Manager’s Blog November 16-26, 2019
Bilikiki is back after a 10 day trip with guests coming from different parts of the globe: the USA, Australia, Belgium, Malaysia and Canada. All of them ready to explore and enjoy the Solomon Islands!
Starting in the Russell Islands, the guests had a beautiful start to the trip with the stunning Leru Cut and the amazing coral gardens at Mirror Pond. Then, it was just non-stop marine life with schools of barracudas, big eye jacks, flame angel fish, robust ghost pipefish, octopus, bumphead parrotfish, mobula rays, white tip reef sharks and grey reef sharks.
Marovo, as always, was incredible! Wrecks, walls covered with soft corals, gigantic fans, caves and life from the tiniest Denise pygmy seahorse to hammerheads - including grey reef sharks, silvertips, black tips, schools of spadefish, bobtail squid, cockatoo waspfish, scorpion leaf fish, cuttlefish, crocodile fish and eagle rays. And there was the carving markets too! Where meeting the local artists is always fun and interesting!
Then more macro for the macro lovers: ornate, halimeda and robust ghost pipefish, common seahorse, flounders, ribbon eels and nudibranchs. And for the big fish lovers, an amazing and unforgettable encounter with manta rays at Devil's Highway, it was one hour of non stop mantas!!! There was also Karumolun village visit for traditional dancing and singing, which everyone really enjoyed.
We also had the pleasure to celebrate the 500th dive of Paul McIlvaine and the 1500th of Peter Pinkerton! Congratulations!!
And what a nice way to end our trip, with a whale encounter and a rainbow on our way back to Guadalcanal.
Thank you all for this amazing trip and for all the fun we all had! Thank you too to Rick Belmare for the Sea Hunt nights, we really hope to see you all again "for another exciting adventure in the underwater world!”.
A big thank you to our crew for the great work they do and for being simply the best!
Happy bubbles,
Pato&Fernando