DIVE LOG AUSTRALASIA ISSUE 413 AUGUST 25

The Bucket List Trip

text and photos by Ken Hoppen

The main reason for the trip was to have hammerhead encounters and we were not disappointed.

Everyone has one. The place that you want to go more than anywhere, but never really think you will get there. A few years ago, friends of mine asked me what mine was, and when I said, “The Galapagos Islands”, they simply replied “When are we going?” Four to five years later, with hiccups like covid on the way, we managed to get a great group of people together and got there!

After the long haul from Australia to Ecuador, then on to the Galapagos, we boarded the Galapagos Master live-aboard dive vessel for the chance to see some of the world’s best dive sites. San Christobal was the starting point and is well worth a look on its own. This is the place where the seals join you on the dock, and the whole foreshore here seems to be alive with them. Add in a few marine iguanas and a blue footed booby or two and there is a lot of wildlife to see close to restaurants and accommodations.

King angelfish are the only angelfish found in the area but are everywhere and are the main cleaners of the larger species present.

Starting with a checkout dive, then an eighteen-hour steam, our first major dives were out at Darwin Island, at the northernmost extreme of the Galapagos Islands. This dive site, and those on the neighbouring Wolf Island, are known for their hammerhead shark schools, and whilst we didn’t get the wall of hammerhead vista that you can get here, we did have many hammerheads cruising past in the dives we did here. They were always a little stand-offish, but that is the

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DiveLogAustralasia #413 August’25

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