The weather last few days has been less than perfect with lots of rain and strong winds, but the diving on the other hand has been great. Strong off-shore winds push the warmer surface water out to sea, and the deeper, colder and clearer water further out is consequently pushed towards the shore. This creates excellent visibility, and even though it has been cloudy and low light the last few days, the diving has really been like underwater flying.

Though the diving has been great, I have also explored another activity here in Moalboal; let’s call it mountain motorbiking. My brother came over to visit, and after renting him another XR200 (600 peso, about 10 euro a day) we headed for the mountains. There is a ridge that runs almost all along Cebu island, and you cross it with the bus going from Cebu City to Moalboal, but I had never gone up in the mountains on my bike.

The roads to Cebu City can be pretty bad, but the roads in the hills above Moalboal are even worse. Which makes the whole thing so much more fun! After about two hours of struggling up the rocky hill roads we finally got to the top of the ridge. We stayed for a while and enjoyed the view before we started our descent. If going up the hill was difficult at times, going down was truly a challenge. I suggest getting a few days of motorcycle training first if you’re not used to riding before trying this. These roads are so bad and so full of rocks and potholes, it’s difficult even for an experienced rider like myself to traverse them. Still, you see a family of four with two chickens, a sack of rice and a goat loaded on an old Honda heading down the steepest slope like there was nothing to it. We got down alright too, but my helmet’s off to the people that venture these roads on a daily basis.