Tuesday, 25 January

Nick behind barrel sponge

We have now done ten dives in the Puerto Galera area on nine different sites and are starting to feel very chilled. All really great dives with fantastic corals, varied and enormous sponges, tons of fish and loads of different nudibranchs.

Unidentified nudibranch

Started experimenting underwater with the camera today. Might just master it by the end of the four months, but at least we get shots good enough to help with identifying some of the things we've seen. Just need to find a website to find out more about corals and anemones. There's been some huge corals and anemones up to a metre across.

Another two nudibranchs

Yesterday we did three dives including a night dive - very tiring as we were fighting currents on all three. Night dive on a couple of wrecks in the bay saw a fantastic range of sealife. Also, earlier in the day, we were viciously attacked by a damsel fish - it swam up and bit both of us on the hand - Nick has a scar (maybe). Today's three were much more relaxing. The weather was a bit windy and rainy - like the UK only 20 degrees warmer - and the sea got a bit choppy, so we were limited in the sites we could get to in the boat.

Ribs at the Tamarind Restaurant

Today is the first day I've managed to stay up beyond 8pn in the evening. Not sure if the huge plate of spare ribs - the specialty of the Tamarind Bar in Sabang - helped with that!