Mabul and Kapalai

We spent three days on the Seaventures dive rig exploring the underwater worlds of Mabul, Kapalai and Sipidan.

The rig was pretty basic and still smelled like a rig or ferry. It is a rusting hulk planted about 500m off the coast of the island of Mabul. It was strange walking around it, I kept feeling like it should be moving like a ferry, it was hard walking down the corridors in a straight line, talk about sea legs (or not!)!

Our room was pretty basic, twin beds and a bathroom that desperately needed ripping out and replacing. But the rig as a whole worked as an accomodation block and man-made dive site. The staff and food were good, three meals a day, plus "afternoon tea".

The diving wasnt as good as we were expecting though. The whole place was built up as one of the best dive sites in the world. I know the weather didnt help (bit windy creating a bit of chop and stirring things up under water) but we were expecting more. The reef had been killed off in many places and there was rubbish everywhere, above and below the waterline. There was not the plentiful fish and turtles and sharks and coral that we'd expected, there was plenty to see, just in patches. We are not disappointed by the experience, by the diving, but it just wasnt the "mecca" we'd read about.

So, just to contradict what we've been saying, here are some of our better pics! We saw heaps, I'm not even going to start a critter count, there is a lot we cant identify, or can only guess at the family (eg angelfish) but nothing else. The first 5-7m were by far the best, brighter and more colourful, more fish, plenty of turtles, sometimes we werent sure why we went below 10m! As before, if anyone can help with the naming of some of these fish, please let us know! Else we'll get the books out when we get home.

Enjoy!

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Part of trip: The twotravelbugs tiki tour of Sabah

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