I’ve arrived back on “Cool Bananas” and have done the required maintenance to start this year’s journey. (New fridge, power cable, zincs on the propellers, cleaning, etc)
I’ve been joined by Amber Dear (Kiwi) and Alice Watson (UK/Kiwi), who are crewing for us for a few months.
We had a spare day in Miri and decided to visit the Niah caves. The Niah caves have some of the worlds oldest evidence of man. The cave has evidence of habitation from 40,000 BC to 2,000BC. More recently (1950s/60s) locals had used part of the cave as a trading area while scientists were doing their excavation work. The walk to the caves system was only about 2.5Kms however the 2 kms with 2-3,000 + steps through the cave system damn near broke me. The cave was wet and slippery and there were men hanging precariously from the cave roof, retrieving swallow nests for the lucrative “bird nest soup” market. Cave paintings were clearly visible in the second cave, but were undated.
We had a spare day in Miri and decided to visit the Niah caves. The Niah caves have some of the worlds oldest evidence of man. The cave has evidence of habitation from 40,000 BC to 2,000BC. More recently (1950s/60s) locals had used part of the cave as a trading area while scientists were doing their excavation work. The walk to the caves system was only about 2.5Kms however the 2 kms with 2-3,000 + steps through the cave system damn near broke me. The cave was wet and slippery and there were men hanging precariously from the cave roof, retrieving swallow nests for the lucrative “bird nest soup” market. Cave paintings were clearly visible in the second cave, but were undated.
Traders Cave
Cave Paintings ............................................................Scientific Diggings
Centipede..................................................................... Lizard
We left next morning for Brunei for fuel and Philippine visa’s, then onto Labuan for supplies and to picked up Brian (the brother in law) who has come for a crewing stint. We had to wait about a week for a weather window to come so we headed 25 nm up the Klaus river for a change in scenery. There were the usual macaque, and proboscis monkeys, squirrels, lizards, snakes and fireflies.
A tree full of monkeys .................................................The Boss
Macaques. .................................................................. Monitor Lizard
The great blueberry cook off................... Just doesn't look the same somehow?
We had been very lucky in that our friends Peter and Toni on the catamaran “Tigger” were heading to Layang Layang, and had offered to apply for the necessary permits on our behalf along with theirs. Layang Layang is a small remote reef, only 2 kilometres long, lying about 300 km northwest of Kota Kinabalu in the south China Sea. Layang Layang belongs to a group of atolls that make up the Borneo Banks which are part of the Spratleys, some 600 islands, reef and shoals stretching across the South China Sea from Borneo to Vietnam. It’s marked on our navigation charts as “ Dangerous Ground”
The Malaysian Government had decided to maintain Layang Layang as their Sovereign and in 1984 the Malaysian navy built an airfield and naval base on the reef. The only other habitation was a small, quite exclusive dive resort that can only be reached by small airplane from Kota Kinabalu.
We arrived at Layang Layang and duly reported in to the Royal Malaysian Navy, as Layang Layang is a restricted atoll. The reef is actually 3km south of where it is marked on the chart.
The diving was excellent, the visibility was extremely good and there were many sightings of the usual colourful reef fish, turtles, white tipped reef sharks, large schools of barracudas and mackerels as well as manta rays, devil rays, hammerhead sharks and even a whale shark was spotted. ( picture compliments of "Tigger" )
The diving was excellent, the visibility was extremely good and there were many sightings of the usual colourful reef fish, turtles, white tipped reef sharks, large schools of barracudas and mackerels as well as manta rays, devil rays, hammerhead sharks and even a whale shark was spotted. ( picture compliments of "Tigger" )
Wall dives
Whale Shark ..................................................................Large Manta Ray
The weather was kind allowing us to do three dives per day (with the exception of 1 day). The atoll is in 1500 metres and comes pretty much straight up from the bottom. The diving was mostly wall diving and the hookah got an absolute thrashing.
Hard to find good crew ???
I mean “what can I say...................... world class diving”
Another weather window and we headed into Kudat to check out for the Philippines.
