As noted in my previous post...my comrade Isaac Rogers took some nice pictures of our time in Derawan as well and he's allowed me to share some of them here. Above, he snapped a quick shot of some of us getting ready to get in the water. Derawan island was so fun. We literally walked one minute from our "hotel" room and we were in the water. The lodging available on the island was very simple, but we weren't there for the accommodations; we were there to see what was under the water!
Again, I had never been snorkeling. But I'm hooked now. I can't wait to go again and see what else might be lurking.
Of all of the clown fish that we saw near their anemones, they were all very aggressive and defensive of their space. Those little guys were brave!
As I'm trying to photograph the clown fish, Isaac was able to capture the clown fish "charging" me and trying to scare me away.
I have no idea what kind of fish this is. Notice it's false eye at its rear. What intricate design and colors!
Thankfully, Isaac loaned me his extra gardening gloves. Coral is super rough and sharp. Without a set of gloves, there is no way I could have held onto the coral while underwater.
This is one of the many eels we saw while searching nooks and crannies in the coral reef. Such creepy creatures. The biggest one we saw had to have been 8+ feet long!
Another lion fish on patrol. When these fish put all of their fins out, it was quite a display of awesomeness. They seemed to know that no body messes around with them.
One afternoon, we took a quick boat trip to another nearby island called Kakaban. It was a totally different type of reef compared to Derawan. It even had a drop off that went down a LOOOOONG way just like in the movie "Finding Nemo." Seeing larger fish, feeling super heated currents due to underlying magma, as well as visiting the isolated lake in the middle of the island filled with thousands of stinger-less jellyfish, was a great privilege.
The array of colors that we saw while snorkeling was unbelievable. Trying to photograph an environment that is constantly moving is really hard too! Many times, you see something you want to photograph, and by the time you're ready to take the shot...the fish is gone!
I have no idea what this is. But we gently removed it and released it into the sea only to see all of its arms begin to beautifully swim as it tried to find another place to anchor itself. Inside of this bizarre creature were a pair of VERY colorful lobster type crustaceans, about as long as half of a pencil. Everything it seemed, was living in a symbiotic way under the sea.
One of the highlights of Derwawan, were the numerous green sea turtles we saw. Each of them had a personality, and many of them would allow us to approach them, while others would swim away, wanting nothing to do with us.
The one in the above picture was patient with us and almost seemed to like having his shell rubbed. It was awesome to see these turtles swim so gracefully and quickly when needed. We even got to see a female lay her eggs one night right in front of our hotel room. Such a privilege!
Happy New Year everyone!
2 comments:
Oh My Word, I want to do that. Glad you 're enjoying a few things, really special.
Can't wait to see ya, xoxo
Come and see us Mom and we'll take you!!!
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