Day 86. Flower island, Philippines. Reef life.

We'd planned to do some diving while here, but the snorkeling is so good, we've decided to save our money for beer and pina coladas.

There's a reef lying 30 metres off the beach that is home to more marine life than we saw on all our Malapascua dives put together.

Parrotfish, Triggerfish, Angelfish and Clownfish are everywhere. Look a little longer and you're rewarded with Blue spotted Rays, Catfish and some huge Cuttlefish that have the uncanny knack of changing from grey and black to vivid blue and orange depending on which piece of coral they're closest too at the time.

It's become a bit of a competition to see who can spot the most impressive beast.

Jan and Marlou went out before breakfast and spent a couple of minutes in the company of a decent sized turtle. "Pah" said Wend, "We'll see a shark before the day's out".

And right on cue, 2 hours later, a 4ft black-tip reef shark darted past us as we were treading water.

1 - 0 to the Smiths.