We've just arrived back from Semporna and the Sipidan Islands National Park where we spent one day snorkelling.

We went with a company called Scuba-Junkie and stayed in their accomodation. It seemed like an OK room until we went to sleep that is! I (Kim) got woken up by the sight of a plastic bag scuttling across the room. Managed to get back to sleep and forgot all about it. That is until Tom woke me up and told me that he was getting bit on the feet! hehe, as his feet were dangling off the end of the slightly too small bed. He was pretty alarmed and spent the rest of the night curled up in a little ball at the top of the bed. So we spent a large part of the rest of the night on the hunt for whatever it was that was so interested in Tom's feet! Never did find out what it was, but did try and bait it with a cookie based trap the following night. What a mystery!

The next morning we started out snorkelling. It was raining hard when we woke up which we were pretty disappointed to see, hardly snorkelling weather! The Island we were headed for in the Sipidan Islands National Park was the island of Mabul. To go to Sipidan Island itself was about three times more expensive so we decided to give it a miss. The first snorkel site in the morning was on an artificial reef, where we saw loads of fish! A huge puffer fish probably being the most exciting thing, and one of the only ones we knew the name of! In the last 20 minutes or so of the morning session we were happily snorkelling around when suddenly I (kim) saw a huge (about 2 feet long at least) Triggerfish. A super territorial (and aggressive) species that has monstrous teeth! and was very upset that we had happily swam into the centre of its territory. It charged at us, so i swam away from it as quickly as i could! Tom meanwhile hadn't noticed a thing untill i swam passed giving a little scream of "Triggerfish!!!!!". He said he looked down to see humungus teeth attached to his flippers!! I don't think we've ever swam so fast! But don't worry we got away unharmed, if a little alarmed!!! About the closest thing to a shark attack i ever want to be a part of!

After lunch which Scuba Junkie provided (was fun eating being surrounded by Corals) we headed out onto a natural reef to try and spot a Turtle, the whole reason fo us coming here. We weren't disappointed. The sun came out to provide amazing weather for the rest of the day and thoroughly burnj Toms back!! Within about 5 minutes I (kim) had spotted a huge Green Turtle just resting on the bottom (about 5-6 meters down). Again Tom without his glasses took longer to see it! Then he took the camera and dived down to get some photos. I'll be honest, I was the best person at spotting them hehe, i found about 10 - ish and Tom spotted 2! Which meant together we both saw alot of them! We only saw Green Turtles although apparently there are also Hawsbill Turtles there too. The ones we saw were really big though, about a meter long. When we dived down to look at them they gave us like a raised eyebrow "What you looking at??" kind of look! It was very cool. The little waterproof disposable camera did us proud though! We can't belive the pictures came out so well! Although Tom's trying to take credit for most of the better ones! hehe.