After too many days at the Koror anchorage we're now finally out exploring the Rock Islands. As I wrote in the last post, it's pretty much the only place cruisers are allowed to go. It's quite OK though, as there are over hundred anchorages (plus many more not listed in the guide) in a maze of many islands, bays and coves of the islands.
It actually reminds us of Stewart Islands in some ways, mainly the lush green forest covering every bit of rock (and making it really hard to get ashore, though it's not legal anyway, bar a few beaches), and the many very protected anchorages we have all to ourselves. The heat is obviously different and unfortunately there aren't blue cods either. It's actually another US$20 to get a permit to catch fish, which we thought is a bit steep especially considering our fish-catching-ratio so far, we'd probably only be lucky to get one, maximum two, so we haven't got one.
Because we're inside a huge barrier reef, the water isn't very clear, but the snorkelling is still pretty good, in certain places anyway. Those places are where the tourist boats also go, so we try to go either early or late, as somehow some of the magic is lost when there are 20 life vest clad Taiwanese people bobbing around in the water! We also suspect they are feeding the fish, as especially the zebra fish are extremely curious, they literally swim right up to us and get very intimate, not quite natural fish behaviour.
We still have five more days left of our permit, then we're going back to Koror (and internet and supermarkets) and we can show all the pretty photos we have taken, but for now it's only text.
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