Well, the 1st sector of the dive trip is over. I am back on the mainland -
back to traffic lights, mad tourists on scooters, and having to get in to
a set routine for the SPUMS conference. While on the Isle of Pines we
were based at Relais Kodejue as they were the only resort that had a dive
operator. Due to a heavy work schedule at the office & out at my mates
farm I spent most of the 1st day on the Isle of Pines sleeping.
Day 1. Dive 1 - Passe Du Tiare. The main attraction was the manta
cleaning station with a few whitetip sharks coming in close to check you
out. I think the dark coloured manta we encountered during our
miniBaliNEDfest has a twin over here. Only one was totally dark coloured
with a few small white patches on its underbelly. They did not allow us
to get as close to the mantas as in Bali. Here you were required to
settle down on the seafloor and watch them hovering over the coral bommie
in the hope that one would turn coming towards you so you could get a
closer view as it went overhead.
Dive 2 - Lorette. A nice wall dive with lots of the familiar reef fish
I've encountered on the Great Barrier & Ningaloo Reefs, Fiji, Solomons,
PNG, etc. There were though a few seacritters that I'd never seen the
likes of before - a very large clarkii that was an unusual brown colour
which appears to be unique to this region, the Kasmira goby, a very dark
coloured butterflyfish and a particular type of anthias. Can't wait to
get my slide film processed now ... guess that also means I need to get
some of those scanned to accompany my trip report article for the Nekton
magazine.
Dive 3 - Recif Petit - a night dive. I nicknamed this spot sea snake
island as it was crawling with many different types of sea snakes. Some
of the sea snakes were on the prowl foraging for a tidbit. Others seemed
to be more interested in snoozing twirling themselves around a rock or a
small coral outcrop where they tucked their head under something to rest
up. They all were pretty docile ... I ran my hands gently down the length
of a few of them to feel the difference in their scales. Did you know
that the land snake flicks out its whole tongue while the sea snake only
flicks out its tongue up to the fork only. It has a gland in the lower
jaw that excretes excess salt absorbed through its skin every time its
tongue is protruded. They also have very good eyesight. I felt like I
was back at Sipadan when we came across huge turtles covered in large
remoras as they slept with their head tucked under the ledges.
Day 2. Dive 4 - Banc De Sable. Another drift wall dive. Lots of the
usual reef feeshies. The highlight for me was some massive Napolean
wrasse. Of course this was the one time I decided to leave the camera on
the boat with the plan to just cruise along enjoying the view. Bad, bad
idea .. coz the Napolean wrasse came up so close I could have patted it.
Opening its mouth in front of me I actually realised I could not see any
of its teeth and the entire insides of its mouth were the same colour as
its gigantic Mick Jaggar-like lips. A truely spectacular fish and these
ones were as curious of us as we were of them. You can not help but have
a little laugh to yourself when you notice their eyeball twisting in all
directions checking you out as you drifted along.
Dive 5 - Kasmira. While this spot was a little milky the marinelife was
full-on. Large schools of blue-lined snapper, large spotted sweetlips
lining up at the fish cleaning stations, surgeonfish over every type
imagineable, gobies galore, garden eels, nudibranchs, various types of
clownfish & filefish, hawkfish, fusiliers, blennies ... and so on. But,
the main attraction here were the leopard sharks. 4 regulars who appear
to do nothing but sleep all day until divers arrive to take loads of
piccies of them.
Day 3. Dive 6 - La Valle Des Gorgones. A drift dive with a lot of
pelagics out in the blue - dog tooth tuna, giant barracuda and schools of
surgeonfish & fusiliers. A large school of absolutely huge blunthead
parrotfish could be heard long before they could be seen - munching on the
coral. With their massive teeth they appear to me to always be laughing
at you. Saw my first harleauin tuskfish on this dive .. damn thing does
not sit still long enough to get a decent pic of though :-(
Dive 7 - Corne a Nicko. Another drift dive with many whitetip sharks
resting on the seafloor. The most common moray here is the white-mouthed
one. This place was thick with croinoids so I was always stopping to
tickle their undersides to get them to open up wide so I could check for
clingfish. Lots of juvenile fish were hiding among the croinoid fronds
also. There was one bulbous anemone here that was a brilliant florescent
orange colour.
