Hello Divers!
Well now I'm back from Sipadan - the divers Mecca???
It's not really how you read about it but it is good.
It's a World Heritage Site so when you see all the
logs and rubbish washed up on the beach it's a bit
disappointing! You also see some rubbish in the water,
but no more than in Thailand. The coral has also taken
a bit of a battering, especially on the south side of
the island where it's mostly dead.
But on the good side - there are A LOT of fish!!!
Visability was around 20 meters and the water was
quite warm. We saw quite a lot really - schools of
bumphead parrot fish 30-40 strong, schools of
barracuda and jacks. And Turtles!! You'd have to have
your eyes closed to not see a turtle - on average 20
to 30 a dive! We saw turtles mating, sleeping,
swimming, turtles coming up the beach to lay eggs -
they were everywhere! If you want to see turtles go to
Sipadan!!!
Some other extacts from my dive log ...
I saw the BIGGEST jack I have ever seen! Close to a
meter long! I saw quite a few sharks, mainly white
tips, every dive almost. Towards the end of one dive
at around 7m we were watching a school of Jacks
spiralling around. There was a slight current, I let
go of the rock I was holding onto while the school
passed over my head less than 2m away and drifted with
the current. Within a minute I was holding onto
another rock watching a school of baracudas, next to
another school of jacks as a white tip swam past 7
turtles and a napolean. I thought Zam was tugging on
my fin to show me something (there was someting going
on ALL AROUND) but he was 5m away - then I saw the
yellow margin trigger! He left a couple of teeth marks
in my right fin - but I just drifted out of it's area
and then it left me alone! (I think it was scared of
me really)
Some other nice stuff we saw was 5 leaf fish! Pretty
unusual. Also Morays, scorpion fish, and nudibranch!
But my last dive was most excellent because we went
75m into a cave named Turtle Tomb!!! Under Sipadan
island ...
Past the "Out of Bounds" signs we entered the cave -
"Turtle Cavern". Went into a small 'room' and saw a
Dolphin skeleton lying on a rocky shelf. Out and up to
an air pocket, I stuck my head up and listerned to the
sounds of strange dripping noises 5m under the sea!
Next to the air pocket, lying on a shelf was the
skeleton of a Marlin. Then on through a smaller
connecting tunnel, through an incredable haze - I
could hardly see, to 'Turtle Tomb'. Now we were along
way in! I saw lots (20+) turtle skeletons some with
shells disintegrating, lots of eyeless sockets looking
at you from the skulls resting in the sand, all by
torch light! We went up to a small window at 9m to see
the silouettes of fish going by, then back down and up
past more turtle skeletons, exploring the cave. There
were lots of shrimp in the rocks and overhangs, and
skeletons. I also saw an ascidean (tube) which was
almost clear, sort of opache, with a small clear crab
inside it. Incedable!
Back through the narrow tunnel to Turtle Cavern to see
an absolutely incredable Blue light as the mouth of
the cave viewed from deep inside. It was such a
beautiful blue it was hard to take your gaze away from
it! Lovely! Then out at 20-23m back into the big blue.
What a great experience. Much respect to the turtles
who go there to die.

I did 12 dives at Sipadan, over 4 days. The food was
good and we had HOT showers - essential!

This is a good place to go diving. You can go deep and
there's LOTS to see. It's quite diffent to Layang
Layang - which I liked more at the end of the day!
But then Sipadan was a lot cheaper too!

Ummm, where to next then???? I've heard there is some
excellent diving to be done in Indonesia -
Sangalaki...... Manta Rays Galor ... appentently ...
maybe I should check it out just for you guys! ;-)

SORTED
 

Love
Mark
THE DIVEMASTER