Dive, Dive, Dive!
August 22nd, 2007 by Greg
Our trip over to Semporna began at about 3 am, and after a taxi, a bus ride, a flight, and two more buses, we finally arrived and checked into the hotel/dive shop we’d be using.
Juliana was here to do her PADI Advanced course, while I was just here to dive. We’d come to Semporna to dive a nearby island, Sipadan, known as one of the worlds top sites. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize how tightly controlled of a park the site is, and as each dive shop is only allotted 10 spots a day for taking guests, nearly all of the shops in town were booked out at least a month in advance. They put us on a waiting list and told us to hope for the best, and as a last resort would help us check with some of the lesser known dive shops in town to find one that could take us.
We set of early the next morning for our first dive trip, to a nearby island of Mabul. The bottom composition around the island is loose and silty, and known to be the habitat of a large number of unusual creatures. In addition, an abandoned oil rig was moved there and much of the contents were dumped into the ocean below to create something of an artificial reef where there would normally be none.
Juliana went off with an instructor to do her dives for the day while I and the rest of the divers went down with our leader around the site. We did 3 dives over the course of the day, and saw loads of animals I’d never seen before, including frogfish, scorpionfish, crocodile fish, and a huge moray eel at least a foot and a half in diameter gaping ominously out of some coral. We also found a rare stargazer, a fish that buries itself in the mud and sends up a mild electrical charge to stun fish that swim over it to eat, that several of the divemasters back at the shop were jealous to hear we’d seen; some had been diving there for years and never seen one!
The next day we were off to another island, Sibuan, to do three more dives while Juliana finished her course. This island wasn’t quite as unique as Mabul as far as sites go, but the small reef surrounding the island was still beautiful and the water was some of the clearest I’d ever seen. We did manage to spot a couple turtles, another frogfish, some exotic looking crabs and lobsters, and my favorite for the day was the juvenile harlequin sweetlips. While the adult variety looks like just another tropical fish, the tiny young ones are brightly colored and wiggle back and forth in the water like they’re dancing.
That evening I managed to find a dive shop that would take us to Sipadan, and got myself signed up, but they required Juliana to come in and arrange for her own spot. I told her this, but she decided to wait a couple hours before going to the shop, and in that time the boat had filled up for the day. I hated to be selfish, but we were there and I wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity. Besides, she said she was tired from all the diving and somebody had to arrange for our bus to Kota Kinabalu the following day.
After three days I finally got to see the actual site of Sipadan, and it lived up to and exceeded it’s reputation. Located much further off of the eastern Borneo coast than the other islands around Semporna, the dives around Sipadan are all at various spots along an underground wall that surrounds the island, where the bottom depth plunges from a couple dozen meters to well over 600. Along the wall are thousands or even millions of brightly colored tropical fish, too many to even keep track of. The site is more famously known for the large number of reef sharks and turtles that congregate along the wall, and I lost count of how many I saw of both. In particular, some of the turtles were huge, one I think must have been larger than a kitchen table.
All too soon my three dives at Sipadan were over and the boat made it’s way back. I’d love to come and dive the island again, though next time make reservations and come in another season; allegedly, there are times when you can see schools of around 50 hammerhead sharks swimming along the wall. Upon arriving back in Semporna, I found Juliana had gotten us bus tickets up to Kota Kinabalu and even managed to get them at a cheaper price than normal, with the help of a guy staying in the same guest house as us. The following morning, we were off.
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