A Stilt Village between Semporna and Mabul.

Mabul - This is a small island with a fishing village and a Bajau Bajau (water gipsy) settlement at one end which is very crowded and contrasts starkly with the rest of the island which has been intensively developed with resorts for diving and snorkelling, one very exclusive.

Mabul is famous for ‘muck diving’ this is diving not over coral but over sand and sea grass where more unusual creatures like sea-horses, octopus, frog fish and a whole variety of extraordinary shellfish are found. Muck diving is gaining in popularity in Asia particularly down this east coast of Borneo.

As well as the on island resorts there is also a converted oil rig which was towed here from Panama by a wealthy magnate who subsequently gave it to his sister-in-law but is now used as a Dive Centre. It sits aside the island like an ugly old eyesore with a large population of fish over the shaded sand bed below. To have a better look a party of us went for dinner there one evening, it was interesting and very airy but the food was mediocre and expensive by Malaysian standards.

Gryphon II moved on toward Tawau with one stop that looked as though we were anchored in the middle of the ocean. The waters here are very shallow and the boat must be kept in navigable channels which sometimes snake through the reef. Another overnight anchorage was found at Roach Reef, an artificial island built up on a coral reef to provide an underwater playground for a rich businessman. The costs of maintaining such an island were very high and it was soon lightly developed as an extremely expensive dive and snorkelling centre. Having walked the tiny island it is easy to see why it failed as facilities were very rudimentary, the only really exclusive feature is its isolation. Although tiny there is a lot of equipment there including huge water tanks, a reverse osmosis water plant, an earth-moving machine and other paraphernalia.  Now it is falling into ruin; fishermen sleep there whilst they can but everything of wood is rotting, the sand is being washed away from the concrete blocks laid on the reef, structures will tumble and the remains will become an eyesore atop what was once an excellent coral reef below. AAAgh!

Off to Tawau.