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 f...

So I have to come to end of my first nine days of trekking without as much as a mosquito bite. I managed to escape all leech bites which I am very happy about. So all of you who were excited to hear my funny leech stories...there aren't any (for now anyway!) Trekking involved five days of counting orangutan nests and another four days of mammal tracking. For mammal tracking we set 30 traps in the jungle and checked them twice a day to see which kind of mammal...

Today I started work and the next 9 days are jungle trekking. We are spending 5 days recording orangutan nests, then 4 days putting out mammal traps to catch small mammal data, we also do 2 nocturnal treks on the last 2 days. The ranger that took us out today was called Gibili and he was lovely. He had a bottle of dettol that paralyses leeches for a few minutes at a time. Before we left he sprayed our boots but it didnt help...he was our leech protector though...

This morning we had our orientation for when we work at the clinic with the baby and toddler orangutans and the ill ones. As we walked in we saw baby orangutans staring at us in their cages, one 2 year old was in a pink nappy sitting in a pink basket...so adorable. We were shown where all the bananas were kept and it will be out job to peel them every morning. We then took the bananas to he orangutans to feed them. We had to give each oang between 4-7 bananas...

This morning we had our first orientation for working at the rehabiltation centre. First thing we went to the feeding platform to see them the orangutans in their natural habitat. We then met Ellis - the guy in charge. We weren't sure what we would be doing but he took us behind the scenes to the restricted area of the centre. In front of us was a really big cage and a jungle gym with 5 toddler orangutans ranging fom 3/4-8 years old. It was amazing. We stood...