The Dr. Seuss meadows of coral
A view from Ulong Beach -- one of the spots used in the "Palau Survivor" series
We have Grouper puppies and Black Tip Shark kittens here folks. It’s the life. : )
Just as we were starting to feel pretty worn out (yesterday), we woke up after a ten hour coma, charged up and ready to enjoy our last full day of diving. Now it’s bittersweet. We all have rub lines/blisters and bruises in various places or our gums are sore in the one place that our reg manages to rub continuously…but, now that we’re about to head out on our last dive, we’re pretty sad. Daniel and I can’t believe how quickly this week has flown by. The diving has been spectacular and the food is amazing. And the sleep. Mmm. We’re eating, sleeping, and diving that’s for sure.
Some highlights – today the mothership docked just off of the island of Ulong – which was one of the beaches and islands used in the Palau Survivor series. So, after lunch, Daniel and I snorkeled the quarter mile or so to the beach and had our own little land tour – admiring the jungle scenery and the giant fig trees before snorkeling back. It was really nice.
We have really enjoyed some fantastic dives, as well as some that have really not gone according to plan and require a great deal of winging it. …Today I was between 90 and 104 feet down and in the middle of an incredibly strong current, unable to catch Daniel as he headed into a tunnel. Luckily I caught him a little later on, but it took some improvising. Later on today we had a great dive at Siaes Corner where we hooked at the top of a wall and watched the upcurrent bring food to a school of fish, as another school hunted the smaller school… while sharks zoomed all around. During our first dive today, the Ulong Coral Gardens, we encountered the most beautiful coral garden of table coral that all looked like it had come straight from a Dr. Seuss book – it was spectacular! We also have seen grouper playing hide and seek with us as they scoot from one coral table to another and then peek out, like a puppy to see if we can still see them only to zoom again when they realize we can. …Some of the places the boat has docked has a school of about 10-12 black tip sharks that hang out around the boat – they’re like a little flock of kittens.
Yesterday we dropped down a 90 foot tunnel called blue holes – you swam to the entrance and then did a free fall down a 90-130 foot shaft as you watched the blue window above you – it was pretty awesome. I also had a dive much earlier in the morning that went wrong for all of us when the current wouldn’t cooperate and went crazy…we hooked in for a while and hung on for our lives as the current wooshed past us with unbelievable speed. After that we floated across that plateau, and while I was tucking my reef hook into my BC I slammed into a rock that was jutting up from the ground and got a pretty good scrape and bruise on my right thigh.
Our last dive of the day, which was really our last true dive, was spectacular. We did the Ulong Channel and enjoyed a magnificent wall as we watched sharks cruise above and below. We headed into the channel and again got to see the Dr. Seuss playland of gorgeous table coral as Daniel and I chased the grouper “puppies” through the coral gardens. After that we continued drifting through the channel, enjoying fields of beautiful plate coral, a turtle spotting, more shark encounters, and an attack from a trigger fish (which dive bombed my mask and then tried to take a chunk out of my fin…bizarre!). It was a beautiful last dive that included a little bit of everything – over a hundred foot wall of coral, coral gardens, spotting many of our favorite critters one last time… and then we popped up at the surface to a setting sun. Ah. : )
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