Day 28-35 Month into the trip

Been here a month already and starting to get a little bit of Island Fever. This week we went up to 10 volunteers when we are only meant to have a max of 8. This meant on Monday four went off to Tiga Ruang with Dan, while the other five stayed in the village. Our five new volunteers consisted of an 18 year old couple from California, Tanya and Spencer. They were on a trip around south east Asia, the girl was Vietnamese American and they were planning on visiting family after this. They had been at our jungle project in Merapoh. The next volunteer to arrive was Ella, she was 20 from Durham and at Durham University studying English. Durham University are one of the organisations that help fund this project with a support fund called Ducks, forgotten what it stands for Durham university something, something. We also gained a volunteer who had done 3 weeks with our dive project who was doing a week with us. She was called Marie and she was a French Canadian. Our last volunteer had been here last year and was a friend of Ramona's. She was German didn't get how old she was but had a horrendous 28 hour journey so she was very tired on arrival. Before going to Tiga Ruang on Thursday I went on 3 Snorkel Surveys in a row with different sets of people, safe to say my Kayaking has got pretty good. The new camera is really good if not a little bulky and on one of the surveys I saw 8 turtles in the space of an hour. On Wednesday we had another Malay dinner this time at a new house I hadn't been to before we brought 5 volunteers along with me and Melissa. Had some spicy chicken, squid as well as rice and vegetables. The surprise at the end of this Malay dinner was when our host brought out this Banana Cake. It wasn't normal Banana bread as it wasn't baked, it was steamed. I had doubts at first but it was so good, by steaming it made it very moist and moreish. We asked how she made it, so might attempt to make our own at some point.

As I said earlier Thursday I was off to Tiga Ruang, I was going with Wid as it was time for Nicks Visa Run. He was headed to Langkawi and then Thailand for a week. We went to Tiga Ruang with 5 volunteers, Marie, Annie, Ella, Tanya and Spencer. First night of patrol no turtles lay but did spot one false crawl. We had some hatchlings we released instead, 72 in total. During the day we did a beach clean around site and collected four bags of rubbish, there are more and more tourists turning up to the beach during the day. Second night four turtles laid and one false crawl. We missed one of the turtles laying as I didn't wake up for my 6:30am patrol and it was only because one of our volunteers at 7:00am spotted it that we found it. She was already camouflaging her nest when we got to her and marked it before she went into the sea, we managed to get facial photos but no measurements unfortunately.

During the day on Saturday we had a lot of tourists snorkeling and hanging out around our end of the beach. I had to tell several they couldn't use our toilet as it's private despite the sign on the door . This is due to our limited water supply. Later on I found that a tourist had snuck in and managed to break the flush on our toilet that I had to fix later on using a bit of string/rope. One girl I spoke to just wanted to hear about the project and more information on turtles and conservation. She was from Canada but had been travelling for 2 years, she had done a year in Australia before touring South East Asia, she couldn't volunteer at our project as she didn't have enough time to commit for a week. Later on I went out on the paddle board again and tied myself to the buoy line and just sunbathed and floated for a while. On the last night it rained 9:30pm til midnight so we were unable to do our patrols as we can't take the eggs when its raining heavy. While we waited for the rain to pass we played cards in the staff house I taught some of the volunteers how to play a couple of games, Trumps and Hearts of 8. At 11:30pm the rain died down a bit. The volunteers and I decided to attempt to patrol, I took one step out of our porch and saw a turtle by our bench. We backed off and waited for her to settle, at this time the fisheries staff had just arrived. I waited to see if she would lay her eggs as she was in an awkward spot near the fallen tree and she did. I told the fisheries staff who are more experienced than me and they dug the eggs out keeping them dry. They also did the one from the night before, the one form the night before laid 100 eggs and the female from tonight laid 83.

New Camera Photos

These photos were taken with the new camera that the school group from Tonbridge got for us through fundraising before coming out to the islands. Its an Olympus Tough with a extra waterproof casing that means the camera can go down to 40 metres. This means that we don't have to swim so close to the turtles like we do with the GoPros and get much clearer images. These are some photos I took with it: Top photo is Polly, Middle is Joelle and Bottom is Baby Kev.

