For our recent family holiday in the Philippines, where our geographically-challenged immediate family converged from three different continents to meet at a fourth, my brother had expertly organised yet another trip; a holiday within a holiday. To get away from the pre-Christmas crowds of Manila, we flew South to Coron, Palawan, renown for its island beaches, magnificent rock formations and excellent diving.

I took a break from exploring the otherworldly lakes, lagoons and beaches to instead try out the diving. I wasn’t going to pass up the chance to dive in one of the best diving locations in the world. Fortuitously, Sea Dive Resort had a walk-in special of three dives for 2,900 pesos (~70AUD). Too easy!

I arrived at 8am to sign the appropriate forms and get fitted with a wet suit. I was told that although it’s warm underwater, the wet suit doubles as protection in the wrecks. We proceeded on our first dive shortly after 9am.

Dive 1: Barracuda Lake

The first dive was Barracuda Lake, a lake of brackish water enclosed by one of the amazing limestone rock formations of the Coron region. Of particular note in the lake are the distinct thermoclines. The top “tier” of the lake is 10 metres of warm 30ºC fresh water, the second is a further 10 metres of 40ºC salt water and the rest below that is 30ºC salt water.

Until the thermocline, there was nothing particularly interesting, especially with the poor visibility (12m?). Then we were hit with the heat of the underlying saltwater: it was scorching! It was uncomfortable at first but soon became relaxing. I remembered warnings about spending too much time at a sauna or a hot spring… get too relaxed and you could fall asleep!

We pushed through to the more tolerable third tier where we approached the limestone lake walls.



What was amazing was that as we ascended back into the 40ºC tier and onto the the 30ºC tier, we’d acclimated so much to the 40ºC so much that 30ºC felt cold!

Our dive had a depth of 30m and lasted 36 minutes.

Dive 2: Tangat Maru

Our second dive was at the Tangat Maru, a Japanese cargo ship sunk during World War II by American bombers. Our divemasters drew the wreck from memory and advised how the dive would proceed.

Laying on a the 30m deep ocean floor, we dived down to the wreck via a moor line to one of the cargo doors. Once in the ship, you could see the walls, supplies and debris overgrown with sealife. After a spacious tour around the cargo hold, we made our way toward the bow of the ship, via a hole in the wall.

From there we doubled back along the hull of the ship to view the rest of the wreckage and coral.

The divemaster was quick to spot stonefishes.


Outside, the skeleton of the cargo ship was totally covered with sealife, from different kinds of corals to exotic fishes.
There were also a few lion fish around the wreck.

Our max depth was 27.4m, dive temperature was 30ºC and dive duration was 35 minutes.

Dive 3: Olympia Maru

After lunch onboard, our outrigger made its way to our third site, the wreck of the Olympia Maru, another Japanese cargo ship. Our divemasters took turns fleshing out a drawing of the wreck and Daboy ran us through it. At this point, I couldn’t visualise what the plan was. There was a lot of rooms to visit! The important things I noted was that it was going to be dark and cramped. Got it.


We dived down guided again by the moor lines and entered the ship. Dark and cramped is right; it was much too difficult to take any good photos. Some of the sections was practically crawlspace. Yet we manoeuvred down, around and into the various nooks of the ship.

At one point during the dive, I got distracted taking photos and lost the rest of the divers. They were no where to be found above nor below and there were too many passageways to attempt looking for them. I floated upwards through a hole in the hull and was surrounded by all these amazing corals on the ship’s external wall. Before I could decide my next course of action, I could hear the metallic tapping of the divemaster’s knife against his tank. I dove back into the ship and where he was waiting for me inside.
Instead of taking photos, I tried taking a video. The result is unremarkable but one can get a sense of how tight it was in the wreck.
Our max depth was 24.4m, the temperature was 30ºC and the dive lasted 36 minutes.

The word? Amazing diving at stunning and historical sites. Sea Dive Resort was well-equipped and totally professional. I’d dive with them again with no hesitation.


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