An Urbex Surprise

A little over a year ago, prior to Amanda & I travelling to Osaka, some friends mentioned a recent visit to a boarded up old theme park in Nara (Japan). A few google searches later turned up a photographers dream, appropriately called Nara Dreamland. Dreamland been closed for a number of years but in true Japanese style it’s had been boarded up and left rather than pulled down and demolished in a more western style. 

In searching for further details on Dreamland I came across a new concept of Urbex (Urban Exploring) which has the rather awesome unwritten rule of ‘leave nothing but footprints, take nothing but photographs’. (Which is very similar to the code a lot of divers follow as well, just replace ‘footprints’ with ‘bubbles’). 

One of the best Urbex examples I’ve come across is Florian and his Abandoned Kansai blog. When Amanda and I visited Osaka/Nara in November last year we found Dreamland but sadly security was on site that day so the best I could do was a few photos over the fence.

Yes ok, Urbex in certain locations would be considered trespassing but I prefer to think that if I’m just taking pictures it’s ok right?

Now where am I getting to with all this… Recently I had been diving with a great group of people from Ohio (mostly). On Monday just gone they had paid a little extra for 2 dives and a half day land tour on the island of Peleliu. I was lucky enough to be able to tag along with them for the tour.

For those who aren’t aware Peleliu island was the site of a ferocious and sadly rather pointless battle during WWII (1944). Essentially the American army wanted to take the air strip from a determined and well entrenched Japanese army. What was expected to take 3 days took well over 2 months. I won’t go into too many details, you can read more here if you like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_peleliu

The land tour took us around many war sites on Peleliu but for me the jewel in the crown was the old Japanese Army Headquarters. I was aware of this building and had been very keen to check it out but mistakenly thought it was on the larger island of Babeldaob. So I was completely taken by surprise to round a corner in our old beaten up tour van and pull up right out front of the HQ. 

Unexpectedly and very suddenly I was doing my first Urbex photo shoot!

Unfortunately with no concept of my what day would entail I only had my small point and shoot Panasonic Lumix camera on me. I can’t wait to get back and explore some more, next time with my DSLR!

And finally a couple of photos I took outside Dreamland last year.

Nara Dreamland, from over the fence

Sunset from the Dreamland parking lot

Super Typhoon Haiyan OR How I slept through one of the world's biggest storms

Hi all, I thought I might postponed my other planned blog posts to give you an update on how we & Palau fared with super typhoon Haiyan.

Last Tuesday I was out diving at a site called Blue Corner with a great group predominantly from Dayton, Ohio. This site is about a 50 minute boat ride south of Koror, it’s on a reasonably exposed section of the reef and can be subject to very large (sometimes dangerous) swells. For regular readers you’ll recall this was the site of my first sea sick induced spewing incident due to large seas from the last typhoon near the Philippines. Anyway this site almost always has some swell with waves crashing on the reef but last week it was perfectly flat! My fellow guide & I were completely shocked, neither of us in our relatively short time in Palau have seen this area even close to like this. It was so flat that we were able to moor the boat over a dive site called Blue Holes and the guests were able to snorkel and generally float around chilling out. One of our guests joked about it being the calm before the storm. We all laughed with no one taking it seriously. Later that day when we got back to the dive shop we were promptly told about the incoming typhoon Haiyan. I don’t believe the calm seas at Blue Corner were related to the typhoon but kind of a funny due to the comment from our guests. 

So the dive shop decided to dive the following day (Wednesday) but would most likely be closed on Thursday when the typhoon was due to hit late in the day. 

Not expecting a huge impact on Palau, Amanda and I made some basic preparations at home. We stocked up on water and some various food. Wednesday I was out diving but we kept it fairly close doing a couple of wrecks and a cave that isn’t too far from the shop. The conditions on the water weren’t too bad considering what was closing in on us. The dive shop closed early after most staff spent all day battening down the hatches. Amanda and I headed home to make some further preparations but on current data Haiyan wasn’t going to be all that close to Palau. 

As official Australian Volunteers we have a designated safe house at the Aussie Navy compound. The safe house is to be used for issues like natural disasters and political unrest (the latter not being an issue here but can be a major risk in other locations that volunteers are sent to). Seeing Palau is politically stable and “never” gets typhoons we didn’t think we’d ever have to use it. Especially after typhoon Bopha hit Palau in early in December last year, the first in around 30 years to hit Palau.

So back to the story, at around 5pm Thursday afternoon we received a phone call from a friend & partner of the Australian Navy Lieutenant commander on island. The news was not good. The typhoon had been upgraded to a super typhoon and had changed direction and was now heading towards us. Our friend recommended we evacuate to the Navy compound. This was not a tough decision for us, despite the apartment we are in probably being quite safe we took the option evacuate while we could. 

We had been a little slack at home that afternoon so we spend a madcap 45 minutes packing away everything inside the house, moving furniture around, bringing in everything from outside and packing some clothes, computers, passports and other personal items for a possible long stay in the safe house.

By the time we headed across town to the Navy compound at 6pm the streets were very quiet. Weirdly enough the weather still wasn’t particularly bad. Some gusty winds, intermittent rain but whether it was in our own heads or not there was a very strong ominous feeling. It is a weird feeling to know what is coming, the best I can explain it is a calm nervousness.

After quickly moving into the compound we spent the evening having some dinner and a couple of quiet drinks with fellow volunteers, an Australian federal senator (who we met the night before and was now stranded on the island) and our gracious Australian Navy hosts. 