Day 26-27- Tree Falls Tiga Ruang

Saturday was my day off and originally my plan was to go on an adventure, however the morning was so hot I decided against it. Instead I caught up on some sorting out around the house as well as planning some dissertation ideas. After lunch I read a research paper my boss gave me on turtle carcass strandings. It was an interesting read discussing how currents and wind effect where a dead turtle may originate from based on seasonal patterns. It also talked about how it is hard for researchers to know the exact mortality rate, as sunk carcasses by the time they arrive on land can be very decomposed and take longer to strand. Later on community project asked if we'd like to join them for some volleyball. I hadn't played volleyball in 4-5 years but was keen. We went down to the sandy playing pitch and set up the net. We played 4 v 4 with two people holding the net alternating when a point was scored. Community had a new intern arrive this week Lennie who was a 6ft 3, 18 year old German. It turned out he plays volleyball for Germany and his serve was insane. After a few games we got kicked off the pitch for the locals to play football so we moved to the hard surface pitch by the jetty. This was interesting as we couldn't dive like we were in the sand. We played several games with different teams from each of the projects and we started getting a bit of an audience. The locals were sitting round watching us play, some got involved calling referee decisions. Then some of the younger locals asked to give us a game. As my team was winning the most we played the locals first. The locals were good, I quite often see them playing foot volleyball and that's impressive. Anyway, it was a close game but we just about managed to win. We played a bit more and then we saw Nick, Maisy (interns) and Annie (our volunteer) who had been at Tiga Ruang at the jetty. Turned out that a giant tree had fallen right next to the staff house at camp. The tree had destroyed our bench, two chairs Nick made as well as some of the roof. Apparently 5 minutes before the tree fell, Maisy was sitting on the beach. Back at the house we had some dinner, Maisy showed us her laptop that was hit by the tree that somehow survived. It still works despite the damages to the hinge and case which was a relief as it had a lot of our turtle data on. Nick explained how the tree had broken the water pipe and electricity to camp. The cruelty of nature. Everyone stayed in the village that night and we planned to take as many people over tomorrow to assess and clear the damage.

The next day turned out the fisheries guys had managed to fix the water and electricity and also cleared some branches off the tree. Wid told Dan and I that we were staying overnight if we can get it livable again. We brought over saws, axes and Nick's Machete. When we got there and saw the tree it was shocking. This was a large tree that has snapped from the base of the stump. We started clearing branches off the trunk. Wid got a really cool time lapse video of us working away. When we cleared enough that we cleared enough that we could navigate around camp again we had lunch and discussed the plan of action. Seeing as it was livable Dan and I would be staying for night patrol while the others would be going back to the village. When they left we had a sunbathe and I took the paddle board out, the sea was so calm and was really relaxing. I came back and sunbathed some more before making dinner before patrol. Again I had no turtles on my patrol, but Dan had one that laid exactly 100 eggs. I was sleeping in a hammock under the shelter by the staff house. At around 5:30 I was woken up by this huge downpour of rain. I immediately sprinted into the staff house with Dan. The rain went on for over an hour and was very noisy it kept me up. The boat in the morning was picking us up at 9:30am so I attempted to go back to sleep when the rain stopped.

Day 25- Trip to Rawa

Today I went on a Survey with Maisy in the morning, we kayaked over to PIR. There we started our survey we saw 5 turtles while we were there, including one that Maisy discovered a very small juvenile which she named baby Kev. He is very quick, but we both managed to get a photo of him.

After survey I went on a snorkel tour with the two couples. We were going somewhere different today, to some nearby islands called Rawa. They are off the north west coasts of the Perhentian and have a lot of undamaged coral and a chance to see different marine life. 

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We went to three sites around the islands and saw cuttlefish, pufferfish and was lucky enough to see two blue spotted stingray. 

Friday was data analysis in the morning, we identified all other individuals from the survey the day before. They were all frequent visitors to PIR, a male, 2 females and a juvenile. In the afternoon I went on a snorkel survey with our Turkish volunteer Selen. We saw 4 turtles, including one of my favourite Long Dragon, named by the Long family Long meaning Dragon in chinese, I think. For dinner we had Malay dinner there was almost as many staff to volunteers who went, with me, Dan and Ramona that went. Malay dinner like always was so good, we had so much food and we all went away feeling very full. 

Survey Photos

When we go on Snorkel Survey, we go over to PIR (Teluk Puah), on Perhentian Besar.

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Here there is a lot of sea grass which is the turtles main food source, so there are a lot of feeding turtles there. We kayak over from the village. When we see a turtle we free dive down and try to photograph the left side of the face, the right side of the face and the top of the turtle. The left and right side of the face is to determine individual. The top of the turtle is for determining gender as males have a long tail and the females have a very short tail often hard to see from above. Juveniles we can't sex as they don't mature and grow their tails if they are male til they are 15 years old. I have done quite a few surveys and I am starting to identify individuals who return weekly by certain markings or tags. These are some of my best shots I have taken so far:

Day 22-24

After Rachel left yesterday it was time for our next volunteers to arrive, they were due in at around 9 and it was my job to go down and greet them. Their names were Emir and Selen, they were from Turkey and were another couple. I showed them to the house they too had come from our other project and were very tired. I let them sleep for a bit before going through the code of conduct form and house rules. I also briefly went through the presentations of what we do as an organisation but they were off to Tiga Ruang that evening with Dan and the French couple so kept it short. I had another volunteer arriving at 4, Annie from England. So again I went down the Jetty to meet her, however when the boat arrived I was passed a wheel-barrow but no volunteer. Turns out the wheel-barrow was for our dive project team and our volunteer had a flight delay and wouldn't be getting there til 5. I went and delivered the wheel Barrow and then got a banana milkshake before going to sit at the Jetty. 

