After 9 days of trekking I was ready for a few days off. On our first day off we all went bowling and out for dinner as a big group. We were the only people at bowling, it was quite funny because you have record your own scores on paper, which gets complicated when you get strike or a spare.

The next day four of us had booked an excursion to Selingaan Turtle Island. We got to the jetty and whilst being briefed on our itinerary the lady said the conservation fee for the park will either be 60ringit or 10ringit. This is a difference of 1.50 or 10 pounds, and it depends on how they feel on the day. Thankfully today they were feeling generous and only charged 10ringit.

We got a speed boat to the island which took an hour and it was so lovely to be on the sea. The island is beautiful, it is very small and quite untouched. The excursion can only be booked by one agency and they allow 50 people onto the island each night to watch the turtles lay eggs. The turtles don't lay till between 8-11 at night so you have a nights stay on the island and leave at 7am the next morning on the boat out.

During the day we chilled on the beach and went snorkeling. It was really relaxing and a nice break from the hard trekking.

On our way to dinner we walked passed the hatchery's where the eggs are buried in the sand until the turtles are ready to hatch. One of the baby turtles (a day old) had escaped and the ranger said we could hold him. He was so cute and I have some lovely photos.

After dinner we had to wait a long time until it was 'turtle time.'

We went to the beach to see the mother turtle hatching, she was huge about 160kilos. It was pitch black on the beach and only one torch was used for us to see the turtle. The turtles lay eggs every 2 years and lay between 30 and 200 eggs at a time. When they are laying the eggs they are in some kind of trance and are not distracted by anything. We weren't allowed to use our flash on cameras for obvious reasons. The turtle we saw laid 69 eggs, it was amazing to see but felt quite intrusive.

After this we went over to the hatchery to see the ranger bury the eggs in the sand. It was interesting to find out that the heat of the sand determines the sex of the turtles.

Finally we went to see the baby turtles of 1 day old released into the sea, there were 50 of them and it was amazing to see their first swim.

Another really interesting fact is that the turtles always go back to nest on the beach that they were born on!

In total on our trip, 8 big turtles laid eggs and a total of 555 eggs were laid.

We watched a great video on the purpose of the hatcheries. Due to all human waste and predators the eggs wouldnt survive very long buried in the sand on the beach. Green turtles are endangered and so the hatcheries give the baby turtles a much better chance of survival. It was a brilliant trip.

We got back from turtle island at 8.45am and we were leaving for a day tour with the rest of the group at 10am till 8pm. We were going to visit the Gomontong Caves and Kinabatangan River.

We arrived at the caves an hour and a half later. They stunk!! The caves are filled with bats and the nests that they make out of their saliva are sold as food. The caves themselves are amazing but the smell is just so awful. Our tour guide - John - said we would need ponchos and wellington boots to protect ourselves from the bat poo falling above us.

Inside the caves it smells even worse, we cant hold onto the rails on the boardwalk as they are covered in bat poo, cockroaches and scorpions, as well as the walls and floors.

We climbed this steep area which I thought was hard and then we got to this huge mound of bat poo which looks like a side of a mountain. It is huge, about 70 degrees incline, completely made of bat poo and covered in scorpions and cockroaches. John said we were walking up it and we thought he was joking. It is not for tourists, only camera crews and other volunteers climb it and it hadnt been climbed for 2 months. We thought he was joking...he wasn't. However we were the first group of all 12 to climb it, however it was awful and stunk so bad. I nearly gave up like 3 times - nothing to hold on to and there was no grip. There was also bats above us and poo falling on us. We reached the top and it was pitch black but John shined a torch and we saw the bats above us. There are about 3 million bats in this cave - it was amazing to see but I couldnt wait to get back down. I was drenched from sweat because the poncho was sticking so much to our skin. Once I got down I realised I had poo all up my legs and a bat had wee'd in my mouth :-(

All I wanted to do was get out of the cave and find a toilet to wash in. I was running down the boardwalk outside the caves and as I look up there is a wild, alpha male orangutan sitting on the platform. I turned around and told everyone to walk back and then he starts chasing us and we were running. We bumped into a group of tourists and told them and they carried on going and a few seconds later they were running past us! That was funny. Eventually a local guy had a sling shot and scared the orang off - what a morning!

In the afternoon, we went to the river cruise which was a much better way to spend my time. I put my feet up for 2 hours of relaxation. We got to see amazing probiscus monkeys which have really big noses and are incredible primates. They literally jump from tree to tree, I have some great pictures of them. We saw some macaques, an orangutan with her baby and some hornvills. It was brilliant.

We got back to the resthouse and there was a big storm so we had no power. We ate dinner and went to bed in the dark and didnt even get a chance to shower after the bat poo fiasco because the showers are electric. Electricity didnt come back on till 5pm next day.

Today I took a flight with 2 other girls in my group to other side of Borneo - Kota Kinabalu, where we will be working for 9 days. We settled into our apartment and were given a tour around the town. There is a great night market with amazing looking food that I am going to check out later. The locals look like they have never seen a white person before and apparently all love me so they say. But its great, start work at 7.30am tomorrow morning but do not mind about the time because I will be working with 7 adorable baby orangs.

Will keep you posted!