Squashie:
RoatanMan, do you know anything about the dives down by the Reef House Resort? We will be there in a few days and wanted to get any info available. We basically will have the resort to ourselves for the week and with 6 divers in the group, should be able to get to where ever we want to go...
We're ready for the small stuff, got my magnifying glass, multiple lights and have been working on my observation skills by playing countless hours of "Where's Waldo" and "I spy" with my daughter.:1book:
Some in our party want to go visit the "shark dive" at the other end of the island...I would rather just run across a couple naturally on the reef if the opportunity presented itself.
Thanks in advance for your advice and information.
Squashie
Squashie,
NONE of the dive sites we visited using the crew at Reef House Resort were 'bad' sites in our opinion, and since their big boats were both well serviced just as we were leaving, you should have the opportunity to hit Morat Wall or Barbareta, which we didn't get to visit.
Mary's Place was nice, but I agree there are other spots much closer to Reef House Resort we liked better. Church Wall was our first dive site, and my wife saw the ocellated frogfish along the deeper part of the dive along the wall and got a pic of it while I found the harlequin pipefish in the shallows but didn't get a pic of it. This was the stage that was set for the rest of our week there. David, the divemaster, was GREAT at pointing stuff out - like a tiny neck crab on a sea fan right on the lip of the wall at 'Silent Spring' if I remember right. Sponge Garden was a nice non-wall site that had a lot of variety for a nice, leisurely what-have-we-here dive.
The Reef House house reef wall was a great dive, day or night, available any time we wanted to suit up & go. We got pics of both the brown and the yellow-orange seahorses that lived there, among other things.
I think one could do 2 shore dives per night at Reef House if one wanted to, but the second one would be without a guide most likely. Or earn a really good tip for the DM & Boat captain who helps with the gear if he stays over to do that, especially if after a full day of 3 boat dives. The DM has a 30 minute bicycle ride home after getting back to the main island from the caye Reef House Resort is on, and that's where his supper etc. is.
You can see my details of our shark dive experience in the thread started by Bombero Diver. The shark dive operator isn't all the way at the other end of the island from Oak Ridge, but rather closer to where the airport is if I remember correctly.
We got the CD's with our pics back, so if you want to PM me with your external e-mail address, I could mail a few your way. Nothing fancy, just a Sealife Reefmaster 35 mm with strobe etc. I got for my wife a few years ago, but nice 'fun' pictures.