almitywife
Vegemite Mod
apologies to my hubby for stealing his pics without him getting a chance to crop/photoshop anything yet
.
Trip report Tranquility Resort / Moso Island
For our sixth trip to Vanuatu, we decided to escape a Sydney Christmas and try Tranquility Island due to its remoteness and hopefully its pristine diving. Little did we know we would come home with memories or manta rays and turtles and wrecks and caves and swim-thrus and we even had a manta leaping out of the water!
Vanuatu is a 3.5hr flight from Sydney (2.5hrs from Brisbane) and getting to Tranquility is as simple as a Port Vila hotel pickup, a 30min bus ride to the Coongoola day cruise departure point and a 25min boat ride across the water to Moso Island, 380 hectares of tropical jungle located on the north west of the island of Efate.
We were warned by previous guests that accommodation was very basic and yes it is but that added to the remoteness and total relaxation to our trip.
There are 8 bungalows on the island including 2 dormitories and basically they are (kinda) mosquito proofed huts with locally made beds and mosquito nets. Bungalows 1, 2 and 3 have power but only when the generators run for a few hours every afternoon, a very important fact for photographers with batteries to charge for the next days diving.
All bungalows are on the waters edge where you feel you have your own private beach and can snorkel to your hearts content plus each bungalow has their own flush toilets and hot and cold showers and roaming phone reception was working for Vodaphone and Optus when standing on the beach.
After settling in we gear up on boat, Island Diver and head out for our first dive! There are 2 dives per day, approx 10.30am (after the Coongoola drops off the day visitors/divers) and 2pm each day but hubby and I arranged early morning shore dives as sitting around most of the morning waiting to dive is not a holiday for us.
Weather permitting, there are over a dozen sites within 5 to 35mins from our base and during our 6 days there we managed 18 dives, a huge effort for me as I usually suffer from sea sickness but with a combination of Kwells, good conditions and a large boat I was nagging hubby to do even more dives!
Our favourite dives of the trip were:
Lionfish Gardens; lots of bommies with the promised lionfish plus eels and these black and eletric blue nudis they called japanese dancers and a very large remora circling us which should have forewarned us to our first sighing of 3 young mantas that hung around the island for most of the week.
Wreck of MV Belama; An 200 tonne island freighter which was badly damaged in a cyclone and now sits in 22mtrs in 3 very large pieces where you can swim through the cabins and passageways. I was pretty much a wreck virgin before this dive and I loved it so much I was jumping to dive it again the next day. The wreck is very clean, no silt and little growth and there were some big sweetlips and croc fish hanging around but for me what I loved was seeing all the twisted iron with lots of blue water in the background. To add to the good feel you have after a good dive, on the way back to base one day we were greeted by a manta leaping out of the water on this dive.
Moso Caves & Bottle Fish Cave; a couple of great dives with big swim thrus, nice fish, a few thermal vents and lots of opportunity for photographers to get that blue water swimthru shot they always wanted.
Shore Dive; Out the front of the dive shop is a great snorkeling site with a 140mtr dropoff and on the shore dives we had mantas, turtles, all the regular reef fish and dozens of pipefish.
Owens Reef; Our last and my favorite dive of the trip. A figure eight reef from 1mtr to 20mtrs with great swim thrus, coral and gorgonian overhangs and lots of fish life. Highlight of this dive for me was being attacked by the biggest and angriest clown fish ive ever seen, this fish went 6ft out of his way to come get me. We will return to Tranquility just to dive Owens again!
Sadly due to conditions, we didnt get to dive Pauls Rock or Hat Island but we have dived these sites previously and they are well worth the effort if you havent dived them before.
When staying at Tranquility you also purchase a meal package and Tommy our chef (and diver in training) never let us go hungry. Organic grain feed Santo beef plus lots of fresh vegetables and fruit were a daily regular and he even managed to bake fresh chocolate cake for dessert!
I should also mention that Tranquility have an active Hawkesbill Turtle program. Baby turtles are kept in huge tanks for up to 16months and tagged and released when they are large enough. We were honored to be there for the release of one of the turtles and hope to one day cross paths with him (or her).
I would like to mention the local staff that lived up to the usual expectation of the Ni-Vanuatu people, truly lovely, helpful people that made our trip as relaxing and happy as it was. Shem our boat captain and guide, Tommy our chef plus Berry, Noel and Esther. No trip to Vanuatu is complete unless you find out a little about the people that work so hard for us to have such a great trip I look forward to seeing these new friends again.
Lastly I would like to thank Luke from Frogdive and Clint from Allways Dive for arranging our trip.
So to sum up a few points:
Negatives:
2 dives per day is not enough diving! Waiting around until 10-11am for the Coongoola to deliver day trip/divers means a lot of waiting around which isnt good enough for divers that want to dive!
Plus:
The diving!! We will be returning just for the dive sites
The remoteness, its so relaxing to get away from everything.
The new managers Stuart and Kayal were very accommodation so we got more diving in.
Hints:
Take twice as much Rid/Aeroguard/lotion you usually take the mozzies were fierce
Bring books to read
If charging multiple batteries and strobes, bring 2 powerboards
And relax .. youre in Vanuatu
Ref:
South Pacific Dive & Cruise Vanuatu
Allways Dive Expeditions
Frog Dive Scuba Centres
I will have more pics and youtubing surface video so you can get a better idea of what Tranquility was like
We had a fantastic time here didnt want to leave, cant wait to go back!
