Un autre Tour du Monde pour François Pouliquen

Salut mon poupou...alors bonne semaine? :))))))Je ta'dmire sincerement!! Ils sont tellement forts les bretons, bravo!Je reviens de l ile de Sipadan (Nord Est de Malaysie/Sabah)...voici mon recit...tu vas surement te reposer qq peu apres ton exploit alors si tu as le temps ,bonne lecture!This trip to Sipadan was fantastic!! I reckon my divelog before leaving Europe was just above 50 dives (did not take it with me as I left quite in a rush Luxembourg, I only thought about bringing over my certifications) I know I am missing practices for sure, my last  five dives were back to June 2006. End  2004,I went Truck lagoon, Micronesia...and today I am glad that I had  already experienced some difficult wrecks diving exercices in , why? ,...as that gave me incentive to go and dive in the  turtle sanctuary in Sipadan. This dive was either 60or 80 or 90 minutes depepnding on your air left in the tank, and its a real maze/riddle. It was discovered by Cousteau so he is fmous overthere.Only a qualified instructeur for that cave can come with you as you can loose yourself easily, in 2 years total of 6 divers died in it. Couldnt find their way out. The turtle cavern is a complicated site with the entrance to the cavern located at about 22 m . Sipadan diving is famous for its population of both green turtles and the smaller hawksbill turtles. It was one time speculated that the cavern was their mausoleum and that they came to this site to die. However before diving I heard about this more accurate representation that the turtles became lost in the caverns at night and drowned. Thats why Sipadan 's resort operators isnist that all Borneo divers to this system of interconnecting caverns MUST be accompanied by a professional local instructor. The start of the cavern reveals skeletons a those various entrants who failed to find the exit and perished. Deeper penetraton has revealed us a home to shoals of fish specifically adapted to the low llight environment . Searchers are still going there for new species of fishes to be discovered. actually my instructor showed me 2 new ones: transparent fishes and flashlight fishes that are not yet mentioned in illustrated  books. Throughout the journey we were lacking the daylights, only twice we saw kind of blue windows....thats how I badly started  thinking I need to trust my torch and my divemaster. Lots of fossiles on walls, lots of opening galleries, a real riddle, also to make you even more puzzled the ceiling at some places look like mirrors due to some air present between water and roof. I would called these the mirror galleries. Step by step how I went into this adventure: After I viewed the general video of the cave and once the briefing was given by the instructor I felt like not going into it anymore ...too far scary!! I had a million of questions, the fact that it was  necessary for him to stretch a line for about 15 meters in order after to find our way out was sort of reassuring but he said that I could not touch the line he was pulling or if I wanted not to loose it I could  just make a circle around the line (between my thumb and finger)  but had to be carefull not  to  displace it ortherwise he cannot strech it properly... So I guess all I had to do is to think its an electric wire that could not be touched....impossible of course!! You need perfect stability for accomplishing that. So I was thinking  to swim along it, not below nor above it. The wideness of the main gallery is about 3 meters for a while but the high is 1.5 meters. You are not allow to touch the floor not to knee down: it would create so much dust that nothing could be seen  but more scary  if you rest on the mud  you would dig yourselves as you would sink by 2 meters Also the conditions before diving were strict: you are fully responsible for any problem happening on your diving equipment and make sure the torch is good and strong! You need to avoid panicking as you need to save your air as much as possible. Moreover by hearing his 2 emergency procedures I totally lost my confidence. Just in case he would have had a problem too, i had to analyse his map  and depending where I was....I had the choice either to go back by the longer way and hopefully I would have found his line  or if I was not able to go back to the line , any little blue light opening I would have seen on my way....provided I see one, I could have tried to squeeze myself through it as it normally gives way to the big sea...thats probably why I decided to skipped  dinner that evening ... So I tought about it twice , cancel my first booking but decided to go another day as that was my main reason for coming to Sipadan. On that day just the two of us throwed ourselves int he darkness as lots of poeple preferred to   dive in the open sea to enjoy colour fishes....dont blame them. However while doing the cave the instructor managed to give me 2 strong fears Firstly after our descend he was supposed to take my first little tank away and leave it at the entrance of the cave for my way back if I needed it . But he did not stop himself after our descend and went straight into the cave...the panic took me gradually as I was thinking I could not dive the all way with the little tank so I was pumping mostly all the air of that small tank as I thought he forgot to change mine . Here I was following him not knowing when he would realised it. But he eventually stopped a bit further inside, glad he did not forget,  and of course he had a shock when he noticed my level of air taken on that little one. The stress was over as I could survive on the big tank now...and as he started to behave as a real clown he made me  giggled at every corner . He managed to transformed the ghosty dive into a fun one. But we both had to bear in mind we needed to keep good concentration on our buancy/stability through that journey. There is a lot more to tell but I am giving you only the big lines as everyone should do it and experience it by themsleves ,many surprises, each dive is unique. However mysecond fear came when  he asked me to turn off my torch, then he opened a little one of his . He praised me to knee (I was trusting the floor must have been more stable)and he turned off his little light , god knows why!? complete darkness... for 3 minutes but he soon touched my hand to make me realised he was closed to me and to reassure me....and ..suddenly ...magnificient flashlight fishes  came into our direction. A real show , he must have been enjoying it as well I could hear him singing louder and louder. Then we moved and went sitting on a rock for 5 min.(as I have been  a good girl as I had still plenty of air in my main tank, he was making air check from time to time) in front of a big blue window opening to the ocean and the purpose of this was to enjoy the swim of numerous fishes in front of that massive window. Magnificient view.So the total dive was 90 minutes, not bad hey?! On the way out we found a turtle not moving (so far we saw only turtle skelettons) so he wrote to me SICK TURTLE, ...yeah right I could have guesssed no?! more puzzling I was wondering what he was doing as  he kept staying on top of her analysing it...I..apparently the turtle has just come in as she was not there the day before,and he wanted to make sure she was dead , if not,  he would have had to take it out in order to cure it. She was dead! At that sudden moment i believed in the second theory that the turtle really goes down there when they feel sick in order to die in peace. So we know that after 3 days of decomposition the turtle body would have created a strong gas that will have expelled the shell toward the ceiling and after a while the shell goes down and would  have ended up upside down, (thats the explanation of  why we saw all skelettons of shells upside down). I also remember  a marleen skeletton. And there was all the time the divemaster' friend following us,a big fish following our lights to be able to grasp some shrimps.... So many, so many galleries that you better not ask yourself  too many questions and keep on following the only guy that is holding your life in his hands... On the way back he found something else ..he wanted me to take it, from the view it looked like a turtle vertebra so no way I  touch that!!! ...s.. we nearly had a little argument down there and he ended up putting it into my pocket... He wrote it was a "sand dollar", yeah right (did not look like money to me :) but more like a stone....). The fact he took the responsibility to put it into my pocket relieved me from feeling guilty as I normally never touches anything nor bring anything back to the surface. On the boat I had a brief explanation with him and he explained it was a special kind of orchin that was dead and  turned into a stone...(didnt I just said  it looked like a stone..) For over all his dives in the cave (for years he has been  the only instructor to go there and he knows it perfectly ) it was the second time he sees one......oh my god, I nearly missed that jewel of the sea!!! He confimred I could go now to a jellerwer and have it polished...supposed to look very nice after. That day was an achievement for me as I made it....and he was very pleased as I did not kick the surface of the floor (good buancy) nor was eating my air too quickly (except the incident after the entrance, I think I will remember his eyes expression all my life after he checked my indicator. At the end just before going out the cave I felt an immense pain in my ear and I just went back into the cave until the pain stops(leaving the instructor probably puzzled)...after I thought about my behaviour: I was doing exactly as the turtles were doing...bearing my pain in peace inside the cave.From that moment , I beleived in the second theory ,not in the one that states that they die in there because they cannot find their way out.The National Geographic is showing the Secret of Sipadan turtle cave...one big difference is that they use big big lights , our one was a simple torch and it renders the atmosphere ghostly mysterious.One more thing that I really find disgusting : overthere they are still fishing with dynamites...my group of divers can prove it, one day while we were diving we suddenly heard a bang , you could have thought that your buddy's tank was exploding!! and however while being still under water a big internal wave just kicked us.... It is prohibited to sleep or penetrate Sipadan island for protection of the turtles laying eggs there but I think they should also take measures to prohibit such methods of fishing as they can damage easliy the coral and the rest of the animals they dont used. Je crois tu as egalement plonge en Indonesie pas vrai?take care poupouwrite soonSylviaNNe from Belgium.

