Diving Malapascua

Making the bus trip from Cebu City to the north of the island is an arduous journey, a slow uncomfortable trip costing just 170 peso, the boat trip across the straight to the island is a further 100 peso. The other option is the dive centre picks you up from the airport in the south driving you to the boat departure point for $125 AUD, at an exchange rate of 39, that is a bus ride of $4.35 with the boat trip costing $2.56. The banca ride from Maya to Malapascua was uneventful, even discounting the odd wave splashing the occupants due to the surface chop. Landing on the beach, I removed my sandals to walk down the gang-plate so they don't get wet only to stand on a dog turd, not the start I had envisioned.

A walk around through the back paths guided by a bunch of local kids landed us at the rear entrance of Evolution Diving, great hopes ensured after my first disastrous trip to Malapascua in 2007 where no thresher sharks were spotted due to the arrogance of Thresher Shark Divers, a dive outfit I vowed I would never dive with again.

Left waiting at reception wasn't the start I needed but after finally getting it sorted, also spotting an electronic banking system sitting on the desk made me less than happy when I was informed to bring cash as no electronic facilities existed on the island despite paying electronically years earlier. I was forced to bring cash, I always feel nervous carrying large amounts of cash in the electronic age, I am after all in a developing nation with security always an issue.

I moved onto the dive centre where I added my name to the whiteboard for the 5.00 am and 9.00 am dives. I checked my mix for the early morning shark dive at Monad Shoal, to gain maximum bottom time, a EAN32 mix was tested and recorded. Great, increased bottom time; either more time searching for the sharks or a longer shark interaction should we be lucky.

After a late walk on the beach and an even later dinner next door at Exotic, the restaurant of the resort next door; I returned to the grounds of Evolution. I checked the whiteboard to find my name had been removed from the dive schedule for the dive trip. After a long discussion with staff, no further action could be taken as the boat was now fully booked. Further discussions ensured at 4:45 am the next morning with Mark the owner resulting in an even shorter answer "No changes, you will have to do some local dives instead."

Further annoying me, it was made clear checking in that if your name was on the whiteboard and you didn't attend, you would be charged the full price for the dive anyway. At their restaurant, you are also informed that if you are found having any forms of food at the resort, you will be billed the full value at their menu prices. Apparently, according to Evolution, if you cancel or don't attend, you pay - but if they bump you for more important clients "suck it up."

The first dive of the morning saw us slipping below the waves just after the sun had just appeared in the sky. We quickly moved to the first cleaning station and immediately spotted a single thresher shark circling. Only a short swim to the second cleaning station; we were able to view a further four thresher sharks slowly swimming with cleaner wrasse working hard. The sharks were at times just put of arms length and slowly circling with hardly a kick of their long majestic tail. While the sharks appeared to be trance like in their movements; as they swam past you, you could see their eye movement informing you they are alert and ready to respond to any threats. A response to a threat is kicking that huge trailing ribbon like tail accelerating their sleek body through the water and out of harm's way.

After we left the two cleaning stations, we kicked forward following the contour line of the shoal; the first of our group ascended on low air. I now buddied up with Reto, a tall muscular Swiss guy in his 40s who to me looked similar to Sacha Baron Cohen's alter ego, Bruno, the male model.

Looking down the sloping wall from the top of the shoal, I was able to spot a shark swimming in the deep on route to the cleaning station. Our chance encounter made our experience seem more natural and less of a premeditated show. At the cleaning station, our small group of three also shared space with a large Singaporean contingent of 15+ divers.

Everyone knows Singaporeans are well behaved above and below the water; this group in particular possessed fine diving skills, but unfortunately, sheer numbers made viewing space tight, our chance encounter, although at a distance felt so authentic, Reto commented afterwards back on the banca of our chance encounter.

Slowly working my way forward to the mooring line, a deep stop for 2 minutes at 15 metres allowed me to look back over the edge of the wall for any further sightings. Moving to my shallow stop depth, I was contented in finally viewing the thresher sharks after the disappointment of my earlier trip years back. Now the question remains, do I start making the rounds of competing dive shops to organise my diving?

Upon returning to the resort, I moved to my room for a quick shower to wash off the salt when a staff member knocked on the door to inform me I was indeed on the day trip. I quickly dried and wandered over to the whiteboard to see a couple of names had been removed and my name was now last on the list. Ironically, it was Reto and his partner that had cancelled, he even discussed the day trip on our return trip.

Previously, my name was listed as one of the first taking the trip, it was clear a last minute cancellation took place and I had been reinstated - cold comfort, but at least I was diving again.The long trip was worthwhile after all and by default, I was back diving again.

The local Filipino staff at Evolution are excellent from their office staff, dive guides, instructors and boat staff. In my mind, it is the team you remember more so than the facilities, that being said - the facilities were very good.

It now looks like the long bus journey from Cebu City to Malapascua was indeed a success, the rest of the dives around the island are a little bland taking into account the quality of diving around Cebu, Bohol and Negros. If it wasn't for the thresher sharks, I would never had bothered to make the journey north.