by Tess Godfrey
I had no idea what to expect from Palau, but it certainly did not disappoint. From the first boat ride out, through beautiful green mushroom shaped islands crafted by the pale blue/green seas, topped with trees clinging to the rocks with birds of paradise camped within, it was one beautiful sight after another.
Our diving started off easy, on a gentle dive with cleaner wrasse, but was soon followed by a frantic drift down a channel, at times getting so fast that we had to work hard to avoid our fellows - the advice to “get bigger to slow down” worked the opposite, which makes sense as an afterthought but at the time meant for a very fast dive!
We dropped into amazing clear blue holes, looking up into the sunlight as we dived through caverns and out onto rock walls full of life.
A highlight was the Manta cleaning station – we were just about to leave, thinking there were no Mantas that day, when our guide signalled to us to get down low. A huge Manta approached silently and circled over us leaving me trying to suppress a squeal of delight and fumbling for my camera! Everyone got back onto the boat buzzing, huge bucket list tick!
The rest of the week yielded more Mantas, Eagle Rays, Sharks, & more Turtles than we could count. Dangling like “Live Bait” from a reef hook wedged into the reef’s surface, buffeted by the currents, and watching sharks as they watched us was also an unforgettable experience.
Our final day in the sea included snorkelling a wreck, lunch on the beach and watching the Black Tip Reef Sharks feed from a bait ball and glide past gracefully with their Remoras keeping pace underneath to the strains of” Believe it or not”(theme of the Greatest American Hero) coming from the Skipper’s music on the boat.
On our deco day Ben, our great long suffering taxi driver, took us on an island tour visiting the waterfall, a Japanese light house, Monoliths, and the Capital building followed by, of course, a visit to Overdrive (a dive shop) for souvenirs!
Huge thanks to the amazing staff of Sam’s Dive Tours, including their brilliant Dive Masters John, Jun and Angelo, plus skipper Jordy and the office girls who gave us advice on the best places to eat [Jen and Clara} – we had a Wonderful & Fabulous week!
