27th January

We went by boat early in the morning from Sandakan to turtle island which was supposed to be a 45 minute journey away but we had bad weather soit took nearly 2 hours. The waves were huge and the little boat was struggling to navigate round them - they were too big to drive into so we were being thrown about like rag dolls. Sadly I got sea sick and felt awful, the rest of the group were really sweet trying to help me - I got to the back of the boat which helped a bit, I got absolutely drenched but that didn't matter. I heard people saying they had heard mebeing so quiet - I wanted to cry but just as I was about to give up and hurl we arrived! It didn't take me long on dry land to get back to my normal self!

We were hoping for a beach day but unfortunately it rained all day, luckily I had a book. In the evening we watched a video about the turtles showing us how endangered they were and sat and waiting for the warden to call us when a turtle came in. All of a sudden at about 9.30pm it was all systems go, we jogged to the beach and dowsed the lights so not to scare the turtle, the wardens showed us the way and we were able to actually see a turtle laying eggs (they go into a bit of a trance when they are doing it so don't seem to mind people being around, we just had to stand round the back of her and not go round infront of her). She layed 53 eggs, you could actually see them popping out! We had to go away before she finished covering them though (or so she thought as the warden takes the eggs) so she could make her way back to the see without us around.

They hatch the eggs out in a nursery to increase the chance of survival, depending what temperature the eggs are kept at defines what sex the baby turtle is! After that we were taken to the other beach where they release the little babies to make there way down to the sea, I actually got help a couple when they headed the wrong way - I just picked them up and put them backon track!

It was an absolutely amazing experience and I felt very priveledged to see it, all the stars were out and the sky was so clear; it was the most stars I have ever seen in my life and that is no exaggeration.