Similan Islands Liveaboard Trip Report: Day 5
Read the prologue to this trip report here.
Read Day 1 here.
Read Day 2 here.
Read Day 3 here.
Read Day 4 here.
——————————————————————————————————————————————————————
It was our last day of diving on this trip. I remember having so many different feelings at once; I was feeling sad that it was our last day, but I was looking forward to the last three dives (which were three of my favourites). At the same time I was also looking forward to dry land, a decent night’s sleep and real Thai food.
Deep Six
Deep Six is another site covered by huge boulders. As we descended down the shotline our attention was immediately focused on another Zebra Shark resting on the bottom. We all made our way down to see it and take photo. We scouted around the other side of the rocks to a maximum depth of 42m before making our way round the boulders, going past areas encrusted with hard corals and sea fans, through shoals of surgeonfish, glassfish and all the usual reef fish.
Elephant Rock
Our penultimate dive was back on Elephant rock. This time though we were going to navigate it in the opposite direction. We entered the water in the same place as our last dive here, but by swimming the other way we covered ground we hadn’t before. The boulders were huge; swimming at around a depth of 30m I was still 15m from the bottom. In the distance, about 35m away, I could see the outline of a large shark; I couldn’t tell what type of shark though, so I headed towards it, camera at the ready. I wanted to get a photo before it got spooked, but alas it was too far away, and it soon started to move off. I have since tried cleaning up the photo – it looks like a large black tip, but I can’t be sure. As we made our way around the boulders there were lots of fish waiting for their photo to be taken. Angel fish, Banner fish, Hawkfish, Lionfish, Orange-lined Triggerfish, Freckled Hawkfish, Harlequin (Andaman) Sweetlips and Oriental Sweetlips all queued up for a photo opportunity. A very rewarding dive from a fish lover’s point of view.
Boulder City
Our last dive. The most southerly of dive sites on the Similan islands, it is close to Islands 1,2 and 3 which you are not allowed to dive on, for various reasons – one of which is there is a turtle breeding ground in that area; also, the authorities are doing research into the recovery of the reefs there after years of bad fishing methods (i.e. dynamite fishing). Another open site with no protection from the currents, we were advised to stay close to the rocks just in case. Once again as we descended we saw another Zebra Shark and headed over to take photos. We swam around the boulders which had a smattering of corals, a few sea fans and schools of surgeonfish. All of a sudden I was confronted by a Bump-head Parrotfish. It was huge, and also the first one I had ever seen. It was approximately one metre long, with a huge head.
Time was flying, and unfortunately there were no shallow reefs to spend the last of our time and air. Dive over.
As soon as we got back on the boat, we started to make our way towards the harbour at Chalong. It was going to be a long trip – we would arrive around 2am, but stay on the boat until morning. It was our last night’s sleep in the bunks with a small fan instead of air-con, our last night together and the last night on the water.
We were all up early in the morning for tea and toast. Once the boat moored up along the quay, we all said goodbye to the crew and went ashore. The land was moving with the gentle motion of the water, or so it seemed, for several hours. The minibuses turned up and we all went our separate ways.
To be concluded – come back next week to read the epilogue to Mark Milburn’s Similan Islands Liveaboard Trip Report.
