Borneo: Indonesia + Malaysia - July 2013
Dear English-speaking readers, this page is an automatic translation made from a post originally written in French. My apologies for any strange sentences and funny mistakes that may have been generated during the process. If you are reading French, click on the French flag below to access the original and correct text:
Français Borneo, it's an adventure! I saw the island of Kakaban and its mysterious jellyfish lake again. I even went back for a swim. The proof on video.
Back to Kakaban
2009-2013. Four years separate these two photos ...
At the game of the seven differences, we notice that a wooden bungalow, painted blue, was built at the back, but especially that my Tribord top and my swimsuit are indestructible... ????
I invite you to reread the article I wrote at the time on Kakaban:
→ Kakaban, the island of jellyfish [July 2009]
Four years later, the place has become very popular. Groups of Asian holidaymakers arrive every day, strapped into beautiful orange lifejackets - as many do not know how to swim.
You now have to pay a small entry fee of IDR 10,000 (less than one euro) and sign a register to access the lake. It is also now forbidden to swim with flippers, so as not to risk cutting the famous jellyfish in half.
Jellyfish that do not sting
It seems incredible, but in fact, these jellyfish do not sting! The explanation would be this: About 10,000 years ago, a geological phenomenon raised the island, trapping marine animals, including jellyfish, inside a crater. These, finding themselves without predator, have ended, over the millennia, by losing their urticating power.
The proof in pictures, with the video below!
You will note, in the 15th second, the kindness and the good humor of one of our Indonesian dive guides, who did not want to let me carry on the wooden footbridge, sliding in places, my heavy waterproof box, containing my 7D (see page Equipment my equipment for underwater photography).
In any case, I had a lot of fun making a little film almost similar to the one I did, Four years ago.
UPDATE. Better not to touch the jellyfish as we did ... Certainly, they do not bite, but it is we who risk harming them by force, if all the visitors who parade in numbers now have fun doing the same ... It is a fragile ecosystem and the exponential number of tourists coming to bathe in the lake risks weakening it even more. In short, I should not have made neither film nor show this gesture. Mea culpa.
Lake side and sea side
There are other jellyfish lakes around the world. Those of Kakaban (Borneo, Indonesia) and Palau (Micronesia) are the best known.
In Indonesia, there are some in Raja Ampat (West Papua) and also in the Togian Islands (Sulawesi).
As for jellyfish, I will have the opportunity to dabble with them several times, between two sea-side dives, during this stay of 2013because the resort Derawan Dive Lodge takes us regularly to make bubbles around the island, along the coral reef, splendid (I'll show you that in a future post).
Between dives, our small group lunch on the pontoon, before or after the jellyfish tour.
And we take advantage of the sea view ... Beautiful!
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