Kinarut & Mamutik

Sabah, Malaysian Borneo

4th & 5th December 2009

Day 13-14 - Scuba diving, snorkeling & sheep

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Day 1 - Miri

Day 5 - Return to Gunung Mulu

Day 9-10 - Sabah Tea Plantation

Day 2 - Gunung Mulu

Day 6 - Kota Kinabalu

Day 11 - Mt Kinabalu to 3276m

Day 3 - Camp 5

Day 7 - Sepilok

Day 12 - Mt Kinabalu Summit

Day 4 - The Pinnacles

Day 8 - Kinabatangan River Camp






We returned to the Kota Kinabalu area to stay in Langkah Syabas' beach resort in Kinarut. It was owned and was being extended by an old Aussie guy, fueled mainly by Johnnie Walker Black Label, who seemed to be straight out of Muriel's Wedding, I could just imagine him saying "I've got great plans for Porpoise Spit".

He was a keen golfer and had created a hole of his own amongst the palm trees. The tide was quite extreme here and at low tide it would have been possible to walk to what were outlying islands at high tide...


Cricket (Aus v W.I.) on a TV and a Christmas tree in the corner... still the heat and the palm trees reminded us we were still in Borneo...

 

After a restful night we headed to Pulau Mamutik in the Tinku Adbul Rahman National Park, renowned to have the best snorkeling & diving in the area.

A bouncy speedboat ride across a mercifully calm sea took us to the island, passing by a stilt village on a neighbouring island on the way...
 

 

There were plenty of fish right by the jetty...



Park entrance...



Mt Kinabalu peeking above the clouds in the distance...

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...

Day 1 - Miri

Day 5 - Return to Gunung Mulu

Day 9-10 - Sabah Tea Plantation

Day 2 - Gunung Mulu

Day 6 - Kota Kinabalu

Day 11 - Mt Kinabalu to 3276m

Day 3 - Camp 5

Day 7 - Sepilok

Day 12 - Mt Kinabalu Summit

Day 4 - The Pinnacles

Day 8 - Kinabatangan River Camp




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