Our first week of diving in Indonesia has been a mixed experience. The diving has been amazing, but the viral stomach bug that was doing the rounds not so much! The 3 day bug literally knocks the stuffing out of you and at least half the guests went down with it at some point during their stay. Back to the good parts.... Jon and I completed our 100th dives on our first day here - quite a landmark for me, as I never intended to love diving given my previous path...

Our next 3 weeks of adventure revolve entirely around diving. A typical day is as follows: wake up, go and set up kit and go for 1st dive, come back for breakfast, then go for 2nd dive, quick rest and lunch then in for 3rd dive. Finally come back to the room, shower to get rid of all the salt, sleep, get ready for dinner and if feeling really wild have a cocktail first, then back to bed ready to start the whole process over again. Partly due to exhaustion and du...

Oh my God!!! Alarm went off at 5am - so after we had finished the last few bits of packing, we had around 2 hours sleep. Leaving the hotel at 5.15, we arrived at the airport just after 5.30am for our 7am flight to Tawau. Worse still was the fact that we were too early for the coffee shops to be open either. Unsurprisingly, we were both quite quiet on the flight and slept most of the way. Although just after take off we were treated to a clear view of Mount Kinaba...

Oh what bliss - no early start today. We slept in to a giddy 8.30 am and eased ourselves to an upright position. Somehow overnight I seemed to have lost the ability to bend my legs. Even touching the front of your legs elicited a wince! Shuffling to breakfast we surveyed the pleasant grounds and pretty beach in front of the hotel. Unfortunately thoughts of a snorkel in the sea were scuppered when Henry quietly counselled us not to - apparently 2 nearby villages ...

After a fitful sleep we got up wearily as the alarm went off at 2am. One advantage of wearing most of your clothes to bed is it doesn't take long to get ready. Around an hour earlier the rain had finally stopped, so the park guides deemed it ok to go for the summit, but it had been touch and go. Our damp and bedraggled group set off once more around 2.15 am and trudged through the puddles to the entrance gate. Oh deep joy, we were greeted by a mixture of steep sl...