On the West coast of Cebu Island, Moalboal (pronounced Mowl-Bowl) is a diving mecca due to the Sardine Run just offshore where millions of fish congregate daily for one of the biggest displays in the world. Obviously it was on our itinerary for that very reason.

Not exactly around the corner from Malapascua, getting to Moalboal involves retaking the route back to Cebu City (5 hours to the North Bus Terminal), crossing the city to the South Bus Terminal, taking another 4 hour bus ride to Moalboal town before the last 2 miles to the resort area on a trike or in a tuk-tuk. Or a total journey around 5 hours in a taxi, but Debbie failed to get Steve to agree that we should pay £80 for the quick route – it’s a waste of money and we are poor pensioners apparently. He did eventually concede to a compromise though – a bus to Cebu and taxi from there – so Debbie asked our accommodation in Moalboal to arrange for a driver to meet us from the bus on arrival in Cebu.

An early departure from our hotel to catch the first public ferry at 0730, and thankfully a couple of staff carried our luggage to the port. The embarkation with bags was as tricky as the outbound journey, the crossing was smooth, and an air-conditioned public bus to Cebu was waiting at Maya Port when we disembarked, scheduled to depart at 0800. Perfect! The bus was cheap (about £4 each), packed and slow, with the first 10 miles taking almost 2 hours with an inordinate number of local stops, but we made it to the bus station around 1300 and our driver arrived 10 minutes or so later. This was going very smoothly until Debbie asked him how long the journey would take and he said “4 hours to Maya Port”. Noooo, we’ve just come from there, we are going to Moalboal! He was confused and spent the next 10 minutes on the phone muttering about Moalboal, eventually saying that his aircon was broken and he was transferring us to his cousin’s taxi at the same price. It was very hot in the car but Debbie felt uneasy – we were moving from a car/driver with known contact details to some random vehicle. Our accommodation manager messaged to say she’d spoken to the driver and there’d been confusion so we’d be coming with someone else. Before we got into the new car Debbie took pictures of registration plates and sent them to her – just in case. It turned out that the original driver lived in Maya Port and had accepted a discount fare (he thought to Maya Port) as it would get him home, a journey that otherwise he’d have done empty – there was no way he was going 3-4 hours in the wrong direction to take us to Moalboal. In the new car, with functioning A/C, we made it to our accommodation in Moalboal in 3 hours without further drama.

Vailtin Homepoint was a small place of 7 rooms and a pool, about 1Km from the main resort area and our home for 3 nights. The staff were very welcoming as was the San Miguel from the bar. They didn’t have a restaurant but instead an affiliation with a local Thai eatery who would deliver – knackered after a long day we took that option. We’d got the last room, a huge family room with 3 double beds, outside sofa and dining table, in-room fridge stocked with lots of beers, soft drinks, Pringles & cup noodles – brilliant for the cost of around £45/night. The manager Daisy (who’d arranged our taxi) and her team were great and nothing was too much trouble. Need a lift into town? No problem, we’ll take you in our electric golf buggy! We did have some intermittent issues with the aircon and Daisy offered to move us to another hotel, but we were fine sleeping with a fan next to the bed.

The next day we walked the kilometre or so into town to organise some diving as Debbie now felt able to do so, choosing Amigo’s (a PADI 5* centre) who could fit us in for the following day. We just wanted to see the sardines, so opted for 2 shore dives with Nitrox (IYKYK) and rental kit for an incredibly reasonable £49 each. They did have wetsuits big enough for us but also said that the water was 28 degrees so rash vest and board shorts would be fine. Debbie had brought her rash vest, Steve hadn’t, so we purchased one for him at the shop next door plus a pair of lycra leggings each to protect our legs – for a total of £13. And then we spent the afternoon relaxing and drinking beer by the lovely pool, with Debbie doing lots of swimming to help her shoulder recovery, before taking the electric buggy into town for the evening.

We had no expectation of what Moalboal would be like and it turned out to be a very lively place, full of young backpackers on a gap year and locals enjoying the weekend, and we felt very old! The hotel had recommended Betsy’s Grill and to Debbie’s delight they had Hawaiian Burger on the menu – pineapple on a burger is one of her favourite things and it was pretty good. The following night we tried the other recommended restaurant, Venz Kitchen, where Steve ordered a whole leg of pork with crackling in the large size due to a misunderstanding and thinking he was sharing it with Debbie.

The diving was great – just the two of us with a guide, entering the water a 30 second walk from the dive centre, swimming out past the snorkelers and descending an underwater wall. Almost immediately the sardines came into view, turning the water black as they blocked out the light and swirling in corkscrew-like formation. Steve was apparently indicating to Debbie to swim into the shoal for a picture – she may not have understood or she may have thought ‘not a chance mate’, but she’s pleading ignorance! We descended to around 25m, keeping the wall on our right until Debbie’s air reached 100 bar, and then turned around and gradually reduced our depth, looking out for macro life on the wall. Our guide was good at spotting the small stuff, and it was interesting, but we were here for the sardines not the tiny shrimp and nudibranchs! Just as we were heading in we spotted a huge turtle – a perfect end to the 1st dive. After a decent surface interval and breakfast we went again, this time in the opposite direction with the wall on our left. The 2nd dive was pretty much a repeat performance of the 1st, with more incredible sightings of the sardines, Steve capturing some great footage of a free-swimming moray eel, and the same turtle putting in a 2nd appearance. A fabulous morning’s diving 🙂

Overall, the sardine run diving made the trek to Moalboal worthwhile, and if we’d scheduled a longer stay there’s apparently some great canyoning in the area too. Although we’ve not yet managed to see a whale shark when diving, we didn’t consider the Oslob excursion to swim with them as it’s quite unethical – the locals feed the sharks to keep them in the area, so their diet is unnatural and they are missing out on key nutrients. We’ll hopefully get to see one at some point in it’s natural habitat.

Next – a rather long and complicated journey to the island of Siquijor…..