18 Feb 2011 - Off to Moalboal

Happily, I arrived at the budget terminal for the midnight flight to Cebu. It was my first time at this terminal and was quite surprised at the small size of the departure hall. There are just 7 of us for this dive trip to Moalboal and I've been so looking forward to seeing the sardine bait balls. Previously I can only dream of seeing these magnificent sardine runs in South Africa but apparently a more "toned down" version without the larger sharks, dolphins and birds started appearing on a regular basis in Moalboal in the last couple of years. Who knows how much longer are they going to be there and I'm not going to wait until they are gone before I go visiting.

Given the lack of a queue at the check-in counter, I was quite surprise to see a full flight and getting seated right at the last row. But I sure felt quite like a VIP for being the first to disembark onto the parking apron after stepping off the rear exit door 4am in the morning. The van ride to Moalboal took around 3 hours. Just as expected, I didn't manage to catch any sleep throughout the entire journey.

We arrived at Tipolo Beach Resort where we'll be staying for the next few days. As it's only 7am in the morning, only two out the three rooms were available. I dump my bags into one of the room and proceed for a quick breakfast at The Last Filling Station where we have a large number of our meals. Tipolo is a small operation with just a handful of rooms, located at the more peaceful end of the "beach". There's also a minimart at this end of the beach for some basic necessity and tidbits should you need any. The rooms though small, are clean and come complete with free WIFI. The Last Filling Station is the resort's restaurant which serves some great pizzas and killer mango juice which is really thick and wholesome! The only issues I have in general were the food which are often too salty but that is fine after we ask them to go easy on the salt.

On arrival outside The Last Filling Station at Tipolo  (Photo courtesy of RL)

Courtyard of Tipolo Resort with my room on the right (Photo courtesy of RL)

Minimart near our resort and dive centre (Photo courtesy of RL)

As the time was a little tight, we couldn't make it for the 1st boat dive at 8.30am but instead opt to do a checkout dive at the house reef once we're ready. We're diving with Blue Abyss dive shop for this trip, with G as our DM. In total, we did 3 dives today. As we started a little late and due to some miscommunication, we couldn't do our night dive today. Dinner was done at The Last Filling Station. GT, RL and myself shared a vegetarian and funghi pizza which were baked in a wood fire oven. The funghi pizza is the winner here. Together with the thick mango juice, life couldn't have been better.

Upper deck for chilling out at Blue Abyss Dive Shop

At Blue Abyss Dive Shop (Photo courtesy of RL)

 
Then it's back to the room to prepare my camera and gear for the next day of diving. We're going to see the sardines at Pescardo Island tomorrow morning! Woohooo! I just can't wait for that! But for now, I really need sleep after missing a night of rest. Good night world! :)

18 Feb 2011 - Off to Moalboal
18 Feb 2011 - Dive 1 to 3 at house reef and white beach
19 Feb 2011 - Sneak preview to the sardines
19 Feb 2011 - Dive 4 to 7 at Pescardo island, Talisay and house reef
20 Feb 2011 - A 2nd chance with gazillion of sardines
20 Feb 2011 - Dive 8 to 11 at Tuble, Pescardo and house reef
21 Feb 2011 - Finally time for some land photos
21 Feb 2011 - Dive 12 - 13 at Dolphin House and Tongo Point
22 Feb 2011 - Last day at Moalboal