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After a few hours on a smelly bus we got dropped of at the bus station on the outskirts of Sandakan. We then jumped in a taxi to harbour square and found Sandakan backpackers hostel where we stayed in a 5 bed dorm room. We were both starving as we hadn't had a proper meal all day... luckily there was a KFC a few doors down from our hostel ... Lucy was also a fat cat, treating herself to a cake from fat cat bakery across the road from KFC.
Our next mission was to find Crystal Quest. This was the travel company who ran the trips to turtle island. We had already reserved our places on the trip but needed to pay to confirm. We headed out of town on a road that matched the address we had.... we weren't having much luck and thought it might be quite far so we jumped on a passing bus. A man asked us exactly where in Sim-Sim are you going... we replied 'we are looking for Crystal Quest'.... the man laughed and shouted for the driver to stop. The man pointed back down the road a couple hundred yards.... There is your Crystal Quest!! Turned out to be around 20yards from where we got onto the bus. Silly us, haha, Ps, we didn't get charged for our unnecessary bus ride.
After visiting Crystal Quest we walked back to our hostel. We arrived at the gates and Lucy said 'the gates are bloody padlocked, how are we going to get in now the idiots'. Peter and Lucy both looked puzzled......
THEN.... we looked 5yards further along the street - SANDAKAN BACKPACKERS HOSTEL! We were standing at the wrong bloody gates. We were having having one of those days.
That evening Lucy wasn't feeling too great, so we stayed in and Peter went out and brought some food and drinks back.... KFC AGAIN!!
We were the only people to sleep in our dorm that night... even though there was somebody's belongings on a bed! God knows where they were.
The following morning was a massive chill out day, which involved basic breakfast at the hostel, updating blogs, shopping for essentials.... and Ice creams obviously! Followed by some lunch on the harbour front which was nice, Lucy does enjoy the Singapore noodles. Wonder what she will be having when we go Singapore soon!? Unfortunately at night we had some very poor meals from a restaurant... the chicken wings and spaghetti carbonara where not the best to say the least. Also the person who's belongings were on the other bed turned up, then checked out! Another night with the dorm to ourselves.
The next day was the reason we came to Sandakan... to visit Sellingan island (turtle island). We got a speed boat in the morning from the crystal quest jetty and checked into our chalets on the island. Had a stroll along the beach of this beautiful island before having a buffet lunch. After lunch we had all afternoon to chill out and do what we pleased. A lie down on the beach was in order... on the way to the beach Lucy crapped her knickers as a monitor lizard made us both jump as it moved from a hole in the sand and into the bushes. All the way around the island there were huge holes on the beach where turtles had been ashore to lay there eggs.
In the evening we had another poor buffet meal, followed by having a look around the exhibition hall and watched a video on the work the island does to help the endangered green and hawksbill turtles.
Then it was a waiting game, we played cards and hangman whilst we waited for a turtle to come ashore to lay her eggs. We had to wait in the dining room while rangers patrolled the beach. The call 'TURTLE' finally came around 9.45pm.... we all jumped up and grabbed our flashlights and followed the ranger along the beach. There she was.... already in the process of laying her eggs. It was a large green turtle who measured 103cm in length and 89cm in width. There was a ranger there already picking the eggs out out of the hole whilst the turtle carried on laying. It was an amazing sight. The turtle ended up laying 119 eggs, yes 119! We unfortunately couldn't get any amazing photos as we weren't allowed to use flash on our cameras. After she had finished laying, she started to flip sand over the hole to cover the eggs. Obviously she doesn't realise the ranger has already collected these eggs. We then had to move away from the beach so we didn't stop other turtles coming ashore.
We then followed the ranger to the hatchery to observe the next step. The transplantation of the freshly laid eggs into a man-made incubation chamber. The chamber is no different from that of the turtle: between 60-75 cm deep, in the sand, but within a protected hatchery to make it impossible for natural predators to dig the nests open. Since temperature determines the sex of the turtles part of the hatchery is shaded, while the rest remains under the open sun.
Not all nests are emptied by the park rangers, but some remain undisturbed and develop naturally. By conserving the turtles the park does not want to endanger other wildlife on the island: many animals that are natural predators of the turtles such as monitor lizards, a crab specialising in turtle hatchlings, eagles and other birds, and marine animals such as sharks. They need the turtles for their survival.
The next stage we witnessed was the release of baby turtles into the sea. They also do this at night as it increases their chances of survival. They were adorable to watch. We saw around 45 hatchlings released into the sea. They couldn't swim and kept getting brought back ashore by the waves. We unfortunately were not allowed to use our flashlights at this stage so no good pictures were captured, but we can assure you that it was a wonderful sight and experience.
That evening they released 204 hatchlings into the sea. 23 turtles came ashore with 18 of them nesting, with a huge 1429 eggs transplanted.
The turtle conservation programme in Sabah is the oldest in the world and with the most detailed statistics and research. Marine turtles have been around for 230 million years at least, but due to human activities they have been brought, over the past hundred years, to the brink of extinction.
They only allow you to witness one nesting each night but it was definitely worth it. The following morning we were up early for breakfast and the return speed boat back to Sandakan.
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