Saturday 28th March 2015
 |
| Busuanga Bay |
On Friday
afternoon we released 2XS from the big strong mooring and went to BBL (Busuanga
Bay Lodge) to fill up with fuel and water.
From a floating pontoon jetty!!
Oh the luxury! No carting
bottles/jerrycans! No lugging sloshing
containers across the deck and then decanting into the tanks.
Pete went up to
the resort to pay while stayed on deck with four very delightful young chaps –
Jake, Solomon, Ivan and Fred - who were thrilled to be able to look inside 2XS,
and possibly even more thrilled to be able to read my copies of Australian
Women’s Weekly. They skimmed rapidly
through the pages, exclaiming at the recipes – Ah food! And the interior
design – LOOK at the furniture! We had an animated discussion about favourite
actors. Solomon stoutly declared that
his favourite was March covergirl Judi Dench… The others preferred Bruce
Willis, Jacky Chan, Steve Segal…
12 degrees 16.175N
119 degrees 53.097E
Depth 9 metres
Calauit Bay
At 2.30 we arrived
in Calauit Bay, right near the Safari Park entrance. I have high hopes for the safari park…
Buauanga often reminds me of Africa, so what could be more natural than to find
vast sweeping plains of giraffes and zebras??
I will be totally devastated if there are just a few sad, hot creatures
in small pens… We went in to shore in the dinghy and booked for a jeep tour
tomorrow. Be there at 7am, they said, optimistically… We have been sleeping
something like 12 hours a night, after our gastro so I hope 7am is in the realms
of possibility.
Sunday 29th March
We did wake up in
time and YES it was worth it!
Today we went to
Africa, on safari! Herds of zebra,
Calamian deer and giraffe sweeping the plain!
In 1976, for reasons
not quite clear to me, then President Marcos decided it would be good to turn
the 3,000-odd hectares of Calauit Peninsula into a safari park. First imports – zebras and giraffes! They are thriving here. They live till about 30, and the original
ones have all died recently, but there are many young ones, strutting their
stuff.
We were driven
around in a very African-looking jeep, and then were encouraged to stand in a
pen to feed the giraffes. Such
impossibly beautiful creatures!
The zebras
tolerated our presence but didn’t want to come and be fed. They are very happy grazing the short dry
grass.
The Calamanian
deer are endemic to Palawan, and there are very few left in the wild. Calauit is absolute heaven for them! They are very tiny. The females weigh around 25 kilos, the males
35.
A few sad and
sorry creatures live in nasty wire enclosures.
I didn’t taken photos of them…but I should have, because they have a very
equitable system here. Each group of
animals spends one month in the cage and then they re released, to be replaced
by others, trapped from the park. (The monkeys NEVER get trapped twice!)
The porcupines
also have one month of captivity before being replaced. They try to get back into their cage for
quite a few days after their release…I think they like the peace and security! They too are endemic to the region, and are
not popular with the farmers, as their only diet is root vegetables.
They are also
breeding tortoises, and crocodiles. I
didn’t love the crocs as much as I loved the tortoises, such perfect little creatures!
We were back on
2XS by 9am, ready to make a very slow trip to El Rio y Mar, where we found a
mooring at the far end of the beach. It
is very windy and I am so very much wanting to go for a long snorkelly swim
but…I fear being washed away…
 |
| Philippines camouflage tree |
12 degrees 11.451N
120 degrees 05.933E
Depth 20.7m
El Rio y Mar
PS I didn’t get
washed away and I had a beautiful long swim, the first for a very long
time. Bliss!
Monday 30th March
Another long swim
this morning, oh so lovely…A yacht on the mooring closest to the coral, and to the
resort, left early in the morning, so we swiftly took its place. At lunch time we confidently turned up at the
resort office… In October we had been welcomed with glad cries, offers of
discounts, a modest mooring fee. But…things
have changed and it is now 500 pesos per day per person PLUS 200 peso per day
mooring fee PLUS no discounts whatsoever, and fairly hefty meal rates. So…we can’t stay in this lovely place after
all…
We wondered why
all of the other boats on the solid moorings had left so quickly. Obviously they don’t want our kind around
here…
You were missing 16 grandchildren on that particular adventure. Looks fabulous and what a great system of equity for the cage.
ReplyDelete