06/07/2025
North Canterbury Dive Club Philippines Trip June 2025 Trip Report Supplied By Peter Wheeler .
It was standing room only at 6.30 am at the bright white and stained glass St Francis of Assisi Church, in the predominantly Catholic town of El Nido on the island of Palawan, Sth Wst of Manila in the Philippines. But wait... back up the bus.., this was the view on day 4 of 5 , walking to Palawan Divers for another day of stunning diving out of the tourist town and harbour reached by 3 flights, 6 days previous.
On a chilly Christchurch morning, at 4 am , 5 slightly bleary eyed members gathered ready for the first leg flight to Sydney. Six hours later we have a short layover before boarding the 8 hour Qantas flight to Manila. We enjoyed a night stopover in bustling Manila at the Holiday Inn, with a stunning breakfast, before navigating the hair-raising roads around the huge airport to terminal 3 and the short hop (relatively ) to El Nido on the Nth coast of Palawan. A much smaller plane so all bags weighed and stickered in processes that seemed a bit antiquated compared to what we'd already encountered. Anyway, a short time (1.5 hrs ) later we are disembarking at El Nido having scooted in low between green covered rock pillars rising out of a sapphire blue sea. The 31 deg heat and humidity hits you like a wet cloth as we await our luggage off the manually loaded and unloaded carts, hurriedly brought from the ATR 42 aircraft. The shuttle arrived after a brief pause and we are whisked away in air-conditioned comfort to the nearby township and harbour of El Nido. Arriving at our accommodation for the next 10 days- we duly complete check in procedures and our bags are hu**ed up 3 flights by fit young things... no elevator here folks... Our adjacent rooms are serviceable and we immediately separate dive gear from "other stuff" and prepare to walk the 8 minutes to Palawan dive while the gear goes in a Tuk-Tuk, the local means of transport, costing all of $3.00...
Greeted by the friendly staff at Palawan Divers, we fill in the usual waivers, hang up gear ready for the morrow, and go in search of much needed sustenance and liquid refreshment in anticipation of the coming adventure.
The harbour of El Nido is picturesque with hundreds of locally constructed boats "Bangkas "in all sizes, moored from the shore outwards. Some are for 2-3 persons, some for 30+, most painted the same blue and white , with exotic names. Some transitory yachts and the occasional Coastguard PT boat are spotted also.
Our first day of diving started with a short briefing as to where we were going to be diving, an intro to our 2 dive guides/masters..Joel and JJ, and then a short stroll to the beach, jump in the small tender and don lifejackets...( I know ...right...? ) and motor out to the Irrawady 5, our dive boat for the next 5 days. Our gear was already on board and set up for the first dive, 20 mins motoring to site 1, Nat Nat....overcast but warm conditions greeted us once out of the harbour ,with a slight breeze, a hangover from the previous 2 days cancelled diving. On with the gear, no mucking about, we are assisted to shuffle to the edge of the deck and a big stride into the water, to do what we came to do... 30 deg water, no current, 12 m viz - and so it begins. 2 attentive and observant guides to us 5 divers...4 old farts and a youngster... Joes son Tyler. Checking our buddies are AOK we fin off following Joel and immediately it's so easy, warm, breath-taking... pun intended. At 12m ,stop , look at my buddy Brandon , and realise "Yeah, this is my happy place..." We all find those little or big things that rock our boats, anemone hosts with clown fish populations, nudis , scorpions, schools of neon striped Fusiliers, angel fish pairs, damsels, chromids- it's a lot to take in. Max depth 18m on this one...50 mins later we are at 5 m for a 3 minute safety stop, then surface and awkwardly remove fins and BCDs for the young helpers to lift and changeover, and you climb the wooden ladder to sit down- grab an excellent coffee and small sweet bananas, and grin at each other and "did you see...? " or "how about those barracuda...?" and you realise that you in the middle of something way bigger than yourself.
