I'd like to be under the sea
In an octopus' garden in the shade
He'd let us in, knows where we've been
In his octopus' garden in the shade
We would shout and swim about
The coral that lies beneath the waves
Oh what joy for every girl and boy
Knowing they're happy and they're safe
Sang Ringo, and if he was talking about Sipadan, he was right for I found an underwater wonderland of astonishing marine life and dramatic reefs under the waters off Borneo. 3 days of diving and I could have stayed forever. In one month on the Perhentians, I was lucky enough to see about 10 turtles, in Sipadan, there were twice that number on every dive. Throw in White Tip Reef sharks, Barracuda, 2m Stingrays, Bumphead Parrotfish and all the colours of the rainbow, and this was a good place to dive.
Sipadan itself, is just one of several islands in the area, with tight restrictions to limit the number of divers each day and protect the reefs. As if the incredible array of marine life wasn’t enough, it all lives within a stones throw of the beach. Walking off the sand and into the water, the depth plunges from about 3m to a ludicrous 800m in nothing more than a step, as a vertical wall descends into the dark. Following the currents along the wall felt like flying and down at 40m you could only gaze back up at the silhouettes of sharks and turtles far above, wondering what you would encounter next. Incredible diving in an incredible place.
Its not just Sipadan though as the nearby island of Mabul also provided great diving, almost unfairly overshadowed. Having my teeth cleaned by shrimps at the base of an oil rig was one of the boxes I didn’t expect to tick off on this trip, but diving at Mabul sorted that out too. Unable to dive on my last afternoon (due to a morning flight the next day), the dive boat dropped me off at my new favourite place for a couple of hours. The tiny island of Sibuan was home to a few local fishing families and nothing more. The sand came to a point at one end as the island became the sea, and I walked the whole coastline in 20 minutes. Groups of laughing naked children came running up to me as I wandered past wooden huts and canoes, and after deciding that I never wanted to leave, the boat was suddenly there to pick me up.
The sharks had been nice to me this time, maybe the water was a good place after all, maybe I’d have to go back, but for now, I was on the way to Sumatra, where they’d just had a massive earthquake…
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