Day: October 14, 2007

It had been a long night. Going through the Kuala Lipis – Gua Musang road, we stopped for an hour at Gua Musang to refresh, and then made our way again at around 4.30am, arriving in Kuala Besut at 7am.

It is already monsoon season, and none of the speedboats were running as per normal schedule. Luckily there are 13 of us so we could charter a boat for our trip.

I was last in Perhentian five weeks ago. It was a superb trip, designed to overcome certain emotional pain, and to regain my sanity. It was six weeks ago that a closure was made there.

I got to the dive shop, geared up, and went off to Tukun Laut for my first dive. I was tired. Yup, I felt tired, but still I went. There was a slight surface current, but not as strong as I would have imagined it to be.

Down at 24 meters with Katakpink and Ridrahim, I looked up and saw the dive boat. Such excellent visibility – a trademark of monsoon diving. How I wish I have a new housing for my camera; alas, my model has been discontinued so it defeats the purpose to purchase a new one online which would be cheaper than the cost to ship it to Malaysia. I’ll just have to buy a new camera…and housing…and TTL strobes.

Huge Porcupine Pufferfishes patrolled the immediate area; Tiger Trevallies hunting. There was this baitball of literally thousands of Snappers ahead of me and all I could do was stare as Trevallies burst in and out of this tight ball, taking one or two from the ranks for breakfast. I knew there was more to come…I had that funny feeling.

True enough, a 1.2 meters Blacktip Reef Shark (Carcharhinus melanopterus) appeared out of nowhere passing in between Katakpink and Ridrahim towards me. I was smiling to myself: if this animal suddenly preceives me as a threat entering its personal space, I’m gonna bleed a lot and lose a limb. It banked to its right, exposing its white underbelly to me. I went into full flutter kicks, and gave it a chase. And Katakpink and Ridrahim could only watch me going after this shark alone, disappear into the depths, only to emerge a minute or so later slapping my forehead because I did not have a camera on me – and all that chasing had taken a lot of air from my single AL80 cylinder.

Then from a 16-meter depth, I saw a school of Chevron Barracudas (Sphyraena genie). I swam towards them. They were huge. So as not to startle them, Katakpink and I went down to the bottom, knelt down and just looked at this school of predators pass by.

Excellent! Who says you have to go to Sipadan to see them?

I maintained my depth at about 14 meters after that, searching for nudibranches other than the Phyllidae sp. when I accidentally spooked a Bamboo Shark (Chiloscyllium griseum). It took flight and sought refuge in another hole only to discover that another Bamboo Shark was inside. A fight ensued and both had the other in a tight grip of their jaws. It was a funny sight. Katakpink and I decided we should mediate this quarrel and tried to force the other to loosen the bite. Was it risky? Well, yes, either could have bitten off a finger or two of ours. Anyway, they have probably decided that one has to win and the other lose. So they were not letting go of the other. What else was there to do? We held both sharks to Spazm’s camera for a photo opportunity showing two dumb sharks biting each other for a hole beneath the corals.

Next, at 12 meters, we spotted a Hawksbill Turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata) feeding on sponges. We approached it slowly and gently, Katakpink to its left, and I to its right. I lie on my tummy on the rough sea floor watching this old man of the sea eat away the sponges…my mask almost touching its beak. It was a very relaxing moment.

In the end, I had to leave it alone as I was already running low on air, and had to do my stops before I could surface.

Soon I was back on the boat, looking down through the surface of the sea…straight to the bottom…where other divers had just commenced their dive.

Perhentian has always been full of pleasant surprises for me.

(Next: The Return to Terumbu Tiga)