Back to Sogod Bay, to dive and marvel

In need of salt water, I dive these days with nostalgia in my last underwater pictures brought back from the Philippines... It was early 2020. Before the Covid and the closing of the borders.

Yes, I was really lucky: I was able to fly to the Philippines at the end of February 2020, and come back without a hitch a fortnight later. On the eve of the first lockdown in France and at Manila.

I spent two weeks there diving and exploring underwater sites on several islands of the archipelago: the south of Leyte (Sogod Bay), the southwestern part of Cebu (Moalboal), and Northeast Palawan (Pangatalan).

Since then, the coronavirus has crippled everything, and time has flown. In September 2020, I published an article about the Sea Academy project set up by the Sulubaai Foundation on Pangatalan Island in the evening edition d'Ouest-France. But I had not yet told anything here, on my personal blog, about this trip which seems so unreal today...

Better late than never. One year later, I finally decide to start a series of posts on this blog... It was about time!

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Back to Sogod Bay, twelve years on

First stage of this stay in March 2020: Sogod BaySo, in the south of the island of Leyte.

Those who have been following me for a long time on this blog may remember it: it is about the famous "whale shark bay" that I had discovered twelve years earlier, in 2008 (without spying a single whale shark).

See and see again... I must admit, I was not disappointed. I even found Sogod Bay more beautiful than I remembered. The area remained authentic. The dives are superb. This is the kind of place that really makes you feel good.

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To occupy my days in Sogod Bay, I have planned a few activities:

• Diving, of course, but perhaps also being able to watch a whale sharkthis time! (I'm totally spoiling the suspense with the photo above... 😉 )
• Meet young Filipino diving instructors trained on site by the French association Divers of the World (Plongeurs du Monde).
• Learn about environmental initiatives in the bay, which has several small marine protected areas (MPAs), including the hunting of the acanthasterthis fearsome coral-eating starfish, with the Sogod Bay Scuba Resort and a coral nursery, with the local association Green Inc.
• Meeting up with my friend Carol, who organizes eco-friendly diving trips with her agency Equilibre, and has planned to travel there at the same time to accompany a young French diving couple.

I'll be detailing all this in several articles over the coming weeks... 😉

February 2020, no restrictions for travellers yet

When I arrived at the Manila airport on February 29, 2020, there are signs about coronavirus for travelers, but no specific measures, other than a fact sheet to fill out and a temperature check.

Many people wear masks, which does not surprise or worry me. It is a habit already well established in Asia, especially since previous SARS outbreaks. But when I disembarked, the mask was not yet mandatory, and there were no sanitary restrictions on travel in the Philippine archipelago.

I was far from suspecting that the Covid-19 epidemic would take such a magnitude and last so long.

Back to Sogod Bay Scuba Resort

The domestic flight from Manila to Tacloban that takes me to the island of Leyte is not very long (1 hour and 20 minutes), but there are still several hours to drive to Lungsodaan, a village in the municipality of Padre Burgos, in the south of the island. Twelve years ago, I had come by sea, by night ferry, from Cebu. And at the end of this new stay, it is also by ferry that I plan to leave, to return to the island of Cebu.

In Padre Burgos, I am pleased to rediscover the Sogod Bay Scuba Resort (SBSR)where I had already been in 2008. This small dive center with adjoining restaurant and rooms overlooking a beach of dead corals, remained simple and welcoming. I celebrate my return with a well-deserved mango juice, facing the bay.

It is an Australian-Filipino couple, Phil and Darlene McGuire, who run the store, with a young Filipino team (the Englishman Ron Sparkes, co-founder of the resort with Phil, and with whom I had dived in 2008), passed away in 2014.)

I put below some recent photos of the SBSR, posted on Facebook by Darlene. At the time of writing (February 2021), the resort can once again welcome divers, after long months of closure, anti-Covid restrictions begin to ease in the Philippines (but the borders are still closed to foreign tourists for the moment).

At SBSR, the atmosphere is family, relaxed and without fuss. The diving trips are done in small groups on a large bankga (traditional Philippine outrigger boat) comfortable. And above all, in Leyte, we are far from the tourist hordes that are rampant elsewhere, on other islands of the archipelago much more popular ...

In short, we're fine. 😎 🌴 👌 🐠

There's quite a bit of wind in the south of Leyte at this time of year, but that doesn't stop us from sailing across the bay or diving. The best preserved and most beautiful sites are the reefs in the marine sanctuary of Napantao (Panaon Island) located on the east side of the bay, right in front of Padre Burgos, and those of the island of Limasawa located in the south at the entrance of the bay.

About 10 kilometers long, Limasawa is also a place of historical and religious significance. It is there that the Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan would have made the first lasting contact with the indigenous population on March 28, 1521, just before Easter, and would have celebrated the first Roman Catholic mass in the Philippines. The event, which will be the 500^e anniversary on March 31, 2021, marks the beginning of the Christianization of the archipelago.

Wonder in the waters of the Philippines

Every day, in the evening, I carefully prepare my underwater camera housing for the next day's dives.

Twelve years ago, I wasn't equipped like I am today. My little compact camera at the time didn't really allow me to take underwater pictures. So I was mostly focused on the "little" during my stay in Sogod Bay. This time, it's different. Each evening, I choose to put myself in "wide angle" configuration. I want to capture the special atmosphere of the coral reefs.

Photographing them has become my great passion... The more I dive, the more they fascinate and amaze me. And I am well aware of their fragility. The damage caused in the world by overfishing, pollution and global warming (corals bleach and die when the water is too hot) have taken on unprecedented proportions in recent years.

Between the Indian and Pacific Oceans, the "Coral Triangle" of which the Philippines is a part, has already suffered a lot. Despite everything, it is still the place on the planet that concentrates the greatest diversity of coral species. There is still life, in profusion on some sites, and hope: the ocean is capable of resilienceIf the ecosystems are allowed to regenerate.

More to read → Diving and protecting the ocean

I spent six days in Sogod Bay, including five days taking underwater pictures. So I leave you with these diving memories in pictures, and I'll come back to tell the rest very soon...

On the left, Limasawa Reef. On the right, a large gray antennae perched on a tubular sponge. (Sogod Bay, Leyte, Philippines, March 2020)

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Read more ➜ Diving trip : all my adventures since 2006

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