How about this at 0530am. I am liking the start this morning. Wow! Not a soul about. Not a wave about. It’s millpond. This is looking good, looking good.

Remember the film with Adam Sandler? He was potentially the biological father of the little boy that kept wetting the bed? Well here is my own personal Scuba Steve (who does not wet the bed by the way…).

The real Scuba Steve from the film Big Daddy. Well, it made me laugh when I saw Jude, and not being anywhere near the water either…

We load up on the life-jackets and board Triple R, our vessel for today’s entertainment. This would be a 5 hours round-trip including; dolphin watching, snorkelling and island hopping. We were so very lucky to have the boat all to our self (cost a few more $$$ but more than worth it). Captain, deck-hand and guide with us too of course. It was 0600am, pack lunch collected from reception, disclaimers signed and we were boarded and departed. Now the reason for stating this was that we were literally the only boat out on the water for dolphin watching, so no crowds, no excessive noise and nothing to really frighten away what we were ‘hunting’ first. Bring on the dolphins.

And then we are off to Balicasag Island, which took about 30 minutes of open-sea travel. I loved it, but a tad bouncy for my wifey who doesn’t have desperately good sea-legs (very good legs apart from that though, woo hoo). It’s a tiny little island that has a population of 700, including kids and a shit load of dogs. It’s a stunner. Smack bang in the middle is the lighthouse, which is much needed as this is a lump of coral, which then proceeds to some amazing drop-offs. We’re on our way here for snorkelling (could have been diving) – 2 key spots; 1 is for sea turtles (another 1st) and 2 is the coral reef drop-off. We shall see. I wonder if there could be another 1st a coming… read on.

So we hit the island for our snorkelling adventure. A quick introduction to our new guide. Off he goes after that to collect the new tour boat. WTF are you serious? I had a bigger one than that for my Action Man when I was a kid. I have had baths bigger than that. Don’t forget he is getting in this as well. Fark me – flashbacks to Shallow Hal film….

Luckily I was sat in the middle today, or this might have happened!!! I also just had a thought. So we jump out of this to go snorkelling. How the fark do we get back in the boat when mid-ocean…?

But believe me, it surely was worth the tight squeeze. My first plop in the sea and I get to witness this 1st. My 1st ever sighting of an adult sea turtle in the wild munching happily away on seagrass. Today though not just one, but four. This included a huge one that surfaced for breath as we made our way to the next island stop point. OK, I was snorkelling but this sight left me truly breathless. These creatures are majestic and so peaceful. I am blown away with our luck today. Just blown away.

Just stunning. Speechless. I followed this one for ages as she grazed. She even swam a couple of feet away when coming to the surface for a breath. I felt peaceful. I spoke to our guide who explained that the sad thing was the scarcity of the seagrass. That is evident, sadly, from this photo. Very sad. Maybe too much pollution now from the engines of the boats landing at the island that did not before? It certainly is not from is hand powered canoe, is it? I feel ashamed.

Here are Amy and I at the top of her world. Trying so hard to be part of it without intruding. I could have floated watching the sea turtles all day long. I remember back to watching the babies on Bintan all leaving their egg sacks and making a mad dash for the sea, literally swimming between my legs. Remembering the stat that only a very small % make adulthood. Then remembering that very same island is the one with warnings of oil spillage from those shitty ships in the Straits that flush their crap out.

So graceful, so peaceful. #donoteatturtle #donotbuyturtleshell #noplastic #reuserecyclereduce

And then she was gone. She flapped her fins and she drifted off into the dark. Luckily, as I mentioned, we had another two to go an ‘annoy’ with our stares. My Grandad, Joe, would have loved this. Dear me, he would have loved this.

Trying to be a turtle now, fat boy floating. That is one thing I am very good at, at the moment. I was following her as she slipped away. You’ll notice it was just me with her at this time. Again amazing things happened today. We seemed capable today to bypass all the crowds. We were just so extremely lucky. 121 with a sea turtle, I am a lucky boy.

