THE DELIGHTS OF SOGOD BAY

“Go. Go. Go.” Was the call as we quickly slipped into the water. Finning hard and peering into the blue we were hoping to see a rather large spotted creature. Suddenly it was in front of us, a 9m long whale shark slowly cruising along the surface. For the next ten minutes we enjoyed one of the most memorable experiences of our lives as we swam with this giant shark as it glided over the shallow coral reef. The shark changed course several times during the encounter, and also changed depth, skimming the surface one minute, then almost scraping the bottom the next. After ten incredible minutes of hard finning the whale shark pulled away from us with flick of its tail and disappeared into deeper water. This wonderful whale shark encounter was just one of three we enjoyed one morning while exploring the underwater delights of Sogod Bay.
    Sogod Bay is located on the Philippine island of Leyte, in the eastern part of the country. Getting to Sogod Bay can be quite a challenge, involving an internal flight to Tacloban, the capital of Leyte, and then a four hour bus trip, or alternatively a flight to Cebu and then an inter-island ferry. While Sogod Bay is not well known yet, it will soon be as it has some of the best diving in Asia.
    We recently spent a wonderful week exploring Sogod Bay. Our base was the Sogod Bay Scuba Resort, which is located at the southern end of the bay near the town of Padre Burgos. The resort is owned and operated by Englishman Ron Parkes and Australian Phil McQuire, who have found themselves a little bit of paradise. The resort has only been open since February 2006 and sits on the beach surrounded by palm trees, where clear blue water laps the shore. The resort offers basic but comfortable accommodation at a very affordable price, has a restaurant that serves Asian and Western meals and runs daily boat and shore dives to the amazing dive sites in the area.
    Some of the best dive sites in Sogod Bay are located right in front of the resort. Barely ten steps from the dive shop puts you in the water and ready to explore Max’s Climax 1. The reef here slopes to 15m and then drops to 40m and is decorated with lovely soft corals, hard corals, gorgonians, sea whips and large barrel sponges. We found the reef here alive with reef fish, turtles and invertebrate species that had our cameras working overtime.
    Our favourite shore dive in front of the resort was Voltaire’s Rock. The reef wall here was again full of colourful corals and also home to many fantastic critters, many of them pointed out by Divemaster and chief critter finder Pedro. We saw a bizarre sea moth, several ornate ghost pipefish, many nudibranch species, lionfish and the most spectacular of all were the Bargibant’s pygmy sea horses. These tiny creatures are only 20mm long and well camouflaged on their gorgonian home. At the end of the dive there is the wreck of a scuttled dive boat to explore, which is now decorated with soft corals and home to numerous fish.
    As good as these sites are during the day they are just mind blowing at night. We spent an hour exploring an area little more than the size of a tennis court and saw an array of wonderful critters. Nudibranchs, shrimps, crabs, moray eels, a snake eel, sea pens, molluscs, sleeping fish, scorpionfish, huge basket stars and even a rare cockatoo waspfish.
    However, this night dive was topped by the one we did at the nearby Padre Burgos Pier. Under the pier the water is only 9m deep, but is a haven for critters. We saw painted anglerfish, lionfish, sea stars, sea snakes, crabs, prawns, cuttlefish, octopus, sea horses, shrimpfish and a very odd pipehorse.
    The boat diving in Sogod Bay is also superb. North of the resort are several dive sites including the Malitbog Wreck, a Japanese Landing Craft sunk during World War II. The wreck sits in 16m and is completely covered in corals and alive with reef fish and invertebrate species.
    South of the resort are even more dive sites, including lovely coral reefs at Turtle Rock and wall dives at Adrian’s Cove and Zack’s Cove. Ampo was another enjoyable site with healthy coral gardens. The highlight for us here was seeing a tiny clown anglerfish and a splendid Mandarin fish.
    On the eastern side of Sogod Bay are several more excellent dive sites. Sunok is a brilliant dive with lush corals and abundant reef and pelagic fish, and is also visited by whale sharks at times. However, the best boat diving site in Sogod Bay would have to be Napantao Fish Sanctuary. Rated as one of the best dive sites in Asia, this site is fully protected and home to a staggering amount of reef fish. We exploring the wall here to 30m and found it coated with exquisite corals, especially lovely soft corals and huge barrel sponges. The fish life was just amazing, schools of fairy basslets, parrotfish, sweetlips, fusiliers and many, many more. We also saw turtles, lionfish, rock cod and a wide variety of nudibranchs. Diving conditions in Sogod Bay are excellent all year, we enjoyed 15m to 30m visibility, but it can be over 40m at times. The water temperature varies from 25C to 30C degrees, meaning a 3mm wetsuit is all you will need at most.
    Whale sharks gather at the southern end of Sogod Bay between November and April. Around twenty sharks are thought to migrate to the area annually. It is a fabulous experience snorkelling with these gentle giants in shallow clear water, but you shouldn’t make it the only reason to visit this amazing part of the Philippines.

Article appeared in Dive Pacific No.111 April/May 2009

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