Where in the world...?

Carla Johnson is a wonderful friend of mine, who has been all over the world, done and seen some amazing things, so who better to write the latest travel section? She lives and studies here in Tasmania, and is soon to continue her studies in Europe on an exchange program. She lives for diving, animal rights and dance, and will be splashed all over the news one day for her amazing contributions to journalism, charity and all her hard work towards a better future for mankind.

"My love for Ocean has been with me since I was just a little girl, growing up by the beach for most of my life. My love for animals and their habitats has also been with me from a young age, but it was in 2008 when I first slipped below the surface and discovered what really is paradise. I fell in love with the underwater world instantly, with the animals the corals and the peacefulness. From the tiniest nudibranchs, to the biggest sharks, everything moves with elegance and at its own pace, not influenced by the dramas of the world above.  Don’t get me wrong it can be a competitive, dangerous and ruthless world down there, but its natural; survival of the fittest.

There is a small island off the coast of Borneo called Sipadan. And by small I mean tiny. However what surrounds this sandy drop in the ocean is one of the largest collections of animal and coral species I have seen at once.  

My first dive at on Sipadan, I dropped into a school of hundreds of barracuda, below me were at least 5 reef sharks, if I turned to my left 3 turtles resting on the coral, in front of me schools of jacks and snapper. Amongst the corals clown fish, trigger fish, angel fish, butterfly fish, lion fish, crabs, shrimp, moray eels, nudibranch, the list is endless. To my right I constantly keep one eye focussed on the deep blue endless ocean the spans out from the reef hoping to catch sight of a whale shark, hammerhead or manta ray. 

I become part of the surroundings, the sharks don’t notice me, I can lay beside a turtle and I play with the clown fish. But  you can never become complacent. I constantly remind myself that this is not my world, I’m just visiting and I must repect its beauty, dangers and power, because the second I find I have lost that respect, the ocean will turn on me. 

I have been lucky enough to travel to a number of incredible destinations all of which are unique and special in their own right. But only when am I 20 meters under the ocean do truly feel peace, strangly its the kind of peace I imagine that that everyone in the world above me is trying to create or find.  Its the kind of peace that has to be experienced to be understood."