Palau

Where to start.  We have for many years wanted to go snorkelling in Palau – but in the past too hard to get to.  Qantas announces new route, direct from Brisbane, great, time to go before they stop it again.  Using the last of our FF Points (having also just used them for a later trip to UK), we are to set of in a couple of weeks on the 8th March.  Then along comes tropical cyclone Alfred, what a mess.  So sorry for all those affected more seriously by it, we only had disrupted plans.  Qantas only flies once a week so a couple of days before we get a cancellation email saying not to do anything they are working on alternative and will be back within 24 hours. 30 hours later another email basically saying same thing.  Finally rerouted to Tuesday but… instead of a nice short hop to Brisbane then 6 hours to Palau we now go to Sydney, then Manila, then Koror taking 24 hours on the go (have to get up at 3 for 6am flight) and arriving 3 am in the morning, later at hotel.  Due to the shortened time we extended the return date by 1 week to fit in what was already planned.  Luckily all the accommodation etc booked was able to move it around for no cost.

Now we have both always wanted to go to the Philippines too but maybe not just in the airport for 6 hours, awful airport, had to hang around arrivals for 2 hours before they would accompany us to departures (no water, nothing) and through to gate.  At least there I found a nice neck massage fairly cheap – just to fill the time of course. Also a great view of a volcano on the way in.

The oddest thing on arriving in Koror was meeting 2 people from Sydney who had had the same re-routing – but apparently they found out that a plane was put on from Brisbane on the Sunday –  odd, all we can guess is they could not get us or them to Brisbane as the plane to Koror must have had the same number of seats.

Wipe out first day other than finding Sim cards and food while enjoying the tropical weather. Must be getting old, used to do 24 hours easily, now I end up like a zombie for a day.

One of the first things we notice here which is odd as unlike Asia they drive on the right – BUT almost all the cars are left hand drive, Steve not looking forward to trying that out. Lots of dogs sleeping on road, saw one with only three legs and several limping. Presume drivers don’t see them, although we have found them to be slow and considerate drivers in general.

A short scenic flight over the islands was really incredible.  We have never seen so many shades of blue and green anywhere.  It is really astounding scenery and some of the best I have seen anywhere, just wish I was a better photographer to really show it off.

Now we have a hire (luckily it is right hand drive, one of only a very few on the island and one less thing to get used to) we are going to stay further out of town in a resort with a house reef in the area of Meyungs.  4 days of snorkelling, walking the nature trail looking for birds and not much else.  Very relaxing.  The reef like so many is bleached but there are a lot of fish and different species, my favourite was finding a tiny pipefish.

The resort did some free stuff for guests and one was a birding walk – great, except the guide did not have much knowledge and kept on about a ground dove (rare) which turned out to be a Crake – not at all the same, still he was a great guy and did know some of the calls. 

Think birding here is relatively new on anyone’s agenda.
This Hotel was built on the site of a Japanese Seaplane  Base, some of which remained and interesting to see the coral that has grown on the concrete ramp – nature always takes things back.

Moving on to an airbnb (the most affordable thing on the island) out even further from town – but we have a kitchen to cook which is great, an area called Ngermid.

In town there is a great little park called “Long Island Nature Park”  lots of birds there and we made use of a few visits – you could also snorkel here, there is coral but it did not look that great (the only free, permitless site).

We had really wanted to go to Jellyfish Lake and see the Golden Jellyfish but there have been none there for a few years as due to climate change the water has got too hot for them.  Instead we went on a snorkelling tour organised through the BNB into and around Niko bay which was really good. AND better still he  took us to a hidden spot where there were Golden Jellyfish – no-one else goes there as he keeps it quite that he found them, he does not want the tour groups there.  We also went to another snorkel spot to try and find mandarinfish – but no luck unfortunately.

In and around this bay and the port are a number of old wrecked boats which the jungle is claiming.  Apparently around 7 years ago there was a super hurricane and these boats broke there moorings.  The cost of recovery not viable – still the birds and trees are using them to their advantage.

Birding  next and off to a trail on Ngeremdiu Island, hardly any tourists do this route and we had to get a private boat to get there. 

Funny because it is a great trail with not only lots of endemic birds but heaps of WW11 relics and a lighthouse built by the Germans prior to WW1. 

At some point in the past solar panels have been put up here at the lighthouse – but there is no sun as the tree canopy completely covers the area.

Arriving by boat I was so shocked with the amount of rubbish floating – even a TV.  Apparently it has all come in recently as they have had unusual winds from the south.  They do have clean ups’ but can not keep up.

The trail is a bit of a scramble at times, with fallen trees blocking the paths but we make it to the highest point in the country and get photos of many of the endemic birds.

Also found a Palau Tree Snake which one of the guides was terrified off.

