Bilikiki is back in Honiara after another amazing 10 days of diving around the Solomon Islands. This time we were joined by 19 guests from the United States, Switzerland and New Zealand.
The turbulent weather did not deter us from enjoying the multitude of marine life that we encountered on every dive. Kicha in Marovo Lagoon proved to be a favourite amongst our guests with schooling barracudas, rainbow runners, spade fish, grey reef sharks and a stunning coral reef to match it all. For our dive at Mbulo Caves the sun came out and our guests were delighted by the light rays beaming into these caverns, it made for some stunning photos. A group of 8 massive bumphead parrot fish passed us along the site’s coral slope, while the macro lovers enjoyed soft coral crabs, nudibranchs, white bonnet clown fish and a very tiny pygmy seahorse. During one of our safety stops, we were entertained by three big porcupine fish chasing each other in circles - what a laugh!
During our visit to the wood carvers many souvenirs were purchased as a reminder of this visit and the custom dance and singing in Karumolun village in the Russell Islands was highly enjoyed by all too.
Many of our guests were interested in the WW2 history of the Solomons, so diving at White Beach to see the trucks, ammunition and even coca cola bottles from this era was a definite highlight for many. The critter lovers were treated to signal gobies, jawfish, nudibranchs and even mandarin fish at this site too. Back in the Floridas, a school of mobula rays calmly passed us in Maravagi Bay, while a big marbled ray waited for us at Petrol Point. Before heading back to Honiara, we ended our trip with dives on two more WW2 sites, the always popular Mavis Seaplane and the adjacent Ghavutu Wharf.
Once again we would like to thank all our guests for diving with us, it was a pleasure to have you all onboard, and how nice to see some familiar faces yet again! Our heartfelt thanks also go out to our hard working crew who, as always, handled everything so safely in sometimes difficult weather conditions! You guys rock!
Tagio tumas
Tina & Oli
Underwater Photos by Melissa Foo