Turned out as it was later the boat didn't leave Kuala Besut til 5:50 so arrived at the village at 6:30. I helped her off and showed her to the house. We had dinner then I went through the paperwork and quickly the presentations but she was tired so got an early night.

The next morning I took her for water confidence before survey over at PIR we saw 5 turtles and I got photos of all 5, they were all different and we managed to ID 4 of them. 1 of them I thought was one of frequent visitors due to a barnacle on her left side but turned out it wasn't but my facial shots weren't good enough to ID. We saw a male, 2 females and 2 juveniles. Later I did a village tour and then she went off to Pitani while we worked. Melissa, Wid and Maisy are currently sorting a new software called I3S which will make photo ID a lot easier.
On the final day of this blog I took Annie on a beach clean along the path to long beach. It is a 3.2km walk around the coast and a lot of tourists drop bottles, cigarette packets and wrappers etc. The route starts off okay but further along it gets really steep and the path gets lost under the vegetation. On our way we saw a green crested lizard and a dragonfly flew on its head.

We managed to fill 2 large bags of rubbish by the end of the walk and went for a swim at long beach to cool off. After our swim we went to get a drink and it was around lunch time so I decided to buy food, I looked at the menu and found Pizza. It was 18 RM for a chicken pizza but I didn't care I missed pizza.  It came and it was so good and an okay size, fully worth the 18 RM. We then got picked up and headed back to the village.

Day 17-21- Back to Tiga Ruang

Wednesday Wid (my boss), Maisy and Ramona returned from their trip to the mainland. I forgot to say they were on a necropsy and taxidermy course. They had taken one of the dead hawksbills from a few months ago with them. While there they found fishing wire in the stomach and looked at the biology of the turtles. 

My Boss Wid

After that they got them ready to be taxidermy that would be ready in 30 days. This is for us to show our volunteers and tourists the size and other differences between a hawksbill and green turtles. We also had two new volunteers, Justine and Raphael  from France, they were a couple who were doing masters in Biology. They had come from our other project on the mainland. Also Joelle came over, he was a previous intern from last year and was staying with us for a few days. He was really friendly and funny to have around. He took the new volunteers for water confidence while we had a staff meeting. He did the jetty jump while with us and ended up losing his dencher for his front tooth. In the staff meeting we discussed how everyone did when the school group were here. We reviewed the organisation and the plan for the next big group. Everyone got a bar of chocolate, I got Cadbury fruit and nut. I don't usually like fruit and nut but this was the first chocolate I had since being in Malaysia. I think in the UK by having a choice to say no I beame fussier, however being here I don't have a choice if I'm fussy I don't eat as much so I now eat most things out here. Also at the meeting we discussed about doing my open water dive course so hopefully start that soon. When we got back me and Dan attempted to fix the sofas in the living room. They weren't completely broken but the supports were breaking. Dan sawed some wood and I nailed it in to add more support. We also opened one of the pillows and found the springs had broken, photo below.

Thursday morning I went on survey with Rachel to Pitani it was quite choppy and visibility was quite poor so we saw no turtles. In the afternoon we go the boat to Tiga Ruang, when we got there I cooked dinner. I made a bolognese without the meat with pasta. I was on the early shift the first night, late the following two other nights. While there only 1 turtle laid and we had a few false crawls. We did get to release 57 hatchlings, most headed for the sea straight away, a few went in circles or backwards. It was really cool seeing them venture off into the sea. However the sight of seeing them head to the sea was darkened with the reality of nature during my patrol an hour later. I saw something run across the front of me, I shined my torch and it was a crab with a hatchling in its claw dying.

The fisheries guys while we were there came from some other beaches with eggs from other nests. While at Tiga Ruang I got my final second year results and passed with an average mark in the 2:1 bracket which I was happy about. One of the mornings nick came up to me with a squirrel caught in a cage he usually uses to catch rats. He jokingly asked me if I wanted it for dinner or if he should release it. I said eat it of course. Just kidding he released it and I asked him what he uses to catch the rats, he told me he had stale chocolate cereal but he'd run out. Earlier that morning the volunteer Rachel told me she had some chocolate cereal which tasted funny but she really wanted chocolate cereal so ate it still so when I worked out it was the same cereal as the rat bait I burst into laughter. I told nick and when Rachel returned from her swim we told her she didn't seem to bothered but me and Nick found it hilarious. Tiga Ruang is beautiful.

