Sipadan Update #1

Right then.

Sorry for the delay have been doing a bit of diving the last few days, and it's been kind of tiring.

I apologise for the water blob on the front of the dome which obscures part of the rig's superstructure, but here's where we're staying:



So Sipadan. Everything they say about the place is true, it's simply amazing - the variety and abundance of sea life IS breathtaking.

I've also never dived in such strong currents - at times it's like a rollercoaster tour of a reef - you're literally flying along without even kicking.

Unfortunately my photography is nowhere near as spectacular as the sights - some highlights that are undocumented include: tiny skeleton shrimp, baby nudibranch, trigger fish attacking Kat, bloody huge cuttlefish, wrass, puffers and grouper.

Switching from macro to wide angle also introduces a whole new world of things to try and figure out....

Some pictures (there are more, but I think these are the best so far - I've had to shrink them a bit, the connection here didn't like my first, larger ones):

This appears to be some kind of shrimp, in a hole with a fish, on its tail...


An eel - it stays in its hole waiting for prey to come past, and obviously would eat it...


A moray eel of some description. Really must classify this stuff before posting next time, not like I have anything better to do!!


Erm.... a stonefish, or is it s scorpionfish. Either way don't go poking at it with your mitts unless you'd like a trip to the nearest intensive care unit.


This one is an alligator fish, so named because it looks like an alligator.


This is a turtle. We've been lucky enough to swim with heaps of them... they're super graceful under water. Nearly as graceful as me, and less graceful than Katherine.


Another turtle. Not the same one.


Sharky sharky. There's plenty of sharks, and this is a crap photo....


A fleet of barracuda (x2) - they were swimming all around us in a tornado this morning, hundreds of them. A few of them were REALLY big and scarred - I assume they're old and wise - or they're the greater spotted scarred uber-barracuda.



There's plenty of these little spotted stingrays on the reef here. Note I am careful not to approach from behind like Senor Irwin is notorious for.


So finally hello to Mexico, Belgium, New Zealand and South Africa if they ended up here. We're only meeting countries at Seaventures, not people. You heard it first here....