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Islands, islands and more idyllic islands. There are over seven thousand islands in the Philippines. The most well known, and one of the most beautiful, is Boracay island, situated just off Panay, Visayas. Borocay is just seven km's long with a stretch of the finest white sand, the most crystal clear turquoise water I have ever seen and hundreds of tall, picturesque palm trees.

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Leeollie
2005-09-01 14:00:52

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Open Water Course
4 days - pool training, 4 dives and plus minus 4 tests
Max depth - 18 metres

Advanced Course
2 days - 5 dives
Max depth - 30 metres

We chose to do:
Navigation dive
Drift dive
Night dive
Naturalist dive
Deep dive

Spots we dived at:
Greenyard, Crocodile Island, Friday's Rock and Santos Place

Like they say 'it's another world out there' and it really is true. I have been to aquariums, watched Jaws etc, but to actually be there, weightless in the water, not a sound to be heard but the bubbles you breathe, amongst schools of tiny brightly coloured fish and massive fan corals is truly an otherworld experience.

We enjoyed the night and drift dives the most. With the night dive one leaves in order to get to the location before sunset - to still be able to see what you're doing. We went down, each person carrying a torch, to a coral reef that we made our way along and then turned around and came back. The torchlight brings out all the natural colours of the fish and corals - the colours of a prostitutes boudoir...The walls of the reef were blood red velvet, in tiny nooks and crannies, one can see the finest, most delicate little fish and soft corals in pale blue, bright yellow, pink, fluffy, flurry things moving slowly with the tide. Saw loads of eels, one about the size of my thigh, a massive PC screen size crab with fat pincers, emperor angel fish, puffer fish and we missed it but the others saw a large turtle.

The drift dive, which is where the boat drops one off in an area where there is a long uninterrupted stretch of water and a current. You all hop in at the same time, descend and the current whips you off on a wierd, magical ride. The landscape was absolutely fascinating, like something out of Dr Zeus. Bare seabed with these huge barrel corals, which look like massive brown urns dotted all over the place, a few sparse twirly bits of seaweed and not much else and then off the seabed rise and hover blue spotted stingrays, like UFO's. A lunar Dr Zeus landscape.

Other than the diving course, we only had about 4 full days to spare, which were spent lazing on the beach reading, loads of swimming and walks up and down the beach. A stunning, stunning paradise island holiday.