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Published: October 3rd 2008
Malapascua
A tough place to get aweay fromLeaving Palawan
For a while we were wondering whether we were going to make it off Cacnipa Island. With the threat of a typhoon coming through, we'd had to make peace with the fact that we may not get back to Puerto Princesa in time to catch our flight to Cebu. There are worse place to get stuck... As it turns out the wind calmed down enough for us to escape paradise, and at 6am we were on the banca surfing the waves back to Palawan.
The bus schedule from the port town of Saint Vincent does not run according to time, but instead had simply a list of the order in which the minivans would be leaving. They just wait around until the van is full and then leave. We arrived pretty early, and settled down to wait for a few more customers. Each time a few more people arrived we looked around to see if the driver would be getting ready, but every time he appeared unfazed. This continued for some time until there was quite a crowd of us sitting waiting for the bus to leave. Eventually our driver got up, tested van's horn and stereo
Barnca ride back to Palawan
Fortunately Cathy found her sea-legs here! system (the only essential parts) and told us to all get in. People continued to flow into the minivan until there were 21 of us inside (in 14 seats) and 3 on the roof! They really do wait until the buss is
full!
About five minutes into our 5 hour journey, it started to rain. The bus driver pulled to the side of the road and the 3 guys on the roof jammed into the cramped space too. 5 hours of muddy roads and plenty of sweat-sharing later and we arrived in Puerto to check back into Banwa Pension.
One greast surprise that awaited us before leaving to Cebu was a Dunkin' Donuts in Rizal street. Between us we ate an awesome breakfast of 2 fried egg bagels, 4 donuts, 2 cofees and a juice for less than $3 or R20! Things like that can really make your day.
Malapascua Island
We spent a day in Cebu city before catching the 5am bus up to to a small port at the north of the island called Maya. The city was not much to see, apart from the bustling carbon market, but it gave us
the chance to get some good street food and get onto the internet. The real fun started when we boarded the banca in Maya to do the short hop to Malapascua Island.
Mapascua is a tiny (2km long) island which, together with its offshore reef, is home to a small village of fisher-folk and a few thousand tiny fish that specialise in picking clean other really big fish. The main attraction here is the very rare thresher shark who, along with the odd manta ray, "regularly" drop by to be cleaned by the tiny wrasse.
We moved into a nice cheap bungallow just off the beach and set off to explore the island. It is a really beautiful walk around the coast. It seems that not many tourists make it away from the main beach, and as we walked we found several tiny groups of rattan houses separated by small bays with clear blue water and fishing boats lying on the bleached sand.
At one stage, while wading around a rocky outcrop between two bays, we met a woman collecting something out of the shallows. We asked her what she was looking for, and she showed us
Lionfish
One of the real beauties of the sea a pot she carried full of
paya paya. Encouraged by our interest, the very friendly woman even went as far as to take out one of the
paya paya, use her machete to cut the living shell open and tip the slimy contents into our hands for us to taste. You can hardly say no to an offer like that, so standing knee-deep in the warm water we got our first taste of sea-urchin. Not something I'd particularly go back for...
The real highlight of our few days on Malapascua was the diving. We were fortunate this time to have caught some good weather, and apparently September is the best time of year to be looking for thresher sharks. We took our first dive out to the cleaning station on Monad Shoal the morning after we arrived. A nice early 5:30 start to swim around - but no sharks.
That afternoon we caught a dive trip out to Gato island. The island is just a tiny blip of land, but the abundance of life on the surrounding reef is breathtaking. I have never seen so many soft corals, the whole place was just so colourful! We were fortunate
to be diving with a great group of people, and everyone was very excited about how beautiful the place was. A highlight of the site was looking for Pygmy seahorses. At 8-10mm in length, they are some of the smallest, cutest little guys in the sea. It's really difficult to spot them, because aside from their miniscule size, they almost perfectly match the gorgonian corals on which they live.
The next day we went back to Monad Shoal to look for threshers. 5am this time. Still no shark. In the afternoon we were fortunate to join the guys from Thresher Shark Divers, who we were diving with, to do a clean-up dive on one of the local reefs as part of a PADI worldwide reef clean-up day. It was really good to be doing a dive with a motive that was not purely selfish. The reef was in pretty good condition, but still we managed to drag up several bags of rubbish and dead plant matter.
After spending our fourth day on the island taking a break from the early-morning starts, and just lying around reading our books, we decided to make one last attempt at catching the
elusive Threshers on our last morning. Once again squeezing into damp wetsuits pre-cofee, we headed out on the dive boat towards the reef. This time, being a Sunday morning, it seemed like the whole island was there to join us. There were 3 other dive boats all moored at the same site, and as we descended the buoy line, we could see bubbles rising all around us - the tell-tale signature bubblefish (other divers). We both pretty much gave up hope right at the start. With so many people around, what were the chances that the sharks would chose this morning to make their appearance.
How wrong we were! About 10 minutes into the dive, as we approached the 250m deep drop-off that marks the edge fo the underwater island, a long grey shape seemed to slowly condense out of the distant blue. The shark continued to come towards us, and then turned to swim right past us, its characteristic long upper tail lobe swishing behind it like a snake. The whole encounter can't have lasted much more than a minute, but anyone who has seen a large shark underwater will know that they bring a presence which remains
Pygmy seahorse
One of the cutest sea creatures at only 8mm small!! like a static charge in the water long after they disappear back into the blue.
We were both ridiculously excited at having finally seen this incredible and rare creature and could hardly contain ourselves for the rest of the dive. Just as a bonus, as were were starting to ascend, a second large thresher swooped across the top of the shoal, right through the middle of all the divers, providing us with a spectacular view of his silvery side and long tail.
Back on the boat, we were all bubbling over with excitement as we compared photographs and versions of the exact same story with the other divers. I think that Cathy and I were the most excited, after having spent two previous dives cruising around the shoul with no sighting. We were very fortunate to have captured the first shark on video (see above) and to have a few shots of the second shark, even though the distance through the water does make the colours a bit indistinct.
After a quick shower we were back on the boat to Cebu, already starting the next chapter of our adventure, but with the lingering images of the incredible
The Elusive THRESHER SHARK
Sorry about the colour, I'll clean it up at home... animal still buzzing though our minds.
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Galen
non-member comment
Man oh man... thresher sharks, now I"m jealous! Always wanted to see one! I've seen a photo of a thresher launching itself right out of the water before and that sold me. Looks like you're still having a good time! Chat soon G