Day 4. Dive 8 - Faillede Noupoa. This was similiar to a muck dive due to
the milky conditions. I spent most of my time patiently waiting for
gobies and their resident blind shrimps to pop in to view. Lots of
nudibranch or nudibranch eggs on the algae covered corals.
Dive 9 - Kasmira. We put in a request to return to this spot so we could
see again the leopard sharks. We all slowly inched our way towards them
until they each shuffled away to a quieter spot to settle down again. You
could just imagine them saying something along the lines of "not another
bloody tourist again, damn pests.." ;-) I blew off the rest of my slide
film taking piccies of schools of bannerfish, moorish idols, sweetlips,
blue-lined snapper & various types of butterflyfish.
Day 5. Dive 10 - Grottes De Gadji. This was mainly swimthroughs and
caverns. I was totally bored just going one way through every thing as
there are only so many pics you can take of the same type of shrimp .. so
when the Diveguide indicated we'd go back the same way I indicated I'd
buddy up with someone and we'd take our time going around the outside of
the coral ridges meeting them back at the boat. I set off with my chosen
buddy, Helene, only to find when we happened to glance behind us that all
but one of the rest of the dive group had followed the diveguide back
through the caverns so once we returned to the dive boat which was nicely
situated in the shallows I did a quick body count and left a note on my
dive slate for him at the exit point to the last cavern so he knew all
were accounted for before I shot off my last shots on some anemonefish
just out of eyesight of the dive boat. He had got use to me sneaking off
to take piccies but at first he was a bit worried I'd disappear into the
deep blue till he got use to the sight of only being able to see my
bubbles many a time.
Dive 11 - Mur Aux Pouattes. Spent most of the dive with diveguide Lionel
searching for a very rare goby, which we found in the last 10 mins of the
dive so I had them all to myself as most were already doing their safety
stops being low on air. Throughout the dive he would find something for
the main dive group to look at for a few minutes and then quietly wave me
over to photography something either very minute or skittish before
showing the rest of the group. We spent many an afternoon after washing
our dive gear talking about our dive travels, what we really enjoyed
photographing, and the habits of many of the fish we'd seen on that days
dives. I'm on his boat again for the dives with the SPUMS group so will
have a little more leeway in being able to get in to the water first and
then out of the water last to get the max out of the dive.
Day 6. Dive 12 - 7 Tetes. We spent the majority of this dive on the
outside of the coral bommies. Only saw one lionfish this sector of the
dive trip, a very black and white one which for once faced the camera face
on instead of the usual rare end view so I think I got some nice close-up
facial shots of that one. Again I spent quite a bit of time tickling the
undersides of the croinoids so they would open up wide so I could
photograph clingfish. Some nice hawkfish were also found hiding on the
huge gorgonian seafans. Lots of nice nudibranchs in this spot. Found
quite a few anemone crabs on some of the anemonies .. in fact many a time
the anemone crabs were actually larger than the anemonefish in residence
which just goes to show how minute some of the anemonefish were. I had
assumed the adult anemonefish had been swallowed up by sea snakes. I saw
a photo in the dive shop of an anemone trying to devour a juvenile sea
snake so I guess it was getting its own revenge back.
Dive 13 - Banc De Sable. 2nd drift dive at this spot but we crossed over
the first coral ridge and followed the 2nd coral ridge along this time. A
large school of orange-spot surgeonfish were schooling in one area here.
I managed to get in amongst them and hopefully have some half decent pics
of them as normally they scatter as soon as you breathe. This area had
the unusual anthias that I had being trying to get a close-up pic of the
whole week. Fingers crossed atleast one pic turns out as they were the
most unusual colour and pattern from the norm.
Well, the time flez by on Kodejue. I thoroughly enjoyed the dives with
Lionel and Emeric. I have to admit the diving was better than I expected.
Viv
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