Brrrrrrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnngggg…

That was the alarm going off at 5am…. Terrible nights sleep, either too hot or told cold…. and up super early for some dives at Sipadan…

Sipadan is a special reserve, needing permits from the navy to dive. You are allocated a dive permit if you are lucky enough! Today, it was our day to enjoy the wonders of the island.

Leaving at 6am, we jumped into the speedboat for a 20 minute journey to the island, where we landed and registered our names to the military. Then it was straight to the first dive spot.. Jumping in the water, the coral was a sight to behold.. beautiful, healthy, and almost total coverage of the whole reef… amazing…

We spent 50 odd minutes, diving the coral, and the wall of the reef which descends to over 600m… seeing turtles, sharks, lionfish, bumphead parrotfish, maori wrasse… you name it… we saw it… awesome..

Then, breakfast time, at the island, which has changed slightly.. In 2002, all resorts were forced to dismantle their buildings and get off the island as the government decided they were causing too much damage to the environment. We first came here in 2006, on our honeymoon… not much has changed… slightly more organised instead of ramshackle buildings left over from the evictions… very good.

After breakfast, it was out for another couple of dives…. more of the same cool stuff… great!! I put a quick vid together after the dives… I think, maybe we saw about 30 turtles today…. they are everywhere!!

Arriving back at the oil rig, we chilled for a couple of hours and then went for a dive underneath the oil rig…. yet more cool stuff…. bumpheads, great barracuda, scorpion fish…. great… We returned to find our names on the list for Sipadan the next day!! BONUS!! We get to do it all again…. hopefully, I can get a sight of the reclusive Hammerhead Shark….

Another early night….

Much Love…

We’d checked out of our hotel around 4.30am and then took a taxi to the airport.  Our flight was at 7.10, so had to check in 2hrs before.  Thankfully the roads were quiet and we made good time.

Pushing our cases through the doors, we checked the board for our flight details and then looked at each other  …DOH!  ..we’d gone to the wrong airport.  So grabbed another taxi and took a 15min ride down the road.  Finally at the correct airport and luggage checked in, we boarded our AirAsia flight to Tawau only to notice that our seat no’s were on the opposite sides of the plane. No big drama as I think we both slept most of the flight.

Once at Tawau, we were greated by a ‘Seaventures’ rep and then boarded a minibus for a further 2hr drive across seas of palm oil plantations to Semporna.  We had the whole minibus to ourselves so space to spread out and snooze.  I just wish the roads would have been  a bit smoother, I felt like a tossed salad by the end of the journey ;-D
Once in Semporna, we clambered out of the minibus and then walked down the pier onto a little speedboat where we were given lovely orange life jackets to wear and jetted off across the water towards our final destination.  SeaVentures Oil rig, the only diving rig in the world.

You might think taking a mini break from diving to go diving is weird but it brings back wonderful memories and just wait for some of our footage to be posted.
Our first dives were just on Mabul and on the rig house reef but the amount of sea life we’ve seen so far is just amazing and to end the day, we took the boat to Mabul, Borneo Divers (where we honeymooned) to see how things had changed. 

A few more water villages have sprung us and more little touristy shops selling coral, shells, shark jaws which was shocking to see but not surprising…. they still have a lot to learn conservation wise…

But don’t blame the locals, blame the tourists that buy this stuff…. supply and demand…. 5am start tomorrow   ..Sipadan here we come!!!!!!!!

This post was supposed to be filled with excitement, and comments about our day being amazing…. Unfortunately, I type this post with sorrow in my heart….

We arrived in time for all of the races, but as ever, the main event was the MotoGP race.

The start of the race was clean (we watched on the video screen) and then the riders came around to our area of the track, where Marco Simoncelli lost control of his bike and fell off…. Sadly, Colin Edwards and Valentino Rossi were unable to avoid a collision with the fallen bike and rider…. the impact of the bikes were so violent that it was impossible to imagine that Marco had survived.

From our position, I could see immediately that it was very serious… while other people laughed and joked, I saw the ambulance crew lift the broken body of Marco Simoncelli away from the track, only to fall over as they attempted to get him to the ambulance (bringing more laughter from the crowd).

The accident is one of the most horrendous moments I have had the displeasure of watching in motorsports history. I told Jen that the race would be cancelled because I had no doubt that he had died. It was cancelled, and Jen was very upset at witnessing such a tragic occurence. It also reminded me, that these guys push the limits every time they are on the track, and that this is a very dangerous sport… they earn every damm penny.

Marco Simoncelli was an amazing talent. A wild boy with Sideshow Bob style hair…. he was a champion in the 250cc class before he hit the MotoGP class.. Touted to be the next “Rossi” he had a crazy start to his season with some wild moves, but during the latter parts of the season, he came into his own, getting great times, and podium finishes and you could see the future in him.

He will be greatly missed..

RIP Marco Simoncelli (1984-2011)