Hi All
The Australian travel advisory gave us an updated for Sabah:
“There are indications that both criminal and terrorist groups are
planning or intend acts of violence against foreigners in eastern
Sabah, notwithstanding the Government of Malaysia´s increased ability
to detect, deter and prevent such attacks. The Abu Sayyaf Group, based
in the southern Philippines
has kidnapped foreigners in eastern Sabah in the past. Criminal
elements are also responsible for kidnapping and piracy committed
against foreigners. Of present concern are the resorts (and
transportation to and from) located in isolated areas of eastern Sabah,
including Semporna and the islands of Mabul and Sipadan. Please avoid
or use extreme
caution in connection with any travel in these areas or locations.”
We obviously thought about this for about a nanosecond and then threw
caution to the wind after all there were so many attractive European´s
to kidnap why target two seasoned and harden travellers who hadn´t
washed their clothing for two months.We knew that would be be able to
outrun any pirate boats with our super powered dive boat or so we hoped
anyway.
Day 3. Early start and off to Mabul island which is a small oval shaped
island fringed by sandy beaches and perched on
the northwest corner of a larger 200-hectare reef. The reef is on the
edge of the continental shelf and the seabed surrounding the reef
slopes out to 25–30m deep. The island is a 45minute speedboat ride from
Semporna.Immediately upon arrival everyone's bags are offload and the
divers and snorkellers are directed to their appropriate boats.We
happened to be on the boat that we would be on all day so we didn´t
need to move an inch.The first thing that you see when you arrive at
the island is a oil rig (now
non-operational) that sits about 1km off shore that has been converted
into a
dive resort called Sea Venture.The second thing that you notice is the
small and extremely primitive fishing village that sits directly
beside the resorts and which houses a small population of Malaysians
that work in the resorts, and migrants from nearby Philippines.The day
trips all comprise 3 dives or snorkels and on this trip we were to
snorkel around Eel Garden, the Oil
Platform and Lobster wall.We had been virtually guaranteed sighting of
sea turtles so we hired an underwater camera off one of the dive master
for the day for 100 ringgits.
The girls were so convincing at the dive office that I was convinced
that we were guaranteed to see turtles at Mabul. This is unusual for me
as I have a healthy scepticism to grand promises made by sales people.
I think that as soon as we entered the water at Eel garden we knew that
this area was special and it wasn't long before we saw our first turtle
swimming past the edge of the reef. We spent time looking around the
shallow section of the reef.
The next dive was at an oil platform but we stayed on the island and
snorkelled the reef drop off finding, along with the fish, sleeping and
feeling turtles about 100m from the jetty. The coral was quite good and
healthy with amazing variety of fish. We found a family of squid ,22 in total so a big family,who
sped off when we gave them a little too much attention.
Next dive spot was Lobster walls. This is an outstanding site. We saw 5
turtles
before the scuba divers even hit the water! It was and is pure magic to
look out from the shallow coral with the colourful fish swimming around
it into the deep blue water beyond the drop off. We found a couple of
large napolean wrasse and trigger fish along the way and so many
sleeping turtles. Some were almost sleeping on the vertical wall. The
tide had turned by the time we headed toward the dive boat and the
current was quite strong. A very, very nice spot.
Day 4.Mabul island. Snorkeling all day on reef out front of island.
Local island boys lobster fishing at low tide. Two of them paddled
along on an orange esky lid whilst another with a dive mask looked for
lobsters. I think that they dropped plastic bottle traps with meat in
them in the area and we saw them pull out a strange looking crayfish
one day.
I woke up this morning with itchy dots on my body but only where my top
sits. We have been getting stung in the water by something unseen and
suspect sea lice. Not much fun at the moment and Vanessa keeps telling
me not to scratch but I keep at it anyway when she isn't looking. The
dots were itchy for about 4 days and are slowly going away now.
Day 5. Mabul island. Dive boat again. Eel garden again. We hoped for a
different site but were happy to go snorkelling with turtles again
knowing we could swim over the shallow reef later. We entered the water
and found that the visibility was excellent and could clearly see the
bottom more than 10m below. The divemaster had given us instructions to
follow the reef along until we found rubble and this was a common
location for eagle rays. It wasn't long before Vanessa spotted a group
of eagle rays 'flying' along in the water deep below us then a bit
further on spotted another. Then we started spotting lots of turtles.
They appeared out of the blue water and disappeared just as quickly.
There were three swimming around us at one point. We would have been
400m away from the dive boat by the time i came to get us. Our next
location was an artificial reef near the island. I was quite
disappointed when we first started looking around as all we could find
were structures but not many fish. It didn't take long to get
enthusiastic when a large grouper
(1.3m) swam past a structure and then we found a large marbled grouper
resting on the sand in the safety of a cage. A little further on we
found a large school of big eye trevally and on another structure a
couple of lion fish swimming with their fins fanned out. Very, very
nice. I think that the variety of fish around Mabul is amazing. We even
found a snowflake eel just off the boat jetty in the coral on an
afternoon swim one day and a snake eel the next.
We reluctantly leave Mabul this evening and return to Semporna.
Bye
David and Vanessa
