It was a small group who set out for Sipadan at Easter. Reports of poor viz and a reduction in fish life at Chinese New year were foreboding but turned out to be totally unfounded. After the usual late night arrival in Kota Kinabalu and the early morning flight to Semporna, we arrived at the pier for the boat trip to Borneo Divers Mabul in bright sunshine.
The resort was full to the brim as were other dive resorts in the area including the old drilling rig off from Mabul. After the detailed briefing for all the new arrivals it was off to the rooms to unpack gear, take gear to the dive shop set up cameras before the check out dive on the house reef that afternoon.
The first dive was relaxing one along the house reef no deeper than 20m but it set us up for the rest of trip and we got to know the others who were on the same dive boat for the next several days. 60 minutes later of nice clear water where we saw a nice school of young barracuda and a few turtles, it was time for a bit of shuteye followed by a few quiet beers on the beach at sunset…. A good start.
Well you know the rest three dives a day, too much food with about 5 meals a day and nobody lost weight. There were usually two dives a day at Sipadan itself, the best one being the drop off just off the beach from the old Borneo Divers resort. Fish life was teeming, plenty of Jacks, barracuda, white tips and so many turtles along the reef that we became blasé about spotting them.
The turtles are still amazingly docile and it was easy to get close and get some good photos. Around Sipadan the other reefs were definitely “quieter” in terms of fish life but once you get used to dives like the drop off its all relative I guess.
At Sipadan the Malaysian military were in strong evidence with heavily armed troops on the island and also out on patrol in fast patrol craft each day. The permit system seemed to be rather overloaded as the beach always seemed full of dive boats, but it was rare to bump into other dive groups in the water. On Mabul we also saw armed paramilitary police patrolling round the island, but none of this detracted from the diving and atmosphere.
The dives on the old rig off the resort were real fun, better than I expected. Though not a fan of macro stuff, it was teeming with life and seeing several crocodile fish and and such like meant that it was not exactly macro but more like searching for interesting fish.
Less words…. Pictures alone can tell the story.
Nick Swain
April 2007