Today or the
next day was Malaysian Independence day from British rule. It had been arranged
Dan, 2 volunteers and I would do a beach clean-up at Tiga Ruang. Mr Tan boss at
PIR had got some of his workers start at PIR beach and then join us at long
beach. We met up and we made Tiga Ruang spotless. After this they had a picnic
that they invited us to join. They had cake and noodles in that order which was
weird and some orange juice.
When we got back to the village we noticed there
were cows on the island. This was due to Hari Raya Haji festival this was a
Muslim festival the cows would be slaughtered and the meat would be split
between friends family and the poor. Was very weird seeing cows in the village
they must have come on boats, me and Dan went to get a selfie with one and got
charged luckily it was tied up. Back at the house I started reviewing the
nesting data. This involved looking at our turtle from this year that nested
and comparing them to two years ago photos as turtles return every 2-3 years.
It was a long process as not all the photos are clear, we worked out that 26
individuals have nested in our beach with some coming back 6 times. I was
cooking dinner with the Portuguese guys and I wanted to cook beacon again as
they are so good. I started prepping the vegetables and Goncalo brought out
this meat substitute that looked like bread but cooked like chicken. It was
called Satan and he fried it with black pepper and garlic and if was delicious.
In the morning I went out on survey with the Gonçalo pair and Sara to PIR. They call one of the Gonçalos
king to stop confusion between the two. It was dome joke at university but made
it easier for us to talk to the pair of them. We saw 7 turtles thought it was 9
but we were moving around a lot and it seemed the turtles were too. We also saw
3 juveniles together feeding they were so cute. These guys were a good laugh
gutted couldn’t spend more time with them, we were cracking jokes on survey. I
had a cold so couldn’t free dive so got the guys to take the photos. When we
got back to the village we analysed the data and I edited a picture of one of
turtles Baby Kev to make him look awesome. If you look at his face you can see
a moustache. I didn't want the cape but one of the volunteers requested.
The next day I went for a beach clean to Teluk Keke with the same guys I
surveyed with yesterday, Gonçalo, Gonçalo and Sara. I brought the Ecoteer
volleyball as there is a net at the beach, we started playing the four of us
and then some random locals asked to join. We played for an hour just for fun
without scoring as we all weren't that great. We then started the beach clean,
the guys all had a big bin bag each and I had a 2 litre plastic bottle to do
the cigarette but challenge. This involved picking up as many cigarette butts
as possible and there was a lot I collected 1111 in 50 minutes. The boat guy
was late so we chilled in the sea for a bit.
When we got back we had the
afternoon off so we all had a rest. Nothing really happened until the evening, Ramona,
Maisy and myself was sitting in the living room when all of a sudden I hear one
of the Gonçalos shout my name. I guessed he'd flooded the kitchen with the
washing machine which is a common occurrence but this was not the case. I
entered the kitchen to find the hob on fire and our electric kettle on the hob.
My immediate response was what the @#$ followed by ensuring the gas was off. I
got some water and put out the burning kettle. The plastic had melted to the
hob and burnt the valves so had to completely disconnect the gas. Apparently he
thought it was a metal, despite the kettle having a plastic base with a cord it
sits on and a switch. Anyway once we got it all cleaned up the kettle was unusable
and the left side of the hob also unusable. I checked the right side and it seemed
okay, Ramona then went to use it and had some concerns so I went back in to
check. Despite having separate valves the heat had burnt through the close
valve so could hear gas hissing to so we couldn't use the hob. I was gutted as
I couldn't have my morning coffee, yes I drink coffee now. So without our hob
and all the food already prepared we went down to community house to use their
hob. Safe to say Gonçalos learned his lesson. In the evening I went to Long
Beach with Maisy, Lenny and Sian from Community project and the Dive Project
Team. I wasn’t going to go but it was Effy from Dives Team last few nights as
she had got a new job. We got the boat over at 9pm and went to get a drink.
Many a drink was drunk and we all had a good time, the only downside was I
realised halfway through the night I had lost my phone. We carried on partying
until about 3-4am and then we got a boat home. Getting in the boat George
almost fell over into the sea, back in the village was very surreal as it was
so quiet. We got back and crashed, successful night other than the phone
losing.
Not a lot happened Sunday, two of the Portuguese left Alex and Maria.
However the other 3 were staying one more night as their flight wasn't until
Monday. Wid came back to the village for one night and brought lots of shopping
which was greatly appreciated as we were very low on food and brought a pack of
cookies each for everyone. Nick came back to the village from Tiga Ruang to
talk to Wid as Maisy and Ramona went to Tiga Ruang. Wid’s parents had made it safety
to Mecca and were having a good time. Due to the stove being broken and not
having s replacement yet Wid took me, Nick and Dan down the jetty for dinner.
The volunteers came as well and we all ordered, however in village style it was
taking a while so Nick went off to get some sausages. These are the best
sausages on the island I think they are still chicken sausages but they have a
kind of batter and some seasoning and taste amazing. Back at the house the Portugese guys wanted to give us something, they
had intended to give it to all of us but due to the way we rotate this wasn’t
possible. They had very kindly gone down to the bakery on the Jetty and brought
us an amazing cake. This cake was huge, it had 6 layers all different colours
and was covered in icing with sea grass on the side and a turtle on top with a
little palm tree. Underneath the turtle was writing saying “Thank you Turtle
Team”, this was so sweet and the cake tasted amazing as well. We all had lots
of it and even one of the Gonçalos who was Vegan had some as it looked so good.
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