Unfortunately after we touched down in Sandakan and checked into our jungle lodge hostel I took a turn for the worst and spent the afternoon with another vomiting bug or food poisoning, not sure which. Anyway it wasn't pleasant so I spent the afternoon curled up in bed watching The Wire on the iPad and feeling sorry for myself.

The next morning I was feeling a little better and the mini van arrived to transport us to the jetty for our voyage to turtle island. At the jetty we met Elod our crazy, very camp, Malaysian tour guide who had apparently recently had his appendix out, had a tumour in his penis and one in his neck he was taking pills for ....!! We also met Aeron and Darren an Aussie couple who were to be the other half of our turtle experience group.

The boat ride to the island took 1 hour and once we arrived we were a little disappointed to see it was cloudy but the island still looked good with a beautiful white sandy beach and palm trees. Elod showed us to our lodge pointing out the island police station on the way incase anyone from the Philippines came over to try and kidnap us .... not very reassuring but we soon learnt Elod had a tendency for dramatising things :-).

Our lodge was basic with slightly mouldy walls and ill fitting bed sheets. We wouldn't have minded had we now paid a fortune for it! At 12.30 we sat down with Aeron and Darren for lunch. I still wasn't feeling great so stuck to my crackers and coke but Esben had the luxury of tucking into the grim looking lunch buffet of white rice and fried chicken (again annoying given the cost).

In the afternoon we spent a long time floating around in the crystal clear sea and sitting on the beach with our books. The cloud was a blessing in a way as it meant we weren't fried and Esben could spend more than 30 minutes without a T-shirt on :-). It was slightly disconcerting to see there was an army look out tent on the beach with huge binoculars and guys with machine guns standing outside looking over at the Philippines .... but better to be safe than sorry I guess!!

In the evening the turtle adventure began with a 30 minute video on the conservation of the turtles. Turtle island is one of three islands in the region between Malaysia and the Philippines that works against the endangering of sea turtles. There are only 7 species of sea turtles left in the world out of the 30 species that were around in the dinosaur ages. The most common visitor to Turtle Island is the Green Turtle and during the months of June to September tens of then come up onto the beach every night to lay up to 200 eggs in sand nests. The nests are just holes in the ground and take the turtle an hour to dig. The rangers in the park keep an eye on the egg laying and remove the eggs once laid to ensure that predators like giant lizards and birds living on the island don't eat them.

Once the eggs have been taken they are placed in a hatchery and left for 2 months after which they start to hatch. The difference between male and female turtles is determined by the temperature of the best. If it is a few degrees colder then the majority of eggs will be male and vice versa for females. Once the hatchlings are up out of the sand they are released into the ocean. Only 1 in 30 released will survive due to predators and sea pollution.

The reason so many female sea turtles come to turtle island to lay their eggs is because they have an in-built navigation system which guides them back to the islands they where born to lay their own eggs. They only lay eggs approximately every 3 years as the mating process is fairly strenuous and can even result in the female drowning!!!

In the evening, after another dismal buffet dinner, we sat chatting to our new Aussie friends whilst waiting for the ranger to call 'turtle time!'. When he did we quickly made our way down to the beach to see a HUGE green sea turtle in the midst of laying her eggs. She was in a sort of trance and oblivious to us being there so we were able to take photos, without the flash, and see the eggs dropping out into her nest from beneath her. It was truly an amazing sight. I hadn't expected her to be so big. She ended up laying 87 ping pong ball sizes eggs and next we followed the ranger to the hatchery where he showed us how the eggs where placed in the sand and protected from predators by mesh.

Lastly we were taken to the sea front where the ranger bought a basket of hatchlings to be set free into the sea. They follow the moonlight to guide them into the water and if one started scuttling the wrong way we were allowed to help it get going the right way. They were absolutely tiny compared to the huge female we had seen earlier.

This was all great but Elod our guide had a sneaky treat in store for us which meant he bent the island rules but we got to do something incredible. He came to collect us at our chalet at 5.30am, ensuring we didn't leave without him by telling us the police would shoot us if we went onto the beach without him haha! He then took us down to the beach to look for mother turtles still giving birth. Unfortunately we were only able to see the last one heading back into the water but having failed to see anymore Elod managed to persuade the ranger to let us release some of the new hatchlings into the sea ourselves!!

We went to the police station, where there was a trough of babies that had hatched over night, and took a few in our hands before walking to the beach and letting them go on the sand. We helped them make their way into the sea before going back and getting another batch. Our group of 4 were the only ones able to do this and it felt unbelievably special to be helping these animals back into the wild.

This last experience was absolutely incredible and something we'll probably never be able to experience again.

Next it was breakfast of cold eggs and cardboard toast before getting back on the boat in the glorious sunshine and heading back to the mainland. Once at the jetty we said farewell to our friends and made our way to the Sepilok Orangutang park.

Sepilok rehabilitates Orangutang by saving orphans or injured Orangutang in the wild and looking after them until they are ready to be set free back into the wild. We went to the morning feeding time when some Orangutang come back to the feeding platforms as they either can't find enough food for themselves in the jungle or they are just a bit lazy. 4 Orangutang of different ages rocked up for some fruit including a big mama who was very much the boss lady, an old man and two cheeky children. The two kids soon got chased away, quite aggressively, by the big mama after which she was very selective about which fruits the old man could and could not have from the pile :-D!!

After the Orangutang experience we went to see the Sun Bears in a sanctuary next door. These are the smallest bears in the world and in China they are caged and have a permanent drip put on their gallbladder as their bile is used in Chinese medicine. It is a really cruel practice and what the sanctuary is doing is highly commendable. They were also very cute!!!

I was finally ready for some proper food after all this animal spotting to we had lunch at a resort close to the sanctuaries before heading back to our jungle lodge where I am now swinging gently in a hammock writing this blog!

Off to a river lodge where we will be taking river cruises and jungle walks for the next 3 days before flying to Vietnam.

A bientôt!

Alice
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