One hour later it's dive site 2.. Entalula - more of a drift dive, but gentle..22m, highlight? the Electric Clams... how they glow like that I don't know. Surface, and it's lunch time, a buffet of local dishes, chicken Adobo, baked fish, salads and fruit, and the ubiquitous rice, served with everything including breakfast. Jet lag caught up with me and I decided on safety first and sat out the 3rd dive, the other 4 indulged successfully...motor 30 mins back to the harbour by 3.30, a rush for the loo and showers, check our gear ready for tomorrow and back to the hotel, surrounded by the sounds and smells of this busy tourist town. You are constantly assailed by wandering "hawkers" selling ..get this...Dry Bags..! phone covers and hats - music drifts from numerous "restobars", horns on tuk-tuks and bikes beeping, aromas of lemon grass, char-grilled fish and wood-burning pizza ovens drift by. Everywhere there are dogs, small non-descript mongrels, mooching for food, scratching, blocking traffic, producing new generations or limping pathetically. Your own senses are bombarded , sight , sound , smell.
It's a welcome climb of the 3 flights to your air cooled room to have a short nap and regather your senses before meeting up and heading out again for the evening repast in one of many, many eating establishments...Indian , Thai , Italian , vegan , asian , you name it, it's here, and about 1/2 to 2/3 the price of home...and the devils tipple..? well Happy Hour starts at 8am..everyday.!
The next 4 days are structured much the same, sleep, eat, dive, dive , eat ,dive, nap, eat, sleep and repeat...with some variation... On day 4 we do a night dive, our 4th for the day, out of a nearby resort..Dolarog, reached in golf carts down a seemingly undriveable half built road thru verdant jungle, to an empty resort beach. Max depth 15m- additional torches provided . It's a different world at night - less life but new stuff, strange colors and mad copepods buzzing around attracted to the lights, bumping off your mask and bare arms. Day 3's highlight was a dive site called Sth Maniloc, where we encountered the Yellow Snapper Highway...a seemingly endless stream of medium sized attractive yellow fish swimming up and around rocky outcrops - relatively unconcerned by our intrusion in their world. You are reminded that it is THEIR world and you are just a temporary aberration in this underwater domain.
Day 5's highlight was The Tunnel - located on the end of the aptly named Helicopter Is . We descended to a narrow opening at 15m , one by one enter and are soon in a huge sand bottomed chamber, before a dog leg right and there is the lit exit 30 metres away at 11 m, filled with Big Eye type fish and a random pair of pipefish. We exit and there, oh joy of joys, is a frogfish...yay ...I'm a happy camper.. I take some shots, and then we go back thru the tunnel to exit and explore the wall, before surfacing to another excellent lunch. By the end of day 5 we've completed 16 dives with Palawan Divers, all different , all excellent. We pack up our gear ready for a change of location on Day 7.
Day 6 was a surface day...we embarked, on Joes recommendation, on a tour called The Kraken...an 8 hr cruise around some of the different locations that the normal tours don't cover, involving snorkelling over shallow rocks to sunlit caverns, kayaking to hidden lagoons, swimming to hidden beaches populated by raucous surface dwellers, serviced by Ice Cream selling kayakers, sipping rum and Iced Tea ( inclusive ) crunching on sugared banana fritters Plus a sumptuous lunch buffet with prawns, squid, chicken , pork , salads... capped off by a romantic sunset stopover on the way back to harbour...OH... did I mention the 5 spanish princesses? who turned up late to join us and proceeded to entertain us with their never-ending efforts to obtain the perfect selfie. I would add , that on a personal level , the scenery was somewhat enhanced by the landscape of Iberian hills and valleys on display....
