Eleven Sole Searchers Dive Club members made the long trek, to dive the world famous Sipadan Island in May of 2012. The diving at Sipadan is like being in a traffic jam of sea life. Turtles everywhere, sharks, barracudas, bumphead parrotfish, clownfish, pristine coral, leopard shark, and on and on... If fish had horns, you'd hear honking noises the whole time you're diving.
Since diving at Sipadan is done by permit only to protect its ecosystem, some resorts can only allow guests to dive Sipadan just one day during their week's stay. Borneo Divers Mabul Resort having fewer rooms than the other resorts, the odds of having two trips to Sipadan was much greater, and sure enough everyone in our group got to go dive Sipadan two days (8 dives).
On days not at Sipadan, diving was around Mabul or on another island in the area. And for me, the added surprise was the beauty and diversity we found on every islands we dove, Mabul, Si Amil, and Mataking.
In addition to dive sites we motored to, we did several dives at the house reef, and I couldn’t believe how good the reef was just right in front of the dock at the resort. Most destinations you would have to take a long boat ride to get near such life filled reefs. There is so much to see and experience just at the end of the dock.
After the diving was done, the second part of our Borneo adventure was to head North to the Sepilok nature reserve on the mainland. We spent two nights at the Sepilok Nature Resort located next door to the jungle and the Orang Utan Rehabilitation Center.
We even took a night time nature walk through the jungle, got leeched, rained on, and saw some bizzare looking spiders and other bugs. Very educational indeed. Borneo has one of the oldest rainforest in the world, and you really take notice when the jungle sounds envelops you.
The next day we visited The Orang Utan Rehabilitation Center. There is a multi-media presentation, and then a tour to the feeding area which are basically platforms on trees. The juvenile Orang Utans come to feed on fruits and milk, along with some aggressive Macaque monkeys. After the feeding time, we had 4-5 Orang Utans hanging out near the walk path, and at times they were only 3-4 feet from us. What a great experience!
Next we headed over to Labuk Bay to see the Proboscis Monkeys. Again, these monkeys are not shy at all, and to show their dominance, the males will come running right past you while banging the floor boards with their hands. And it can be startling!
The silver hair monkeys also made a showing, but they are amazingly calm and friendly. Jimmy had one walk right over his arm while he was focusing his camera.
Our trip rapped up with a day in Kota Kinabalu. A bustling city in North West part of Borneo to do some gift shopping and people watching.
Culture, nature, and blood sucking leeches... what more can you ask from a scuba vacation ;-)
And this trip would not have been what it was without the people who participated. Big thank you to: Rosa, Sheree, Melani, Marie, Cecilia, Bromley, Jovy, Jack, Lenoard, Jimmy, and that guy that keeps showing up the meetings ;-) To see more on the club photo gallery go to here.
Our vacation package was put together by Gene Dold of Scuba Travel Ventures.
