The
wreck remains intact, and with the addition of all the
marine-life, is a great place to dive; in fact as far
as the marine-life goes, its right up there with the
best of them.
A
short drive from Phuket reaches Khao Lak in Phangnga
province, where surprisingly enough, there's a fantastic
variety of diving services offered, which have somehow
managed to elude publicity, until now that is!
Khao Lak has no fewer than ten operators set up either
in the beachfront resorts or dotted along the main thoroughfare.
Diver education is prominently flaunted on large billboards
and shop fronts, along with a number of rather unique
services, but they will be featured in the October edition
of 'Thai Diver'
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It
is plain fully obvious that this is rapidly developing
as 'the place to be' not only on the back-packer route
but also on the scuba diving map, particularly as the
park features long pristine beaches punctuated by small
islets, rocky coves, coral reefs and a even a couple of
wrecks. The wrecks are or rather were, both tin dredgers
but now instead of desiccating everything in their path,
they act as a place of refuge to it. Quite the opposite
from their once dredging capacity of 200 cubic metres
of bottom composite every hour.
The
nearest and largest of the two dredgers, christened the
Bang Sak, was constructed in Sydney, Australia during
1927 came to rest courtesy of the Royal Thai Navy in 1984,
when they relieved it from its duty of resident marine
hazard off the shores of Laem Pakarang to the north of
the Park.
The fifty metre long wreck is now retired under twelve
metres of water with its bottom in twenty. Quite why it
was left there in the first place remains a mystery, perhaps
they misplaced it!
The
wreck remains intact, and with the addition of all the
marine-life, is a great place to dive; in fact as far
as the marine-life goes, its right up there with the best
of them. For starters it's the only place in Thailand
where the rarely encountered Halgera sp. nudibranch is
found, and on a regular basis.
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If you look very carefully there's a number of proper
stonefish lurking in the sand around the hulls exterior;
none of those reef-type models that are in no way ugly
enough to miss! Even harder to see is a resident anglerfish,
in fact its so hard its best to get one of the Divemaster's
familiar with the wreck to point it out to you.
Its
also worth taking some time to explore the sand further-a-field
as its heavily pitted by the lairs of gobies and mantis
shrimps, their elliptical eyes peering out of their tubular
holes in the hope of spotting a quick meal. Close inspection
will also reveal small flatheads and juvenile scorpionfish,
so be careful where you put your hands.
Back on the dredger itself, are morays, harlequin ghost
pipefish, lionfish and snappers and the surrounding waters
are generally busy with schooling fusiliers, barracudas,
cuttlefish and squid. And on a larger note leopard, nurse
and even the odd whale shark.
All in all this site guarantees encounters with all manners
of creatures, and it doesn't really matter that the visibility
can be somewhat limited it's a winning site for always
spotting something unusual, no matter what its size.
A big thank you to Ian Oakshett of Sea Dragon Dive Center
for providing the diagram and background information on
the Bang Sak Wreck.
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