I slept many hours, but still woke up early. I am excited for this trip, but I am not really sure what to expect diving with a new group of people.
The LBH is not in our group. Thank God. From the looks of him, he would have been a nightmare.
I went down to the lobby a little early and picked up my breakfast to go and went in search of another coffee. I met one woman in the group name Annelee from Sweden living in Thailand. We chatted a bit. She went on Gary's trip to PNG. Then some others came down to the lobby too. I found out that a few of the divers were already there and that there are 13 of us total.
Gary gave me a big hug and acted like we had met before. I asked him if we had ever met in person and he said no... just Facebook. Funny how we live in this digital world today. I told him it was so great to actually meet him in person finally.
We had an arranged shuttle for all of us to the airport and it was a short flight to Tagbilaran (TAG). We claimed our bags and had another two and half hours in a van to the Ocean Magic Resort. Gary kept trying to take pictures of these little shelters where they sell lotto tickets out of a miniscule window.
When we arrived at Magic Oceans we were greeted with watermelon juice. It seems like a really nice place. They even have a beautiful pool.
I noticed down by the dock that the waves were pretty rough. I ordered a chicken cashew salad for lunch that was pretty good. I found out that the night before, there had been some flooding/tsunami warnings. Yikes!
We had a QR code to fill out out information and I learned that Nitrox was an extra $30 per day. Ugh, I decided to start with it but can switch to air anytime. I couldn't really tell if we were diving that afternoon or not and nobody seemed to be making a decision, so I just went to the front office and asked to check into my bungalow. Then I worked on setting up my camera.
John also was in the camera bay working on his huge camera setup and let me know that around 4pm, we'd be gathering to do a shore dive. OK, that's good as I really want to get wet today.
The shore dive entry to the house reef was pretty tough, but it was good to get underwater. I brought my light but the battery wasn't charged enough and it died pretty quickly. I tried to use my spotter light, but it wasn't ideal.
Once I found my first nudi, I went to show Anne-Li and I lost it. I had such a hard time getting her attention that I couldn't find it again. I need to put a marker down when I try to show people stuff!
Unfortunately, my group only found two nudis in total. Yikes. But we did see lots of other great marine life: turtle, a huge cuttlefish, mantis shrimp, frogfish, flatworm.
I was glad to get the kinks out and start on this adventure.
Everyone gathered at the bar for a drink before dinner. Gary handed out these great ball caps and stickers to everyone.
Jeremy shared a picture of a nudi he wanted an ID for and Gary called it a Goniobranchus "Co-Eye". What the fuck is a Co-I? I looked it up and it was the Goniobranchis coi. He just says it in a funny way. I teased him about it and he said the the guy it is named after's last name was "Co" and with the latin addition of the male "i" it is pronounced Co-I. To me, that just sounds like a stutter! I say "Koi" like the fish pond. It's good to learn!
I corraled everyone to dinner at 7pm and we came across this crazy spider! OMG. I didn't want to be anywhere near it, but our cute waiter grabbed it and took it over to the bushes.
Anne-Li has many dietary restrictions, so it will be interesting to see how the kitchen crew can accommodate. She was a little frustrated, but I thought the food was pretty good. I even liked the starter soup made out of lentils.
I asked Gary if he knew Neville Coleman. He said that he lived with him for a while and helped him launch some Apps. He was also there when he died. How sad.
By the end of dinner, I was so tired... I asked for some ice water and extra coffee packets and retired for the night.
I'm still piecing it all together, but here is the list of divers:
Gary - born in Miami, lived in California, now resides in Australia diving the Mooloola River frequently.
John - Australian
Karen and Jeanette - Australians
Elisha and Vanessa - Australians
Caroline - Swedish
Roxy - English
Anne-Li - Swedish living in Thailand
Jeremy and Kristen - live in Colorado and also went on Gary's PNG trip, flew in earlier
Karolle - Snorkeler from Canada, flew in earlier
Here are the nudis from the house reef dive today:
1 - Thuridilla lineolata
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