Alpha Odyssey: sailing SE Asia, Mar 2017 - Nov 2018

My next noteworthy adventure was an epic one...the Alpha Odyssey:a sailing adventure living aboard a 12m catamaran SV Angel Wing that we sailed from Brisbane to Thailand via Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei in 2017-2018! For more general info about the odyssey, check out the blog: https://alphaodyssey.wordpress.com

Although at the time of sailing I had just joined iNaturalist, and uploaded a handful of observations to get help with ID, I recently went through my 15,000+ photos/videos from the trip and retrospectively uploaded more than a thousand observations.

There were so many nature highlights, the ones that spring to mind are:
Swimming with whale sharks in North Sulawesi (Gorontalo)
Swimming in a stingless jellyfish lake (Pulau Kakaban, East Kalimantan)
Helping rangers release baby turtles (Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo)
Diving around Komodo NP and seeing Komodo dragons (dive company: https://uberscubakomodo.com)
Orangutans in the wild (Kalimantan/Sarawak/Sabah)
Diving Lembeh Strait (Sulawesi)
Kinabatangan river (Sabah)
Diving Sipidan and Mabul (Sabah)
Diving Wakatobi (Indonesia)
Diving Richelieu rock (Thailand)
Spending several days exploring Similan and Surin islands (Thailand)
Getting to see four different species of Birds of paradise!
Up close to a deadly viper (Bako NP, Borneo)
Walking in the shoes of naturalist and explorer Alfred Wallace
...and so many more.

There are way too many observations to link them all to this journal post, but as a quick summary:
Indonesia: 410 species (631 observations)
Malaysia: 306 species (429 observations)
Thailand: 150 species (220 observations)
Brunei: 9 species (9 observations)
...but I have linked to the one that made it to "iNat observation of the day"!

Living on a sail boat is a brilliant way to explore this archipelagic region. It allowed access to many remote places that tourism hasn't really penetrated yet, making me a really lucky person!

Posted on Μάρτιος 12, 2021 1038 ΠΜ by