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Published: September 10th 2011
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What an incredible couple of days!
So after a lazy afternoon of writing blogs and watching The Discovery Channel in Sandakan, we continued where we left off from Kinabatangan with more wildlife. We were up and on a boat across to Selingaan (Turtle) Island - a tiny tiny island just across from the Philippines, and we thought Gili T was small!
After landing on the island and finding our accommodation we headed out to the beach - armed with snorkel equipment. Geared up and ready to jump in the water something caught our eye - a large snake like head was bobbing about just off shore. After a mild panic attack, under closer inspection (and a lot of deliberation) we realised that the creature was a large monitor lizard having a lovely morning swim. We watched in awe as it swam about in an elegant fashion, coming out of the water (extremely close to where Tom was taking it's photo) to stretch it's legs before getting back in. It's next venture was climbing out onto the rocks - which wasn't done with as much grace as it's swim - where Tom decided to join it for a photo shoot
(much to my panic).
After a short walk round the island and a spot of (shallow) snorkelling, we saw a few interesting marine creatures, including an eel and sea snake, we were getting excited for the island's main event.
Armed with torches, waterproofs and a camera we headed to dinner (after a look round the exhibition centre and video about the turtles) where we were under strict instructions not to leave the hall until we'd been called for "Turtle Time", just in case we missed any action.
Following a little wait, and watching a few suspicious moving mounds make their way up the beach, we finally heard what we'd been eagerly anticipating -"It's Turtle Time!!". A large group of us elbowed each other out the way to get to the front (obviously we won!) so we could get a good view of the mother laying her eggs - all 97 of them! This was astounding and the sheer size of the mother was impressive.
Once the rangers had collected the eggs, measured and checked over the mother - her ID showed it was her first year of egg laying, we headed to the hatchery to see
how the eggs are incubated in the sand. As if we weren't excited enough, on our way to the section of the hatchery where 'our' eggs were being buried, there were hundreds of baby turtles itching to climb out of the protective mesh that was keeping predators at bay and waddle into the sea.
'Our' eggs were safely buried and protected in the hatchery, it was time for the main event! A couple of rangers, our group and a basket containing 63 eager baby turtles made our way down to the shoreline. After a few photos, we formed a semi circular barrier and released the hatchlings - under strict instructions not to touch them unless they wandered off course. With a light guiding them to their first swim of their lives, suddenly we had a barrage of baby turtles coming our way - they were definitely going off course, and fast little things! To our delight we got to pick them up and set them back on track - and shout at other tourists who didn't realise there were baby turtles getting away under them! This was a truly once in a life-time (or twice for some of us
lucky beings) experience, which we won't forget quickly.
More naughty monkeys...
After an early boat ride back to the main land, bags dropped at our hostel we were headed off on our next activity - Labuk Bay Proboscis Monkey Sanctuary. This had a slightly more 'in the wild' feeling to Sepilok, as we walked through mangrove and palm oil plantation forests. Even though we'd seen some Proboscis Monkeys in the wild at Kinabatangan it was amazing to see them up close (and we mean really up close!).
Even before the food came out the big nose fellas were scrambling down from the trees awaiting their feast. Easily 30-40 monkeys had surrounded us and were enjoying their morning meal - honking and grunting as they munched. After lunch we went to the afternoon snack feeding - where this group of bachelor monkeys definitely weren't shy! Not perturbed by the small wooden barrier they came right up to say good afternoon - one had unfortunately had attempted to challenge the king for his harem of ladies, not a good idea. Clearly the king wasn't having any of it, and this poor monkey now has to be chased
by rangers to have his face sprayed - to stop the gauge in his nose from infection.
The last couple of days has taken it out of us, and we're now relaxing at our favourite Sandakan hostel - enjoying more Discovery Channel and free internet, ready for our long bus journey back to Kota Kinabalu tomorrow.
Speak soon. xxx
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Paul Carter
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I'm jealous!
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