Day 6 - Turtle Island National Park, Selingan

An early breakfast at the Nature Resort with a monitor lizard providing the cabaret. Was it two foot, was it four, well Ann is prone to exaggeration!

The rain of the previous day and night had led to fears that our trip to Turtle Island might have to be cancelled. The previous days’ guests had been turned around three-quarters of the way across as the rough sea was becoming dangerous. Today, surprise, it was raining, but at least it was still.

At 7.30 a.m. our guide from yesterday, Glenn, arrived with our personal guide for the next four days, Joanne. Se was relatively (to us) young, we later discovered she was 28 and had been a guide for eight years.

We drove down into Sandakan and parked up. Joanne suggested we take a short walk as we had 15 minutes to kill. When we returned the car had a parking ticket, a fine of about 8p!

The speedboat ride took us past a stilted village before getting choppy about half-way across. A few big waves had to be rode before it became a more manageable swell. Our arrival at Turtle Island signalled the beginning of the long wait.

The object of Turtle Island from the tourist viewpoint is to watch turtles nesting and then to release hatchlings back to the sea. This doesn’t happen until after nightfall so having arrived on the island at 10.30 a.m. there was a lot of time to kill. Fortunately it had stopped raining and was turning out rather nice. A walk around the island killed 20 minutes and following lunch the weather was sufficiently favourable to sit on the beach for a couple of hours with a little nap in the sun taking the sting out of the early start. At 1800 the beach becomes out of bounds for anybody other than the Rangers for 12 hours. A beer on the verandah of the chalets with some Danish neighbours consumed the rest of the time before dinner.

The chalets are adequate, but with only cold showers and a trickle of water coming from the sink tap it was a quick splash the chosen method of cleansing. A film about the turtles and the work being done on the island was shown before dinner which was nice enough given the simple nature of the facilities and then 49 people with a few children included began the waiting game. On a board there was the details of the landings and releases, but this showed a date 4 or 5 days previous when two turtles had landed and nested laying 76 eggs. The landings were timed at 2217 and nesting at 2330, so that was promising even if the date was not.

But those times came and went with nothing happening. Ann stepped outside for a cigarette at about 2315 and came back with the info that a turtle had come ashore and the Rangers were now observing to see if it is going to nest and then we would be allowed on the beach to see her. But sadly for us, the turtle turned tail and headed back to the sea.

As it was past midnight and with the turtle gone it was decided to release the hatchlings. This could have been a magical experience if it had been organised better. Too many people were crowded around the release box so lots of people, including us, had their views limited. Given the time we had been waiting and a couple of pieces of string a corridor could have been formed so that everybody had a chance to watch the little turtles make their first entrance into the sea. The photographs are far from great, but if you look closely you can just about make out some of the little turtles.


After this people started to drift away to bed. Promises were made that if a turtle came ashore the bedroom doors would be knocked. We gave it another half-hour, but I think we knew our chance had gone. For a little while we laid on the beds thinking we could hear doors being knocked, but when it started to rain heavily it was time to crawl under the covers and forget it.