoy our own 'private' reef - sans crowds, sans booming music, sans eveything....except marine life! Of the 4 times I went out snorkelling by myself over this reef, I managed to see 11 turtles, various species of tropical fish & numerous cobalt blue starfish. In fact, the location couldn't be faulted. It was the hotel itself that we felt needed to improve as it is aimed primarily at divers who are well looked after in terms of equipment hire etc. In contrast, the snorkellers are left to fend for themselves, foraging through piles of broken snorkels, flippers with broken straps & booties with broken zips. Considering the premium price we'd paid, we were a bit put out. Our 'luxury' sea view room didn't even have comfortable balcony chairs from which to enjoy the sunset over the sea; just hard wooden upright chairs. Admittedly, the restaurant food was superb but still... However, as luck would have it, we discovered that the Hale Manna resort next door offered all the cozy private sea frontage seating areas that we could possibly have hoped for. As the place was bizarrely empty, we were able to drink our G&Ts there and enjoy the gorgeous sunsets all to ourselves.
From Moalboal, the next stop was Oslob and once again the local buses were superb although we had a longer-than-expected wait at Bato (45 mins) where we had to change buses. Once on the second bus we were pleased to find it only took 20 mins to Oslob and even more so when the conductor arranged for the bus to stop right outside our hotel. How kind was that?
Our chosen hotel was the dubiously named 'Stay and Save' Hotel and it was with somewhat clenched teeth that we approached Reception. Was the name their 'get out' clause for all sorts of hotel horrors? Would we be sharing our room with cockroaches or even worse - rats? As the chalet was built of a flimsy timber frame with rattan panels nailed on top, I eyed the toilet paper stuffed into the gap where the roof met the walls and wondered what this was attempting to keep out. Fortunately nothing bothered us in the night apart from a noisy gecko and an even noisier AC unit.
One of the great features about the 'Stay and Save' was its cliffside garden replete with picturesque tree houses perched precipitously close to the edge: all with enviable views out to sea. Down at sea level they had even constructed little linking bridges to rocky outcrops and with stools and makeshift tables had made the whole area into an ideal place to sipp a sundowner: if only someone had been down there to serve drinks! However, the sea was quite choppy - swirling and bashing around these rocks so I kinda guess they didn't think conditions were suitable: I loved it though! (see photos)
Having settled into the room we went to the restaurant next door and got chatting to some South Africans who very helpfully told us about the Facebook page for the Oslob whale shark swimming. This allowed us to book a slot for swimming with the whale sharks and thus avoid getting up at 4am to queue for hours outside the office as we had planned to do. As this whale shark swim has become mega popular, I was relieved to discover this & gratefully filled out the reservation form. The first swim at 6am was all fully booked but there were spaces for 7am. Quick as a flash I made the reservation and as the Stay 'n' Save was only 10 mins walk away we looked forward to the luxury of a lie-in until 6am.
When we strolled down to the office the next morning we were ushered past the hordes of walk-in queuers to the online reservation tent and within minutes were being given life jackets for our boat: I felt like Facebook royalty! God bless you, Zuckerberg!
Now this whale shark swimming industry is huge business for Oslob. Down at the office there must have been 20-30 boats all seating about 10 tourists each and they go out in a convoy. Considering the volume of people it was very well organised. As your boat gets into position about 50m from the shore another boat rowed by a solitary man comes alongside. His job is to sprinkle feed into the water which the whale sharks greedily hoover up. This means that when you get into the water you are literally within touching distance of these gentle giants although the etiquette is - NO TOUCHING! There is some controversy about all this as these daily feeds have stopped these whale sharks from migrating. I mean, why would any creature leave behind a ready source of food? Personally, I don't think these whale sharks suffer from hanging around Oslob and the whole business has benefitted the species as a whole as they were once killed by fishermen whereas now they are most definitely protected. As each swimmer pays £7 for their ticket and all the boats go out full from 6am to 12pm every single day the local authority must rake in as much as a London Borough gets from parking violations - and I'd rather a shark than a warden anyday! Anyway, once in the water it was incredible. These are the world's biggest fish and even dwarf the Great White (forget the rubber shark nonsense in 'Jaws' which grossly exaggerated the size of the GW) You get to swim alongside them for about 20 mins- plenty of time to take photos & videos with the GoPro (see photos) On one occasion I found myself hemmed in between 2 of these sharks! Thank God, they are harmless, that's all I can say.
"Come in number 25 your time is up." No - thankfully there was no megaphone announcing the end of the swim. Just when it naturally felt it was time to go, the boat staff beckoned us back and 5 mins later we disembarked to let the next lot of eager swimmers take our place. It was such a thrill and the organisers have timed it to perfection in my view. They could so easily have trimmed back on the time in the water to squeeze in another load of tourists. Thankfully they haven't compromised the experience in this way and I can honestly say it's the best £7 I've ever spent. Once back on shore, we felt it was time for a proper breakfast and found a small coffee shop on the street leading directly down to the beach which sold muffins and coffee to die for. None of that sugary, glucose-syrup coffee mixture that one finds everywhere in The Philippines. This was the 'real deal". After breakfast, it was back to the 'Stay and Save' to shower, pack up, check out and flag down the next bus to Cebu City in readiness for our early morning flight back to Manila.

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