Semporna is on the north-east corner of the island of Borneo, in the country of Malaysia, and is renowned for the scuba-diving on the reefs around the multitude of islands there. In particular, Sipadan island is considered one of the top dive spots in the world. To dive in Sipadan, you must have a permit from the Sabah Parks authority, and that usually must be applied for in advance. Most of the local dive operators have an allocated number of permits, so you have to plan in advance if you want to dive Sipadan.
Before coming to Semporna, we’d spent a couple of weeks exploring the rivers and jungles, and checking out the wildlife, in northern Borneo.
As always, we researched online, and found a dive operator with good reviews, who replied sensibly to our emails, and so we planned to dive for a couple of weeks with Scubaholics. There are dive resorts on some of the offshore islands, but we usually like to stay in a town, so we can walk around, and check out the local amenities.
I had intermittent travellers’ tummy, so I alternated between diving, going out to eat locally in the evening, then spending the next day in bed drinking herb tea and munching ginger biscuits! Oh it was a weird couple of weeks! But we did enjoy the diving, and Scubaholics was a really good dive shop, very responsible. We saw a few scrappy looking dive boats, and learned that there were a number of cowboy operators, with poor equipment and no licences.
There are some lovely reefs, with a great range of soft and hard coral, and good macro life, as well as sharks and turtles.
We spotted quite a few very well camouflaged scorpionfish and crocodile fish. They tend to lie around in rubble, or amongst coral, looking like their surroundings, until an unsuspecting small fish wanders by, and then they pounce!
Lizardfish are fun and quite chill about being watched. They often hang out in pairs.
There was an interesting wreck.
Ornate ghost pipefish can be hard to spot, as they hang out in the weeds. They become visible if you shine a torch on them.
Both clownfish and anemone shrimp live commensally with anemones. They are immune to the stinging nematocysts on the anemone, and gain some protection from predators.
One of our favourite eating places in town makes the most delicious rotis – savoury or sweet, always a yummy choice!
From Semporna, we flew south to Bali.
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This looks amazing, and you got some great photos! Love that red and white star fish. Nature is full of marvels.
Alison
aww thanks Alison! I always feel a bit of a fraud when you compliment my photos, I think your are so stupendous! xx
Wow! Thank you!