Turtles island

Once in my childhood on the wall hung a large map of the world and I have traveled through it. And often my travels took place near large islands with double names, between the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Of course then it was difficult to imagine that someday I would actually be there ... in Borneo. Very close to the border between Malaysia and Indonesia, where the island changes its name and becomes Kalimantan.



In fact, the purpose of our trip was a tiny island a few kilometers from the shore - Sipadan. At that time the island was already not residential, and it was only a symbolic military outpost. But the waters around the island were one of the most beautiful and saturated with life. And most of all there were turtles ...



Turtles were a few species. They were small, medium and huge. There were so many of them that sometimes a few pieces fell into the frame at once. It turned out that they were accompanied by divers all the time, creating a special entourage. There was even a cave of turtles, with its legend. In this cave, the turtles lived and died.

According to the mythical version, everything happened because of the once living Prince Sipadan, and of course there was a story about tragic love.



In fact, the turtles swam to sleep in the cave in the light of day, and could get lost inside after sunset. The exit in the cave is only one and it is quite small, and there are quite a few passes inside. As a result, the lost turtles ran out of air and they gasped. Well, and divers after a while found inside another skeleton with a shell.



Although now visiting and diving off the island is limited. But it's probably more plus than minus. Because of its popularity, the number of tourists greatly exceeded all conceivable limits. As a result, now the number of divers that can dive near Sipadan itself is organically several dozen people. Quotas are distributed between the surrounding dive centers.



In fact, there are three islands there: in addition to Sipadan, there are also Kapalai and Mabul. All of them are very small, even taking into account the fact that half of the houses are located on bunks over the water. To accommodate another number of tourists settled even standing next to an old oil platform. There now also has a hotel with a diving center.

By the way, they also dive under this platform. And there is very, very cool. Many different kinds of fish revolve around the supports. And all the surrounding corals are densely populated by various macro-inhabitants. It was there that I first saw and took off a Pygmy Seahorse.



Night dives mostly take place near the place where you live. On the neighboring islands at night do not carry. Why, if there is always a bright marine life near by.
Shrimps, crabs, nudibranchs, moray eels ...



Of the shortcomings, only possible currents. Several times under the water blew so that to me to stay in place, I had to cling and hands and feet for all the uneven terrain. Otherwise, you can fly far into the open sea. Periodically, there are cases when divers are picked up a few kilometers from the dive site. Where is there to photograph all kinds of shrimp ...



In addition to turtles on Sipadan, it is possible to watch several species of schooling fish. First of all, this is of course the giant Green humphead parrotfish. Every morning, just after sunrise, you can see how they move along the reef.



Plataks are always graceful and maneuver between currents.



And here there is a huge school of barracudas. This place is probably the most popular among divers. It's a wonderful sight when thousands of fish break down in a single rush and twist into a real tornado.



And of course with such an abundance of livestock can not do without sharks. Small reef sharks constantly swim here and there. And there is a place that can be called a kind of beach. Dozens of sharks lie on the sand, in the saddle of the passage through the reef. This place is always very strong and the sharks do not need to swim anywhere to get enough oxygen from the water.



And of course we can not go past turtles again - the symbol and decoration of the island. Once on a night dive we found one turtle that was different from everyone else. It seemed that this was the grandmother of all the other turtles, and a direct descendant of the dinosaur era.

The turtle rested and did not pay attention to us. It was impossible to remove it entirely, since macro-objectives are taken for nighttime. For this, only the frame of the eye was obtained.



To assess the real size - one of us neatly attached to the top of the shell. It turned out that the person entirely fits on the shell, barely reaching to the brim with his hands and feet ...



And in this area people lived, as if stuck between the past and the present. They spent most of their life on the water. And we could watch every evening how their boats go to the horizon, in search of better fishing. Quite tiny compared to the ocean ...



It is strange to remember that 10 years have passed since the last trip. I do not know how everything will turn out in the future, but I would very much like to be at least once again on those islands. See a tornado of barracuda and dozens of turtles. And every day to see off the sun sinking in the ocean ...

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