Team WetDigital was fortunate enough to be in attendance at a DEMA 2004 party hosted by Island Dreams Travel of Houston, Texas.  The "Ahlgren Luck" struck again, and Robbie won a trip to Mabul Island in Malaysia, off the coast of Borneo.

See Details Here!

After months of planning, we left for Malaysia on April 16th, 2005.  Thirty something hours of flying and layovers later, we were at the Borneo Divers resort on the island of Mabul.

Borneo Divers Resort - Mabul Island

The photo opportunities for the Borneo/Malaysia adventure were simply awesome.  Since we had planned well for the trip, we had few problems with battery charging, memory card access, and all the contingencies necessary for digital photographers.

In the span of 15 days, we took over 1700 photographs, the majority of these were underwater photos taken with the Fuji S2 digital SLR and an Aquatica S2 housing.  A pair of Ikelite 100a strobe provided the light.

The underwater equipment worked flawlessly, and the TTL strobe functions were a big advantage, as it removed a lot of the exposure calculations.  The Fuji S2/Aquatica combination is one of the few SLR/housing/strobe systems that offer full TTL functionality.

 Photo Galleries

We were on Mabul Island for a total of 8 days, with 5 full days of diving.  Sixteen dives, for a total of 701 minutes underwater, an experience that I or Robbie will ever forget.

We then took a short boat ride back to Semporna, a drive back to Tawau, and then a short flight to Sandakan, where we were met by the travel company and taken to our hotel, the Hotel Sabah.  A really nice hotel, and they upgraded us to a suite on the top floor for that night.

Then onto to Turtle Island for the day and evening.  This island, along with 2 others in a nature preserve, has nesting green and hawksbill turtles almost every evening during the early spring and summer.  The turtle that return here, like salmon, were born on that particular island.  Due to a low tide and full moon, we waiting till almost midnight to see the nesting "mama" turtle.  All of the eggs collected are moved inland to a protected nursery area, and the baby turtles are released at night.  We were able to release the baby turtles as well, and that evening over 1000 eggs were collected.  This effort must be paying off, because the number of turtles around the dive sites were extraordinary.

After Turtle Island, we were taken by water taxi back to Sandakan for a quick breakfast, and then into another boat for a river cruise up the Kinabatangan River.  This large river travels directly into the heartland of Borneo and is a bird and wildlife paradise.  We saw scores of proboscis monkeys, long tailed macaques, and the best treat of all, the Borneo pygmy elephant.

After a nice evening and a early morning cruise back to Sandakan, we overnighted at the Hotel Sabah, and then caught a flight back to Kota Kinabalu, to start the long journey home.