Web Robin

On the way to Africa!

I'm leaving tonight for Ethiopia and South Sudan--a trip one year in the works! Our church has a large group of South Sudanese refugees, and when South Sudan held a vote in January 2011 to decide independence, we started making plans to help rapatirate refugees from an internationally-displaced-persons camp.  If you want to follow along, we'll have people posting updates that we phone in at www.facebook.com/klcsouthsudan or www.klcsouthsudan.blogspot.com

Borneo -- Day 3

Just a short post today since I didn't compose it ahead of time.

We had 3 amazing dives today before lunch at Sipidan Island, a national park preserve for which we each had to have a permit to visit.

In order to squeeze that many dives in, we had to be at the dive center at 4:55 AM. (omigosh. Why do we always choose hobbies that require early rising???)

The point of getting out early was to arrive at the island (30 min away) by sunrise, because that's when the Bumphead Parrotfish, an endangered species, migrate from the island out to sea.

As soon as we dropped down, we saw 6 of them whiz by. They're very large fish compared to most reef fish -- about 4-5 feet long. The reason they're endangered is because they're tasty and have been overfished. But at the park, they're protected.

In addition to those fish we saw lots of yellowtail barracudas, one Great Barracuda that was bigger than any of us and had scary teeth, a gazillion sea turtles, and many white tip reef sharks, mostly juveniles. 

In fact, we sank down to where one 5-foot shark was resting (at 81 feet) and got to pet it! It was so dormant, it didn't react for a long time. Super fun!

When we got to the top of the reef, we saw so many thousands of fish that it's impossible for me to describe what it was like beyond saying it was truly wonderful. Definitely worth the trip!

I'll try uploading a few photos, and then head back to the room to rest a bit before the next dive. Thanks for your comments on my previous post.

The resort

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The village

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Afternoon View 

Borneo -- Days 1 & 2

After 40 hours of travel by car, multiple planes, bus, and boat, we arrived Wednesday afternoon on the tiny island of Mabul, east of Borneo in Malaysia. Once at the Sipidan Water Village resort, we got oriented to the facilities, checked into our room—at 585 steps the farthest away from the dining area and dive shop – had dinner, and crashed. Our only sleep since we’d left home on Monday at 8:30 am had been what we’d caught on the plane and 6 hours in a hotel in Singapore during a layover.