Day 16 (Evening)- Visit to Long Beach

After a nice break from the school kids we still had one volunteer with us Rachel. I knew I had a day off the next day so thought I'd check out long beach tonight. Rachel also had a day off tomorrow so asked if she wanted to go. Of course she did, she was 18 and off to University in September, long beach is the party beach of the islands. I was skeptical about bringing a volunteer to long beach but she talked big and she was leaving Sunday, she paid a lot to be here lost her luggage so a night out was definitely needed for her. As we were leaving Melissa (another Intern) mentioned how she thought it might rain but I said it would be fine. A third of the way down the path the heavens opened luckily there was a conveniently placed shelter we hid in and waited for the rain to pass. We were there for a good 15 minutes until the rain died down, further down the path to long beach got quite sketchy. When we eventually arrived it was about 10:30 and rocked up at the first bar we found, they had a list of cocktails for 17 RM. Both of us went for Mojitos, it was so nice to chill away from the village and have a drink. After finishing our drinks we headed down the beach to check out what else was about. We walked past the area where they have fire poy dancers and a few bars.

It was near here we stopped off at one bar called Abba's bar, behind the bar was two Malay men who were very smiley. We ordered some drinks I had a couple of beers and Rachel had a vodka and lemonade. Around the bar I was hearing so many different nationalities it was awesome, most people who come to these islands are back packers just passing through. They come for the diving and snorkeling and chance to see a turtle. I got chatting to this Dutch guy called Juule, he had been here for a few days and had done a lot of diving and was on a tour of south east Asia. His girlfriend was already in bed as they had been drinking for 6 hours, we chatted longer and I told him that I worked on the islands in the village for the turtle project and he was fascinated. Juule wanted to buy me and Rachel a drink as he enjoyed talking to us, which of course you don't say no too. He ordered three long beach specials, I was watching the barmen make this drink, it consisted of a shot of vodka, monkey juice (still not sure what exactly it is like a weak whiskey but still 25%), with lemonade and orange juice and because Juule had been at the bar a while he made it spicy which meant putting a bit of tequila on top. One of these was only 10 RM and it was actually really good. What I hadn't realised was the volunteer was already tipsy so this drink made her very drunk. I kept an eye on Rachel she was happy perched at the bar dancing with the barmen, while I chatted to others around the bar. I met six Belgians, they straight away asked me if I knew what the capital of Belgium was I said Brussels. They were shocked, apparently they had asked 8 other English people and they all didn't know. We then spent the rest of the time talking football and they asked what team I supported, so told them Aston Villa and we talked about Benteke. While at this bar I also met a German woman who was travelling with a friend on holiday and a American girl who had been in china teaching English and was on her way to London after her stay on these islands to visit some friends. I could see Rachel needed to go home as she was falling asleep at the bar. I asked the Barmen if he could sort us a boat taxi and he said he'll take us at 1 which was fine. I watched the fire dancers and chatted to the other barmen. He turned out to be Abba and it was great talking to him, it was interesting as he said how apart from his friend and family he doesn't like Malaysian people. He said how he feels judged and hated because he wants people/tourists to have fun at his bar. People getting drunk doesn't bother him and he said it wasn't about the money he just enjoys the party vibe. Obviously the money is always a factor but he seemed genuine, he talked about when he found wallets, keys etc and how he always tries to return them to people that he meets that come to his bar. I saw him do this with an English guy who stupidly left his wallet, he could have taken it and the guy wouldn't have been the wiser but instead shouted to this guy and gave it back. I had to help push the barmen's boat out to the sea as it was low tide and we headed back to the village. I really enjoyed long beach and will definitely visit again.

Day 11-16 Busy Week

I thought this would happen, the daily blogs may turn into weekly blogs. As I said in my previous blog we have had this school group join us on the project. There are 3 leaders, Gordon who is from the company they booked the trip through, Rachel who is an English teacher at the school and her son Seb who lives in Australia teaching scuba diving but helps out on trips his mum organised. I had been at Tiga Ruang til Friday and we had seen a couple of turtles on the Thursday night, both laid over 100 eggs. Friday was such a relief to return to the village, I had been bitten, cut and burnt. I got back and chilled for a bit, but was booked in to take a group on a Snorkel survey. This was different to our usual surveys due to being more people to take with us. Instead of taking the Kayaks, we got a boat and it was more of a Snorkel Tour and if we saw a turtle we photographed it and recorded it. I did one of these every day til Tuesday, going to different locations around the islands. We saw some cool fish as well as several turtles. Some examples of interesting things we saw were: Porcupine Puffer Fish, Map Puffer Fish, Humphead Parrot Fish, Clown Fish, Black Tip Reef Shark and a Eagle Ray.

