Pulau Mabul
Trip Start
Sep 03, 2007
1
169
220
Trip End
Jun 17, 2009
Pulau Mabul,
Malaysia
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Just before 5am a pair of headlights appeared at the end of the drive, then disappeared! Next thing a minivan provided by the tour company, who must have been the first one's to 'blink' in this exciting game of tourist poker, backed up to reception and we were away into the deserted streets to Kota Kinabalu airport. As we arrived the driver phoned someone and then told us to wait for our airline tickets, which 'someone' was bringing. We were definitely encountering 'not fully joined up writing' here!
'Someone' arrived, gave us our flight tickets, showed us to check-in and then disappeared - "just like that!" Our 7.00am flight left on time and after a mostly cloudy journey, including a drink and a breakfast of a packet of peanuts (the new airport not yet having catering facilities at this time in a morning) we were landing at 'Tawau', forty five minutes later
Pulau Mabul Resort
. We were catching planes like you'd take a bus at home.A young guy met us in arrivals (a good start) and seven of us boarded a battered minibus. He sped away from the airport and east on a country road bordered with hacked down jungle and enormous plantations of palm trees, standing row on row and looking very artificial. After fifty miles on the twisty, bumpy road and some dubious overtaking manouevres, we reached the port town of 'Semporna'.
The small port town was quite industrial, with litter everywhere and most of the very rustic housing being on stilts over the water. After a short wait at a shack on the quayside we boarded a fast boat for the forty five minute run out to 'Pilau Mabul', passing small islands dotted around the ocean.
Pilau Mabul is a small tropical island where the dive centre was based, next to a village of sea gipsies and a small muslim village. It is close to 'Pulau Sipadan', which I had read about in diving books years ago and was rated as one of the top dive sites in the world. We'd taken the opportunity to come here whilst were in Borneo.
The boat pulled onto a sandy beach and we clambered off and were taken to the large centre for a briefing
Pulau Mabul Beach
. There was lunch at 12.00 and the first dive was at 1pm, be there early to check your gear. The accommodation was a comfortable but basic, spacious chalet with refreshing aircon and fan, most welcome in the high 30's, dry heat. A quick lunch in the large dining room, with its open doors and ceiling fans and then whilst Norah relaxed, I went off for the first dive.The equipment was basic but adequate and we motored out a short way before rolling off the boat and descending down to a white, sandy bottom, where wooden frames had been sunk to simulate an artificial reef 'vilage'. There was plenty of fish life around, including a large octopus being hassled because he was too close to a fish's area and a large moray eel inside a pipe. In the frames, dozens of jacks were circling in a silver spiral ball.
Back to the beach by 2pm and our next dive was at 3.00, they like to keep you going here. A short boat ride to the edge of the Mabul reef and we dropped onto a shallow slope inhabited by many coloured fish. A shoal of small, 30cm barracuda swam nearby and in a large purple anemone, a family of clownfish, complete with a tiny 'Nemo' sheltered. The visibility was not too good, which was surprising in this tropical area.
As we returned to the boat jetty there was talk of a night dive
Local boatman
. Well, why not? Let's get in there. We met at 6.30 and dived on the nearby afternoon's site. The first impact on entering the water was the hundreds of three inch long, thin worms that teemed in the water, in places like a soup, attracted to your dive torch and bunching up round it. They seemed to come in clouds and you could feel them on your hands and across your face - a weird feeling.There were less fish around in the dark but several large hermit crabs plodded across the sea bed and a 40cm cuttlefish moved in the shadows looking for his supper. Visibility was again limited but in the dark you were only seeing close to you anyway, especially as I was illuminating interesting subjects for my buddy, Joe, to photograph. We especially came across a small 'spanish dancer' and a young lion fish.
Back, showered and a quick supper, we were in bed early, trying to catch up on last night's sleep and today's early start.
It had been an eventful day, especially as it was our trip 'anniversary', as we had left home on the 3rd September last year. Where did it all go ???
Thursday 4th September
We slept well and awoke to a bright, hot morning
Clear sea view
. A quick breakfast and then on the dive boat at 8am. The fast boat reached Pulau Sipadan (Pulau is Malaysian for island) in half an hour and as we pulled up to the jetty we saw a military observation post, complete with large, mounted machine gun, guards with automatic rifles and a fast RIB (rigid inflatable boat), also with mounted machine gun. The story is that in 2000, Filipino gunmen stormed the island and took hostages. The base is now to protect the divers and visitors. Eeeeeh, you didn't get that at 'Stoney Cove' (an English, inland dive site), did you???We had to register at the Administrator's post and then went off to dive. Dropping into the water, we were at the slope of a reef that went to 25 metres and then dropped in a vertical cliff wall down to 600 metres. It was difficult finning against the current, so we turned and came back along the slope. Several four foot, grey reef sharks and white tip sharks were basking on the slope below us or swimming over the outer edge. The visibility was about 20 metres and the reef had some limited coral growth but was showing a great deal of damage. Small barracuda were on patrol but we started to see more fish life than before of all shapes, sizes and colours. There were big green turtles swimming by us or resting on the reef. I had wanted to experience a significant wall and it was intriguing to fin along the edge, looking down into the 600 metres darkness below me
Messin about in boats
.Back on the boat and we returned to the jetty to land on the island. There was a sheltered beach set aside for 'civilians' and after a surface interval with a drink, we set off for another dive.
Into the sea and as we descended we were in a current, which enabled us to drift slowly over a better preserved area of coral with even more fish populating it. This was very good for fish life with big, 60cm barracuda and large bat fish, like a big angel fish, swimming round the reef. Turtles rested on the coral and it was the scenic dive I had come to see. Very enjoyable.
We returned to Mabul for lunch and relaxed before the next dive at 3pm. A boat ride took us round the island to drop onto another wall with less scenic coral but a lot of fish life. A male clownfish came out to warn us off from getting too near his family, a cloud of black fish (I just couldn't find out what all the different fish types were) swarmed all around us and a couple of spotted sting rays dozed under overhangs. Sadly it was all too soon time to surface and return to the resort.
This had been very good diving and was well worth the trip here
So it's fish for dinner tonight
. My misgiving is that, like the Great Barrier Reef, the picture book dives of years ago are now gone, as the world and the climate changes. All we can do is enjoy the areas as they are now.A time to relax after the dives and join Norah, who had been in the shade and swimming in the pool. A few house martins were buzzing the trees for flies and then zipping low over the swimming pool, regularly bouncing off the surface of the water. I don't know if they were drinking or cooling themselves off but it was intriguing to watch them. There were also storks flying overhead, but as they weren't carrying any bundles they must have been on the return trip!
A pleasant supper, all the meals in the dining room were buffet style with an Asian theme, before a reasonable night's sleep.
Friday 5th September
Breakfast at 7.45 before packing up and leaving our room. We had time to look at the news on tv, especially the continuing unrest in Bangkok, Thailand, which was causing us to review our immediate travel arrangements.