Later that day, my Jude was so impressed he drew this for me on the Bellevue Resort notepad in the room. Love it my Jude, love it.

All aboard the Skylark. OK to answer that question of how the hell do you get back in? Our tour guide is in the water. He braces himself against the boat and holds on to the outriggers. He then raises his knee and asks you to step up on it to re-board the canoe. I was seriously impressed. We sort of did OK, but I did spot a few canoes around that were really struggling to get people back on board. Reminded me of a few episodes of Wicked Tuna – could have done with a crane.

Jude plops in too. I took him for an explore and whilst I was snorkelling him about he decided to put his hand over the top of my snorkel and nearly drown me. Funnily enough, he was put back in the boat immediately after that.

It is stunning here just a few metres off the island beach and before the massive drop-off. It’s like swimming to the edge of a skyscraper but you cannot see the bottom of the skyscraper. It is surely deep and dark. Who knows what lurks beneath. Should have had my flippers on, and next time perhaps a dive too. I was blown away by this place. The island is stunning above and beneath.

Yes, that is Amy and I. It’s a long way down to that reef.

Fat boy s way too floaty to get down there with no fins. I gave it a good shot though. Looking like a semi-pro free-diver – oh yes!!! Free as in – how much $$$ to do bloody PADI diving? Give me the bloody snorkel, its free!!!

Bloody amazing though – even from the shallows with a wee snorkel only. It’s stunning down here and this is like 10 metres off the bloody beach.

This is right next to the drop-off. Expecting to see Nemo and a But around here. It’s all topaz and light and lovely with millions of fish and then BOOM the edge of a cliff and nothing. Just darkness. Kind of scary to be honest. It’s kind of strange how far dark goes. On and on. But in the light just check out how amazing the coral is. It’s healthy and vibrant here. Go to the Philippines.

Found him!!! Must have some Nemo action….

I so should have put fins on, as it was bloody hard work to get down deep, like bloody hard work.

Amazing blue starfish that perhaps would not be picked up like the other ones. As we all know bright colours in nature usually mean; “Go on then try and eat me, I warned you.” Stunning though.

Squillions of fish. Squillions. You surely don’t get the colour of these fish in the photo. These were aquamarine blue. Shimmering metallic blue in fact. Now all the little white bits you can see are from broken up crackers that Jude is crumbling up and throwing in from the boat. Yes, he is chumming the water, giving us amazing views from below.

Here is Jacques Cousteau’s nephew exploring the wild-life. Well flopping and floating about basically in a load of fish. Very beautiful fish though it has to be said.

There is a truly stunning array of different corals that are all looking rather vibrant and healthy here. You need to watch the video footage to see the reefs become a drop-off. In a way that was quite scary – beauty on display everywhere to darkness and unknown. Let’s call it mysterious then.

We then leave Balicasag Island for a potter back to Panglao and a wee little island just off its shores called Virgin Island. Perfect for my Mary to visit – yep Virgin Mary ha ha. Here there are a few amazing things like a sand-bars and a million pigeons and some rather strange religious sculptures floating in the water and the like. The boats can’t moor up so they drop you off and go and park up. See you shortly guys!

This is Virgin Island. Yeap it is small, very small. Tiny in fact. A small Virgin.

And this is why most come here. It’s a crazy, incredible sand-bar. It’s long and shaped like a crescent. How this does not get washed away is beyond me. I am trying to think back to Geography A-Level days. I think it might be due to two opposing tides pushing it together. Maybe. Just think in about 20-30 minutes this will be gone under the sea until the next low tide. Nature again at her best. This is just a stunning little piece of uniqueness here on Panglao. There’s actually quite a few of these to visit on Bohol, you’ll just need to make it a day-trip though.

Here is proof I was there. I love this sort of stuff. It gives me the change to go overboard on DaddyPedia stuff. Love it. And I did as we saw loads of things as we ambled up the length of the sand-bar.