Anyway, moving right along...in the search for new experiences we elected to drive daily to Sibaltan Dive, 43k away on the east side of Palawan, about an hours sedate motoring, I say 'sedate' because road conditions don't allow for consistent 80kph driving. We pass thru the outskirts of El Nido town, into the country, with rice paddies , random buffalo , free range goats, cats , dogs , pigs and cows and schoolchildren.... if you don't have a functioning horn, you can't drive in the Philippines.. it's an extension of your hand...and personality. The last 500 m is on the hard packed sand of Sibaltan beach right up to the door of Sibaltan Dive under towering trees. We go thru the obligatory form filling, check gear and get ready for Dive 1, pile into the smaller speed boat for the short trip out, past pearl farms to the site 1 of 4 today. Mantas come in to shallow water to cleaning stations to be "cleaned" so we backflip into 30 deg water, a bit hazy and descend to 11 m to basically kneel on the sand and wait...Life goes on around you, Blue spotted rays flap madly past, Gobies rebuild broken sand holes...( who did that...? ) but alas no Mantas, so we move to the next station, 4 in all, but to no avail. 2 nd dive was Runway reef- stunning corals, abundant life and Turtles. 20 mins back to shore for a lunch break at Ursula Beach Resort with welcome ice-cold flannels and great service and food ( it's a real struggle..I know...! ) Dive 3 was similar to dive 1.. someone obviously didn't tell the Mantas about the meet up..! Dive 4 was another healthy thriving reef... back on shore, we left our gear there and piled into the people mover and returned to El Nido for dinner and much needed sleep. 4 dives in a day is a lot for us more mature divers, but we all agreed it was a great day... Day 2 at Sibaltan started a bit earlier, leave at 6am, in the water by 8, a slightly longer boat trip today, past islets of steep vegetation topped rock to Shark Point...! We saw a few small Black Tips, and all sorts of interesting other stuff...Orang Utan crabs, . It was at Sibaltan that we encountered the illegal practice of dynamite fishing...! Although not close to us , the sound does travel underwater and can be somewhat alarming.... 2nd dive today was a drift dive in a gentle current but we still covered some distance past healthy corals, rock outcrops, stingrays and Barracuda schools. 50 mins later we are back on the boat and heading for shore, only 2 dives today, 4 more tomorrow.
The next day is a repeat of the first day, early departure, drive past the above ground cemetery,, several high schools, road side shacks and rice drying in the sun.. Back on the water we dive Rainbow Reef, Crossover Reef, Caya coco and Manta stations 1-4 again but again no joy... back on land we could see and hear the thunder and lightning, and see the heavy rain... we just smiled , sipping on hot ginger tea... Back on land, gather up the gear and pile it all back into the Hyundai something, say Goodbye to Errol and the friendly folk at Sibaltan dive, and the croaking frogs that sounded like lonesome cows.
We journeyed back to El Nido, past immaculately dressed schoolkids coming out of school..at 5pm...! and went straight to Palawan dive with our gear as we decided to do another days diving with them , Sat the 22nd.
Saturdays 3 extra dives were a revisit to previously visited sites, but with a lot of dive "virgins" doing their Open Water courses, Nat Nat , Entalula and Sth Maniloc.. we were first in the water each dive and still came out after them...experience huh...! But...it all has to end sometime,and with sadness we rinse and hang out our gear for the last time, and say Goodbye to our guides and the staff, again , and received free T shirts...! Back to the hotel and our thoughts turn to packing the suitcases, dive gear to collect tomorrow after drying, hopefully. One last non-diving day is spent at Lio Beach near the airport, just chillin' having a beer and watching the next lot of tourists come in on the planes. Sunday evening is one last dinner...at Tutto Passa, the best Italian restaurant in El Nido, collect the dry gear and pack up ready for a 6am departure for the 8.00am flight to Manila.
Manila is vast as you fly in across acres of packed makeshift dwellings, huge churches, modern casinos next to half built ruins. On the ground we grab bags and because of the 8 hour layover we decide to kill a few hours at Mall of Asia nearby. The word Mall doesn't quite prepare you for this 3 storeyed Eden Park sized retail extravaganza, with a full sized Ice rink next to the massive food hall- shops are conveniently grouped so you have a Tech Zone, womans clothing zone , Mens clothing zone , Food zone all in a seemingly uncrowded huge space with aromas of cinnamon buns and seafood laksa. Soon it was time to re-gather our luggage from the stored luggage room, return to Terminal 1 and go through the processes to fly thru the night to Sydney...Airport lounges are worth it... take my word.. Sydney to Christchurch is uneventful.. other than the hostess that considered my elbows to be her personal bumper cushions...Doh...! Soon the partially snow covered alps are below us, then the plains, then Pound Road, and bump.. you are back to 8 deg Home, feeling kinda insignificant parked next to the A380...quickly thru Customs, without any fibs...any shells..? coral...? no, course not, and that's it..people you've laughed with and at, buddy checked 28 times , shared life stories with- and now back to the real world...Parting is such sweet sorrow..
Has it been worth it ? Absolutely Has it challenged you...? you bet, on many levels Do it again...? When can we leave..?
Palawan divers motto sums it up well....."Same Planet, different World "
Thanks to Joe for the organising... 9 months ago we had no idea...!
