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Published: February 14th 2009
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It was the whole reason why I started. I was 28m deep. Hovering around a Japanese Cargo Ship, it was my first time. So enthusiastic I was to discover, soon my oxygen was near empty and as quick as I was there it was over. Wreck diving is the best diving experience of them all.
Palawan is the far west island of the Philippines. A different island to the rest and out of the mass tourist base. Still clinging onto the ‘off the beaten track’ it’s main purpose is to Wreck dive and snorkel whilst relaxing on a jagged cliff face beaches.
Coron is the area for Wreck Diving. Forbes Travel Magazine voted it in the top 10 Scuba sites in the world (I found out later.) That’s because in the early morning of September 24 1944 during WWII The US Airforce bombed 9 Japanese ships that were hiding in Coron Bay. It is a major site in the history of the world and creates another unique experience that SCUBA diving allows.
My first site was the Tangat Wreck I went with 2 girls I meet that morning and hired a boat and master to take us out. One
of the girls had equalising problems (popping her ears) so it took a while for her to get down. Whilst that was happening I occupied my time blowing bubbles and building up my anticipation.
When we got down the ship looked a bit like a ruined cathedral with shining blue rays breaking through. Because we were deeper the movements to conserve energy and oxygen were slow (suppose to be) but this was my first time and I thought screw that! I tried to explore as much as possible. The highlight was easily the barrels of goods still at the bottom on the boat.
The next ship was the best one I ended up going to Olympia Maru again a Japanese Cargo Ship but instead it landed on its starboard side enabling it to conserve better.
They like to use the word penetration in wreck diving and Maru allows that term to be bandied about freely. Prior to ‘penetration’ I saw what look to be a Marlin eying out its prey than in a flash it was off and out of sight. Also saw a Lionfish have a ‘spas attack’ and scared the other fish. That all happened whilst we
waited. After that it was time to ‘Penetrate’ the ship.
We went around the cargo hold and into the boiler room. Calm conditions meant ‘penetration’ was easy and as we reached the boiler room I started getting goose bumps. I was just behind the Dive Master so I was close enough to see the various fish b4 they swam off. Clams clinging onto the ships body closing shut as we passed. This was a National Geographic moment in real time. It was dark and took a while for our eyes to adjust so the fish were just haunting dark images with the ship completely surrounding us and just the blue light at the end of a gradually clearing tunnel. All this was happening whilst weaving in and around the boiler room. Fantastic!
It was something that I had seen on TV before and gone ‘Man I would love to do something like that’ and whilst saying that comment realising I would never end up doing it. But when I started the ‘penetration’ and once we were out and making our way back up I couldn’t help but feel proud I proved myself wrong. I can’t help but complement
how much extra a travel experience diving has given me.
Now that’s enough gushy stuff - The problem with wreck diving… is that it’s too short an experience, even if you stay down for 45 minutes. The fish were massive so too the coral and on the third dive the Lusang Gun boat the experience continued.
A shallow dive ranging from 2-14m meaning the wreck is pretty ‘cut up from the currents and closeness to the surface.’ (These are the photos attached) The coral life was the best I’d seen yet and it was only topped off by a cuttlefish freaking out when we got close and the biggest fish of them all: The Napoleon Fish - click on Google and see what I’m talking about. They grow to 2m and weigh in the 100kg mark. I never saw it properly, again a haunting dark image as it glided through the coral as we all kept an eye on each other - twice for long periods. Those experiences will easily outdo the days lying about on a boat going from lagoon to beach to snorkel, which is the other options in Coron and El Nido.
It’s not fair
that I don’t type much about El Nido because it was a great place but I don’t want to bore you with little details for once. But I will say about the motorbike ride. With limited money (no banks here) I did a half day to a secluded beach near an hour away from El Nido. Easily the smoothest ride I have had. On the way there, I was passing and being passed by a local bus with people on the roof.
At the beach it was one km long with compact sand, compact enough to ride on. A rare experience for me to go top gear along a beach, seeing in the distance soldier crabs scurrying for their lives as I approached. This was the spot I have been trying to look for. Yellow-brown sand, coconut trees, no one around and small waves to body surf on. On the way back I was on my last drops of petrol, near the top of the hill. 2kms out I used the last bits of momentum, put it in neutral and started running it to the crest of the hill and rolled down to the petrol station.
My only
complaint about the two places is that there is no real nice beach close by. It’s always a boat ride out or a hired bike. You can’t just walk out of your accommodation to what I’d call a worthy beach. Also as a single traveller that can be expensive. But I was lucky enough to meet up with people to lighten the load a bit. Apart from that it was a very satisfying 10 days. I would probably give El Nido a miss next time but would definitely go back to Coron to do more Wreck diving.
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Vince
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Great blog!
I just might enroll in a scuba class now. I think it's Nacpan Beach you went to, biked there myself.