A Special Place Of Nature

Sipadan is one of those locations spoken of in revered terms, and Al Hornsby discovers it has lost none of its magical charm

PHOTOGRAPHS BY AL HORNSBY

Ilie back at the bow of our dive boat, eyes closed, warmed by the tropical sun. As we skim across the flat, smooth water, my mind begins to spin a dive fantasy… there’s a small, remote island topped with rich jungle, suspended alone between the blue of the sea and an equally blue sky. The island’s white-sand beach, directly ahead, is bordered by the clear, cobalt water of a drop-off, all along the island’s front and to one side; in the other direction, the reef-line extends outward, enclosing an area of the bright, turquoise waters of coral-filled shallows. Turtles poke their heads up from the surface, here, and there, another. The water glistens with the bright colours of many-hued reef fish, swirling across the drop-off edge; a bit further, the sea ripples, disturbed by a gigantic school of trevally that forms a silvery, ball-shaped mass moving slowly along the border between the shallows and the deep…

As the boat suddenly slows, I look up… and my dive fantasy comes to life - we have arrived at Sipadan.

The tiny island is a rarity, a place where nature has conspired to create something truly unique. Though located not far from the huge, shallow shelf of seafloor that extends out from the northeastern coast of Borneo in the Malaysian state of Sabah, Sipadan is actually a true oceanic island, the top of an ancient volcano that rises straight up from nearly 600m of water in the northern Sulawesi Sea.

It has been described in the most-superlative tones; even Jacques Cousteau felt it was perhaps the most-unique dive spot on Earth. Its location in the centre of where marine life first developed in the sea has given it a degree of biodiversity unsurpassed anywhere. And, with its combination of deep ocean and shallow coral shelf influences, the range of life that can be seen by divers is amazing; large pelagics and exotic small critters are found on virtually every dive, regardless of the dive site chosen. When dives around Mabul (the nearby resort island for diving Sipadan) - one of macrocritter diving’s most-celebrated locations - are added, the total dive experience is nothing short of remarkable.

Despite all of this, perhaps the most-profound aspect of visiting Sipadan is its essence, a feeling of being far away in a natural place, a place that remains as it was born from the sea. From the moment you reach this beautiful spot, the rest of the world seems to disappear and be forgotten. There is a stillness, a quiet solitude that is pervasive and calming to the spirit. The sounds are those of a pristine world; the soft lapping of the ocean against the shore, the cooing of doves in the forest and the rustle of the sea breeze through the overhanging trees. And its ocean environment has a pristine richness that can scarcely be imagined. Even getting there lets you know you are in for something special.

There is an airplane ride to the small city of Tawau, Malaysia. Then, all seamlessly arranged by your resort, there’s a 45-minute tour by bus across rolling hills of jungle and palm plantations to Semporna. From there, there’s another 45 minutes by speed boat to Mabul. Sipadan itself sits as a small, forested hump on the horizon, less than 30 minutes away.

Designated as a national park in 2004, the island has a small dock and visitor beach area, which also contains small administrative and dormitory facilities for park and security personnel. The rest of the island has been left to nature, with resident birds, monitor lizards and nesting turtles. Access to Sipadan is carefully controlled, with a limit on the number of divers and boats maintained through a permit system. A dive week will typically include several four-dive days around Sipadan and the remainder around Mabul.

Once arriving at Sipadan, the dive sites are all very close by, because the island is so small (it could be walked completely around in ten minutes) and virtually any spot on the oblong-shaped reef drop-off is a dive of note. A typical day on Sipadan begins early, with breakfast at your resort on Mabul, and boats heading to Sipadan typically between 7-8am. Some groups like to leave even earlier to catch a dawn dive, and the resorts are typically very accommodating.

Longnose hawkfish Emperor angelfish

Coral grouper

Dense shoal of jacks

After a quick check-in at the park’s jetty office, the morning dive immediately commences, followed by a brief trip back to the beach for after-dive snacks (having ‘snacks’ in Malaysian terms basically means eating small, delicious meals all day long) and some surface interval before another boat dive around 10.30am. Then, there’s lunch and a dive around 1.15pm; followed by snacks and a dive around 3pm before heading back to Mabul. And, if you wish, the Mabul resorts are blessed with wonderful house reefs off their jetties, for ‘at will’ night dives to see surprising collections of macro-critters.

