Christmas Diving in the Mergui Archipelago: Black Rock, Shark Cave and Bryde’s Whales
During this special 7-day diving trip in the Mergui Archipelago, we travelled through some of Myanmar’s most exciting dive sites and celebrated Christmas surrounded by spectacular underwater scenery and an incredible variety of marine life.
South Twin: Rays, Turtles and Cuttlefish
We navigated to South Twin, where we spotted marbled rays, schools of trevallies, a hawksbill turtle and lots of cuttlefish. It was a fantastic way to start our Christmas adventure, with plenty of activity both on the reef and in the blue.
One of the beautiful seahorses encountered during the trip
Black Rock: Diving in Strong Currents
The next day, we travelled to Black Rock, where we experienced strong currents. These conditions brought huge schools of bigeye trevallies, rainbow runners, barracudas and longnose emperors into the blue, creating an exhilarating day of diving.
Black Rock is one of those dive sites where the current can bring the action to you, with large schools of fish moving through the water around the reef.
Christmas Eve at Shark Cave
Then it was time for our Christmas Eve destination: Shark Cave! Santa clearly knew exactly what divers wanted, because he brought us beautiful seahorses, turtles, pipefish and schools of different species of fish around “Submarine”.
Manta ray encounter during the Christmas cruise
Christmas Day at North Point and Western Rocky
For Christmas Day, we were lucky enough to find warm water and excellent visibility around the amazing pinnacles of North Point. The underwater scenery was beautiful, making it a memorable way to spend Christmas morning beneath the surface.
We spent our last full diving day around Western Rocky, where visibility reached an incredible 30 metres and amazed everyone. We had the chance to meet a majestic eagle ray, schools of barracudas, African pompanos, another turtle and octopuses, among other marine life.
A Surprise Visit from Bryde’s Whales
And then came the surprise: two Bryde’s whales came to visit us, circling the boat for a few minutes. What a great last day!
After the dive at Volcano, it was time to pack up and head back to reality. Thank you so much for all the fun we shared together. We wish you a Merry Christmas and hope to see you again very soon!
The Smiling Seahorse family xxx
PS: Franck, our regular cruise director and photographer, was not onboard this week, so I’m illustrating this post with underwater photos as well as the whale video from previous cruises. 🙂
Christmas aboard the MV Smiling Seahorse
Happy Christmas Day from the Smiling Seahorse family
