Early morning rise to the beauty of a
shimmering copper sun peeping over the horizon. The sea so calm it reflects the
sky like glass. A short 20 minute boat road to a deserted, military protected
island with nothing but blinding white sand, stretching coconut palms and
turtle hatcheries. 100m of beach allotted to tourists. The rest a government
sanctuary. But that was only above the water…
If there was nothing but the underwater
topography to see in Sipadan, it would be worth the visit. Imagine filling the
Grand Canyon with water, add every psychedelic colour known to man, and
architecture from the space age Jetsons’ cartoon and you will have some idea of
what Sipadan looks like. A drop-off that gives new meaning to the word “abyss.”
A cliff face disappearing 2km at its deepest point into a volcanic ocean floor
that still oozes lava in the darkness. Walls of coral that rise 30m above
your head, so high you can’t see your bubbles hit the surface. Veiny fans of coral
reaching out of the walls as big as table tops, like an inviting hand offering
to swallow your mind forever.
And then
there is the animal life… White tipped reef sharks (our 1st shark!!)
condemned to roam the colder water beneath us, so achingly alone that pity
seems to far outweigh fear. On our 3rd dive of 4 for the day we
began with a sharp descent. At about 25m we passed a huge green turtle guarding
the mouth of an underwater cave!! This gentle sentinel resting his head on a
rock watched us bubble past him one-by-one into the cave and did not flinch a
muscle.
There is
black, there is dark and there is night, but these don’t begin to describe the
pitch that enveloped us in this cave. Void of all light, weightless and
suspended somewhere between the roof and the floor. A spot of earth left
uncreated by God. Terrifyingly awesome.
After
exiting the cave and swimming about 20m on, the wall of coral to our right
suddenly turned into a 6 story wall of stripped Giant Chevron Barracuda. A
school of thousands barreling past us, forming a vortex around us and
disappearing just as suddenly as they appeared into the blue.
50 Minutes
later and all too soon it’s time to ascend. At our safety stop 5m below the
surface we hover over 5 turtles resting on a table of soft pink coral. Two
males snap at each other for mating rights to a female. One loses and is
literally pushed off the coral into the current. The winner claims his prize
and the 2 float away as our heads break the surface…
Time to
fill in our Dive Log Books. I don’t think there’ll be enough room.
xx
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| Copper sunset en route to Sipadan |
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| Sipadan Island |
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| Coming up from a dive |
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| Crystal blue and blinding white |
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