On one of the surveys when we got to one of our survey sights, Shark Point, there was a boat overturned. We all got out of the boat and helped try to turn the overturned boat the right way up. By standing all on one side of the boat eventually the boat flipped and then a couple of guys bucketed water that was inside the boat out of it until it was level. There was a french girl who was on the boat that flipped and she dropped her phone (that was in a waterproof bag) and her purse. Luckily for her there was a nearby divers boat and he managed to dive down and find it. One of the other surveys there was a lot of police boats about, they were doing inspections, our boat got checked everyone had to wear a life jacket (usually you don't have to). They checked our boatman's licence and sent us on our way. Another of the surveys we went to a place called D'Lagoon I hadn't been here before. It was a popular dive spot with some really nice coral. While we were there, a dive team was teaching a group. They use markers that float on the surface of the water to show where they are diving. Under the water are 2 rings, Dan and I saw this as a challenge to dive down and go through the upper ring. Dan went first and successfully went through, which meant pressure was on for me to do it first time as well. I got down okay and made it through the ring however, my ascent wasn't very graceful. A couple of the school kids attempted it too. One kid called Tom was brilliant, he had that innocently stupid comment behaviour which cracked me and the team up. The best thing he said was when he asked Ramona what the crackling you hear in your ears when you are snorkeling, I assumed it was air pressure. However, Tom's idea of what it could be was better, he thought it was fish farting. I later found out that sound is fish eating. A great thing about taking volunteers on survey with you is that you have more eyes to search for turtles and more people to take the photographs. However, it helps if the volunteer's turn the camera on, which is what happened when our Irish volunteer Seb found out when we came back from survey. He thought he'd got good photos of two turtles which he might have done if the camera was on. On Tuesday me and volunteer Rachel went on our usual survey to PIR in the Kayak. We were only out there for an hour and surveyed 6 turtles. However, during data analysis it showed we only had surveyed 4 turtles. One of the sightings was a duplicate sighting and the other Rachel had forgotten to turn the camera on when I passed it to her. I would have remembered to turn it on before giving it to her, but I was busy saving this large Chinese guy who was screaming for help. He had gone snorkeling and not gone that deep when all of a sudden started screaming for help, there was no one else around so I paddled over to him. When I got there he was spitting and hyper ventilating. I asked what was wrong, he said salt so guessing he swallowed sea water. I tried to get him into the kayak but he wasn't having it, I gave him my life jacket and he floated for a while. I asked him again to get into the kayak but he wouldn't. I decided to get him to hold onto a bit of string at the back of the kayak and paddled him to shore. He kept saying thank you and when we got to shore he found his kid and collapsed on a lilo. Not all heroes wear capes, some wear swimming shorts. 

On the last day the school kids were with us I took a group to Romantic Beach to do a Beach Clean. There wasn't anything particularly romantic and Romantic Beach, there was very little shade and it was full of tourists. I reckon its called Romantic Beach as there isn't anything there to get distracted by as there are no stalls or facilities. When we got there it appeared to be quite clear of rubbish but as we started walking along we realised there was a fair bit. 

We managed to fill four bin bags of litter, after that I let the guys have a swim and snorkel as it was their last day. The boatman stayed in the bay til 4 o'clock and then disappeared I got a bit worried as we had planned on him leaving with us at 4:30. Thankfully he came back for us at 4:30. For their last night their was a massive BBQ for the school group but Dan was at Tiga Ruang that night so missed out. There was so much satay chicken and fried squid, one of the best meals I'd had. After dinner I had my first ice cream since being on the island as well. The next morning it was time to say goodbye to the kids, hopefully stay in contact with Seb and go diving in Australia. 

Day 10- Hatchery Invader

We had two successful egg lays that we witnessed. One we managed to retrieve the eggs the second she was too far through so we couldn't. There were several false crawls I think as many as 4 or 5. One was right near the camp and turned around by the shipwreck outside. It is believed to be an old Thai ship which crashed during a storm several years ago. It's a very old wooden hull. The one we managed to retrieve the eggs from I found in my patrol, I observed her at the edge of the beach by the vegetation and thought she was body pitting so got Nick. Nick thought she was camouflaging but he said it is hard to tell as similar movements are some for both. We checked back in 20 minutes and she had moved and started body pitting again. We thought after failing first and not moving that far she'd do a false crawl. Instead we left her again and when Nick checked back she was laying and had moved again. We managed to retrieve 113 eggs from her. As well as getting carapace measurements and facial photos. Last thing we did that evening was released some hatchlings that had developed enough into the sea a total of around 30. In the morning I made breakfast and tidied up the house. It stormed a lot last night so I stayed in the house with Nick rather than the hammock. As I thought my back was very burnt from falling asleep on the beach, so I applied aloe vera on it to help cool it. I was just chilling in the hammock and I saw sand kicking up by the hatchery, I then went over to investigate. When I got there I saw a water monitor had got into the hatchery and already destroyed one of the nests.