Wifey had a crazy idea. I asked her for a San Miguel. She said; “Where from?” I said the; “The sand-bar hun!”

Exploring the shallows. My gallant little satsuma boy trying to blend into the surroundings… Hmmm!!!

Amy spotted this thing. I am assuming it is a sea cucumber of some description. Again nature has gone crazy. I am certainly not picking this one up without gloves.

Love this shot. The tide is indeed fast coming in and covering our little sand-bar. I didn’t hear the call for last orders, did you?

It really will be gone very soon. We didn’t even make it to the end sadly. That tide came in super fast. Munchkins really enjoyed it here. It was small in scale but large in the adventure. And not a soul in sight as you can see.

Sort of adding weight to my two opposing tides concept. See the little ripples in the middle where literally the two tides are colliding, and I assume are ‘sweeping’ up the sand and dropping it into this little sand-bar shape.

Well hello, there Facebook….

I like a lot. Nice photo despite the Jude AKA satsuma photo-bombing. Bugger!!!

There we go. I feel a profile shot coming on. Glad I wore some ‘slimming’ black ha ha!!!

It literally was there, and then in the blink of an eye, it was gone. Time to paddle back to the island. Again a part of the 1st’s for this old fella. I have never stood on a sandbar before, especially one in tropical seas abundant with life that again you seldom see. Just bloody brilliant. Amazing!

We even get to see a tiny little cuttlefish. I gave it a scare and immediately it squirted out ink in defence and started to changing colour to its background. Again nature, you never cease to amaze. Wow!

Tubs and Crocket eat your heart out fellas. This is how they do it in the Philippines! I wonder if they wear pastel pinks.

The other thing our guide said was that on the island are loads of interesting birds. What she meant to say was it has shot loads of pigeons. AKA rats with wings. Jesus. OK add shit loads of pigeons to 2 crazy kids and what do you get?

ATTACK!!!!! RAT ATTACK!!! Eat your heart out Hitchcock, this is The Birds in real-life.

A little bit of getting their own back on Jude ha ha!!!

And that was that folks. We then arrive back home for some lunch. RnR which includes a games room, and a snooze due to the early start. I then did a wee bit of research of somewhere different to eat so we don’t go restaurant stir-crazy and found a highly rated local joint down the road. Off we scoot to La Familia. It’s like eating in a tree house, very local, local. It is bloody brilliant in fact.

I had Nilagang Baka, a local soup. Beef bones, chayata, potato, carrot, cabbage, etc Absolutely delicious broth. You could tell that had been simmering for an age. Clear, clean and delicious. Loved it.

Amy gets stuck into the BBQ Tiger prawns with garlic. Monsters from the deep seem to be the theme today. These were crackers. She actually learnt today to peel her own prawns. Finally. The verdict was that they were super tasty, and all were gone in a very short space of time.

Wifey goes hard on Swimmer Crab cooked in Chilli garlic butter. A slight slip up on plate #1 with some raw areas, but plate #2 was on the money

I also ordered this, and man oh man this was one of the best versions of this dish ever. Absolutely amazing. This is Tortang Talong. AKA grilled eggplant, egg, ground pork and onions. I tell you what, this was a cracker. Hell yeah!!! Die, Die Must Try if you happen to frequent this restaurant.

And to make it doubly family, we had Mae and YanYan join us too. How nice is that as an end to the most amazing day. 

Back we come after dinner and look at what is sat on the bed. I think pig, Mary thinks dog, and Jude thinks the body of a baby and head of a pig (whoa there boy!!!) Anyways nice touch with my sunglasses, a lovely personal letter from the Manager and a fantastic towel sculpture to say goodbye.

I love this sort of stuff. Pretty certain this is hand-written too by Nigel. If you read this Nigel, thank you! Superb personal touch. One that made my wife and I both agree that the Bellevue Resort is indeed a special place. Thank you!