This morning we were up at 7 to get ready for breakfast and make sure our bags were sorted for our boat ride today. We were supposed to have yum Cha for breakfast but the other girls weren't there as far as Lauren and I could see, so we wandered across to the cafe across the road that Jeffry had recommended. We ordered roti bread (Lauren's plain, mine with kaya) fresh off the hot plate and a coffee (which comes strong and black with sugar). Really great! Then we headed back to the hotel and finished packing our bags and headed downstairs.
We left our big bags at the hotel and took our little day packs out to the island
. We walked down to the jetty and after a bit of a wait, we were split up onto a few different boats. It was about an hour's 'drive' out to the island, and on the way we passed a floating village that ran along the shoreline around the coast from Sandakan. Jeffry spoke to us a little bit about life in the village, and then we headed off the coast to the island. After a fairly long and empty ride across the water, we pulled up at an absolutely gorgeous beach.
The 'turtle islands marine park' includes three islands, and we are staying on the biggest, Pulau Selingan. It's still quite a little island, with just the turtle hatchery, a big lodge for reception and meals, a few 'chalets' with rooms to accommodation, and then a military base at the end of the island. The military police have a presence here because it's so close to the border with the Phillipines, and pirates are apparently quite common. After check-in and an outline of our day from Jeffry, we unloaded our stuff in the rooms. Our room was verrry hot so we were pretty keen for a swim, so we rented some snorkel gear and headed down the beach. We found it a bit weird that as well as the life guard, there's a little military 'hut' to the left of the roped snorkelling area, with a few fully armed military policemen with guns and a telescope pointed towards the Phillipines. At least we know we're safe from pirates while snorkelling! After laying our 'beach mats' and towels out in the shade, I hopped in the water, which was really warm. A downside of the warm water though (I assume) is that the coral was quite badly bleached. There were some bright and interesting-looking fish, and lots of sea cucumbers, but the coral wasn't very appealing. I had a swim for quite a while, and then lay on the beach for a bit before we headed back to the main building for lunch.
Lunch was a buffet (just to be different) so we had some plain rice, chicken soup, a variety of veggies, and a chicken curry thing, with papaya for 'dessert'. We sat around and chatted after lunch, and then headed back down to the beach, via the chalets to grab our books. I can't believe how beautiful the weather is here, given the rain that's followed us for the entire trip! It's hot and quite humid, but there's a nice breeze on the beach, and it's just sunny and lovely! After lunch, we just lay on the beach and read for most of the afternoon. It was low tide so we couldn't snorkel for a while because it was too shallow. At around 4 I hopped back in the water again, following the line of the buoys guarding the snorkelling area. Some of the others had seen giant clams with blue lips, anemones and clownfish, and lots of parrot fish. I saw some parrot fish, zebra fish and some interesting coral that looked like giant brains, but it was a bit nerve-wracking being so close to the coral as the tide was still quite low. I didn't see any giant clams either, so once I got close to the beach again I hopped out of the water and headed back to my towel.
After reading again for a while, I headed back to the room and had a (very cold) shower, then grabbed all my stuff ready for turtle-waiting tonight, and headed over to the main building with some of the girls. We had a beer and then walked around to the beach to watch the sunset, which was pretty stunning. Jeffry spoke to us about the turtle marine park, and then at 6:30 brought us back to the main building so the beach was clear for turtles (but also because of safety). At 7 we watched a video upstairs about the turtle marine parks and why they are necessary, and more generally about the lifespan of the green turtles and hawksbill turtles that come to the islands. Then it was downstairs for dinner, which was similar to lunch - rice, curry chicken, a weird mix of potato and baked beans, vegetables and fruit. Then the waiting game began! We all played uno and some people read their books. At 8:30 we got the 'turtle time!' call, which meant there was a turtle laying her eggs on the beach.
We headed down the path to the beach and were led to a nest under a tree, where a huge turtle was laying eggs. We watched her lay her eggs, and the park ranger collected them, and then as she filled in the (empty) hole, he counted them and measured her. She had laid 101 eggs, and was 107cm long, much bigger than I'd expected. Then it was time to let her rest, so we followed the ranger with his bucket of eggs back to the hatchery. There was a pre-dug hole ready for the eggs, and the ranger spoke to us about how they prepare the holes, and then we watched him put the eggs in the new 'nest', surround it with a mesh fence to stop them escaping when they hatched, and fill in the hole loosely with sand. The next step was to release the babies that had hatched this evening. Another ranger brought a basket of hatchlings and we followed him down the path to another beach. We all had a little look at the hatchlings and then they tipped the basket out and used a torch light to guide them down to the water. A few got a bit lost and needed a bit of guidance to get in the water, but then they were all in and swimming! After that we needed to clear the beach so any light from our phones or torches didn't confuse the hatchlings, so we headed back to the restaurant area. After a quick check that we hadn't forgotten anything, we headed back to the room, packed up our bags, and headed to bed nice and early.
Turtle islands marine park
Sunday, April 09, 2017
Turtle Islands National Park, Sabah, Malaysia
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