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| Sipadan & Lankayan | ||
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Now that you can no longer stay on Sipadan itself, our alternative route to the island is by speedboat from the islands of Mabul or Kapalai. Here we can place you in one of our selected waterside lodges, ideal for divers and non-divers alike. You have the option of diving at Sipadan and the other Semporna Islands of Kapalai and Mabul. As well as diving at Sipadan from Mabul or Kapalai, you can also choose stay at our recommended waterside lodges on Lankayan Island which is off the north eastern tip of Borneo in the Sulu Sea and equally as enchanting and inspiring as the more well known islands of the Semporna group. Pulau Lankayan Located 90 minutes speedboat ride from the northeast Borneo town of Sandakan, the verdant oasis of Lankayan offers a myriad of diving opportunities around just one island. As well as a rich diversity of marine life residing on its reefs, it provides an excellent combination of macro life and pelagic species which includes the occasional dugong and even whale sharks especially during April and May. Amongst its gently sloping sandy areas you can find sponges, gorgonians and corals. These play host to bamboo sharks, mandarin fish, porcelain crabs, seahorses, mimic octopuses and flying gurnards. An additional highlight of Lankayan are the illegal fishing vessels deliberately scuttled and scattered around the coastline. These themselves have become established reefs with their own array of sealife. Pulau Sipadan The cream of Malaysian diving, and among the best in the world, Sipadan is Malaysia's only volcanic island. Made famous by renowned French oceanographer, Jacques Cousteau in his documentary 'Ghosts of the Sea Turtle', Sipadan is a favourite nesting site for Green Turtles and the occasional Hawksbill. The waters around the island usually teem with turtles so accustomed to divers that they ignore them; however Sipadan offers much more than just turtles having almost everything that exists in the Indo-Pacific. The coral and marine life is prolific with large areas of staghorn, table, plate, lettuce and boulder corals, encrusting corals, bubble corals and mushroom corals. Lying among the stony corals are large soft corals, vase and barrel sponges and true giant clams. Whitetip and gray reef sharks thrive and there is a menagerie of reef inhabitants including porcupine fish, pufferfish, triggerfish, unicorn fish, Moorish idols and giant moray eels. Leaf fish and crocodile fish can often be seen here too. Gorgonian sea fans and black corals protrude from the steep drop offs and an encounter with a huge bumphead parrotfish is likely as is the spectacular sight of a living wall of hundreds of schooling barracuda. Sipadan has one of the top beach dives in the world, as five metres of sand in knee-high water suddenly gives way to a precipitous drop and cave-diving enthusiasts can explore the caverns that Cousteau did more than 40 years ago. Sipadan is the most famous of a scattered group of islands that make up the 73,000 acre Semporna Marine Park and which also includes Mabul and Kapalai. Pulau Mabul Mabul is located some 25 minutes north of Sipadan. In contrast to the steep drop offs, coral reefs and pelagic species of Sipadan, Mabul is renowned internationally for a very different reason. A muck diver's paradise, Mabul is great for macro life with every hole in the sand and coral rubble inhabited by ghost pipefish, frogfish, devil scorpionfish, stonefish, crocodile fish, Flamboyant Cuttlefish, cowfish and nudibranchs. Macro photographers will find great opportunities to capture some rare species that inhabit the sandy bottom of Mabul's marine environment. Pulau Kapalai Like Sipadan and Mabul, Kapalai is part of the Semporna Marine Park island group. Located around 20 minutes from Sipadan, Kapalai is another macro diving destination with all the species found at Mabul including blue-ringed octopuses, dragonets, mating mandarin fish, jawfish and cuttlefish. Other sites around Kapalai are likely to reveal humphead (Napoleon) wrasse, blue spotted ribbontail rays and bumphead parrotfish. Sites visited will be dependant upon weather conditions and all diving activity is at the discretion of the boat skipper and Sabah Marine Park rules prevailing at the time Malaysian Borneo's islands are jewels in South East Asia's rich tapestry of marine habitat - and long may they remain that way. The diversity of life within them is of global importance, but like many reefs around the world, they are beautiful but fragile environments that are under pressure. We therefore urge all divers to dive responsibly and safely, avoiding any contact with the reef. For full details of our Responsible Diving Code of Conduct, please click HERE |
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