Luko
Contributor
First part Sogod Bay.
People ain't kidding when they say it's a long way to Sogod Bay, at least from Europe.
That was first a long but comfortable trip to Singapore on AF, upgraded to Business class, overnight in S'pore hawkers dinner and dim sum breakfast, the SIN-Manila flight with Scoot wasn't scheduled the day after, then overnight in Manila (I still love the Manila Hotel after many stays, upgraded to a suite), Couldn't complain with jetlag then.
Morning after the domestic transfer began : 1hr flight to Tacloban with PR.
Then almost 4 hrs van drive across Leyte to Peter's Dive resort (booked with PDR 5000PHP).
Probably begining of May wasn't the best moment to visit Sogod Bay and Peter's Dive resort- 3 first days were rainy not like you can expect in May in the Visayas. Padre Burgos jetty was closed for diving for a week or two due to a ship loading/unloading cargo, add on top a group of 15 chinese divers for the first days and too few divers on some days to organize other than "local" dives (Could have been worse though... two weeks before a group of 40 european divers had booked the resort). It also seems that PDR doesn't go out for Whale shark trips more than once a week and since the chinese group did it the day I came in, hence I would have to wait for a week more.
I had hired a private guide for all my dives so I could manage to avoid the group, however the first days were quite mundane, I didn't even bother dive the afternoon macro dives after I had the first muck dives. It's only when going to Napantao wall that I was more impressed with what Sogod bay had to propose diving wise.
"Little Lembeh" muck dives in Malitbog were more 'little' than Lembeh-ish in terms of critters : some usual macro life, I thought it was much less than in Dauin for instance, nowhere comparable to the best macro sites in Indonesia.
Coral was heavily touched two years ago by typhoon Odette, the local coral dive sites showed much rubble for the 10 shallower meters, my guide told me that Napantao shallows were severely hit and the coral wiped out. However Napantao in deeper parts was gorgeous, teeming with fish, lush with black coral, probably the one of the best walls in the Philippines (I still put Pescador off Moalboal ahead for the coral color, although I didn't revisit since 2018).
We finally cut short the week stay we had planned and decided to forward our arrival on Panglao, since whaleshark trips were planned only on the last day of our intended stay and I was longing for larger fish schools.
Thanks to PDR who helped us arrange our way to Panglao which was quite longish too : departing at 6:30AM 1,5 hrs drive from PDR to Bato harbor (2500 PHP), almost 3hrs ferry crossing to Ubay-Bohol (9AM 420PHP pp), 3hrs private car drive to Panglao, arrival around 4PM (5000PHP).
People ain't kidding when they say it's a long way to Sogod Bay, at least from Europe.
That was first a long but comfortable trip to Singapore on AF, upgraded to Business class, overnight in S'pore hawkers dinner and dim sum breakfast, the SIN-Manila flight with Scoot wasn't scheduled the day after, then overnight in Manila (I still love the Manila Hotel after many stays, upgraded to a suite), Couldn't complain with jetlag then.
Morning after the domestic transfer began : 1hr flight to Tacloban with PR.
Then almost 4 hrs van drive across Leyte to Peter's Dive resort (booked with PDR 5000PHP).
Probably begining of May wasn't the best moment to visit Sogod Bay and Peter's Dive resort- 3 first days were rainy not like you can expect in May in the Visayas. Padre Burgos jetty was closed for diving for a week or two due to a ship loading/unloading cargo, add on top a group of 15 chinese divers for the first days and too few divers on some days to organize other than "local" dives (Could have been worse though... two weeks before a group of 40 european divers had booked the resort). It also seems that PDR doesn't go out for Whale shark trips more than once a week and since the chinese group did it the day I came in, hence I would have to wait for a week more.
I had hired a private guide for all my dives so I could manage to avoid the group, however the first days were quite mundane, I didn't even bother dive the afternoon macro dives after I had the first muck dives. It's only when going to Napantao wall that I was more impressed with what Sogod bay had to propose diving wise.
"Little Lembeh" muck dives in Malitbog were more 'little' than Lembeh-ish in terms of critters : some usual macro life, I thought it was much less than in Dauin for instance, nowhere comparable to the best macro sites in Indonesia.
Coral was heavily touched two years ago by typhoon Odette, the local coral dive sites showed much rubble for the 10 shallower meters, my guide told me that Napantao shallows were severely hit and the coral wiped out. However Napantao in deeper parts was gorgeous, teeming with fish, lush with black coral, probably the one of the best walls in the Philippines (I still put Pescador off Moalboal ahead for the coral color, although I didn't revisit since 2018).
We finally cut short the week stay we had planned and decided to forward our arrival on Panglao, since whaleshark trips were planned only on the last day of our intended stay and I was longing for larger fish schools.
Thanks to PDR who helped us arrange our way to Panglao which was quite longish too : departing at 6:30AM 1,5 hrs drive from PDR to Bato harbor (2500 PHP), almost 3hrs ferry crossing to Ubay-Bohol (9AM 420PHP pp), 3hrs private car drive to Panglao, arrival around 4PM (5000PHP).
