A Tale Of Two Muck Sites

Just when he thought he had seen it all, longtime muck-diver NIGEL MARSH dives two extraordinary sites in the Philippines.

- Nigel Marsh

I GOT HOOKED ON muck-diving more than 30 years ago, long before the word came into general usage among divers. My muck-diving adventures have taken me throughout the Indo-Pacific region to explore a wide variety of habitats in both tropical and temperate waters, and have allowed me to see some amazing muck-critters.

I fell in love with the Philippines on my first trip to this island-nation a decade ago, and have now been four times. Usually my wife Helen and I aim to descend on a new area of the country, but on our most recent trip we decided to explore one destination that was new to us, and also return to an old favourite.

The new destination was Dumaguete, the old one Sogod Bay. Both have wonderful coral reefs but, more importantly to me, some great muck-diving.

Over the past two years I have been working on a guide-book to muck-diving, and this trip was to be the final muck adventure before it went to print. I had high hopes of exploring some great sites and also seeing a few critters I hadn’t seen before.

Cephalopod City

Dumaguete lies at the southern end of Negros, and in recent years has become one of the most popular diving destinations in the country. For our week there we stayed at Liquid Dumaguete, one of the newest resorts in the area and a PADI 5* IDC Dive Resort.

Over the first few days we enjoyed dives at Apo, exploring the lovely coral reefs around this offshore island and seeing abundant fish, turtles and numerous sea-snakes.