Don Silcock

Land of the Sleeping Crocodile

SportDiving Magazine Article on Timor Leste Timor Leste Land of the Sleeping Crocodile – the tale of the boy and the sleeping crocodile is told often in this country also known as East Timor. It is used to explain the island’s crocodile-like …

It’s PNG Expect The Unexpected

It’s PNG Expect the Unexpected – Papua New Guinea is truly one of the last frontiers, the country is a wild & adventurous place that offers some tremendous scuba diving, combined with many unique and fascinating things to see above …

Kimbe Bay Conservation – Part 2

Conserving Kimbe Bay – what would you do if one day you realized that the side-effects of the industry you helped to introduce were starting to degrade the pristine environment of your backyard – turn a blind eye… hug a tree …

Ambon – Maluku’s Magical Island

Ambon scuba diving – X-Ray article Diving Ambon: Indonesia is without doubt a country that can constantly surprise and delight you – usually when you are least expecting it! The huge archipelago of more than 17,000 island offers some of …

The Conservation of Kimbe Bay – Part 1

Kimbe Bay Conservation – there is a line of thought among the marine scientific community that Kimbe Bay is probably where the first corals originated – a theory that has evolved as a result of the various surveys conducted to assess and …

Diving Bali: The Insiders Guide to the Liberty Wreck…

X-Ray Magazine Liberty Wreck Article The wreck of the USAT Liberty, just off the beach at Tulamben in the north-east of the island, is Bali’s most famous dive and people travel from all over the world to experience it, so much so that on a …

Diving Tofo – Death on the Beach

Tofo Death on the Beach… A beach landing in the surf is something you never take for granted. So doing it the hard way with no engine requires a combination of skill and strength… Watching the tiny fishing boat get through surf to the …

Papua New Guinea: The Facial Tattoos of Oro Province

One of the most visually intriging things about the local villagers around Tufi in Oro Province are the facial tattoos worn by many of the women – something you would not really be aware of without making the effort to visit them… Tattoos, and body …

Mozambique Megafauna Article

Mozambique Megafauna Article… Along a 200km stretch of the Mozambican coastline, on the southeastern seaboard of Africa. Mother Nature has conspired to create what can only really be described as the perfect underwater biological …

Papua New Guinea: A Kiap Returns…

A Kiap Returns... I have to be honest and admit that I had no idea what a Kiap actually was until I met Doug Robbins & his family over a drink on the verandah of Tufi Dive Resort’s main lodge. Doug had been a Kiap in Papua New Guinea for 4 years …

Indonesia – Diving Halmahera

Diving Halmahera… The remote province of Halmahera is about as far north in Indonesia as you can go. And it’s isolation means that it offers some pretty unique diving opportunities. Big currents are however very much a feature of …

Papua New Guinea – Orotoaba Village Homestay

Orotoaba Village Homestay To get a better appreciation of what life is like for the majority of Papua New Guineans – the ones who don’t live in the main towns but spend their their lives in their tightly knit village communities – …