CORON WRECK DIVING

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Before going to the airport we got the taxi driver to take us to the cash point. All the guide books warned us that there are no cash points in Coron so we would need to take enough cash to see us through. The cash point had other ideas though. After requesting money a few times it kindly informed us that my account was now blocked and that I should contact my bank – this was going to be a costly withdrawal. On the way to the airport I called the bank. It was 4am at home so I was more than surprised to get through to a very cheerful lady who could lift the block straight away – now all we needed was for there to be a cash point at the airport. Luckily there was, but it would only let us take a small amount out at a time so we had to do repeat transactions costing us fees each time. With a flight to catch we had no other choice.

I didn’t realise until we were walking to the plane that we would not be travelling on a normal plane. I’ve never been on a prop plane so I was a little nervous – even more so when we were seated next to the emergency exit and asked if we were prepared to operate it if we were to have an emergency.

Thankfully the emergency exit stayed firmly closed throughout and apart from the games giving us the chance to win prizes, the journey was uneventful. I tried my best to win, as did Andy, but his manflu meant he was about as weak as a kitten and therefore quite useless. In the end all the prizes went to children – what a fix!

We arrived at the tiny airport and went inside the one room building to collect our bags. There wasn’t even a carousel, just a wooden bench where all the bags were placed.

The bus dropped us outside our hotel which was constructed entirely from bamboo. They only had room for us for two nights so we had to go in search of some new accommodation for the rest of our stay.

While we were wandering about we popped into some of the dive shops. In the first shop we were told that we could dive whatever wrecks we wanted, but there would be no guide. Now I know safety rules are not the same all over the world, but suggesting that someone should dive a shipwreck without a guide is just plain stupid. The next place gave us a little more information, but didn’t fill us with confidence so we went to the final place. SeaDive was in a different class. All the guides had thousands of dives under their belt and for the first time we were asked about our experience level and what sort of dives we had done. We were then talked through all the dive sites and shown the equipment. There was no question that these were the guys we would dive with and to top it off they had accommodation that we could move to for half the price of where were were staying.

That evening we had a few beers in the bar at Sea Dive and got chatting to some English guys who had just finished all their dives. They told us all about the best dives as we watched the sun set – and what a sunset it was!

5th may

Andy tried to wait for his manflu to disappear before diving, but we only had a limited amount of days we could stay and there were a lot of dives to fit in. He had one day of rest and recuperation before we decided we could wait no more and booked our first dive trip. Rest and recuperation meant a day sitting about in the bar and getting a free bowl of popcorn with every drink while watching films. We even got a free slice of birthday cake from one of the staff – I am sure that made Andy feel better, he does love a bit of cake.

Luckily when he woke up on dive day he was feeling much better and looking forward to the day ahead. We were lucky to have some really nice people on our boat – Karen and Vin from England and James from Australia.

All the dives were Japanese WWII wrecks. The first was Irako, a 147 meter long refrigeration ship in an upright position on the seabed, with a maximum depth of 42 meters. Going deep can give you nitrogen narcosis, which many say feels like being drunk – I didn’t want my first experience of this to be while I was inside a wreck so we decided to just dive the outside.
The second dive was the 110 meter Olympia Maru Cargo ship and after a spot of lunch the third dive of the day was the 35 meter East Tangat Gunboat.

Sometimes the visibility was not that good, but somehow seeing a shipwreck appear in front of you through the murky water is spooky and adds something different to the experience. With the help of our dive master we were able to penetrate the wrecks. We swam through wheel houses and into small compartments, being careful not to catch ourselves on anything while swimming through the openings. Looking at a wreck from the outside is fantastic, but actually being inside takes it to another level. After three amazing dives we couldn’t wait to go out again and see some more – we were hooked on wreck diving.

As soon as we got back to the dive shop we booked ourselves on the boat for the following day. One thing about divers is that we normally enjoy a beer. After a few beers in the bar with Karen, Vin and James we got a reasonably early night so we were fresh for another full days diving.

We had a few new people on the boat for the second day. Some were more pleasant than others. We were joined on the top deck by some rather annoying old men, with their rather young looking girlfriends. We felt sorry for one girl who was with a man who would bore anyone who listened with his pointless facts and apparently funny stories. He began each story with “now I'm gonna tell ya something now” - Telling people was bad enough, but telling us he was going to tell us something only prolonged the boredom.

Dive one was The134 meter Kogyo Maru cargo ship. Dive two was an unnamed wreck but dive three was something completely different.

When we were told that the third dive of the day would be a lake we were unsure if we wanted to do it. The whole reason we had come to Coron was to dive the wrecks so why would we dive a lake? It was a three dive package and it was great value so in the end we decided to give it a go – we are so glad that we did. The boat dropped us off and we had a short swim to some rocks. After a quick climb up the steps and a walk along the wooden walkway - which was a little tricky with all the diving gear - we arrived at the lake. Barracuda lake is a lake like no other. It's a mix of fresh water at the top and salt water at the bottom creating a thermocline. The fresh water is 27°and as you descend into the salt water the temperature changes suddenly to 38°. The change is so dramatic that you can hover with half your body in the cold water and the other half in the hot. You can even place your line of sight in between the two levels and see a mirrored rippling in the water. We watched each other swim from one level to the other, leaving trails of mirrored water behind us as we pulled the hot water into the cold. There is not much in the way of life to see, just a few fish and some angry shrimps, but the dive is all about the experience - and what an experience it was!


Our plan was to get in another days diving before we left. This didn’t end up happening due to Andy passing his cold on to me. Obviously it wasn’t nearly as bad as when he had it. Nevertheless us constantly passing germs back and forth was beginning to get boring. It was time to get break out the vitamins, although worryingly the ones Andy returned from the pharmacy with were the size of jacket potatoes!

Instead of diving we went to the bar to watch the big boxing match that had been talked about all over the Philippines. It was Pacquiao against Shane Mosley. Of course Pacquiao won easily much to the joy of the packed out bar.

We had a boat booked to leave for El Nido tho following day, but unfortunately it was cancelled due to bad weather conditions. Nervously we kept an eye on the conditions hoping the weather would change soon as we had a flight to catch in a few days time.

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