Trip Report: Sogod Bay, Balicasag, Cabilao, Moalboal (HD Video)

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joebubbles

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Location
Canada
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200 - 499
From April 11 to April 21 Zeny and I dove Sogod Bay, Balicasag, Cabilao and Moalboal. The highpoints of the adventure was the whaleshark encounter at Sogod Bay and the Sardine encounter at Moalboal (Pescador Island). I've attached a video below.
Sogod Bay, Southern Leyte:
We got to Leyte by taking the Supercat "fast" Ferry to Ormoc from Cebu. From Ormoc we took a shared van to Maasin and from there transferred to a Jeep to Padre Burgos. We stayed at the JM - RN Pensionne House which is beside the jetty. It is a 5 minute trike ride to Peter's and Sogod Bay dive shops. Our first dive day was the Whaleshark encounter at Limasawa Island with Peter's dive shop. We had about 6 encounters and then went around the Island for a dive before returning back. Later that evening we put in a night dive at the Padre Burgos jetty. It was nice being only 30 seconds away from the dive site! Our next dive day was with Sogod Bay dive shop to Napantaw. We had a scheduling issue with Peter's and fortunately Sogod Bay was happy to take us over. Napantaw is the pre-eminent dive site in the area. The dive site lived up to its reputation with great viz, healthy coral and tonnes of reef fish.
Balicasag & Cabilao, Bohol:
We initially planned on getting to Bohol by taking the RORO from Maasin to Ubay, but the scheduling was lousy as the departure time was 7:30pm. The alternative was to travel a little further north to Bato, Southern Leyte to catch the banca to Ubay, Bohol. This worked out well as we took the 9:00am banca and arrived at Ubay a little after 11:00am at Ubay we took a shared van to Alona Beach. Ordinarily, the van would only go as far as Tagbilarin, but the driver agreed to take us to Alona for an extra 400 pesos. It took us 2.5 hours to get to Alona Beach from Ubay. At Alona beach we checked into Hayahay Resort which is owned by Genesis Divers. We actually went diving with Bohol Fun Divers which is located at Lost Horizon Resort. On our first Bohol dive day we went to Balicasag to dive "the Sanctuary" and "Black Forest". Unfortunately, we did not see the large school of resident baracuda and only a small school of Jacks were spotted at Black Forest. Nevertheless, they were enjoyable dives not to be missed. Our next dive day was at Cabilao which is a considerable distance from Alona Beach. Dive shops on Alona sporadically offer trips Cabilao, but not on the day we wanted to go. Since we were renting our gear it was easy to hop on a scooter and make the trek over to Mocpoc. We left Alona beach at 5:30am and arrived at Mocpoc at 7:30am. We took the 15 minute banca ride to Cabilao Island and had another motorcyle driver take us to Polaris Dive shop. We had our breakfast at the resort and put in two dives--House Reef and South Point. Both were fantastic wall dives with excellent viz.
Moalboal, Cebu:
Transiting from Bohol to Cebu is a breeze. Took a taxi to the ferry terminal, just caught the 9:30 am OceanJet to Cebu. We arrived at Cebu terminal 1 at 11:30am and negotiated with a taxi driver to take us to Moalboal for 1,700 pesos. We stayed at Savedra resort and dove with Savedra dive shop. We put in a couple dives at Pescador island which is the premier wall dive site at Panagsama which is home to a resident school of Sardines. The video below is worth a thousand words. On a non-dive day we went out to Kawasan Falls to snorkel in the fresh cool water and enjoy a picnic.

Dive Philippines: Majestic Whalesharks and dancing Sardines

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqsbZnjN63E

(click on 720p for HD quality)
 
wow great shots of the sardines!
im thinking og going to moalboal myself however my friend recommended nelsons as they are fairly competent and cheaper.
how is savedra dive shop and resort? would you mind posting the room rates and dive rates?
 
Savedra resort--1,774 P per night. Central location, good aircon, hot shower, comfortable double bed, million dollar sunset view on the veranda. There are certainly cheaper options if you want to give up some of the above benefits. Having just come from a beach resort at Alona Beach, I found the rates more reasonable in Panagsama.

Savedra dive shop--1,500 P per dive for four dives (including gear rental). They gave us brand new regulators to use which were great. Something to keep in mind is that we are now entering the off-season. Sevedra is probably the busiest dive shop now offering four scheduled dive options per day. I saw a lot of idle dive bancas last week.
 
Savedra resort--1,774 P per night. Central location, good aircon, hot shower, comfortable double bed, million dollar sunset view on the veranda. There are certainly cheaper options if you want to give up some of the above benefits. Having just come from a beach resort at Alona Beach, I found the rates more reasonable in Panagsama.

Savedra dive shop--1,500 P per dive for four dives (including gear rental). They gave us brand new regulators to use which were great. Something to keep in mind is that we are now entering the off-season. Sevedra is probably the busiest dive shop now offering four scheduled dive options per day. I saw a lot of idle dive bancas last week.

thanks for the info joe
just contacted them and ill seeif i can go on may
 
Awesome video! Thanks for the report. I'm so jealous of your whale shark encounter. That schooling sardine footage is insane.

What is the diving like in Moalboal compared to Balicasag Bohol? Do you prefer one over the other? We did all 5 Balicasag sites when we were there in November and I'm considering Cebu later this year. Just not sure where to go in Cebu.
 
Awesome video! Thanks for the report. I'm so jealous of your whale shark encounter. That schooling sardine footage is insane.

What is the diving like in Moalboal compared to Balicasag Bohol? Do you prefer one over the other? We did all 5 Balicasag sites when we were there in November and I'm considering Cebu later this year. Just not sure where to go in Cebu.

Diving is much more limited at Moalboal, but the Sardine ball is not to be missed. You can also consider Malapascua, Cebu for the Thresher sharks. If you do go to Bohol again, check out Cabilao. It is one of Phil's best kept diving secrets with excellent wall dives.
 
Hey Joe, I dont know if you remember me but I think I dove with you and Zeny last April 16 with Bohol Fun Divers. I didn't know you were subscribed here, too. Saw your videos in youtube, and they're all awesome! I especially loved the Sipadan video. Anyway, do you have a copy of the video of our dives at the Sanctuary and Black forest? Would really love to see them. Thanks!

Vicky
 
Hi Vicky,
Good to hear from you again and thanks for the kind words. Yes, I have the raw footage of the Sanctuary and Black forest, but I havn't had a chance to edit the content yet. I hope to get it done and uploaded within a week.
 
New Video post--Magical Sogod Bay
http://www.youtube.com/my_videos_edit?ns=1&video_id=Y-rzjZim71c&next=/my_videos

Another quintessential aquarium dive at Sogod Bay, Southern Leyte, Philippines. Dives include Napantaw and Limasawa. Some of the most underrated dive sites around. You are surrounded by tonnes of small reef fish of every variety against healthy, colorful coral in crystal clear water--a videographer's dreamscape.

(click on 720p for HD quality)

Trip report is at the top of this thread

Stay tuned--Bohol video to be added next week to complete the trip report.
 
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