Wow, the last 10 days in Borneo have been fun packed with doing things rather than just looking at old stuff! We landed in Sandekan and headed to the hostel we had booked, when we got there the guy laughed and said there was nothing to do and we would literally be sat on ours bums all day waiting for the next day to come! He suggested we went to see the Orangutans that afternoon then head to Sandakan to stay there. So 2 hours later we were at the sanctuary, it was a while till feeding time so we decided to take a walk in the rainforest on the 'bird watcher' trail. off we set in the midday heat, well we walked a km to the bird hut which was blocked by a fallen tree so inaccesible. We were sweating and had not seen one bloody bird! (Rich even had his binoculars with him!) it was amazing though to hear the sounds of the forest all around us, they were strange and very noisy. Headed back to the feeding platform and made it in time to see all the Makak monkeys playing around grabbing any scraps they could find.

The keepers came onto the platform loaded with bananas and sugar cane. Swinging from the ropes strung between the trees came about a dozen Orangutans playfully jostling to get to the food! We sat and watched them as one by one they came and took there fill, some of the olders ones left straight away but the younger ones were showing off dandling from the ropes and poking each other in the bum and sniffing it!!! it was amazing how human like they were, the way they used their hands etc and when stood upright and walking there was no questioning the theory of evolution! after about 30 min they all departed so we got the local bus into Sandakan.

Oh my God Sandakan was the weirdest town yet. We got there about 6 and everything was closed, checked into our hostel and went to find food and beer. there was one restaurant open-well canteen really so we ate there and searched for a bar-none absolutely diddly squat! in the end went back and watched TV as nothing else to do! Two days and an English tea house later we were up early and down at the jette for 7.30am to head to Turtle island. The island was picture perfect with white sand, clear waters and trees hanging over the beach. It was a tiny place you could walk around it in 20 minutes! We spent the day snorkling and sunbathing(we went red!) before the evening which we were so excited about. We watched a video on the green and Hornbill turtles and looked around the exhibition then it was waiting time! We were sat chatting to an english couple and thir 7 year old twins when there guide came in shouting group A group A a turtle in here! it was 9.30pm which was lucky as sometimes you have to wait all night. we raced down to the beach laughing at the madness of it all and were the first 6 people there so got to sit about 10 inches from the back of this amazing creature. the female was laready laying her eggs into the sand pit she had dug and we sat in awe as she finished laying 88 in total. The ranger then carefully scooped the eggs up and put them into a bucket to take to the hatchery. the turle replaced the sand thinking she was covering ehr eggs then rested before going back to the waters(we didnt see this bit). The ranger then led us to the hatchery where we watched him bury the eggs. Only 80% would hatch but if left on the sand only 30% would and out of these hatchlings only 3% would survive in the ocean but in the wild only 1% would so the sanctuary has made a huge difference. after this we got to go back to the beach and see 26 hatchlings being released into the water, they scuttled off towards the moonlight into the big wide world. These creatures truly are amazing and the experience was 10x better than we imagined. Green turtles live to over 100 and mature at about 30 years. When pregnant they make there way back to the island where they were born to lay there eggs-how incredible is that they remember where it was 30 years ago and find it! well im handing over to Rich now for the rest!

Ok my turn: On returning to Sandakan we collected our stuff, got to the airport and flew to Kota Kinabalu on the West coast - a more vibrant city it has to be said. Here we made the last preparations for cimbing Mount Kinabalu, though unfortunately we failed to prepare our bodies! After a two hour journey we arrived at Mount Kinabalu Head Quarters - about 1400m high. The first thing we noticed was it was much cooler up there but the park was nice and the dorm we stayed in before climbing was very nice too. We met three others who were looking to share a guide for the climb and arranged to meet in the morning (7.30am) to meet our guide and catch the shuttle to the starting gate. We set off at 8am and any thoughts of the climb being easy were soon thrown out the window as the first 2km were almost verticle and consisted of continuous steps some more than half a meter deep. It didn't help that I wasn't feeing the best as we started to climb but I managed to keep going. The climb was hot and sweaty as we made our way up through the jungle covered mountain to Laban Rata, the rest point where we would stay the night before making the final trip to the sumit in the morning. The total first leg was 6km climbing to an altitude of around 3555 and by this time I was feeling terrible, the guide told me I was suffering from mild altitude sickness, and Lauren had to keep encouraging me to persevere. It took us 4 hours to get to this point and being very cold were dying for a hot shower. We were told however that the heating did not come on for another few hours and so had to sit dinking numerous cups of tea. Headed to bed at 8pm as we had to get up early for the climb though Lauren and I could not get any sleep anyway. Woke and met our guide at 3am, yes 3am, after about 2 hours kip and made our way to the sumit in the moonlight and with the use of headtorches. The first 1.5km was again up sheer steps but this time in colder conditions and in the dark! The last 1.2km was the best part though and although up sheer granite slopes (sometimes using ropes to haul yourself up!) being out in the open space in the middle of the night with the lights of the towns below was an amazing sight and feeling. We finally got to the sumit at 5.30am by which point we couldn't feel our fingers and got the photo to prove we made it. All at once the clouds cleared and the sun came up revealing a stunning scene of what we had just climbed and the surrounding land below. We were so bloody cold by this point we made our way back down quickly. The trip down was quicker and we got warm as the sun came up making the trip back down more comfortable. After a quick breakfast at Laban Rata our groupdecided to head back down the final 6km and made it in 2hours 50 mins but my God the steps coming down were maybe even worse than going up. Lauren and I are still walking like John Wayne now! IT was a once in a life time experience and glad we did it though safe to say I wont be climbing anything other than the steps to my bed in the near future!

After a restless nights sleep we got up aching and went diving. It was a good experience as we were instructed well and taken on three dives and although the visability was poor it was good practice for Australie and the Great Barrier Reef.

Off to Singapore today by plane and then overnight train. Next blog will be from Oz so speak to you all then. xx