- Oct 13, 2004
- 24,778
- 4
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Solomons was beyond all explanation of awesome 
Stayed at Uepi Island Resort in Marovo Lagoon, one of the largest if not the largest lagoon in the world:
http://www.uepi.com/
Water was 29’C and I did 13 magnificent beyond words dives in my boardies and a t-shirt, without getting cold!
First dive we rolled off the boat into 40-50m vis, massive coral walls dropping into the abyss, and the best hard coral and fish life conceivable! That first dive we saw a big leopard shark, three pygmy devil/manta rays cruised past in perfect formation and sync, a turtle paid us a visit, some white-tip and black-tip reef sharks and graceful whalers dropped in, lots of nudibranchs...i could go on and on...
Vis was superb throughout, did some magnificent swim-throughs, saw loads and loads of sharks, turtles, mantas, spotted eagle rays, big black-barred and yellow tail barracudas, mantis shrimp, sea snakes, octopi/octopuses, dived a P-38 which was in amazing condition (still had the .50 cal ammo in the belts up the front, flaps still set), did a neat sinkhole dive, dived a tuna boat that was sitting on its stern leaning parallel to a coral wall, bow in 2m, stern in 40m and you could just hang back and see the whole thing like it was in glass in front of you, coral and reef-fish was astounding...
They have some neat videos and pics on their facebook page too, the turtle-feeding one was taken while we were there
http://www.facebook.com/UepiIslandResort
Seriously, diving of a lifetime!
Accommodation was very pleasant indeed (we had a very well thought out beachside bungalow), local divemasters were very good and incredible at spotting things (and stealing massive trigger fish eggs to feed other fish, and blowing perfect bubble rings, like a smoke ring but with air, would stay unbroken getting absolutely huge), food was beyond top notch, solbrew beer was very good, and starting the evening off with gin & tonics never felt more right.
I am mildly ashamed to say that the place had a very farcry-like feel to it, right down to the jetties, fuel storage depot with chain-link fence in lush tropical jungle and the generator house...
Did a trip out to see coconut crabs one night and the bioluminescence in the water made the boat look like it was floating on this incredible glowing trail, and there were rather cool fireflies and bioluminescent mushrooms in the jungle too!
People who ran it were awesome value, very helpful, nice & down-to earth, the folks who we were there with were generally extremely good value too, nice crowd and it wasn’t a hardcore diving crowd so very relaxing indeed. I ended up generally doing a dive in the morning and then snorkeling/kayaking/stand-up paddle boarding (most amusing!) with my lovely wife in the arvo. She did two resort dives and loved them, dived two very nice spots and was rather taken with it all, so I think we’ll ease her through an open water course here this summer when it gets good and warm.
I am babbling rather, but it was that good. Definitely going back. Have attached a small assortment of random photos below, apologies for their size...as usual, shot with my old D80 and a polarizer on vivid, no colour post-processing.
Stayed at Uepi Island Resort in Marovo Lagoon, one of the largest if not the largest lagoon in the world:
http://www.uepi.com/
Water was 29’C and I did 13 magnificent beyond words dives in my boardies and a t-shirt, without getting cold!
First dive we rolled off the boat into 40-50m vis, massive coral walls dropping into the abyss, and the best hard coral and fish life conceivable! That first dive we saw a big leopard shark, three pygmy devil/manta rays cruised past in perfect formation and sync, a turtle paid us a visit, some white-tip and black-tip reef sharks and graceful whalers dropped in, lots of nudibranchs...i could go on and on...
Vis was superb throughout, did some magnificent swim-throughs, saw loads and loads of sharks, turtles, mantas, spotted eagle rays, big black-barred and yellow tail barracudas, mantis shrimp, sea snakes, octopi/octopuses, dived a P-38 which was in amazing condition (still had the .50 cal ammo in the belts up the front, flaps still set), did a neat sinkhole dive, dived a tuna boat that was sitting on its stern leaning parallel to a coral wall, bow in 2m, stern in 40m and you could just hang back and see the whole thing like it was in glass in front of you, coral and reef-fish was astounding...
They have some neat videos and pics on their facebook page too, the turtle-feeding one was taken while we were there
http://www.facebook.com/UepiIslandResort
Seriously, diving of a lifetime!
Accommodation was very pleasant indeed (we had a very well thought out beachside bungalow), local divemasters were very good and incredible at spotting things (and stealing massive trigger fish eggs to feed other fish, and blowing perfect bubble rings, like a smoke ring but with air, would stay unbroken getting absolutely huge), food was beyond top notch, solbrew beer was very good, and starting the evening off with gin & tonics never felt more right.
I am mildly ashamed to say that the place had a very farcry-like feel to it, right down to the jetties, fuel storage depot with chain-link fence in lush tropical jungle and the generator house...
Did a trip out to see coconut crabs one night and the bioluminescence in the water made the boat look like it was floating on this incredible glowing trail, and there were rather cool fireflies and bioluminescent mushrooms in the jungle too!
People who ran it were awesome value, very helpful, nice & down-to earth, the folks who we were there with were generally extremely good value too, nice crowd and it wasn’t a hardcore diving crowd so very relaxing indeed. I ended up generally doing a dive in the morning and then snorkeling/kayaking/stand-up paddle boarding (most amusing!) with my lovely wife in the arvo. She did two resort dives and loved them, dived two very nice spots and was rather taken with it all, so I think we’ll ease her through an open water course here this summer when it gets good and warm.
I am babbling rather, but it was that good. Definitely going back. Have attached a small assortment of random photos below, apologies for their size...as usual, shot with my old D80 and a polarizer on vivid, no colour post-processing.
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