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Trip Reports: Sue & Brian’s Trip Report – September 13th-27th 2003 Part I
Bonaire Talk: Trip Reports: Archives: Archives 2000 to 2005: Archives - 2003-04-01 to 2004-02-05: Sue & Brian’s Trip Report – September 13th-27th 2003 Part I
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Brian (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #393) on Sunday, November 2, 2003 - 7:09 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Getting there…

We left Birmingham in the UK for Schiphol Airport mid-afternoon on Saturday, 13th September 2003, and started our two-week holiday by taking the train into central Amsterdam for the evening (and a delicious spicy Thai meal) before returning to catch KLM’s midnight flight to Bonaire. We managed to snatch a few hours sleep on the flight, which landed at 3:15am Bonaire time, and were all checked into our suite at Captain Don’s Habitat within an hour of getting off the plane – all luggage accounted for. By the way - has anybody else noticed that the Bonaire passport stamp – the traditional triangular Flamingo Airport logo - has been replaced by a conventional US-style immigration stamp?

Captain Don’s Habitat…

This was our sixth visit to Bonaire and Captain Don’s Habitat. The Habitat formula works perfectly for us – everything from the spacious Junior Deluxe Suites which overlook the ocean, to the great sunset views of Klein Bonaire from those waterfront tables at Rum Runners restaurant, to the 24/7 diving freedom (which came in really handy for the coral spawning – details later in this report) which maximizes our enjoyment of the fantastic diving – both on the Habitat house reef and beyond. One of the main reasons we keep returning is the people - this time we must have come across at least 50 people we’ve met in previous years, and it was great to have the opportunity to renew old friendships as well as meeting new Bonaire friends.

The Diving…

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We did a mixture of shore and boat dives this trip, and saw a tremendous range of marine life. There were two frogfish and a yellow seahorse on the Habitat house reef this time, and we enjoyed several encounters with two large green morays – one of which was HUGE.

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We really like twilight and night diving, and on one of these House Reef excursions came across an extremely long brown flat worm – it must have been 10 feet long and ½ an inch wide. Brian has already posted details on the BT ‘Diving’ thread, and Ellen Muller has kindly identified it as a ribbon worm (apparently they can be anything from just a few inches to nearly 100 feet in length) – we’d certainly never seen anything like it before.

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Has anybody else ever noticed the ‘creole wrasse express’ that seems to occur at twilight – thousands of these vividly coloured fish hurtle along the reef to … where? Here is a picture which catches the moment…

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Other diving highlights include several seahorses at Midushi, a dive on Ebo’s Reef where we saw at least six turtles, one of whom escorted us back to the boat; and a high-voltage dive at Ol’ Blue where we saw an eagle ray, a turtle and even a small shark.

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We also saw several bait balls – being ‘worked’ by jacks and tuna – which are always exciting. Other memories include the huge tarpon on the Habitat house reef – they get bigger every year, and a few large barracuda. We also saw several viper morays - I have only ever seen one once before, in December 2001. And there were lots of reef squid, spotted and golden-tailed morays, sharp tailed eels, and French and Queen angel fish this year.

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We both take underwater photographs, Brian shooting digital this time, with me (Sue) sticking to slides, so the last dive of the trip – a night dive on Town Pier - was a real treat. The intense red, yellow and orange corals are extremely vivid – and our guide Sherman pointed out at least five frogfish – all different colours and two very large sea horses.

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We also saw an enormous decorator crab and a friendly chain moray (of course I’d run out of film by that point, but never mind). We’d definitely recommend Town Pier as a night dive – it’s very, very different to anything else we’ve ever experienced anywhere.

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And then there was the reef cam – we did a couple of boat dives on Small Wall and took various toys to amuse viewers on the reef cam. If anybody noticed a purple octopus or two, or perhaps a shark or small orca lurking around the reef cam, well that was us I’m afraid! We also made the acquaintance of Charlotte, and can report that Picasso the Spanish Hogfish is very inquisitive and friendly!

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Continued in part II

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Eileen Kimmett (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #3412) on Sunday, November 2, 2003 - 8:27 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Wow! I like creole wrasse photo:-).

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Sarah (Extraordinary BonaireTalker - Post #1964) on Sunday, November 2, 2003 - 6:49 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Brian,
Fantastic pictures, the best I have seen in a long time... well done and thanks for posting...:-)

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Cynde (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #9174) on Sunday, November 2, 2003 - 7:18 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Brian and Sue, great pictures...One of the best thing about twilight dives is the changing of the guard, and the hundreds of wrasse that are going "somewhere" where do they go?

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Carole Baker (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #2742) on Sunday, November 2, 2003 - 7:29 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Beautiful shots, Sue and Brian. Thanks for the report, too. Sounds like a wonderful time on your entire vacation from the moment you left home. I have a dear old friend who lives in Birmingham....On Darlington Place, Erdington, BH. Carole

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By DARLENE ELLIS (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #889) on Monday, November 3, 2003 - 9:36 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Thanks for sharing the great trip report and awesome photos!!

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Rita Daggett (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #134) on Monday, November 3, 2003 - 9:57 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Fantastic photos.
Did you book the flights/accommodation yourself, or through an agent/package?
(still dreaming of a hol in Bonaire, but the logistics trouble me - used to taking hols which are either 'brochure packages' or 'tailor-made safaris')

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Cecil Berry (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #3046) on Monday, November 3, 2003 - 10:41 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Sue and Brian, excellent pictures and report. We saw the Creole Wrasse parade ourselves, did you see the other fish heading the other way? We called it Bonaire rush hour. I asked Jack Chalk about it and he said he tried to find out where they were going but never did find out.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Brian (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #394) on Monday, November 3, 2003 - 3:08 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Thanks All we had a great trip.

Rita

We are UK based and use Harlequin's Dive section so they can handle any alterations to KLM's flight schedules. we fly to Schipol and then direct to BON.

Cecil

Maybe they just go round and round the island?

Brian

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Tod Lube (BonaireTalker - Post #46) on Tuesday, November 4, 2003 - 6:05 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Outstanding Pictures, thanks for posting them.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Russ Coash (BonaireTalker - Post #78) on Saturday, November 15, 2003 - 12:31 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

We saw huge numbers creole wrasse one afternoon at "The Lake". We observed a mating behaviour at that time that was incredible. What you saw may or may not have been the same. In the creole wrasse incident that we saw the females were all together in a big column. The males would come in a sort of dive down into the column and pick off a female to go to a funky little dance with them. I did read about this behaviour in a fish behaviour book.

great pix

Russ Coash

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Russ Coash (BonaireTalker - Post #79) on Saturday, November 15, 2003 - 12:37 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

where did you see the creole wrasse?

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Barbara Leary (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #3349) on Wednesday, November 19, 2003 - 2:16 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Awesome pics Brian...wonderful photography and variety there! :-)

 


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