A few months back myself along with my wife Koz, friends Ernesto and Vanessa took a special dive trip to a world heritage site. Tubbataha reefs in the Zulu sea is one of those bucket list places a diver dreams of going to. Only accessible for 3 months of the year and having a annual limit to the number of divers we were lucky enough to get space on a charter boat. To visit this site you need to use a "liveaboard" boat that you sleep, eat and dive from, there is no land mass to stay on so if you suffer with sea sickness this is not the place for you.
Flying out of our home island of Cebu we arrived in Puerto Princesa Palawan and spent the night preparing our dive gear and having briefings on the do's and don'ts of the trip. Next morning we joined our craft the M/V Sakura, this Trimaran boat was to be our home for the next week. A total of 11 divers and 9 crew were on board.
M/V Sakura.
Once all introduced to each other and boat orientation complete we set sail, this journey would take 15 hours and the plan was to sail into the night and arrive on the site ready to dive the following morning. The waters were calm thankfully so we all had a pleasant evening meal up on deck while taking in the sunset.
Next day we were up at sunrise to have a coffee and snacks and get prepared for diving, there was a buzz of excitement in the air. The main reason we came here was for the large number of sharks and when our guide Ranier said we would be surprised by how many there were this just added to the excitement. In two groups we used small rib boats to get close to the reef and a few minutes later with camera in hand we were in the water.
Healthy looking reef.
The first thing that strikes you is how healthy the reef is, endless hard and soft corals and tons of fish this place was amazing, within minutes we saw our first sharks in the distance but too far to take any photos so we continued to enjoy the reef and fish around us.
Giant pufferfish.
About five minutes later and I was in my element sharks galore, as quick as you looked in one direction someone was pointing the other way, Grey reef sharks, White tips and a Tiger shark in the distance. I didn't know which way to look there was so much action, and then right in front of me was this chap just chilling out on the reef, perfect for a close up shot.
White tip reef shark.
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Oh yes I was a happy chappy, after about 50 minutes we started to ascend and do our safety stop, then back to the surface to be picked up by the speedboat. On the short trip back to the big boat the talk was of how great the dive had been and if that was dive one what would the rest of the week have in store for us.
Back on Sakura and our dive equipment back on board we were treated to a buffet breakfast as the boat moved to the next dive site, 9:30am and dived and fed what a great start to the day. At 11:00am we were back in the water again, this site the water was crystal clear and all sorts of wild life, Barracuda, marble rays and more sharks.
Chevron Barracuda.
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White tip and grey reef sharks.
What a dive! so much life and so many sharks it was only lunch time and everyone was already saying things like it's some of the best diving they had ever done. Again a buffet style meal was served for lunch all of which was very tasty, in addition you could go to the galley and help yourself to any food or soft drinks at will, they clearly didn't want us going hungry. A big lunch consumed we all took some time to digest and rest before the afternoon dive and what a dive that would prove to be. Having moved the boat again we were ready to jump back in, here we were told that due to currents the visibility would not be as good but there was a strong chance of something special being seen, they were not wrong, 5 minutes into the dive and we bumped into this giant.
A 10 meter long Whale shark.
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This giant of the ocean was a sight to behold as it gracefully circled around seemingly as interested in us as we were it. The big beauty stayed around for 15 minutes or so before going on it's way, leaving us to do a few underwater fist pumps and high 5's. The rest of the dive was nice but this giant stole the show. Still day one yet all these wonderful sightings this really was proving to be a special place.
Later that day we had a night dive planned to round off the day, it was good but nothing breath taking to be seen. That evening on deck spirits were high and who could blame us we had seen everything we had hoped for on day one.
This scenario continued for the rest of the week, 3 day dives and 1 night dive all special in their own way, we saw more sharks than you could imagine sometimes in large groups, the reef was in spectacular condition and over all the number of different fish species was mind blowing.
Stunning corals.
Shoals of Trevally.
Sharks sharks and more sharks.
20 in this shot.
Sleeping shark on night dive.
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The week came to a end too quickly for my liking but all said and done it was amazing, everything and more than we could have hoped for. We will certainly do this trip again in the future and can highly recommend the company that we used, Sakura charter are a budget liveaboard but their service is 5 star.
I hope you all enjoyed my little trip down memory lane and maybe it has inspired you to try a similar trip. Thanks for taking time to have a look at this post and please let me know your thoughts. Until next time stay safe folks!
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Your photography is awesome 😎
Thanks for saying so, I try my best and i'm learning all the time.
Great post and pictures. I hope I can experience the same one day. Maybe Laarni would be interested too now that she got a taste of it.
It's a great trip, you would love the diving but not sure about the boat it's very budget.
I like whale sharks, They are awesome!
It's a special experience when your'e up close and personal with them. I have been lucky enough to dive many times with them.
Hiya, @lizanomadsoul here, just swinging by to let you know that this post made it into our Top 3 in Daily Travel Digest #879.
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Wow, thanks for that, I shall have to try and better myself and see if I can't score first place next time:) appreciate all your support
Haha I am looking forward to that @biggypauls!
liz