OK, you asked for it.
After 18 months at the British Embassy in Kabul I felt I had earned the dive trip of a life-time. So I planned it. Sipadan, the Great Barrier Reef, Fiji, "Tahiti" and Bermuda. Yep, I realise that this misses out a number of the classic dive destinations. But I have been lucky over the years to have dived the Red Sea, Caymans, Turks and Caicos, Bonaire and Cozumel already. I had wanted to include Palau and a couple of other Pacific islands but the routing (and cost) was starting to make Marco Polo look like a day-tripper.
SIPADAN
"Sipadan", for the uninitiated (like I was) really consists of three islands about a 20 minute sail from each other offthe coast of NE Sabah: Sipadan, Mabul and Kapalai. It is no longer possible to stay on Sipadan; but both Mabul and Kapalai offer touristic "water villages" , ie chalets on stilts in the ocean. However I was delighted to find a website offering the MV Celebes Explorer - and I booked on a one-week liveaboard which shuttled between the three islands and various lesser known islands in the area, eg, Si Amil Island. "Sipadan" is reached by flying to Tavawau on the east side of Sabah (aka Borneo); and then taking an hour bus ride to the fishing town of Semporna. There is a reasonable 2-3 star hotel in town, the Seafest. Depending where there CE is at the time, you either join it directly or get ferried out to it by fast lauch.
Celebes Explorer is excellent: big, spacious, well-equipped, air-conditioned,loads of good food (lots of FRESH fish - which always makes me feel guilty!) friendly, flexible-approach crew and, during the time I was there, only a handful of guests - even though it can handle about 20. Compared to Red Sea liveaboards it is very spacious indeed. Battery recharging and rinse tanks no problem. Most dives off the rear dive platform; but a RIB on-hand when necessary. Plugging in to the mains required UK-style 3-pin plugs.
Four dives a day was the norm: the first two dives were usually on some part of Sipadan. Good wall dives with excellent reef plates; good hard and soft corals, the occasional white-tip shark and LOADS of turtles. And I mean loads - as in, come on boys, let me through. They are everywhere. Good viz at least 75'. Water was in the low 80s and very comfortable - although I'm a whimp and tend to wear at least a 5mm suit. This was wide-angle and fish-eye heaven.
The third and fourth were "muck" dives on either Mabul or Kapalai. Viz of only around 15' - but, oh what things to see! Mandarin fish, pipe fish, nudibrancs of most colours and sizes - in short macro-city. I must admit the firts dive left me wondering what on earth there was to see - but as my eyes adjusted to the lack of viz compared to Sipadan......
I would strongly recommend the liveaboard option rather than day-boating to Sipadan from Mabul or Kapalai.
GREAT BARRIER REEF
And then on to 4 nights on the MV Taka on the Great Barrier Reef out of Cairns. Much busier than the Celebes Explorer - and smaller too. But very well-equipped and with a friendly crew. Space, especially in the small cabins was at a premium. Good food and lots of it. Diving was 4 dives on the first, second and third day - with two dives on the final day.
But I have to say I was disappointed. And I was not alone. The cloudy, rainly weather did not help. Nor did me being sea-sick for 10 hours on the extrememly
rough crossing from the GBR to Osprey Reef (about a 100 miles east of the GBR). The only site of the 14 we dived that I thought particularly good was Steve's
Bommie. Osprey was not worth the 10 hour crossing - even though one of the dive's was a shark feeding-dive. A potato-cod feeding dive on the GBR was fairly enjoyable - although is it just me that finds fish-feeding dives unworthy of a serious ecologically-conscious dive operator (which Taka seemed to be)? And
those potato cods are sure big suckers.
FIJI
And so on to Fiji. Nice diving on the northern most Yasawa Island. Viz of about 50', good hard corals growing on old hard corals; plenty of marine life.
Accommodation on the Yasawas is, err, basic. The dive operator I used was equally simple but had a cracking big RIB which came armed with 2x225HP outboards. We fairly howled along the 10 minute ride to the dive site, known as The Zoo. Just did one dive there which was enjoyable. I didn't use my camera but power to charge batteries etc could have been something of a challange. Australian-style plugs
AND SO TO TAHITI
Well, Moorea actually. About a 5-minute flying hop from Tahiti, Moorea is an island about 75kms around. I dived with Bathy's Club which was based at the Intercon Hotel. A French day boat operation with friendly, well-organised DMs. Small boats carrying 7-8 divers with a reasonable amount of space. The reefs all started in about 50' of water and seemed to extend for ever - or at least as far as I could see with over 100' of viz - and descended gently below 120'.
The hard coral cover was excellent - although all low profile and not the most interesting of underwater topography. Black tips and grey reef sharks were
everywhere and were quite curious. One thing that fascinated me that I have never seen before, was the tendency of the reef fish to follow the divers:
snapper and butterflyfish especially seemed keen to check out the contents of my mask and then happily swam along just behind my shoulder. Really cool.
French Polynesia is not cheap - certainly compared to Malaysia, Fiji and Oz - but packpacker places did exist and were within yards of the spectacular,
palm-fringed beaches. It was possible to spend a few days there without bankruptcy proceedings if you went carefully. Plugs there are a mix of French, Oz and US!
AND FINALLY BERMUDA
I had the privelege of living in Bermuda for 5 years and have done over 500 dives there. So I know the reefs pretty well. Bermuda is shallow-water diving with many dive sites in the 30' range. Not the most abudant for fish life, however the world's most northerly coral reefs are fascinating for their structure and the quality of the hard corals. Loads of swim throughs, tunnels and wrecks.
During my visit I got to dive on a black grouper spawning session. I have never seen so many very large black groupers on one site: there were hundreds of them. I also helped out with a number of coral surveys that the island's Zoolological Society are carrying out to chart the extent and health of the reefs.
Water temperature in late June was in the mid-high 70s. It gets pretty chilly in the winter and I used to wear a dry suit. The island has several excellent dive operators.
FLIGHTS AND BAGGAGE
I used a mix of airlines on my round-the-world ticket which was routed Manchester-Dubai-Kuala Lumpur-Tavawau-KL-Sydney-Cairns-Sydney-Fiji-Tahiti-LAX-Bermuda (via NYC)-Manchester: Emirates (excellent), Malaysian Airlines (excellent), Virgin Blue (cattle truck but ok), Air Pacific (good), Air Taihiti Nui (excellent), Continental (yes, well).
I had a dive bag with about 28kgs in it which I hold-loaded. I used a Pelican roller box (the 1510) which I always managed to get into the aircraft cabin and
which contained all the underwater camera bits; I had a largish backpack with my laptop, my reg and bits; and a Lowepro waist camera bag with my DSLR and a
couple of lenses. It was quite a load and I approached check-in desks acting as though I was carrying a couple of balloons - and I now have a trapped nerve in my shoulder! Happily I had no major security/airline baggage issues and once I explained I was carrying u/w camera gear, most searchers nodded contentedly.
A brilliant trip. If anyone wants more details just yell.
I'll add some pictures shortly.
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