Hi all,
Thanks for all your tips and advice - We ended up going to Nigel's Scubar. We knew diving was a challenge due to short notice, but Nigel and his team jumped in completely, organised us an overnight stay, and we had 6 absolutely stellar Macrodives! I was after Nudibranchs mostly, and WOW did the North deliver !!!!
We saw the largest Nudibranch I have ever seen (Spanish Dancer) - 3 of them, even, though one was only "a baby"
... and a ton of others. The whole weekend was an amazing, laid back, relaxed experience I am glad we did not miss. I will have photos up soon.
Day 1: Ruby Point and Garden of Even (most eastern point in Taiwan); currents were pretty strong, and after a month of bad weather the visibility into the distance was not phenomenal (6-8meters or so). However, the Macro world was impressive as can be. It was on the Eastern-Most point that we saw 2 Spanish Dancer Nudis. (Man, they were as big as my cats!) Neither Dive went deeper than 18 meters (Ruby Point) and average depth was about 10-12 meters. Water temperature was 26 degrees.
Day 2: 2 Dives at Fulien Bay. Sponge gardens, tiny soft corals, sea-stars galore, this is a paradise for the little stuff. Nudibranchs, gorgeous colourful anemonies and corals. sponges, cucumbers, and a ton of colourful things I have absolutely no name for. We were happy to just spend both dives there of the day as one could literally just spend an hour perched on a rock and watch nature unfold in its tiny macro organisms and mini eco systems down there. Vis was about 8-10 meters, and water temp again around 26 degrees.
Day 3: Meishan & Nudi-Pool. First dive at Meishan in the morning presented us once more with beautiful sponge gardens and soft corals, fan corals and anemonies. Clownfish of course, a school of globe fish, fish I've never seen before and not yet identified and visibilities around 10-12 meters. 3 different species of Lion/scorpion fish and several Robinfish (Red Indians?). And of course tiny stuff. Sooooo much beautiful tiny stuff (I love the world of Macro, what can I say?) ... Viz wise, Meishan was probably the best.
Second dive we went to "Nudi-Pool" - started out in a large abandoned fish-farm with pools that have swimthroughs. The pools were as clear as glass and many different tropical fish like to breed there it seems, as they were schools of lots of tiny fish everywhere. We swam out into the opens follwoing extensive rockwalls. We tried to find some Harlequin shrimp, but instead fund Octopus instead. And were yet again treated to the sight of a (baby) Spanish Dancer Nudibranch.
So... Nigel was amazing. Hospitable, helpful and while we had a super relaxing weekend, it was apparent that he a) cares for his gear, b) air quality, c) fun. The combination of Scuba in the morning and Bar (food and drink) in the afternoon/evenings worked really well for us. He also has hot showers on site, where after a dive one can get rid of saltiness before indulging in a cool beer.
One can also rent surf-boards to go to the local beach (just opposite Scubar really) to ride some waves, or just lounge on either beach or patio. He makes really, really yummy home-made ice cream from scratch and the food the make wasn't half bad either (we ended up eating nothing but his menu up and down the whole weekend xD ). So yes, overall we had a really, really good experience!
Photos to follow!
