Day 30 - Turtle Island

Jack, April, Zoe and I headed off this morning to Selingan Island (aka Turtle Island). We arrived at the jetty around 9am for the 9.30am departure. Crystal Quest are a little bit disorganised in terms of payment etc – they also didn't tell us we needed our passports, but thankfully I had a copy on email and we got someone back at the resthouse to take a picture of April's. I booked directly with them as it was the far cheaper option, but many people had tour guides to escort them around – personally I don't think this was really needed.

The boat ride was only around 45 minutes, and upon arrival we had a

briefing on the rules of the island – the main one being that you cannot walk around the island between 6pm and 6am as it disturbs the turtles. There was no wifi or reception on the island – which was actually really fantastic, I wish I could have experienced that for longer! We had two twin rooms in Chalet B. The accommodation was basic, but comfortable, with an air-conditioner and one of the fastest ceiling fans I have ever seen! The only negative was that our bathroom was quite small, and all in together – so the shower basically sprayed straight onto the toilet!

We had a bit of time before lunch at 12.30, so we headed down to the beach, rented out masks and snorkels and had a brief swim. The water was quite clear, and even without the mask we could see several kinds of fish, including a flat one that blended perfectly with the sand bed. There was also a tiny, almost translucent, jellyfish – thankfully no one was stung, because you really wouldn't see it coming. Something started buzzing around us when we returned to shore, which April wasn't a fan of after her bee encounter! Even though there were other people around it was very quiet, so we left all of our stuff on the beach and headed to lunch. Lunch was a buffet of various choices, including mixed veg, papaya, sweetcorn soup and an omelette, which was the highlight for me.

We then headed back to the beach to snorkel – and were out for about one and a half hours. The underwater scenery was not as impressive as Lankayan, but I did see some different critters, including what appeared to be an eel (or maybe a sea snake), coiled around a brain coral. Eventually he poked his head through to look at me – I tried to swim over to get the others, but then I couldn't work out which direction I had come from. The fish also seemed a lot more curious, and would swim right up to you. There were a lot of small ones ducking in and out of holes in the sand. There were also plenty of spiky black urchins and then Jack pointed out one of the weirdest things I have ever seen. It looked like a bit of frayed rope at first, until you could see it was moving. It was very long, about a metre or so, and was a mottled brown and white colour. It pulsed through the water like a caterpillar, not smooth like a snake, and at one end there were a bunch of curious, octopus-like tentacles. It is one of the creepiest things I have ever seen - it was like an alien. We also saw five clownfish in an anemone. Then it was back to the beach for some relaxing and reading – it was so lovely to just rest for a few hours.

We had not been there long when we saw a group of people gathered not too far away up the beach – and they were looking at something on the ground, so we went to see what the fuss was about. A nest of baby turtles had emerged from the sand. It must have been one the rangers had missed somehow. It was a bit early in the day, which

isn't great for their chances of survival. But to watch them all clambering over the sand and then floating off in the waves was a real treat.

After our little rest, we headed off to quickly get changed so we could watch the sunset. Our shower was cold and had next to no pressure, but we did the best we could to wash off the salt. We walked to the other side of the island. It was quite cloudy, so we couldn't see the sun, but there were some lovely pink hues in the sky, and the most impressive thing was the dark black clouds rolling in – a storm was coming. Then the big, fat raindrops started falling – sporadic at first, but soon it was pouring. Zoe tried sheltering under a tree, but it was too late, we were drenched by the time we got back to the centre. We bought a pack of cards, as it could be a long night of waiting ahead, and played cheat, sevens and queens before we went upstairs at 7pm for the video presentation. It was very interesting, outlining the life of the turtle, and facts about the centre, including the fact that half of the hatchery is kept shaded, as the temperature of the sand affects whether the babies will emerge as boys or girls. This way, roughly equal amounts are born.

Then it was time for a buffet dinner – the highlight was the baked potatoes, which were absolutely amazing! I have missed potatoes! Some people, the VIPs with a tour guide, went outside to the hatchery, presumably a nest was emerging. Then, one of the rangers suddenly rushed in shouting, and I have never seen people jump up so fast! Like a flash, everyone headed outside. It was only about 8.30pm – but the first mother had begun nesting. We followed the torchlight outside, where we had a spectacular view of her laying her eggs – which are round like ping pong balls and covered in a gooey mucus. She was a tagged turtle, so she was known to the rangers, and once she completed her laying and started to fill in the hole, the rangers took measurements of her shell – which was 95cms long. The eggs were collected immediately – she had laid 55 in total. Then we headed back to the hatchery to watch them be reburied in a pre-dug hole. The rangers have to regularly expose the soil from the old nests to sunlight to kill any parasites that may have developed. A mesh ring is also inserted to protect the nest from predators. The rangers were very informative about the whole process, and only one turtle per evening is watched by the visiting tourists. They were careful not to disturb the turtle too much – I thought they did a good job of managing conservation vs tourism. The final part of the process was to watch some of the babies that had hatched earlier being released. They were brought down to the sea in a shopping basket and set free to scramble into the waves.

By now it was 9.30pm – we were lucky we didn't have to wait up till 2am to see the whole process, in fact it all happened unexpectedly early. So we headed back to the room, chilled a bit and played some cards before heading to bed. We were all on a high from the day, and had such a laugh that evening.