Diving Mataking, Sabah

An hour boat trip out from Semporna we arrived at Mataking Island. The visibility was 25m plus, the coral was untouched and with only 6 people at the site we were spoilt on this dive. Some of the best spots were great barracuda, frogfish, ghost pipefish, scorpionfish and nidibranchs galore. We were so impressed with the coral at Mataking, rich in colour and biodiverse! Would definitely recommend Borneo to any divers.

Had a great time in Borneo, the people were some of the friendliest we've met so far...even if they don't understand you most of the time.

Sabah, Borneo

Borneo is such a large island we concentrated our traveling in the Malaysian state of Sabah in the north east of Borneo. Forests cover 60% of the Malaysian territory, however only 12% of these forests are considered pristine and unfortunately due to an increase in oil palm plantations (utilizing 15% of land area in Sabah) these rainforests are quickly disappearing, seeing this for ourselves whilst traveling between towns on long coach journeys. We loved seeing the orangutans "the wild man of Borneo" swinging through the trees in Sepilok rainforest where the rehabilitation project here has proven very successful.They made us laugh, we could have watched them all day with their human like traits. After much bartering in Semporna we got a local man to take us around the floating villages of the Bajau (sea gypsies). The early Bajau people lived their entire lives aboard their boats. Today, most live along the coasts perched on stilts over the shallow reefs where they continue their love affair with the ocean. A village with its feet in the sea. 

East Coast, Australia

Squashed into our little Hyundai Getz we travelled from Cairns to Sydney. Moving on most days we covered 4,000km stopping at some uniquely beautiful places. One of the best moments was watching a loggerhead turtle nesting on Mon Repos beach in the middle of the night and to top the evening off we also witnessed 100 or so hatching juvenile turtles make their big break to the ocean. Apparently they make straight for the EAC (East Australian Current) just like in Finding Nemo. Had some great days on the water exploring the Whitsundays and The Great Barrier Reef and arrived in Coolangatta on the Gold Coast just in time to watch the Quicksilver Pro surfing World Championships, seeing Kelly Slater in all his glory! Finished up in the Blue Mountains where we were greeted by a green version of the Grand Canyon; vast table plateaus and sandstone cliffs. In the morning the mist seemed to fill the Jamison Valley like water. What an end to a great month.