I called Nick and we tried to push it into the hole it entered in but kept climbing against the fence not under it. Nick tried using a stick to make the hole bigger and then some rope but still it wouldn't leave. The lizard was hissing and tail flicking us, it was getting just as annoyed at us as we were at it. Eventually I tied the rope to make a large hole pushed it into the corner at first he went over it then the tail fell in the hole I came round the front and he turned and left the hatchery and ran into the sea. Nick then called fisheries and mended the hole in the ground. There were already several eggs that had either been eaten or broken and ants and other bugs had started getting involved. We collected all the egg casings and dead hatchlings we could and put them in a bucket so we could find out how many we had lost. When fisheries got here we explained what happened and they went to assess the damage. Exploring the nest they found two hatchlings still alive that had got to safety. I got to hold them and put them into a bucket of hatchlings ready to be released later. It just goes to show even with our help the nests are not 100% safe as we can't watch the hatchery 24/7. I had some lunch, and then had a nap. After my nap I tried photographing some of the tree shrews who live around our camp.

It was a pretty chilled afternoon not a lot happened. At 6 or was time for Rachel and Seb to leave and go back to the village. They were replaced by 4 school kids. All boys from Tonbridge wells of all places, it's about 1 hour from where I live. With them was there "teacher" I use inverted commas as he was one of the teacher's sons who lives in Australia and is a dive instructor. He had helped out on a trip last year in Nepal and asked to help again. When they got there the guys were excited to settle in and explore the beach etc. so we let them have some time before dinner. They had brought over ready-made packet dinners and brought one for me and Nick. Just a simple dish rice, veg and chicken but it was so good having chicken considering I hadn't had any meat since Sunday. After dinner the guys settled down and we delegated shifts for each of them. I went out on first patrol at 8pm with all of them showed them some previous tracks answered some questions. Then headed back arrived about 8:30pm, so Nick did a 9:30pm patrol and found this turtle appearing to body pit at the end of the beach. I went to wake the guys but only the teacher and one other got up the rest were out of it. They had done a really intensive few days travelling and they all seemed pretty out of it. We headed down she had built her body pit then started her egg chamber we thought it was going to be nice and easy then she stopped and started moving. She didn’t settle for another 2 hours and when she did she had attempted 2 more body pits and ended up somewhere 40m from where she started. We woke the other guys up and Nick began extraction when she was laying. I did the counting and she laid 91 eggs, Nick recognised this female as one that had only laid a couple of weeks before hand so it was impressive she laid that many. Later on we spotted another female coming up, this female was a lot more decisive and was happy with her first body pit. She dug it quite quickly as well and started on her egg chamber. I was slightly worried this bit might make her change locations as she was near a rock and as she was digging I could see some of the Rock in the chamber. She carried on though and eventually was ready to lay. I dug underneath her flipper and started collecting the eggs. When she got to 80, Jarr one of the fisheries staff called she'd stop at 95 eggs,  I called that she'd lay 104. She had been laying for a while but she was laying 3 or 4 at a time,  she had laid over 95 but finished on 103 so I was close. My shift finished after that turtle and no more turtles laid after that so I didn't miss anything.

Day 9- Dusty Leaf Monkeys Tiga Ruang

I got up about 9 considering I didn't sleep til like 5. Me and Nick tidied up the hut and then Nick started making breakfast. He was making eggy bread, New Yorker style. Not that I've mentioned her Nick is a 6ft 3 big New Yorker who has been doing marine and turtle work for several years since he finished school. Anyway, we had breakfast and then Nick told me we are expecting a family of 3 coming from the Universal Dive centre for a turtle talk about our work here etc. They were a Dutch family who were very interested about the facts Nick was telling them and I managed to help answer some questions they had. While we were talking, some of the monkeys who live on the island arrived and started jumping round nearby trees. They were Dusty Leaf Monkeys which is a species of Langur monkey. It was a family group with one baby, dusty leaf monkeys are grey with big grey eyes and bellies. The babies, however are bright orange.