Salut François, Je suis arrive a Huncayo depuis mercredi. J'ai bien aime la ripio de Ayacucho a ici, pas trop de denivelle, assez facile.Tu as un tres beau site, felicitations.A bientot sur les routes, bonne chanceCedric

Salut Francois,Je comprends que tu es aux environs de Huancayo: j'ai acheté au Chili la semaine dernière une flute Huanca, et ca fait 5 jours que j'essaie, en vains,  d'en sortir un son. Alors, si tu vois un flutiste, demande lui ses recommendations et regarde a quel angle/vertical  il positionne sa flute.Mais ce n'est pas essentiel, ce qui l'est, c'est ton chemin d'humanité et tes témoignagesSois raisonnablement raisonnable!Joël

Salut FrançoisC'est impressionnant ce que tu réalises; je me rappelle lors de ma visite au Perou , nous nous étions arreté vers 4200m pour prendre des photos, lorsque je m'étais mis à courrir pour revenir vers le bus , sur une courte distance je n'avais plus de souffle. Alors monter les cols à 4800m avec Magic et 25Kg de bagages : chapeau bas Mr POULIQUEN , comme quoi pas besoin d'OPO pour engranger les performances.Si par magie tu passes au MACCHU PICHU , dans la ville se situant à son pied se trouve une piscine à ciel ouvert avec source d'eau chaude , c'est très relaxant et j'en garde un très bon souvenir. Le bar se trouve à proximité et dans l'eau tu peux regarder les étoiles , le pied quoi.Bonne route et bon courage pour la suite   Alain

Salut Poupou !Ben je suis toujours bouche bé....c'est vrai que par rapport à nos alpes ca fait beaucoup plus demesuré ! Tes images sont splendides, comme toujours !Tu ne nous parles pas des conditions météo, le temps semble assez gris, ensoleillé parfois ? quelle température faisait il à Ayacucho par exemple ? Les gens semblent pas mal couverts.Prudence sur la route...vu ce qui t'attend !Sois fort! Topher