SIPADAN’S DIVES

Sipadan’s morning dive is usually reserved for Barracuda Point, less than five minutes away from the park jetty by boat. Regarded as Sipadan’s signature adrenaline dive, it begins with a ride on the current toward the eastern tip of the reefline along the steep wall. There are many turtles, schools of spadefish, and Sipadan’s massive school of some 200 bumphead parrotfish is usually seen grazing on coral along the reef top. A huge school of bigeye trevally will be found as well, and where the wall flattens out as the reef turns to the south, a large, resident school of blackfin barracuda moves about in shifting, swirling conflagrations. For photographers,

Ribbon Eel

Topside is stunning

Seahorse

Lionfish

Especially dramatic when the current is running, Hanging Gardens is a drift wall dive that starts just a few minutes boat ride to the west of the jetty it is the best spot I’ve ever found for capturing those unique shots of circling, schooling fish. Grey reef sharks and whitetip sharks are also seen in large numbers and, in recent times, a large great hammerhead makes a brief appearance almost every day. As a very special addition to this area of ‘bigs’, on the bottom of Barracuda Point’s channel there is a small, resident dragon sea moth, a rare and unusual creature the best Divemasters can find.

One of Sipadan’s other favourite dives is The Drop-off, the first dive discovered when the island was initially explored by divers. The spot is a steep wall, just a few metres off the sand at its closest point, that runs in front of the park’s jetty and beach. Its top is covered with vibrant corals and the area is frequented by Napolean wrasse, sweetlips, coral grouper, whitetip sharks and many resting green turtles. Down the steep face, there are numerous anemones with various species of anemonefish and porcelain crabs, and beneath a large overhang at 15m there is a pair of resident ornate ghost pipefish.

Especially for experienced divers, a unique feature of the Drop-off is found at 15m of depth just out from the jetty. Here, a large overhang opens into Turtle Caverns, a cave system that extends for 60 metres back into the island. Of special interest is the strange sight of the skeletal remains of turtles that became lost in the caves and drowned. In the back reaches of the system, there are lovely stalactites and stalagmites, from a time when the caves were above the water level.

Especially dramatic when the current is running, Hanging Gardens is a drift wall dive that starts just a few minutes boat ride to the west of the jetty. It gets its name from the huge gorgonians and soft corals that grow along the sheer face of the drop. There are many turtles, which can often be seen perched on the gorgonians and black coral bushes. Pelagics will be frequently seen here, especially dog-tooth tuna; there are also many grey reef and whitetip reef sharks. Schools of fusiliers, unicornfish and spadefish will be found as well. To the south, on the wall’s top is Sipadan’s most-beautiful congregation of hard corals, which grow in brilliant profusion for several kilometres along the curving reefline. With some careful searching, leaf scorpionfish of several different colours can be found here as well.

MABUL’S DIVING

Mabul, as a famous ‘muck diving’ area, would be considered a must destination even if it weren’t the jumping-off point for Sipadan. Perched on a large, coral and sand plain with a wall on its west side, the small island’s diving is exotic-critter intensive. The number and variety of interesting species is truly remarkable, all found in calm, shallow water, with most dives less than 20m in depth.

The resorts’ house reefs (which generally allow jetty walkin diving, as much and whenever you choose), are along a shallow coral embankment sloping down to a sand bottom. There are many lionfish of different species, cuttlefish, mandarinfish, schools of barbed catfish, spadefish, bluespotted stingrays, pipefish, seahorses, morays, several species of squid, turtles and much more, all congregated in very small areas (as I write this, I realise I saw all of these on one 45-minute dive on my recent visit).

By boat, with all sites reachable within a few minutes, are spots like Lobster Wall, a coral wall that is known for pygmy seahorses, frogfish, anemonefish and leaf scorpionfish. Around the Seaventures Oil Platform there is an astounding collection of life, with lionfish, ribbon eels, leaf scorpionfish, ghost pipefish and several species of seahorses and pygmy seahorses. Eel Garden, off Mabul’s northern tip, has garden eels, cuttlefish, giant frogfish, and in the sandy shallows, incredible peacock mantis shrimps.

With all my diving at Sipadan and Mabul over the years, I’m always still surprised and amazed each trip. There is so much to see in such a small area; so much that can be experienced in such a brief period of time. I always leave with a sense of discovery of some rare, shy creature I had never found before; with a sense of lingering, electric thrill from some big animal encounter that had set my imagination on fire; with a sense of having seen nature in its finest, most-precious splendour; and promising myself that soon, once again, I’ll return. n

One of Sipadan’s other favourite dives is The Drop-off, the first dive discovered when the island was initially explored by divers

Whitetip reef sharks

Juvenile batfish under a pier

Shooting a turtle chilling on the seabed