70 Islands, Palau
In March 2020, I went to Palau for a two-week diving trip. Then the pandemic struck. My trip had to be extended because I couldn't fly for three months until May.
The seductive word "Palau" may have been heard by many people, but not everyone knows what it is.
It's a quick compendium. Palau is an island nation consisting of three hundred islands with a population of about 20,000 people. Most people live on the two largest adjacent islands. Palau is located 1,000 km (621 miles) north of Indonesia, 1,000 km (621 miles) east of the Philippines, and 3,000 km (1,864 miles) south of Japan. Here's how I traveled: 8.5 hours on a Moscow-Seoul flight, then a long stay (but you can find a transit hotel at the airport) and another 5 hours on a Seoul-Koror flight.
Even before the trip, the captain informed me that I would probably dive alone in the second week as many customers cancelled their trip due to the coronavirus outbreak. In fact, I was alone as soon as I got on board: a large group of German divers were taken home by a phone call from the embassy at the Airport in Manila, the Philippine capital. They were told they would not be able to fly back if they did not return to Germany immediately. They are only 1 hour away from Palau, but I learned about it all later.
Regardless, it turned out to be a good time for diving. Now I'm leisurely enjoying the world-famous dive site, which used to be crowded with dozens of people.
But first things to do. The blue corner is considered the symbol of Palau. The tour guide said that some divers come here for a week and they are willing to dive there for a whole week. But, in my opinion, there's a more interesting place near The Blue Horn – blue hole reefs.
The Blue Cave is four straight wells about 10 m (33 ft) in diameter that converge at depths of 15-20 m (49-65 ft) into a spacious cave with two exits leading to the ocean. So all in all, there are 6 blue holes. The stunning terrain was formed by erosion millions of years ago, when water levels were lower than today.
If you enter the Blue Cave at noon, you'll see a dazzling column of light as the sun rays fall vertically into the well, filling the water with magical light – an unforgettable sight. If the direction of the current is favorable, the fastest divers can "kill two birds with one stone" in one dive: dive into a well in the Blue Cave, go down the river, and complete the dive in the Blue Horn.
Another "attraction" of this reef is the small cave called the Temple of Doom. You can get here through the seventh hole: a narrow entrance located at a depth of about 25 m (82 ft) within the Blue Cave Reef. The route is considered difficult: untrained divers can easily get lost inside. Only those with certificates, special equipment and training can dive here. But sometimes, some guides familiar with the cave will also regularly take divers to the Temple of Doom.
The Temple of Doom is famous for its large turtle skeleton that is well preserved on a panel at its far end. At a depth of about 30 m (98 ft), in complete darkness and black silence, the flashlight flashes white skulls and bones — it will give you goosebumps. There's also quite a few creepy things here: after getting used to the turtle's bones and concentrating on taking pictures, I shivered again in horror when an unrecognizable thing suddenly appeared in the light from the darkness. It flew over my head next to my mask. Later in the photo, I saw the silhouette of a caranx or stingray with "wings", but at that time the cave seemed uninhabited.
Subsequently, during our exploration of the Temple of Doom, we found the remains of several turtles in various remote places, but they were just a pile of bones scattered. One can only wonder whether these animals came here to die for their own will, or whether they died because of a lack of air to find a way out of the Temple of Doom.
Another symbol of Palau is jellyfish lake. It appeared about 15,000 years ago. Now the lake is not connected to the ocean, although the sea does enter it through cracks in the limestone. The influence of the outside world on jellyfish is not large, so a unique ecosystem has been formed here.
It is not possible to determine the exact number of jellyfish, but according to rough estimates, there are about two million of them, which is what makes the lake famous all over the world. The most interesting feature of these jellyfish is that they are completely harmless. People who come into contact with ordinary jellyfish most often end up burned or even dead: marine animals release toxic stinging substances through their tentacles to protect themselves. But jellyfish here have no natural predators, and after thousands of years of peaceful living, they have lost their defense mechanisms. The concentration of the toxin has been reduced to a minimum, and you will only feel a slight tingling if you accidentally touch the jellyfish with a sensitive part of the skin, such as your lips or neck. That's why it's'
Another unusual feature of this lake is that its water is filled with high concentrations of hydrogen sulfide, phosphorus and ammonia at a depth of about 10 m (33 ft). Only rare hardcore bacteria can survive in this toxic environment, but humans should not dive so deeply: toxic substances can enter the human body through the skin, causing serious health problems. Luckily, these two completely different layers didn't mix, and on the surface of the water, all the creatures felt good.
A few years ago, the lake was closed to the public due to a marked reduction in the number of jellyfish. Some suspect that this may be related to the toxicity of the sunscreen that hundreds of tourists apply to their bodies every day before diving into the water.
