These two divesites deserve their own page. Why? You'll see...
Ulong Channel
THE best and most fun dive for ever! 21 meters and 74 minutes, maybe 4-5 kilometers, a huge drift dive!
We had a nice lunch at Ulong Island picnic place, then parked on top of the plateau. Went down and hooked ourselves in a strongest current so far! I lost my camera, the shoulder strap was undone in the current! And here the sharks came very close indeed - me without the camera... I told our DM Jonathan about my loss, he went away for a while and handsigned me later that he reported to the captain my loss. I was devastated because of the pics inside... Well, this is life.
So I concentrated on the sights, beautiful. But the fun part was still to come: We let loose of our "moorings" with reef hooks and started drifting at high speed along the plateau. Jonathan had told us how to control the direction with turning ourselves facing this way and that, but at the beginning I was in a separate current from the others and had to swim a lot to join the group!
When we reached the actual sand-bottomed channel, we could just let our hair down and enjoy! And try to avoid big triggerfish attacking and groupers... The biggest cabbage coral wall I've ever seen... Passed in a hurry. Then we ended up in a sandy area with lots of scads, trevallies and other fish schooling. I wanted to have a closer look and grabbed a rock, and after I lost the sight of anyone else...
A flash of yellow fins in the distance, a lot of swimming to catch them up and I had caught 2 of our group!
What was the best: The captain had found my camera bobbing on the surface... These guys really know their currents!
Chandelier Cave
The most bizarre dive of my life! Max 18 meters, bottom time around 1 hour. Difficult to say, as this dive on the computer is like 5 separate dives! We had rented torches (flashlights) from the dive shop and I was glad again, as the caves were really dark. We had to be very careful not to stir the silt on the bottom and worsen the visibility.
There are four airfilled chambers with stalactites and stalagmites, you really have to look where you dive as these hanging rocks were everywhere! Once up in the air, we could remove the regu and breathe normally.
Everybody was excited and we just babbled! The last chamber was the smallest so Jonathan took us there ladies first and then the guys. While exiting the cave, my torch stopped working... Oh no! It was really eerie and difficult, trying to follow the divers in front in total darkness and avoid hitting your head on the hanging rocks... This photo was taken with a flash, so you can see how poor the viz is!
After we exited the cave and the adrenaline levels were back to normal, we then started a hunt. For a very small and elusive creature!
The Mandarinfish! Size 3-6 cm depending on the sex, this is a very colourful and beautiful fish. People come from all over the world to take photos! I was very patient so I got some very nice pics. No use turning coral rubble over, just take a comfortable position over some corals and wait...
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