I've just arrived back from a week diving Sipadan Island off the east coast of Borneo. After doing only half a dozen dives for the first half of 2007, it was great to actually do a full week of diving. In all, I did 18 dives for the trip. One of the dive sites at Sipadan is called "Turtle Tomb" which I managed to put together a small video of the dive (see below). Turtle Tomb is a cave dive that starts with a big cavern in about 20 meters that heads in towards the island for about 80 meters, followed by a tunnel around 1.2m high that continues about another 15 meters before opening up into a large cave under Sipadan Island. It is called Turtle Tomb because of the turtle skeletons that are found inside the cave. There are two theories as to why the turtles die here. The first theory (and most obvious) is that the turtles enter the cave through a small opening in the reef known as the window during the day, fall asleep, wake up when it is dark, then can't find the way back to the window to exit and end up drowning. The second theories is that it is a place sick and elderly turtles go to die. The second theory is definately the more romantic of the two, and there are a few people that actually believe this to be the correct one for various reasons. It wouldn't be the first time that wild animals seek out a specific place to die. It is rumoured that there is a place called The Elephants Graveyard where elephants go to die. This place is said to be either in Africa or in Saudi Arabia deep in the desert near Yemen. Whatever the reason, Turtle Tomb is an excellent dive, and makes for a nice change to the usual dives encountered at  Sipadan and other great dive holiday destinations.

 Note: This was shot on my Canon IXUS 850IS digital stills camera in Canon underwater housing