Later everyone just chilled for a bit, me and the volunteers went for a snorkel round the bay where there was some interesting coral. When I got back to the beach I did some sunbathing. However I had forgotten I hadn't sun creamed my back and now it's burnt a bit. I then made some noodles for lunch and had a nap in one of the hammocks. I had taken mine down as the beach during the day gets quite busy with tourists and it was slightly out the way of our camp. Two guys who owned a sailing boat off the coast of Tiga Ruang came to our camp asking if they could steal some water. Nick had been letting these guys all week so I said it was fine. One of them was Australian and the other was Thai. They had been travelling for quite a while, round New Zealand, Philipenes and now Malaysia. They brought us a nice proper bar of chocolate to say thanks. Nick was cooking dinner again tonight and did good once again. After dinner we started patrol, I again did the early shift more to follow on details of the patrol tomorrow.

Day 8- Tiga Ruang Round 2

8am Wid woke me up to get ready as our boatman was taking us back to the island. I packed my hammock away and got ready to leave. At 8:30 the boatman arrived and when I got back to the house I got washed and answered some emails from applicants wanting to volunteer. I then went for a sleep to get ready for going to Tiga Ruang again tonight. When the others got back from the survey we went for lunch, today I had a "special burger" this was mayo, cucumber, tomato, beef party (not sure what it was, very strange looked raw), cheese in a bun with chips. Tasted really good though. We then went back to the house before me and Dan went for a turtle Survey again at Pitani beach. We kayaked over there and started our survey. Dan did the first transect in a similar place to where we were before, however he said this time visibility was very poor. He finished his transect and I got in, I went a bit shallower to see if I could see better but again visibility was poor. I surveyed for a while but nothing and because I knew I needed to get ready for Tiga Ruang I said about heading back. At Pitani Dan and I discovered a barbell made of a metal pole and concrete blocks on the end weighing at least 40kg. Dan got very excited as he is missing the gym life, so I offered to leave him on the beach and paddle back to the village on my own. There is something very satisfying about kayaking on your own. I got back to the village put the Kayak away and then got ready for Tiga Ruang. Nick had given me a list of food we needed there as there is no way of Nick getting food other than deliveries from us. Wid had been to the mainland to do some shopping so at 5 we met her on the Jetty to get the rest of the list. I was going over to Tiga Ruang with two volunteers. I'm really enjoying the responsibility of being volunteer and research coordinator and so far they've all respected me. When we got to the beach, Nick greeted us and we unloaded the delivery. I got my hammock set up and then Nick started dinner. 

He had prepped vegetable fried rice and was waiting on the dried anchovies I had brought him. Anyone who knows me I am not a fish person generally. However, these anchovies were really nice, a little salty but not overpowering. After dinner we washed up and then Nick did the 8pm patrol. I then did the 9pm patrol and didn't spot anything. When I got back Nick was waiting for me, I forgot to take the volunteers with me. It was okay though as it was early so less likely for something to happen. I did the 10-2 shifts with one of our volunteers Rachel. The 10pm shift we saw false crawl tracks. These happen when the Turtle decides not to lay due to condition of where she stops. In this case she crawled up to the end of the beach and immediately turned back and went into the sea. We headed back to camp and I started watching the film Inception. Rachel went back to sleep. At 11 I woke up her and we did our patrol, we were only a few metres down the beach and I spotted some tracks. These tracks had no sign of return tracks. We followed them up and they appeared to stop at a rock then I noticed how they went off to the left and deeper up the beach. I got Rachel to get Nick as I had not been trained about procedure when faced with a nesting turtle. She had started building her body pit, this was the first stage of the egg laying. When Nick got there she had been body pitting for a while, once she had made her body pit she started building her egg chamber. This is a deeper hole that she lays the eggs into. This can also take a while and she still wasn't done at 12 so me and Rachel did a quick patrol we found another false crawl but no turtle. When we got back some of the fishery staff had come over and started to get ready for egg extraction. Jarr one of the fishery staff who speaks quite good English dug under the back flipper and set somewhere up to put the eggs. When laying, turtles tend to go into numb states until it is over so she is very unfazed. However the flipper and tail are still sensitive. Jarr had already counted about 50 eggs and then he asked If I'd like to have a go. I lay on my chest and picked up the eggs. They were round and white like golf balls but slightly smaller. Being that close to a turtle was an amazing experience. In total she laid 105 eggs, laying mainly one by one but sometimes 2 at a time. Next job to do was to measure the carapace width and height. 

Nick showed me how and then I had a go. It was done during her Camouflaging of the nest stage. She flicks sand back onto her back flippers so makes measuring interesting. Once measurements were done, it was around 2 so we did another patrol while we waited for her to be done. On our way down the beach I looked into the water and spot another turtle about to emerge. We stopped at some rocks and waited for her to emerge completely. She disappeared past some rocks and I waited to see what she was deciding to do as she was in a poor conditioned spot for nesting. I could hear her still trying to body pit so I sent Rachel to get Nick. While I waited for Nick I heard her move from the spot she was body pitting in. She seemed to go out of sight then I heard her again. I found her wedged under a tree and she was body pitting again. When Nick turned up with the bucket for the eggs, she had just started building her egg chamber however she was so far under the tree we couldn't get it. Nicks first thought was to just mark it and wait for fisheries to turn up and deal with it. Then 3 guys from the fisheries turned up and laid down and managed to dig out the eggs. Seb one of the volunteers was in charge of counting. I think we had only 67 but this female looked younger than the first she because was smaller and her mannerisms. We managed to photograph one side of the face but not both. 

