Diving On Apo Island

Apo Island is one of the best diving areas in the Philippines. Giant manta rays, large sea turtles, thriving reefs. I have to go, of course. Harolds Mansion organises relatively cheap diving trips itself. After a four-day typhoon break, there are nine divers with me today. I already know half of them from other places. Harolds Mansion is a real backpacker centre.

We arrive after an hour’s crossing with a boom alarm on the bow. The first dive is down to 28 metres. Thick coral forests, steep walls, 1000 fish. The turtles and giant manta rays seem to have been blown away by the typhoon. I dive with two Pekingese. Both breathe much better than I do. I hate being back on top after 30 minutes with 120 bar residual pressure. Today will be different.

Our guide apparently practises diving as an extreme sport. No risk, no fun. I signal to him at 25 metres: 80 bar. Then again at 20 metres: 50 bar. The rule is actually: at 50 bar, decompression should take place at a depth of approx. 5 metres. The Pekinese still have 100 bar residual pressure when I start decompression with 20 bar residual pressure. I reach the surface after just under an hour at 10 bar.

The second dive is similar. Back down to 25m, again steep walls, coral forests covered in fine dust, moray eels, stonefish and large schools of colourful parrotfish. My Pekinese seem to be able to signal every single fish with the correct hand signal. Eerie. Thanks to the typhoon, visibility is far below standard. Today it fluctuates between 10 and 20 metres. Otherwise 25-30 metres is normal here. Again, no turtles or manta rays. But I’m allowed to go up earlier, this time I have a whopping 30 bars to spare.

To be allowed to dive on Apo Island, you have to pay a parking fee, which is quite hefty at 5 euros. What do the Filipinos do with it? I have no idea. Maybe it at least deters a few divers. I’m sticking to my guns: we are so heavy and move so fast in such large masses that no coral could ever grow back fast enough. If you dive, you destroy. That’s it. They can emphasise the ecological orientation of local diving tourism a hundred times.

Apo Island is nice. There are two small and quite expensive lodges. But some people from the hostel here do homestays with the fishermen there, and at 200 pesos = 3.50 euros a day, that’s a real bargain. I climb up to the highest mountain. At the lighthouse you have a great view of the Balisasanyao volcano on Negros. The local authorities were not expecting such devastating rainfall. Although any fool can imagine: Typhoon from the east, second highest warning level. Directly behind the town to the west is the steeply sloping volcano. If only they had thought a little further ahead, the dive master’s brother-in-law might not have woken up in the middle of the night on an island in the river. He wouldn’t have had to flee through it. And his five-year-old son would still be alive now.

The last dive is something new for me: drift diving. We get out at the northern point of Apo Island in heavy waves. The rest is awesome autopilot, only without the stop button. Into the current and fly over colourful coral gardens, rocks and steep walls at depths of up to 20 metres. The current is quite strong at up to 0.5 m/s. As long as you can see the rocks coming in good time and balance yourself properly, everything is fine. But I don’t want to know what it feels like to be thrown against a rock.

There are lots of small animals in the current. Disadvantage: Visibility drops to five metres. Advantage: even more small fish. And these are then chased by a shoal of giant jackfish (looks like tuna) over a metre in size emerging from the darkness. Star Wars in blue. Watch and be amazed. Dodging rocks from time to time.

As always, when I’m here diving or on boats, the wind comes up again. Today from midday until the evening a nice 15-20 knots. I was still in the right place. The fun will be endless when I get back to kiting.