Scuba Diving in Paradise - Mabul and Sipadan, Borneo

Semporna is the port town of your nightmares and unfortunately a necessary stop over before heading to the tropical island Mabul. It was smelly, muddy and very unfriendly and we stayed in a hostel that looked more like a storage room than a place to sleep. It was a shock after being in Bali as no one understood how to make a meal without meat, so we were saved by a tin of baked beans and some packet noodles. Luckily we were only here for one night as we were being whisked over to Mabul for our diving adventure to begin. We stayed and dived with Scuba Junkie who were unbelievably wonderful, definitely our best diving yet! Before we'd even checked into our room we were already jumping into the sea in some of the most beautiful water we'd ever seen. It was like staying with a big family, complete with friendly cats and a tubby dog that loved belly rubs. 

Diving highlights in Mabul include seeing countless Green and Hawksbill Turtles swimming and sleeping in the coral, it never got old! We have a new found love for Nudibranches which are soft bodied molluscs that come in so many different colours and are exciting to find because they are so small and odd; we saw one that looked like Pikachu! On one dive we were exploring some coral when our guide called us over and we were confronted by a Flamboyant Cuttlefish rippling in the water next to us. It was fascinating to get up close with such a beautiful creature but what we didn't realise is how dangerous it was. When we got out of the water we were told if you get bitten by this little guy you have 30 minutes to live, similar to the Blue-ringed Octopus. That definitely took us by surprise and reiterated the point that you should always respect wildlife and never touch anything! Whilst floating around in the depths we were also lucky to see giant 3m Groupers, adorable Eels hiding in the reef and majestic Lionfish. 

We were completing our PADI Advanced Open Water Certification here and what a place to do it! This is all about building your confidence and techniques whilst diving, controlling your buoyancy and learning how to dive to 30m. It's also about having lots of fun, we got to learn more about wreck diving and how to navigate underwater, something I'm terrible at on land as well as in the water. The highlight was our final dive which was at night. We headed over to the jetty at sunset, shivering with anticipation as the idea of diving in the pitch black of night didn't fill us with confidence. It was an otherworldly experience, the only reason we knew which way was up was the sandy bottom in view below. All the weird and wonderful creatures come out at night including the alien-like Cuttlefish that glow and hover over the sand, the tough Mantis Shrimp that have one powerful punch and long Cornet Fish hunting in our torchlight. 

Our final four dives were in the infamous Sipadan. This is a Coral Reef which grew on top of an extinct volcano in the middle of the Indo-Pacific basin. It is one of the most biodiverse areas in the world thanks to being protected for a long time with all the resorts on the island closed in 2002 to preserve the Reef even further. Our first dive at Barracuda Point really set the tone as we were only in the water for a few minutes before we saw a large Grey Reef Shark swimming towards us through a huge school of Jack Fish. It's hard not to fall in love with everything in the sea but sharks are such stunning creatures and we were lucky to see adult and baby White Tip, Black Tip and Grey Reef Sharks. We also saw massive Bumphead Parrotfish grazing on the coral and Giant Travally which you might have witnessed eating birds on Blue Planet 2. It was such a treat diving here watching unbelievable spectacles like a Turtle swimming through a tornado of thousands of Baraccuda. 

How could a dive get better than that! Next we descended into a cave full of turtle skeletons who died after they got lost in the tunnels, as we then came face to face with a huge Marbled Stingray gilding over the cave floor. There were also confused fish in the cave, swimming upside down on the ceiling staring at us unsure which one of us was the wrong way round. One of the best bits of each dive was coming up to the pristine shallow reefs and gliding over them in awe; that's the prize for properly protecting the ocean! One thing neither of us realised is how many large animals use the reef to sleep including sharks which was a sight to behold! Whilst searching for the big stuff we came across a huge shoal of Red Tooth Trigger fish which look like birds swooping around us with their beautiful fan tails! We couldn't talk about Sipadan without mentioning the gorgeous white sandy beach on the shore which we saw on a fabulously sunny day. The trip was even complete with a cuddle from resident cat Charles and a look at the machine gun stations they use to protect us from pirates! 

I think our diving experiences are best described by the videos at the end, Josh's wonderful handiwork, that show all the beautiful creatures we saw in these pristine waters. If you ever get the chance we highly recommend a visit to Sipadan! Another thing to note is how emotive and playful fish and other aquatic animals are, they get a reputation as not being very intelligent but they really are spectacular. It is estimated that 80% of the worlds fish stocks are in serious decline with 90% of predatory fish already gone. This terrifying decline is due to habitat destruction, over-fishing, particularly large scale trawling which kills millions of creatures through by-catch, pollution and climatic changes which will lead to a collapse of ocean ecosystems by 2050!! We hope that we can all learn from these mistakes before it is too late!