On the way back we had time for a snorkel and went again to Mandarinfish Lake – this time the guide new how to find them, wow they are so pretty, most incredible fish I have ever seen.  Plenty of other fish and coral here too, more protected and less bleached.

Another thing that has changed our plans while on the island is that until really recently the permit for the snorkelling around rock islands lasted 10 days, but without warning recently they reduced it to 5 days, meaning we ended up having to do 3 in a row rather than spread them out between different activities.  The permit is $25 US each so did not really want to buy a second.  This is the only permit we had found out about in advance (apart from diving ones which we did not need).  Of course once here you need a different permit for everything, every different state (lots), islands etc.  This is turning out to be a much more pricey trip than planned.

Last of the 3 snorkel trips out to the rock islands – 1st stop the milky way mud – not really our thing so stayed on boat and scoured for birds.

A reasonable but again very bleached snorkel spot “Fantasy Coral gardens” with lots of fish and such incredibly diverse colour clams.

Lastly going to the second snorkel spot “The big drop off”  which was amazing, just wish we could have had longer there. 

There are so many snorkel spots but so hard to get to.  Tours are really expensive and a lot of stuff is repeated so to get to different snorkel spots you have to go the milky way each time, long beach, long lunch stops etc for short snorkel.  This is were a larger group would help, if we were 6 instead of 2 it would be worth getting a private boat to take you where you want.  A liveaboard would be the bet option here I think.

Off up North to an area called Choll for a couple of nights.

We are here mainly to do a trip that leaves from Ollie to the North Islands of Kyangel (Orukei). What we did not realise heading out of town was that nothing opens Saturday till 6pm, no fuel, no supermarket – had to head back into town to the tourist area to get supplies.

The snorkel spot on the way was the best so far, except the sea was pretty lumpy and the guide thought is was a speed race and kept calling for us to keep up – hard to look at species or get photos when you have to swim at the speed of sound. 

A spot of fishing next in the traditional way with hand lines (not my thing but Steve tried with no luck –  luckily others caught stuff as that was lunch.

Excited at the lunch spot when Steve found the Endemic megapode wandering around, an endangered bird we had been hoping to find – but had no idea it had ever been seen out on these islands.  Lucky as we never found it anywhere else on the trip.

There are 4 islands as part of Kyangel, one a bird sanctuary, main island, lunch island and apparently the other miniscule island has been sold and there maybe a large chinese resort built there – how to ruin some great areas – and what will they do with their rubbish. (not my picture below).

The main island after lunch was a real eye  opener about discarded rubbish.  The main island (the biggest by a long way) is only about 1.4km sq and many miles from any major land mass.  The population of the island is around 50, the owner of the island Lazarus Meyar has received an Environmental Award for his lifetime commitment to conservation and preservation of the marine environment.  He has created areas where he strings washed up rubbish to shock tourists and make them think about rubbish – and it certainly does that.  One area for bottles and caps, another for thongs and yet another for bouys.  Incredible how much ends up in on one tiny island in the middle of no-where. Very confrontational

Makes me feel so sad for the environment and the future of the planet.

Of to the south next, a local ferry trip to Peleliu Island for 3 days.  Ferry $1 for locals $36 for us.  Lovely island despite it once being a major battleground in WW11 with almost the whole island destroyed of vegetation.  There is a picture of one old tree, rumoured to have been the only one to survive the battle. Now Bloody Nose Ridge is lush forest.

We are staying in a hostel – luckily only us as all the slightly better accommodation is full of American Marines.  So many here, we saw one working on a road and lots driving around and the rest lounging around.  Hard life.

Lucky again we are self catering with stuff we brought over – ham sandwiches for lunch, packet noodles for tea.  The cafe here sells things like tinned spam with chips or tinned corned beef with chips and not much else.  at US$17 a dish think I prefer the packet noodles. The local shop has a sign saying “We buy Fruit Bats” which they make bat soup out of, Not for us. 

We like this island, still very traditional and so much jungle.  People in Palau are all very friendly and cheerful, an easy place to be.

Drove around Island looking at WW2 Relics, Peleliu was noted as one of the fiercest battle’s of the Pacific, This Battle was shown as part of Band of Brothers movie. The Jungle is reclaiming lots of relics so wont be around for long although work is being done to preserve stuff. We did the Jungle walk to Bloody Nose Ridge, impossible to imaging fighting up the hill. This Island has been described as the best preserved Battlefield of WW2. When we went off “Tourist Routes” we came across a Japanese mass burial site that they are excavating to repatriate the Soldiers.

As there was lots of UXO we had to stay on marked paths, even though markers were hard to see in places, not good for chasing birds!.

Next Back to Palau on ferry which was really designed for goods, had plastic garden chairs and a table. Also took much longer than passenger ferry but way more comfortable.