Camiguin

Diving runs out of small resort bases strung along the Mambajao coast, from Agoho in the north-west round to Looc in Tupsan, and the boats are outriggers rather than anything larger. A day is generally two morning tanks with an afternoon dive added, and a few sites — Iring Point among them — can be entered from the shore instead of the boat. The long runs are the exceptions: twenty minutes out to the Jicdup shoal, and twenty-five minutes down the coast to Mantigue Island, which the Tupsan shop reaches on its own dive boat.

The terrain is volcanic and it shows. Old Volcano is a cliff face from 5 m past 60; Tangub Hot Springs is a slope of volcanic rock under soft coral; Old Volcano Bay is a gentle grade from 2 m to 30 m. Between them lie hard coral gardens off White Island, a black coral garden running from 6 m to 25 m, and the sand around the small Gypsy Rover wreck, which the site catalogue rates as one of the island's better muck dives. Mantigue, off the east coast, is a protected islet with a drop-off and green turtles, and a giant clam sanctuary at Cantaan in the south holds seven of the world's nine species.

The island suits divers who want a wide range of dives without moving base: confined-water sessions on a 6 m house reef, Deep Diver training on Tongatok's 5-to-40 m reef, and current-swept shoals at Burias and Jicdup Black Forest that the operators reserve for experienced divers. The weakness is the record rather than the diving. No diving-press feature on Camiguin was found, and nearly all site detail traces to one site catalogue and the resorts' own pages, with visibility reported only in broad 10-to-30 m terms. Divers who want corroborated conditions and a wider choice of operators are better served by Anda on Bohol or by Dauin.