18.2. 2014
Been here for a week now and all this time we were the only round eyes. we create quite a stir among all the Orientals and get treated very well by all. Lucky i haven’t seen any shark fin soup on the buffet yet !!! Apparently it is almost impossible to get in at Kapalai. All the Chineese want to come here on holiday….imagine 1.3 billion…..
Yesterday we dived Sipadan. What an incredible place to dive. The island is a 600m pillar sticking out on the top ( as islands do ). It is a weird feeling swimming around there. The fish life is amazing. Hundreds and hundreds if not thousands of Barracudas, similar amounts of Jacks all over us. White Tips and Grey Reef Sharks everywhere. Beautiful.
We know they are big on little things here. On our first dive we were shown life forms which we would never recognise in a lifetime. This sure has its own magic. But Sipadan has everything. And us for the moment…
15.2. 2014
We are on Sipadan Kakpalai Resort. It took us a while to get there though. Firstly, Beulah was dreaming about this place for years and actually travelling to this remote place was not an easy thing to do. It took us the better part of 3 days and judging by the shaking of the planes, i thought we would never make it. How come the entire earth is full of air holes ? or should i say, where is all the air gone ? Must be all the damn oxygen thieves of this world who created all those empty pockets we now have to fly through…
Yeah, i truely struggled with this shaking business but the worst was yet to come. Our minibus drive from the airport on Borneo to the coast. Holy shit !! This guy must have been a pilot in a former life. And he sure did not appreciate the value of MY life !!!
But when we arrived at Kapalai it was all forgotten and worth it.
8.2. 2014
Apologies for neglecting the English part of my website. Things were really hectic. So we went to Germany to the BOOT Show in Duesseldorf from 18.1.-26.1.
This show is just a cracker. Nothing can beat it. It carries on for nine long days but brings more bookings and inquiries than three months of working the networks. Absolutely amazing !! Most of the time the entire costs are covered within the first weekend. After the show we drove down South to stay with my parents for eight days. Unfortunately we were so busy working off all the show stuff that we found ourselves sitting in front of our computers from morning to evening much to the dismay of my folks. One day though they managed to tear us away from work and took us skiing in Oberstdorf. The ladies went for a walk around the summit and waited for the boys to come for a break to the mountain pub. Dad and I loved it like hell. The weather was good, the snow was great and the slopes were relatively free to ski. Dad at 84 stole the show again. By far the best and most stylish skier at the resort.
On Wednesday we wanted to fly home but due to ” unforeseen circumstances ” we only arrived home on Friday. We missed the plane in Dubai….
So we got on in Munich and had a bad flight; due to over eating and over drinking I got claustrophobic and had to stand in the aisle for most of the time. Bloody terrible. I was tired like hell but could not possibly imagine going back to my window seat. When we finally got to Dubai we were cooked. Our German time was 5h00. I thought Dubai time was 2 hours forward and so we would have had plenty of time. There is nothing nicer than having a couple of ice cold beers at 5am !!! So we went to the Jack Daniels Bar and did just that. After two big ones I could hardly keep my eyes open. Between sips I dozed off and every now and then looked at my watch , calculated two hours more and checked the time.
When it was time to check in I went to the board to see which gate we had to go to. It read, Durban – Gate Closed. ???? Then I spotted one of the many Rolex Clocks at the airport and saw it was 10h00….
We hoped they would wait some time until they off load our luggage and rushed at full speed to the gate. This time it involved a train ride, escalators and what not. We got to the gate and were told the doors were closed and our luggage was out. They called our names several times …but who ever hears his own name over the intercom ? Its always someone else…
So here we stood, devastated, not knowing what to do next and what to expect. We thought we should have lost our tickets and had to buy new ones..??
As we got to the right counter we were told we could fly the next day and had to pay a penalty of roughly $ 180 for the two of us. What a relief…..!!!!
As we had 24 hours to kill we decided the best thing to do was look for a hotel. We knew this wouldn’t be cheap but we gave ourselves a once off $ 400 budget.
The airport hotel wanted $ 335 and we jumped at it.
After checking in and having a lovely shower we left our hand luggage in the room and strolled straight back to the pub.
What a difference. No rush, no luggage to schlep, 24 hours of entertainment outside our bedroom, a luxury room to chill in…wow, this was a real treat. So a disaster changed into an absolute pleasure. I had a few more beers and eventually dozed off while Beulah spoke to me. Never been so damn tired in all my life !!
At 15h00 we went to our room and at 15h01 I was fast asleep. Beautiful.
Woke up at 11pm, watched a movie and slept til the morning when my divewatch , my cellphone and my iPad went off all at the same time waking us up.
Our flight to Durban was a breeze. Being totally relaxed and refreshed the time flew as fast as the plane. We felt real good. One should just take things a bit easier and have a break every now and then. Be it on a long flight or a long drive.
Protea Banks
Today was my first dive back on my beloved Protea Banks. I heard that Gregg and Karen struggled to see sharks lately and did not expect much. Unfortunately we did not see any sharks at all. The visibility was 30m in the first half of the water and the bottom half was a bit brown at 18m. Temps were 25C on top and 19C on the bottom. This is due to a long north easterly wind blowing for days and bringing cold upwelled water onto Protea Banks. As we were out the wind changed to South West which blew the whole day. This wind will bring warm and clean water to Protea Banks. We’ll see next week.
Karen did a Baited Dive and had 5 zambezies and 3 black tips. Not bad at all.