November 2009 saw Belper Sub Aqua Clubs trip to Magic Island Dive Resort, Cebu in the Philippines. A chance email from Ultimate Diving stirred us to book this trip as something a little different from the Red Sea which was the original plan. Ultimate Diving were great in helping us organise the trip around the changing plans of a group of nine people (divers and non divers). They also had the challenge of getting the travel documents to us during the postal dispute – solved by meeting up at the Birmingham Dive Show.

Eventually we settled on the plan of flying Cathay Pacific to Cebu via Hong Kong. The departure day came and we all waved goodbye to our bags at Heathrow hoping to see them at the end of our journey (and we did). We arrived at Cebu International Airport early evening to be met by Magic Island staff and a mini bus, 3 hours later after a tortuous journey we arrived at the resort.

To call it a resort would be an injustice, we were met in person by the owners Ari and Desiree a Dutch couple who have transformed what was once a run down complex into something that was comfortable and very laid back. First thing we were provided with was something to eat and a cold beer – we knew we had arrived then!

Ari and Desiree were around every day and always took the time to socialise, chat and provide information. There were only around 22 guests at the resort (being looked after by 22 staff) which made it feel very friendly and comfortable.

We were shown to our rooms, some around the pool side and some a little further away, the rooms were fine, spacious and clean, although the beds could have been a bit softer (personal opinion).

We were also introduced to the dive staff and planned the first dives for the following day. We were very pleased to be allocated our own boat and crew (from the two available) for the length of our stay.

The following morning we were raring to go, we checked in to the office with our qualifications and were shown where to store our kit, the whole operation was extremely well run and each of our allocated storage locations were designed with the requirements of divers in mind.

We kitted up and then boarded for a couple of dives at Pescador Island a journey of around 20mins. This was a great introduction to diving in the area which is concentrated on macro life. The highlight of the first dives however was an absolutely enormous sardine ball containing millions (didn’t count them exactly) of fish which parted as we swam through them and swirled around our bubbles. The walls around the island were covered in a mass of coral which seemed in excellent condition and there were many reef fish, hidden away a couple of frog fish were pointed out by our guides.

We returned from our first day to relax by the pool, later chilling out at the cocktail bar and enjoying a great meal alongside a group of Dutch divers who we got to know really well over the course of our holiday.

Day followed day, sometimes we dived twice and sometimes we dived more including a night dive. None of the sites were very far away and although all the sites were in effect along the same reef system, there were differences in topography and the type of marine life we encountered.

The main highlights were turtles on most dives, bat fish on the house reef, sea eels, banded sea snakes, ghost pipe fish, mandarin fish and many species of nudibranch. My personal favourites were the early evening dive to see the mandarin fish mating and our guides showing us the pigmy seahorses at Dolphin House Reef. These tiny tiny creatures are amazing; fortunately the guides had magnifying glasses which we used to get a better view before attempting to capture them on our cameras. We really wouldn’t have known where to look without the guide’s expert knowledge.

Eventually our diving came to an end and we decided to have a day canyoning. This entailed being dropped off in the jungle with two local guides and after a trek leaping into a fast flowing river. We then had to follow the river downstream through canyons and jungle swimming walking and leaping off waterfalls.

Unfortunately this is where we had our only mishap with Tony falling badly and later finding out he had broken a rib, he was a brave lad though and managed to carry on to the end (I don’t know how we would have got him out anyway). When we got to the end of the trek the staff had provided a BBQ and we also took the opportunity of taking a water massage which basically entailed lying on a bamboo raft under a 20 metre waterfall which then pounded you into submission!

The last 24 hours unfortunately was very wet as we caught the tail end of a tropical storm, the journey back to Cebu airport was quite hazardous with floods and road closures. We made it on time in the end, subsequently once home we found out there was a contingency plan; Ari never did tell me what it was though.

The journey back to England was a long one caused by an eight hour stop at Hong Kong, in true tradition and spirit of adventure some of us left the airport and caught the train downtown to find the only bar at Victoria Harbour with a happy hour. We arrived back at Heathrow at 05:00 in the morning to make our various ways home.

To summarise the diving, the sea temperature was warm (28 deg C), the visibility varied but reasonably good. As regular UK wreck divers it was surprisingly different and we all enjoyed it, we must have really as no dive was less then one hour and the longest dive was just under two hours. However it would be a while before we go back unless of course they take a large ship and scuttle it as an artificial reef just off shore.

Magic Island Resort is more like going to stop with friends, it is extremely well run, the only thing I would suggest is to go full board (we went B & B) as there isn’t really anywhere close to eat as an alternative. We ended up having all our evening meals there which were varied and substantial.

 

The group were Andy, Sue, John, Anne, Alan, Clive, Tony, Nigel and Claire.

 

By Andy McKay – Trip Organiser

Photo's by Clive, Andy & Sue