Kinarut & Mamutik

The local dive school was a little shambolic, but friendly. I only did the one dive, which was in the channel midway between Mamutik and the neighbouring island. The guide was honest enough to tell us that we wouldn't see anything big as they had long since been displayed on the slabs at Kota Kinabalu Fish Market. 

We had a quick snorkel off the beach while we waited for the dive boat to return.

A few equipment malfunctions were discovered on entry, but we carried on. We dived down to a wreck at about 20m, though the visibility was so poor after about 12m that we could barely see anything at all and I could just about make out some man made shapes and had to imagine the rest.

We ascended to 9m and skirted a reef the of top of which was all broken up. There were shoals of colourful reef fish as well as a very fine looking puffer fish and some of the largest and pluckiest clown fish I've ever seen (Pink Clowns). The guide also pointed out a very small ray camouflaged against the sand so that we could only see it as moved off.

After the dive, Viv lent me his plastic waterproof aquapac bag for compact cameras, so I could use it while I snorkeled. I duly took well over a 100 photo's of the various unfazed and colourful fish only to find that I'd made a schoolboy error of letting the plastic cover kink over the lens. A shame as there were plenty of fish to be seen including titan trigger fish, sergeant major fish, butterfly fish, parrot fish, moorish idols and various wrasses. The picture below is another of those pugnacious Pink Clown Fish eyeballing me, but with unintentional psychedelic blurrings...

Back to Jesselton Point in Kota Kinabalu and a 30 minute shopping spree in town before heading back through the KK rush hour to the beach resort...

The evening's dinner parade; Barry deciding whether to have chops or a kebab...

Henry, our guide, and I at the airport as the last of the group depart Borneo and begin our journeys home...