Scuba diving the Coolidge and Vanuatu

Heres some photos and general info of my last diving trip the vanuatu. The information is at the bottom of the page, but to get you interested in diving in Vanuatu, heres some photos....

Heres a bubble ring veiwed from the bottom, only so much coral you can look at after a few dives needing 5 to 12 minutes of deco...

And from the surface at a deco stop after a long dive on the coolidge in vanuatu.

Heres some of the medicine bottles under water inside the coolidge at around 35-40 meters deep.

Very dark inside the coolidge as you can see in the picture there are full bottles of medicine laying around that get handled everyday by scuba divers visiting the coolidge vanuatu.

A picture of me :) on the bow of the coolidge at 20 meters. Its a common occurence to be diving a single tank of air to 40 meters in vanuatu.

The deck of the coolidge, as the ship is laying on its side.

The tame clown / aneame fish in the coral garden where you spend the deco stops.

Wide view of the coral garden.

Some info...

Luganville is a sleepy little town with a lot of WWII history which can be seen by the warfs and junk that litters the beaches and jungle. It was amusing to hear the signal to start work in the morning at the docks was an air raid siren. Lunch time sees most if not all shops close for siesta for 1-2 hours so a tipical day in luganville is get up and go for a dive at 9 and then wash your gear out and wander down to a local cafe and eat lunch. After lunch nothings open in town until about 2pm which only gives you an hour to look around the 20-30 shops in the town before heading back to the dive shop for a second dive around 4.

If your looking for some awesome snorkling and million dollar point is not your thing, then take a drive way up north of the island to lonoc beach and champane beach were some spectacular reef is everywhere offshore. You can get a local to paddle you out in a dug out canoe to all the best spots from the lonoc beach. Other areas of the island dont have as good snorkling as this area and its well worth spending a non diving day visiting the area and beaches as well as stopping at a blue hole along the way. If you do venture beyond the towns I would recommend you take toilet paper with you if your leaving the town/s in any area of vanuatu.