Hand car wash

Our final day of diving and what an extraordinary day! We couldn't have hoped for a better finale.  It was a long range day which simply means an early start, further afield and pack three dives in instead of two.

After our usual (but not to be missed) glide round the bay to play with the spinner and spotted dolphin in the wake of the boat, our first dive was at Touch of Grey reef with quite different scenery and much further out to sea than usual. It's a kindergarten for grey reef sharks and we were lucky enough to spot a couple of small ones along with two eagle ray.  There was a huge curtain of fish streaming above our heads and we also spotted a good handful of barracuda checking them out.

On the way to dive two, the ocean was beautifully calm and Captain Paul spotted some fins ahead and we managed to come alongside a small pod of bottlenose dolphin... Quite a rarity. They were huge and not fazed by the boat at all, so we were allowed in to snorkel with them which was simply fabulous, hearing them clicking and whistling to each other.

Dive two was at Kua, the crews' favourite spot with huge sandy beds and beautiful coral trees. The variety in wildlife has been incredible and here, we saw freckled snake eels for the first time, poking their heads out of the sand (probable blip) as well as a wonderful variety of young fish in their nursery grounds.  We also saw an undulated moray, a giant moray at a cleaner station with shrimps giving him a thorough brush up.  Rich also picked out an unusual coloured leaf scorpion fish which are usually black but this one had quite a bright red on the side.

This all wound up to our last dive of the trip at Hoovers and a manta cleaning station. As soon as we dropped in, there was a manta ray beneath us so we descended carefully to watch him swoop in and out of the cleaner station enjoying a valet by the ocean hand car wash.  What a way to finish our dives but that wasn't quite the end of it.  A little further on, a bright yellow juvenile frog fish still deciding what colour to use as camouflage was sticking out of the coral like a sore thumb (and about that size!) Having never seen a frog fish before, we were both rather made up.  They're incredibly cute.

It has certainly been a trip to remember and it most definitely ranks amongst our best diving experiences.

When we got back, we still had time for coffee and ice cream, a sit by the pool, a touch of packing and dinner on the ocean front. It's all now getting remarkably close to our long journey home.

Dive 1: Touch of Grey 
28m
55mins

Dive 2: Kua
14.7m
68mins

Dive 3: Hoovers
18.9m
67mins