Return to Borneo - Day 6

TURTLE TIME

At 4:30am we got up and bid a sad farewell to our wonderful room as we had a plane to catch.

Today we flew to Sandakan on the east coast of Sabah, and met up with the rest of our tour heading to the Turtle Islands Park. I was thrilled when I saw that one of the guides was Abbas. He was our awesome guide when we went to Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre last year, the one who told us that if you wear yellow you look like a big banana and if you wear red you look like a bucket of bananas. We were also joined by 5 Australians and another guide called Rose.

We were taken by speedy ferry out to Libaran Island where we had a few hours to relax and have lunch. It was extremely peaceful and lovely. Then it was on to Selingan Island for the night. There is only one reason to go to Selingan Island - turtles. The island is only 8.1 hectares and is swimming distance to the Philippines. Many countries have issued travel advisories warning against all non-essential travel to East Sabah, esp the islands, due to the possibility of finding yourself getting a free visit to the Philippines thanks to kidnappers. (It turns out Australia issued an updated warning about the same time we were there as there had been new threats.) Fortunately we consider seeing the turtles essential travel and were completely unconcerned. If the police presence on this tiny island is any indication however, then the possibility is real.

There's not much to do on the island except snorkeling. We didn't go, but we could spot a huge variety of fish just by standing on the beach. We were very tired so spent our afternoon reading and sleeping. We also managed to scare the largest monitor lizard I have ever seen!

After dinner everyone is asked to remain in the cafeteria until a turtle drags herself up onto the beach, makes a nest and begins laying her eggs. As they're wild animals there's no guarantee as to what time one will arrive, or even if any will come at all. Rose told us that once she'd been with a group that had to wait until 5am! We spent our waiting time playing travel scrabble with Australians Jane & Roger. At 9:15 Abbas came running in shouting 'Turtle Time!', and everyone rushed along the beach. Standing on a beautiful moonlit beach in the middle of nowhere watching a huge green turtle laying her eggs was a really amazing experience.

As the mother laid her eggs a ranger removed them from the nest. She laid about 60-70 in total and when she was done she covered her nest, unaware that the eggs were gone. We followed the ranger as he went to bury the eggs in a much safer place in the hatchery. Then it was time for the fun part of the evening. 60 hatchlings were being released into the ocean that night and we all got a chance to hold them first. Baby turtles are incredibly cute! Afterwards we all lined up on the beach, and as they were released they all ran past us and into the sea. That was definitely one of the coolest things we have ever seen. We're so glad we came, and got to see first-hand the great job the rangers are doing with the conservation of these amazing creatures.