But I was lucky that the lake reopened and I went four times. Normally, a snorkeling takes 45 minutes because there are a lot of people who want to go, but because I am alone, the rangers did not restrict me in time, so I swam for 3-4 hours.
The first time I went, the guide told me, "Swim to the middle of the lake, where the jellyfish should be." But I was unlucky: I only found a few dozen specimens and was frustrated. The second time, I flew all over the lake in 10 minutes with a drone. The 2 million jellyfish mentioned on Wikipedia gather near the shore about 500 meters (546 yards) from the far end of the lake.
I took a deep breath, packed up my shooting gear, and wandered away. I had been swimming for about 20 minutes, slapping the water with my fins, holding a bulky camera with a flash in front of me until I finally found myself in real jellyfish soup. Pushing away dozens of small yellow bodies that are constantly moving with a tentacle is indescribable. At first I was just lying on the water, trying to figure out what was going on. But everyone got used to it, so I turned on my camera and started shooting.
Today, the Internet is flooded with thousands of photos of jellyfish from this lake. I want to do something new. It wasn't until my fourth trip to the lake that I was able to come up with and implement a technically challenging shoot – a 360-degree VR split panorama that you can see on this virtual tour.
When I spent my second month on a boat in Palau, I had already divened many times at every possible dive site. Choosing the location of my next dive became the biggest challenge, and at this difficult moment, i was approached by a Chinese tour guide who made friends with me. His English was not very good, but he still managed to explain that he had found a hole in the cave and could go in. To do this, you must first take off your clothes in the water, remove the tank, the fins, climb the wall, and then climb a few meters (yards) in this muddy hole.
The guide warned me that the hole was narrow, but after determining my size, he concluded that I might be able to pass. After that, he said, another cave would open at the exit, but there was no more water. It's stuffy there, it's hard to breathe, but it's still possible that the reward for all the pain is "very good looking". I agreed, I was right!
So, began to search for the mysterious cave entrance. First, we dive into Chandelier Cave, a very famous place in Palau. There are four stalactite halls, one after the other. In each hall, you can dive into the water and find yourself in a small air bag whose size depends on the tides. One of the fun games for the guide is to swim up to the stalactites and lick with your tongue a drop of fresh water that seeps out of the soil from the surface.
If you go all the way to the end of these caves, in the fourth smallest hall (only a few meters in diameter), somewhere high in the corner, you can see a small hole. The best time to reach it is at high tide, when the water level is high and there is no need to climb vertical rocks.
We dive into the air pockets of the fourth cave and take off our gear in the water — vests, fins, masks; Blow up our vests and tie them to anything that could drown. We floated it all in the water, wearing only wetsuits, and we climbed into the hole.
The Chinese friend is small and agile; He slid in with ease, like a knife through the butter. But I'm old and big, so I have to wriggle in the wet clay and do a lot of things with my shoulders. Finally, a few minutes later, when I was exhausted from climbing, I pushed the flashlight in front of me to illuminate a rather large hall with stalactites and stalagmites, and in the beam of the flashlight I could see several smaller halls in the distance.
In half-light, majestic pillars fall in strange shapes somewhere on the ceiling, equally intricate columns rise from the ground to meet them, and the silence is broken by small drops of water and large drops of sweat dripping from the stalactites. My forehead.
I imagined myself standing on the threshold of an unexplored geographic discovery, rising from my knees and shining a flashlight on the nearest wall. It has a large inscription: "Igor is here".
After a while, I saw that almost the entire cave was covered with inscriptions in different languages. In one place, almost on the ceiling, I also found the name of my Chinese tour guide. Honestly, I can't imagine how he climbed up – there was no way he could have brought the ladder in!
In addition to the underwater scenery, Palau's territory is also very beautiful from the air: hundreds of "blurred" green islands in the turquoise sea, tranquil lagoons, coral reefs, the deep blue waters of the Pacific Ocean... All this leaves an indelible impression. Impressions of people living in central Russia.
One of the most beautiful locations for aerial photography is Ngerukewid, also known as 70 Island. It is a group of islands located within the Palau Lagoon. The small coral islands range in size from 0.1 to 48.5 hectares and are 87.3 hectares. These islands and their surrounding areas are protected by the Ngerukewid Islands Wildlife Sanctuary. This area is closed to tourists. Due to Covid time, I was lucky enough to get permission. No tourists have the opportunity to see the most beautiful parts of Palau. You can now see 70 island sanctuaries on this virtual tour.
I used my drone a lot, and during palau 'incarceration' I flew about a thousand kilometers (621 miles), so at the end I was able to add some nice aerial photographs to my underwater shoots. Now, Palau's drone situation, as in the rest of the world, is becoming increasingly complex and regulated, and flying them already requires a permit. Fortunately, it doesn't cost much and still involves relatively little paperwork.