Around 9-10pm the winds starting picking up and by 11pm they were strong. The power dropped to the whole island a few times late in the evening and we heard the odd tree come down. The winds and intermittent heavy blustery rain picked up in earnest towards 12pm, around 3 hours before the super typhoon was to be at its closest. The last report we read before retiring was that we were expecting 300kph winds and the eye of the storm to be around 78 kilometres away. Feeling very fortunate to be in a typhoon proof house with shutters on the windows we went to bed.

Amanda was up all night listening to wind, rain and all the noises going on outside. She told me the following morning it was her scariest night ever! I rather conveniently slept through the core 6 hours! I blame the 6 beers I drank before bed and working 10-11 hour days leading up until the typhoon. More than a few of my friends and family think it’s funny that dogs and roosters keep me awake but I can sleep through one of the world’s biggest storms!

There is a house under there somewhere!

The following morning the view from the navy compound showed minimal damage but we knew we were well protected down the lower side of part of a rock island. Soon enough reports started coming in of various pieces of destruction across Koror but it largely seemed minimal considering the strength of the typhoon. We heard of a massive tree down on a house, a few awnings and roofs ripped off, some signs broken & flung around, a couple of cars damaged and lots of trees and power lines down. Late in the day we ventured home to find it perfectly ok with the exception of no power nor water supply.

We were however very concerned about the small northern atoll island of Kayangel which was due to be the closest to the typhoon’s path. No one had been able to contact them that morning at all so a helicopter was sent up as soon as weather permitted. The result is the island has been mostly flattened, hardly any shelter remains, the vegetation is almost completely gone and now there are some inland lakes. The incredible part about this is that the 69 people who didn’t evacuate somehow all survived. Over the following two days they were all evacuated by boat to Koror. A decision will be made shortly on whether to rebuild Kayangel or consider it not fit for habitation.

The lack of water and power to our house meant we were lucky enough to stay at the Navy compound for a few more days. Our hosts were awesome and we are both very thankful that we had the opportunity to stay there.

Regarding the destruction around Koror the community pulled together quickly to clean up the various debris and most things were back to normal in about 2 days. I’ve been diving again over the weekend and early this week and I’m pleased to say I’ve seen no damage to the reef unlike from typhoon Bopha last year which complete destroyed a couple of sites.

It truly is incredible that considering the strength of this storm and how it came within roughly 24 miles of Koror that there wasn’t total destruction like we are seeing with the Philippines now. We can only assume the rock islands have done a great job of protecting everything around sea level.

The morning after...I swear we really did have a typhoon! Honestly we did!

P.S. A (sort of) funny story about why Kayangel didn’t evacuate. Apparently last year when typhoon Bopha was bearing down on them they prayed endlessly and a local witchdoctor walked out into the sea and did some dance to ward off the typhoon. This clearly worked and the typhoon had a late change of direction and passed to the south (damaging southern islands instead). So this time they madly prayed and the witchdoctor did his dance in the sea again, I guess his powers hadn’t quite recharged since last year.

Diving in Palau Part III: German Channel

German Channel is another of the most popular dive sites in Palau. Primarily due to the possibility of getting up close and personal with Manta Rays. The channel is named due to the mining of a long channel through the coral during German occupation of Palau prior to WWI. The original purpose of the channel was to ease and speed up transport of guano (phosphate) into town from Angaur island so it could be shipped internationally.

While seeing Manta Rays have been more miss than hit lately I have had one very special dive where a very large beautiful black manta graced us with its presence. They truly are incredible creatures and I couldn’t believe the size they get to. The one we saw spent around 30 minutes constantly circling the cleaning station while cleaner wrasse fish gave the Manta a good old cleaning. At one point one of my divers ran low on air, I quickly switched him to my alternate air source so the group could stay there longer. The Manta noticed the small commotion and came in for a closer look. It stopped about 1-2 metres away from us with one very large eye looking straight at us. I’m sure it was wondering what the hell we were up to. After a long inquisitive look it resumed circling the cleaning station. 

Other typical sights you can see at German Channel are large schools of Jacks, various sharks and a huge variety of colourful small reef fish. Also if you time the incoming tide you can end your dive by rocketing up towards the channel, just make sure you use your safety sausage to surface to alert any passing boats to your location.

Again, all pictures have been re-appropriated from a Google image search. If you own them and would like recognition or removal please let me know.

An aerial view of the channel

The ride through the channel at low tide

Diving in Palau Part II: Blue Corner

Up close & personal with some misunderstood friends

By far the most well-known dive site in Palau is called Blue Corner. It truly is a fantastic site due to the massive amount of life and variation you can see all in one dive. It’s like you are in the world’s best aquarium, often you don’t know where to look first. You could endlessly watch the 20 or so sharks slowly gliding mere metres from you. You could play with the extremely large Napoleon Wrasse fish which I once heard someone refer to as the puppy dog of the sea. You could get right up close to a massive school of around 50 Great Barracuda that are almost always just hanging out near the corner. And only last week I saw a group of 5 Marlin cruise above the corner. Don’t forget all the beautiful coral, like the soft anemone coral complete with various versions of Nemo’s. If the current is strong you can ‘hook’ into the reef and just sit back with the current washing over you while checking out everything that there is to see.

Great Barracuda

Please note, none of these pictures are mine. They’ve all been re-appropriated from a google image search. If they are your photos and would like recognition or removal please contact me. 

Hooked in with a Napoleon Wrasse

For more pics of Blue Corner & diving in Palau please check out Wendy’s awesome photos here 

Marine life everywhere!