Saturday, 1 July 2017

Day 6- Day Off

Today was meant to be my day off, this means you are normally allowed a lie in. Not today, Wid woke me up at the normal time forgetting it was my day off. I was going to go back to bed, however I was up so got ready. Dan was taking the volunteers off to the north of the island to do a beach clean, I decided to tag along so I could explore a different part of the island. I took my camera and was just going to take photos. We got there and headed along the beach and up a hill which leads to the decommissioned wind turbine site. This site was still used as a solar panel site, on the way up we found a fair bit of rubbish, mainly water bottles. I hung at the back and picked up some rubbish the volunteers missed. On our journey up there it was very hot, as there was no shade. I saw lots of different butterfly species as well as this large flying beetle species which I managed to photography and hopefully identify soon.




When we got to the top the view was incredible.


There was an awesome viewing platform and we could see Teegarung, the nesting beach that is our second base camp. This is where Nick one of the paid staff stays and monitors turtle nesting activity. I am due to go out there tomorrow. We headed back down the hill and got to the beach, between the five of us we filled 5 large bags of rubbish.

The boatman wasn't due to arrive for another 45 minutes so we all went for a swim off long beach. It was a lovely beach however, it was so shallow. Even when you got further out until the marker you can't swim past it is still really shallow. We went back to the village for lunch, other than the tuna sandwich and chips I had all my lunches have been Malaysian dishes. It was four of our volunteers last days so they had a free afternoon, I was going to go for a walk to Pitani Beach so I asked any of them if they wanted to join. Dylan said he'd join so we went, when we got there we had a chill in the bar and soaking up the rays. I think I may have burnt the back of my arms. We went back for dinner before all meeting up to head to Pitani again for farewell drinks for everyone as Bethan and Adam the couple from Plymouth who were volunteering at community, Kerry the South African woman who lives in London who also volunteered at community were also leaving which was sad as me and Dan really got on with them. We were all ready to go apart from Dylan who needed to redo the dressing on his two. I told everyone to go ahead and we'll catch up. We were going to get a boat taxi because of Dylan's toe but none of the numbers were walking so we walked. I locked up and as we were a quarter of the way through the forest path we felt a bit of rain. Emma; Dylan's girlfriend said "I'd love to be in a tropical storm be such an experience" and just as she said that the heavens opened and I have never felt rain like it. The rain was relentless, at one point I couldn't see I just kept following Dylan. Due to the humidity it wasn't cold just very wet. We arrived at Alunan dripping wet, I had fears my phone was going to be wet and broken but luckily it was fine protected by my wallet. Everyone was all sat round a long table it seemed they had just missed the downpour. We ordered some drinks and everyone was chatting and laughing was such a funny evening. There were some Hong Kong Volunteers who I hadn't really spoke to all week also celebrating their last day and they were really funny too. One of them had round Harry Potter glasses, so Dan renamed him HKHP and he loved his new nickname. It was about 11 and we started to head home, when someone suggested chilling on the beach. Just as we got down there I found a box with kids sand toys, one of the toys was a bucket with a lid on, I took the lid off and started using it as a Frisbee. After a few throws everyone had formed a circle and a huge game of Frisbee had started. Me and Dan were winding Kerry up about her catching skills and she decided to try and sand wrestle me. She obviously lost as I grabbed her leg and dropped in a pile of sand laughing hysterically. While we were playing one of the staff from Alunan came down from the resort and we thought he was going to tell us off for being too loud. Instead he asked if he could join, when this was happening Kerry decided to try and sneak attack me which led to her again on the floor. We were playing for ages, one of the funniest moments was when Melissa (One of the other interns on my turtle project) threw the Frisbee into the sea. Kerry immediately threw herself into the sea fully clothed to get it. At that point we decided to call it a night, we all walked home and said goodbye it was like 1am by the time we got back.

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