Early start for us this morning as we’re off on a boat for a spot of snorkelling and another dose of vitamin sea!! We meet our captain at 7.30am, walk down to the beach and wade out in low tide to our boat. We climb aboard via an impossible silm and steep wooden ladder. By the end of this part of the trip mountain goats will have nothing on us!!
Our captain informs us that we’re starting too late for dolphin watching but he’ll try and locate some. We’re philosophical, after our incredible time snorkelling with the dolphins in South Africa in 2022 we’re not sure that experience can ever be matched.
Dolphins are spotted and we join around a dozen boats of varying sizes to watch them. We advise the captain that we’ve seen enough and we move on to our destination for the morning, Balicasig Island.
Balicasag Island is around 40 minutes from our dolphin watching spot and we settle in an enjoy the ride. The island is renowned for its snorkeling and diving ans reputed to have a colourful range of coral reefs and diverse marine species, including clownfish, parrotfish, and butterflyfish.
We transfer from our large boat into a small “bijou” boat which which enable to access the reef easily. Not sure they were designed with our hip width in mind however.
Our boatman paddles out to the start of our snorkel and we ease ourselves gently out of the boat and drop into the water. We follow a stream of other snorkellers along with snorkellers who are being towed by their boatman whilst clinging to a life ring (all also wearing lifejackets). We agree with our boatman that we will just snorkel along the reef, occasionally popping up to check where he is and meet him at the end of the reef.
Balicasag is famous for its “Turtle Point,” where you can snorkel alongside green sea turtles in their natural habitat. The turtle whisperer is in the sea today and we get exceptionally lucky and snorkel with two.
The reef is not as advertised but there is a diversity of both coral and fish but the sheer number of tourists attempting to snorkel makes it feel.a bit like the M25 in the rush hour. As we’re both confident snorkellers who don’t require life jackets we’re able to swim around the crowds and enjoy some moments of calm with just us and the fish.
We have lunch on the island which isn’t much to write home about and return to our boat to journey back to the beach. We get caught in another rain storm and it looks set for the afternoon.
We huddle under an umbrella on the beach but after 1/2 an hour we give up and retuen to our room for a late afternoon snooze. We go for dinner and play some cards on our small terrace its been another great day!!
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