Finding Nemo

Kota Kinabalu
17 September

At last, we have taken our first-ever snorkel with Aron. Thus far, all our adventures had been inland, mostly in the jungle, and a swim promised a welcome break from the intense sun, as well as a chance for us all to experience some of the best waters in the world for sea life.

After a bit of haggling over the fee, we hired a speedboat from the docks at KK, sharing the price with some Japanese tourists, and headed out to one of the cluster of islands in the Tunku Abdhul Rahman National Park. 'We want one with a beach and nothing else', we said.













We got what we asked for. A tiny island with a few trees and a beautiful white coral sand beach. This is paradise, I said; Aron agreed. The had Japanese opted for a bigger island across the way with a café and mod cons like a loo.

A broken jetty and a derelict building was all that remained of someone's failed attempt to open a hotel on Sulug island. Now there were just a few birds and - as we later discovered - many insects.













A quick look revealed lots of degraded coral in the shallow water and the occasional large electric-blue starfish, so we goggled up the boy, slathered on lots of suncream, and headed out to see what submarine wonders were lurking beneath the surface.

We found lots of colourful fish, most of which I can't identify, but they included puffer fish, and wrapped around a rock deep in sleep (I hoped) was a sea snake - all of which are deadly poisonous should they bite you.

The highlight though, spotted by Maja, was a single 2-metre-long rock on which the coral and anemones had not been destroyed (by the dynamiting locals are reputed to indulge in?) and on which was a colony of clown fish. Some were of a larger brown-and-white species, but Aron was very happy to find the classic orange-and-white one made famous in the movie Finding Nemo.

They were very territorial creatures and if you went to close they swim out and do their best to look threatening. And they were absolutely beautiful. If only I'd bought the waterproof camera I had been considering in London.

'This is my best day ever,' said Aron afterwards, making me a very happy dad. He later revised it to be his second best day, leaving a best one for some future occasion.

As the day passed the wind began to pick up and Ariel started to become very distressed. He hates the wind; mostly it seems because he thinks he or his hat will blow away. Meanwhile, over towards the mainland a big thunderstorm was developing and spreading over the sea towards us.













Trying to keep the little one calm while we were out in the sea, Maja took Ariel under the shelter of some bushes at the back of the beach. She had almost fallen asleep when she realised that both of them were covered in sand fleas. These are nasty little critters. The females suck a little blood to get the protein they need to make their eggs but they also inject a little saliva that causes quite a strong allergic reaction (and can also spread disease-causing parasites). So Maja was forced to stand in the open as the storm approached and Ariel became more distressed at the whipping wind.

Luckily the storm moved slowly and had dissipated before the boat turned up at 5 pm to collect us. Whooping with joy, the driver whizzed us back over the waves. That's a great job, I thought, moments before the boat struck a sand bar and the outboard kicked up on its hinges, scattering chunks of debris into the air. For a second, I thought the motor had exploded and thought we were about to be shredded with shrapnel, but the moment passed and we were still in one piece.

The driver hopped out of the rear, muttering: 'Oh, this is bad, oh this is bad!' Instead of disappearing, he was standing in water only as deep as his knees, He got the outboard working again, though, and we were soon heading towards the dock at a more sedate pace.

That night, Maja's sand flea bites became very red and itchy - she had them all over her body, poor thing. Despite some expensive creams, the irritation only went away properly once we had left the baking seaside for the chilly foot of Mount Kinablu - the biggest mountain in the Malaysian archipelago, and which I had arranged to climb the following day...