This past October, the pilots from our PalangkaRaya base had to travel to another MAF base called Tarakan for a meeting. Some of our Tarakan teammates were organizing a trip to the island of Derawan while we were there, so we went along. It was AMAZING! I had never been snorkeling before and I can't wait to go again. My brain is still trying to absorb all of the amazing things I saw under water. God's creation is so inexplicably amazing!
This is where I saw my teammate Isaac almost the whole time; somewhere under the surface taking photos. In my next post, I'll share with you some of Isaac's pictures. In my opinion, his photos turned out better than mine so I asked his permission to share some of them on the blog. Underwater photography is challenging.
We had numerous visual encounters with the species above, the lion fish. From afar, they are beautiful, but you don't want to touch their fins. They are extremely poisonous.
I could have never dreamed all of the different shapes, sizes and colors of the fish and coral life. Everywhere I looked I saw something I had never seen before. What a privilege!
Even the stuff growing on the pillars was cool. Big sponges, large leafy branch things, most of what I saw I have no idea what it is called!
The view above the water was great too. We were treated to pretty good weather, and walking around the very tiny island of Derawan was a real pleasure.
I'm a country boy from Colorado. So, I was, and still am, very much in awe of the Ocean. What an amazing environment.
We saw lots of different types of sea anemones. And, just like the movie "Finding Nemo" they all had clown fish in them. So cool!
This anemone had little baby clown fish in it. These little guys were about as big as your pinky finger.
Right under this large anemone with the little clown fish, was this eel, just sitting there staring at me. Eels are so creepy! We saw a HUGE one on one of our night snorkels. So much to see at nighttime. It's a whole different environment all together!
I couldn't believe the size and color patterns of all of the clams. The yellow and brown one above is about as big as a turkey. The blue one at the bottom of the picture was about as big as a dinner plate. There was another one that I could never take a good picture of or capture it's scale; but it was as big as an ATV!!! So awesome!
5 comments:
Sweet pics!
simply awesome and stunning pics!
first was Dave forney who posted the pics of derawan island, then Tripp, and now you. i'm gonna save money and sure visit derawan island one day!
@Chad...Thanks man! Come see us!
@Irvan...You should really visit Derawan! You will never regret it! It is worth saving up for. You could fly KALStar Pontianak-Balikpapan, and then Garuda Balikpapan-Berau, and then take a boat to Derawan. It's not easy to get to...but it is worth it!
thank you Sean. can you inform me how much it's gonna be for the boat to derawan and hotel/ on derawan? is there any restaurant there that serving chicken or beef? because i'm allergic to seafood.
have you been to langkawi? if yes, which one is better, Langkawi, Bali or Derawan? last year i went to Langkawi, and i'm not so impressed.
@irvan...I'm not sure on the boat prices. We divided up the price between 13 people and we paid to/from Tarakan, about 1juta a person. It's cheaper from Berau. They have plenty of chicken in Derawan, but its more expensive than the seafood. YOu could bring your own food. Bali is totally different than Derawan. For snorkeling/diving, I know Derawan is much better. I've never been to Langkawi, so I can't compare.
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