Trip report Tranquility Resort / Moso Island
For our sixth trip to Vanuatu, we decided to escape a Sydney Christmas and try Tranquility Island due to its remoteness and hopefully its pristine diving. Little did we know we would come home with memories or manta rays and turtles and wrecks and caves and swim-thrus and we even had a manta leaping out of the water!
Vanuatu is a 3.5hr flight from Sydney (2.5hrs from Brisbane) and getting to Tranquility is as simple as a Port Vila hotel pickup, a 30min bus ride to the Coongoola day cruise departure point and a 25min boat ride across the water to Moso Island, 380 hectares of tropical jungle located on the north west of the island of Efate.
We were warned by previous guests that accommodation was very basic and yes it is but that added to the remoteness and total relaxation to our trip.
There are 8 bungalows on the island including 2 dormitories and basically they are (kinda) mosquito proofed huts with locally made beds and mosquito nets. Bungalows 1, 2 and 3 have power but only when the generators run for a few hours every afternoon, a very important fact for photographers with batteries to charge for the next days diving.
All bungalows are on the waters edge where you feel you have your own private beach and can snorkel to your hearts content plus each bungalow has their own flush toilets and hot and cold showers and roaming phone reception was working for Vodaphone and Optus when standing on the beach.
After settling in we gear up on boat, Island Diver and head out for our first dive! There are 2 dives per day, approx 10.30am (after the Coongoola drops off the day visitors/divers) and 2pm each day but hubby and I arranged early morning shore dives as sitting around most of the morning waiting to dive is not a holiday for us.
Weather permitting, there are over a dozen sites within 5 to 35mins from our base and during our 6 days there we managed 18 dives, a huge effort for me as I usually suffer from sea sickness but with a combination of Kwells, good conditions and a large boat I was nagging hubby to do even more dives!
Our favourite dives of the trip were:
Lionfish Gardens; lots of bommies with the promised lionfish plus eels and these black and eletric blue nudis they called japanese dancers and a very large remora circling us which should have forewarned us to our first sighing of 3 young mantas that hung around the island for most of the week.
Wreck of MV Belama; An 200 tonne island freighter which was badly damaged in a cyclone and now sits in 22mtrs in 3 very large pieces where you can swim through the cabins and passageways. I was pretty much a wreck virgin before this dive and I loved it so much I was jumping to dive it again the next day. The wreck is very clean, no silt and little growth and there were some big sweetlips and croc fish hanging around but for me what I loved was seeing all the twisted iron with lots of blue water in the background. To add to the good feel you have after a good dive, on the way back to base one day we were greeted by a manta leaping out of the water on this dive.
Moso Caves & Bottle Fish Cave; a couple of great dives with big swim thrus, nice fish, a few thermal vents and lots of opportunity for photographers to get that blue water swimthru shot they always wanted.
Shore Dive; Out the front of the dive shop is a great snorkeling site with a 140mtr dropoff and on the shore dives we had mantas, turtles, all the regular reef fish and dozens of pipefish.
Owens Reef; Our last and my favorite dive of the trip. A figure eight reef from 1mtr to 20mtrs with great swim thrus, coral and gorgonian overhangs and lots of fish life. Highlight of this dive for me was being attacked by the biggest and angriest clown fish ive ever seen, this fish went 6ft out of his way to come get me. We will return to Tranquility just to dive Owens again!
Sadly due to conditions, we didnt get to dive Pauls Rock or Hat Island but we have dived these sites previously and they are well worth the effort if you havent dived them before.
When staying at Tranquility you also purchase a meal package and Tommy our chef (and diver in training) never let us go hungry. Organic grain feed Santo beef plus lots of fresh vegetables and fruit were a daily regular and he even managed to bake fresh chocolate cake for dessert!
I should also mention that Tranquility have an active Hawkesbill Turtle program. Baby turtles are kept in huge tanks for up to 16months and tagged and released when they are large enough. We were honored to be there for the release of one of the turtles and hope to one day cross paths with him (or her).
I would like to mention the local staff that lived up to the usual expectation of the Ni-Vanuatu people, truly lovely, helpful people that made our trip as relaxing and happy as it was. Shem our boat captain and guide, Tommy our chef plus Berry, Noel and Esther. No trip to Vanuatu is complete unless you find out a little about the people that work so hard for us to have such a great trip I look forward to seeing these new friends again.
Lastly I would like to thank Luke from Frogdive and Clint from Allways Dive for arranging our trip.
So to sum up a few points:
Negatives:
2 dives per day is not enough diving! Waiting around until 10-11am for the Coongoola to deliver day trip/divers means a lot of waiting around which isnt good enough for divers that want to dive!
Plus:
The diving!! We will be returning just for the dive sites
The remoteness, its so relaxing to get away from everything.
The new managers Stuart and Kayal were very accommodation so we got more diving in.
Hints:
Take twice as much Rid/Aeroguard/lotion you usually take the mozzies were fierce
Bring books to read
If charging multiple batteries and strobes, bring 2 powerboards
And relax .. youre in Vanuatu
Ref:
South Pacific Dive & Cruise Vanuatu
Allways Dive Expeditions
Frog Dive Scuba Centres
I will have more pics and youtubing surface video so you can get a better idea of what Tranquility was like
We had a fantastic time here didnt want to leave, cant wait to go back!