Many of the turtles that nest during the night are not the same as turtles that feed during the day. We waited for her to camouflage and go back to the sea. Then that was my shift over so I went back to my hammock to sleep. If there was any turtle activity Nick would wake me but there wasn't.

Day 7- Tiga Ruang

After a great night last night, it was sad that Kerry, Adam and Bethan had already left early in the morning. Hopefully we can get a reunion going back in Plymouth. In the morning Dan and I did our cleaning jobs then I made us both Scrambled Egg. Was quite impressed by how well if tasted and turned out. After breakfast we went to do a Turtle Survey at Pitani Beach this is the beach round the corner of the Village where Alunan Resort is situated. We could have walked which would have taken 10 minutes but instead thought it be more fun to kayak. We set off from the village and headed round the coast, on our way before we even got to Pitani we spotted a green turtle surfacing. Both of us sped up our paddling and then Dan jumped into to try and find it however by the time we got there it had disappeared. As we carried along I started a transect. There was no obvious sea grass at Pitani so it wasn't as easy to know where to look compared to PIR. Just as I got back in the Kayak we spotted another turtle surfacing. This time we got there in time, Dan jumped in and followed it for a while. I then passed him the GoPro and he dived down to try to get a good shot of the markings. When he came up he thought he had. We carried on for another half hour or so exploring up and down the bay but had no luck. On our way back to the village I stopped and had a quick snorkel at one of the coral spots I knew on the way. I dived down with my GoPro and got pictures of clown fish. I also saw a Puffer fish as big as a football but was unable to photo. For lunch we went down the food court and I went to the Buffet and filled my plate with rice and this beef dish. It was a huge portion and only 15RM. After lunch we went back to the house as well as losing Kerry, Adam and Bethan also leaving today was four of our interns, two I got on with really well. They were a couple from Liverpool University studying Environmental Science. Both of them were in their second year and had been here 3 weeks, as a kind of educational holiday before 3rd year. They were really nice people, Dylan was from Liverpool and actually had a tolerable Scouse accent. He was really chilled, we got on very well similar music tastes etc. Emma his girlfriend was quite a strong environmentalist, she was into her eco products and she made her own sun cream and was of course vegan. She was really nice we had a laugh, so was sad to see the pair of them leave. After they left me and Dan went for a swim from the jetty to the mosque which is a fair distance just saying. Tonight me, Dan and Wid were going to Tiga Ruang the nesting beach for the turtles that Nick is based at. We gathered our things and went to the jetty to get our boat. Tiga Ruang is on the other island and is paradise. It gets the sun all day and is opposite the party beach, long beach on the other island. When we got there we unloaded the gear and then Wid showed me around. It was even more basic than the house in the village. The house was powered by a generator that only kicked in at 7. Water was limited and there was a fresh stream that was used for washing water. I found a spot on a hanging tree to put up my Hammock overlooking the beach. It was perfect.

Once the hammock was set me and Dan cooked dinner. We had this tin chicken and potato curry which sounded nice. However as we found out when we were eating it the chicken wasn't de-boned and it made it very hard to eat having to pick bones out of every mouthful. After dinner we tidied up and then we all sat on the beach watching an electric storm that was happening across at the other island; no thunder just flashes of yellow lighting up the clouds with the occasional lightning bolt spotted.

Wid then explained the night patrol procedure when you have volunteers and without volunteers. It consisted of shift work  2 people doing the first shift 10-2 the other people doing 3-7. Each shift consisted of on each hour of the night patrolling the beach to the end looking for turtles or signs of turtle activity. If a turtle is spotted then the procedure of checking nesting occurs. More on that if it happens or next time. As well as nesting, any turtle tracks are recorded and marked by walking across them so the next person knows to not mark those tracks. Turtles often do something called a false crawl where they go to make their nest but something isn't right so retreats back to the sea. Me and Wid had the early 10-2 shift. I was resting in my hammock when a boat pulled up at the beach, my first thought was poachers and then I remembered fisheries turns up during the night. These are 6 men that patrol the island for the government and protect the hatchery on Tiga Ruang. As the fisheries arrived they had already checked the beach so we didn't need to do our first hour beach patrol. We sat with them chatting for a bit until 11. The fisheries staff left and checked the beach so again we didn't need to do it. I went back to my Hammock and napped for an hour.