Today was the last full day of diving and it was pretty incredible. Our first stop was the Saies Tunnel; a huge cavern we could dive through. The tunnel was massive and deep; we entered at the top of the tunnel around 90 feet with the bottom of the tunnel 30 - 50 feet below us. As we made our way into the tunnel, the bottom slowly climbed to a more manageable depth so we could go explore the floor of the cavern. There we found fish you might not normally find at those depths. Since the cavern blocked out the light, fish that normally dwell at deeper, darker depths felt more at home. We exited at the other end and made our way up along a gorgeous coral covered wall before returning to the boat.
Our second dive of the day was the Ulong Channel, one of Palau’s most famous dive sites. The dive was really fun and featured just about everything. First, we hooked in at the start of the channel and watched as about 11 small sharks swam past accompanied by some larger sharks. Then we un-hooked and enjoyed a very gentle drift dive up the channel along a gorgeous coral garden. At the very end of the channel, we ended the dive by a couple giant clams; easily the largest I’ve seen.
After lunch, we dove the Siaes Corner, a site near the tunnel we dove in the morning. It was a nice dive along a wall where we saw some eels and lots of fish and corals. Maybe one of the less interesting dives of the day but a “bad” dive here isn’t really a thing it seems. Even uneventful dives are still incredible in their own way.
Last, we dove Sandy Paradise. Our divemaster said this was one of his favorite spots and for good reason. First we stopped at a cleaning station. Not just any cleaning station though; this was a diver cleaning station. There were two cleaning wrasses that would come off their reef and gently nibble away at dead skin on your hands or (in my case) face. The sensation was odd as they pecked at my hands and ears then swam back to their home on the coral. After that, we stopped at a coral-covered rock where we found an eel and a mantis shrimp! The mantis shrimp was buried in the sand waiting for an unsuspecting minnow to swim close enough to become dinner. After spending a good chunk of time and air at that rock, we moved on to explore the rest of the surrounding beautiful reef before surfacing to a nice sunset.
There was no night dive tonight. We motored back and are now anchored where we started; just outside the Palau Royal Resort where I stayed when I arrived. We did get to watch a video the crew compiled of our time here. It featured some pretty stunning videography taken by the crew. They really did a nice job, not just with the video but the whole trip; it has been an amazing experience with the Aggressor crew and I am thankful for all their hard work. Tomorrow we will do two more dives before we pack up our things and prepare to leave. We get tomorrow night on the boat then we leave the liveaboard Sunday morning. I’m staying a bit longer in Palau with my friend and dive buddy Shawn. We’ll do some more dives and tour a bit more of Palau before I finally leave very early Friday morning for Vietnam.
In all I have six days left in Palau and I plan to make the most of it. I believe it will be another bittersweet departure however I’m coming to find that is the mark of a good trip.