Mabul and Kapalai

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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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Photos

Big wrasse
Humphead Wrasse?

Tassled Scorpionfish?
We'd love to know for sure what this big, ugly thing is!

Colin appearing out of the murk
It was getting dark by this time!

Comments

[Ferdi and Talita]

Diving Mabul
Sorry to hear that the diving wasn't that great! As you know, we had great diving there. The weather does make a big difference, but there's no excuse for the rubbish! That must be one of Asia's biggest problems. By the way, that scorpionfish is called the Smallscale Scorpionfish (in our marine book). Did you stay on Mabul or just the rig? Keep at it and enjoy!

[tracie mitchell]

Mabul
Hi Guys, have been keeping track of your latest travels. Looks like you're having a marvellous time. As always, we are dead jealous !! Hope the rest of your holiday is just as good.

[thetravelbugtribe]

Thanks for the scorpionfish. We ended up just staying on the rig in the end. If the weather had been better while we were there, we probably would have had another day or two on Mabul. The diving was great, just not mind blowing - we saw your pics from the other month and it certainly looks like you did have fantastic diving. Oh well, maybe another time, another place ;o)