For years Palau has been a dream destination for our dive club – with more flight options and a better package price this year we finally got to go. 30+ hours of travelling later and still another flight to go we were all hoping it was all worth it.
24 hours later and heading underwater for the first time we knew it was – white tip and grey reef sharks, 2 manta rays at the cleaning stations and a 3m hammerhead cruised on past. Not to mention the many schools of snapper, jacks, emperors and other colourful reef fish and lots of coral in great condition.
All the dives were fantastic and varied – we dived along walls, down through blue holes and along tunnels, drifted down channels and over coral gardens.
We also dived in Chandelier Cave – complete with stalagmites and air chambers.
One of the most insane dives was the world renowned ‘Blue Corner’ where we hooked ourselves onto the reef in current & surge to watch the sharks and schools of fish hanging off the point. We were also visited by 2 large Napoleon Wrasse.
Claire had heard that there were Mandarin Fish along the wall in front of the dive operation so spent a quiet hour cruising along and found 4 mandarin fish, several pipefish and some very territorial damsel and angel fish.
We also went for a snorkel in the world famous Jellyfish Lake – with 100’s of stingless jellies!
Unfortunately all good things must come to an end and so our trip was over and it was time to take the many flights back home to Wellington
We would all head back – the diving was fantastic, the dive operator’s organised and informative, the accommodation basic but comfy and the food tasty and reasonably priced.