July 11-July 22, 2017. Another 11 days of diving around the Solomon Islands has come to an end. This time we were joined by a group of 17 diving friends from the United States, they had all met during previous dive trips! For all, it was the first time exploring this remote area of the world.

As diverse as the weather during this trip were the many beautiful dive sites we visited together. Mary Island was once again a favourite with the jacks forming a thick school right on top of the reef and allowing the divers to come very close. Mbulo Canyons with its magnificent hard coral and swim throughs was equally impressive, as were the many turtles we encountered in this area. The photographers were raving about the enormous sea fans and elephant ear sponges on many dive sites. We were lucky to see everything from the big to the tiniest; sharks and eagle rays, different nudibranchs, pygmy seahorses, octopus and mantis shrimp, to name just a few of the things we saw. Tulagi Switzer in the Floridas surprised us with a perfect formation of 6 mobula rays and Maravagi Bay was yet again a winner with several cuttlefish, nudibranchs, shrimpfish and a school of juvenile golden spadefish. 
 
Topside, our guests enjoyed meeting the locals during our visits to the carving markets of Marovo Lagoon and the villagers of Karumolun in the Russells delivered an impressive performance of singing, dancing and playing their pan pipes for us. A memorable trip for everyone!
 
Once again our thanks go out to all our guests for visiting us here in the Solomons and also to the hard working Bilikiki crew for such a great trip.
 
See you all again - with best fishes
Tina & Oli