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Published: June 27th 2013
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Lankayan Island Lankayan appeared like a mirage after a 2 hour bumpy speedboat ride from Sandakan. A small patch of palm trees surrounded by white sand and incredibly calm sea giving us our first views of colourful reef and huge shoals of fish. We were tempted to jump in there and then.Lankayan Island is located within the Sugud Islands Marine Conservation Area in the Sulu Sea, and is a key nesting spot for Green and Hawksbill turtles. Marine preserve staff based on the island monitor turtle nesting, assist with incubation and the release of hatchlings. The island's small resort of 20 stilted chalets has to adhere to strict regulations regarding access to the island's shores after dark and the use of lighting on the island. All of the buildings are raised on stilts above the beach and connected by raised boardwalks through mangrove forest. This coexistence seems to be successful as during our brief stay of 3 nights as many as 12 green turtles were recorded coming ashore at various places around the island, some right underneath the chalets, and over three hundred eggs
were collected for incubation during that time.
We spent most of our time on the island snorkeling over the house reef, which was mostly intact except for a little bleaching, but it was the sheer number and variety of fish that impressed us. Eve soon forgot her recent jellyfish encounter and delighted in swimming amongst the fish. On the first day Eve and I had a close encounter with a reef shark; we gripped each other as it passed within a couple of metres of us as if we weren't there. We also saw managed to see two hawksbill turtles and thankfully no jelly fish .
Our speedboat journey back to the mainland was even more tortuous than the first journey. There had been a storm in the night and we were surprised to be venturing out at 7 am, but the boatman had a schedule to stick to and went for speed over the troughs and waves. We were soon soaked and seasick, holding on for dear life for 2 hours.
Turtle Nesting, by Eve We hung a turtle
Pygmy Elephant, Kinatabagan
We enjoyed tremendous views of this herd of 20 elephants from our river boat sign outside our chalet door at night to say that we wanted to see a nesting turtle. On the first night we came back from dinner and a ranger took us to where a green turtle was laying her eggs. We had to be very quiet and were not allowed to use torches. The turtle laid 143 eggs and we saw her return to the sea.
The next day a turtle egg hatched in the incubation area where eggs were buried under sand just like in the wild. The hatchling was released straightaway into the sea by the ranger. It looked so tiny and I wished it lots of luck.
Kinabatangan River 2 hours later than our memorable return journey from Lankayan, we were back on a boat but this time cruising in a motorised canoe up the Kinabatangan river, the longest and largest river in Sabah, to our next lodge where we were to stay for 2 nights. Lazy beach days were soon a distant memory as we struggled to get out of bed at 6am for wildlife viewing, although within
Danum Valley
This baby orang utan was only one month old this Wildlife Sanctuary access is restricted to waterways and we had very little walking to do. Amazingly given the extent of the floodplain (64,250 acres) we were lucky enough to have close views of a herd of about 20 Bornean Pygmy Elephants at the riverside. These elephants are found only in the north east of Borneo and the largest population (150-200) found in Kinabatangan. Our good fortune was compounded during a night-time trip when we came across a mother and calf swimming across the river and hauling themselves up, clearly exhausted, on the other riverbank.
My encounter with Pygmy elephants, by Eve
We went on a river trip through the rainforest, looking for wildlife. We heard some branches cracking and we saw a herd of Pygmy Elephants eating the bamboo grass and walking along the river bank. There where about 20 of them including 5 babies which were " CUTE!" Even though they were Pygmy elephants they still looked fairly big. I felt like I was going to burst with "EXCITEMENT!"In the evening
Danum Valley
View from Canopy Walkway at dawn after tea we went on another river trip in the dark, when we saw crocodiles and snakes in the river. On our way back to the lodge we saw a mummy and baby elephant swimming across the river. They took a long time to climb onto the river bank on the other side. It was an amazing sight.
Danum Valley Last but certainly not least we transferred by 4wd to Danum Valley Conservation Area, where we guiltily enjoyed the luxury of the Borneo Rainforest Lodge for 2 nights. Measuring 438 sq km this area is famous for being one of the largest most important expanses of undisturbed lowland rainforest in South East Asia, amongst other designations is an Important Bird Area. Rightly so, as we were all stunned by the beauty of the forest and by the range of animals and birds that we managed to see in only a couple of days. We trekked over 8 km from the lodge and saw some really special and many endemic birds and animals, such as Bornean Gibbon, Red Leaf Monkey, Flying Lemur, Bornean Ground Cuckoo, Bulwer's Pheasant, and our first sighting of truly wild orang-utans, a mother and her one month year old baby. We escaped lightly from the notorious leeches, with only one each, thanks to our attractive knee length leech-proof socks ! All this and a 5 star lodge with outdoor bathtub and excellent food, we just couldn't bear to leave !
Next stop, Sumatra in Indonesia ....
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Abi
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The photos look really nice. Your message is really interesting. Jersey is foggy today.There are only two weeks of school left. On monday it is sports day i have been practising running on the beach. Love from Abi xxx