BORNEO DIVING

LAYANG LAYANG

The resort is about 300 km NW of Kota Kinabalu, the capital of Sabah. The resort is a mere speck in the ocean, however, it is perhaps one of the best diving spots in the world. The island was formerly a sand spit on a remote ocean coral reef, but is now a man made island. The atoll itself rises over 2000 metres from the ocean floor, and sheer walls surround the reef. The water is generally exceptionally clear with visibility up to about 60 metres, with vibrant coral growth. The deep water and pristine walls attract big fish such as Wrasse, rays humphead wrasse, hawksbill turtles, dogtooth tuna and schools of hammerheads.

The resort is one of the most luxurious diver dedicated resorts in the world and offers 86 rooms in 6 blocks, all with air-conditioning, private showers T.V., fridge, phone and private verandah. The restaurant serves Asian and continental specialties. There is also a pool, bar, lounge and souvenir shop, together with a dive centre.

There is nothing to do on Layang Layang but scuba dive. The resort has been established to cater solely for advance open water divers. There are over 15 dives to choose from. The dive boats are comfortable, fast and stable and the boat drivers, dive masters and staff make every dive memorable.

Layang Layang is not for the learner diver or even new divers, but is perfectly suited to experienced and advanced divers.

Some of the features of the various dive sites are:

• Dogtooth Lair

  Schooling fish

  Sometimes subject to large ocean swells, but always turns on the big fish, such as Dogtooth Tuna, giant trevally, big eye jacks, barracuda and large cod and reef fish.


 

• Navigator Lane

  The reeftop hard corals are among the best you will see anywhere. The fish life is wonderful.


 

• Crack Reef

  This is an incredible wall dive with ledges (cracks) in the wall. The drop off is over 1800 metres. Everything is festooned with barrel sponges, gorgonia and black coral. Leopard sharks, grey reef sharks, yellowfin tuna ans other large fish are also common.


 

• Shark Cave

  Plate Coral

  Dive down a wall to about 30 metres to a sandy ledge, then along the ledge and up to 26 metres to the cave. The walls and ledges are packed with soft corals, black corals, gorgonians and barrel sponges. An average dive lasts about 55 minutes.


 
 
 

 

• The Valley

  At a level of about 20 metres is a large plateau with prolific number of bommies and excellent hard corals, grey reef sharks, large schools of big-eye jacks and other reef fish. Large schools of small barracuda up to about 40 cm in length are also found in abundance, together with manta rays and giant trevally.


 

• Wrasse Patch

  A family of five Maori wrasse live here and show no fear of divers. The reef fish are also prolific - it is a photographers dream.


 

• Gorgonian Forest

  It is a spectacular drop off at the top end of the atoll. Along the wall at about 35 metres are large schools of big-eye jacks. There are also large schools of big barracuda which are extremely tame.


 

• The "D" Wall

  The wall is on the West side of the atoll and provides some good photography opportunities, particularly leopard sharks.