Naipablaak: 09.11.2018
After the well-known Australia, we flew to Vanuatu (the 16th flight on our trip). Vanuatu is a Pacific island country, consisting of about 80 islands and located east of Australia - between Australia and Fiji. After a short flight from Brisbane, we landed in Port Vila, the capital of the country, on the island of Efate. But we will tell you what Port Vila and the island of Efate have to offer a little later.
On the second day, we already left the island and crossed over to the smaller neighboring island of Moso Island by boat. There we booked three overnight stays and four dives at the Tranquility Eco Resort & Dive Base. It was simply amazingly beautiful! The resort is located directly on the beach and we were accommodated in one of the nine beach bungalows. In addition to the small house, a separate toilet & shower house, we had a small veranda with a hammock and our own little private beach. Food was also provided - and so we had breakfast, lunch, and dinner with the other (few) guests at the restaurant a few minutes' walk away - also directly by the sea.
During the almost three days on the island, we did four dives. The dive sites were very different and rich in species. In addition to beautiful and healthy corals, we mainly saw a very diverse fish world. But the highlight was clearly the two-meter-long nurse shark that Mathias discovered hidden under a large coral during the first dive and was only slightly startled - he was almost at eye level with the animal, which he did not expect there. Also cool was the sea snake that we discovered a little later or the wreck of the M.V. Belama, which we were allowed to explore. The two diving instructors Mitch and Steff are relatively new to the resort and have not had the opportunity to explore all 18 dive sites yet, so we did this with them at the wreck. There were no other divers on that day.
When we were not diving, we relaxed and read or took a little trip to the beautiful Fred's Beach on the other side of the island to snorkel a bit. Unfortunately, we did not see a dugong while snorkeling either. This is a kind of manatee that lives in the waters around Vanuatu. They are very rarely seen while diving, as they are very shy and simply flee from the sounds of the divers into the seemingly infinite blue of the Pacific. The chance is slightly higher while snorkeling, but this time we were not lucky compared to another guest of the resort. Maybe it was also because Boots, the resort's dog, accompanied us on the trip and did not behave calmly in the water. But it was still fun.
But it is difficult to put into words how beautiful the water and solitude on the island really were. Maybe we can do a better job in the video: