Libaran (Turtle) Island

The next morning, we had a short drive and then an hour boat ride to Libaran Island.  Home of nesting green sea turtles.  Our route took us very close to the Philippines. 

That little island to the right is the Philippines

We left our nicest accommodation to arrive at our worst. Tents!  Actual tents.  The Walai Penyu Resort.  Resort is a kindness.  It was tents.  They were dry and pretty comfortable so it wasn't too bad but after the cabins with mosquito nets and hot water, it was a bit of a mental hard-left.  

home sweet home

our neighbourhood

This was our location though so all was forgiven. 

At low tide, there is a sandbar  that leads all of the way to that island

This is directly behind our tents

We had another buffet lunch. These were pretty consistent.  Curry chicken, fish of some sort, eggplant, white rice, some sort of veg, this time pumpkin, and watermelon with orange water to drink.  It was always tasty but I was ready for a change by this point.  

Then we got back in the boat to go to a different, even smaller island to snorkel.  

The current was really strong so I headed up the beach to let the current take me to the other end.  The coral was mostly dead but there were some cool fish and blue star fish in the water.  I made it back to shore just as someone was calling us over to under a big tree.  The rangers on the island had found a wild turtle nest that was hatching so they collected the babies and brought them over to us to release them.  That was super cool!  

That's an about to be released baby green turtle I'm holding

Our beach

A lifeguard did show up at some point

After swimming, Joe started chatting up the turtle guy.  I looked at this bird. Which they called a Jungle Chicken. I did figure out what it was but I can't remember now. 

Rangers wander the beaches on the nights during egg laying season. When the turtle leaves, they dig up the eggs and bring them to a turtle hatchery to protect them.  When they hatch, they release them.  Fun fact, the sex of the turtle is determined by how much heat they get as they incubate. So, they bury half in shade and half in the sun.  The turtle buries them deep, middling, and shallow all in one hole.  The top ones are hot (female) and then the males are from the cooler deeper part.  

The turtle keeper told Joe about a volcano just behind the lifeguard clubhouse.  So, we all trudged up.  Well, not up, just over.  It turns out it is not a traditional volcano that one must climb.  It is a mud volcano. Which is a hole full of mud.  

Hole. Mud.

Richard (British) took the first step which dropped him
to almost his waist.  Nope, not for me, thanks. 

After that, those that went in had to go back into the ocean to clean off.  The mud particles are so fine that they weren't allowed to use any of the taps and drains, it would clog them.  I went to find some cats Joe had spotted. 

Once we had visited the cats, there was really no reason to stay so we headed back onto the boat and back to our tent village.  That might just be my interpretation of why we left then.  

Dinner and then a village walk.  

They were pulling out all of those little fish from the nets

Ingenious way to water plants. 
Those bottles are full of water

I don't know what this fish was for. 
It was out in the sun and covered in ants

This lady collects plastic bottles and makes them into
flowers to sell to tourists. 

Dark comes fast in the tropics.  We were heading back and I stopped to take a picture of something (ok, it was cats) when we got separated from our group.  Joe stayed with me or I would be living with those cats to this day.  We walked along the trail in the fading light.  The group was nowhere to be seen but we could still kind of see the trail at first.  Then we couldn't.  This is not a road, or a well worn path, this was more like a deer trail.  With roots.  And the occasional motorcycle trying to pass.  

Some people were behind us with flashlights.  They stayed behind us so I could get enough of their light to navigate.  We came upon a fork in the path.  Hmm?  No idea. Joe?  Nope.  The people behind us caught up.  They were soldiers!  Protecting the turtles from poachers?  Protecting Malaysia from Philippinos?  Protecting idiot tourists lost in the dark?  Probably that last one.  

At that point, our guide Albert noticed he had lost us and came back to bring us home.  

We caught back up with the group just in time to pass a field full of fireflies. I don't think I have ever seen fireflies before, or not that many anyway.  It was amazing to see.  Little dots of light, filling the bushes as the fireflies landed on the branches.  We could also see the stars so bright above.  It was kind of magical.  

Back at camp, we got a little lesson on turtle hatchery.  It turns out our camp has a smaller version of the one Joe and I saw at the snorkeling beach.  And they had some recently hatched babies too! 

Go to the water, little babies! 

I went to bed after that.  It started to rain in the night.  Hard! The bathrooms were so far away.  No nighttime pee that night.  At one point, I thought my alarm was going off, there was a very loud 'beeping' in my tent.  I sat up.  It was a frog, I could see it silhouetted between my tent screen and the flap.  Just the perfect place to really project his voice directly into the tent. He was little but his voice was big! Fortunately, he didn't stay long.  He woke up Juli in the next tent too.  She assumed it was the gecko that had fallen into her bed from the ceiling earlier. 

It was still raining a bit in the morning but not so bad.  And they had umbrellas in the dining hall we could use.  I was up early so I took a walk along that sandbar.  It didn't quite reach the island but it was so beautiful and quiet.  I picked up some seashells. Most of them had hermit crabs in them but I found a few that were unoccupied. 

ooo, pretty!

Nope, all full at the inn

Then it was time to go.  It was a pretty wet boat ride back to town though.  We could only bring an overnight bag so I didn't have my raincoat.  But they had side panels down on the boat so it was ok-ish. 

Straight to the airport to head back to Kota Kinabalu.  

Back to the Hotel Shangri-La. We were going to meet at a different hotel bar for our last night.  But it was really raining so there was a change of plans that I missed so I didn't end up going.  Joe figured out where everyone was though so he did the goodbye dinner.  

I actually feel asleep at 7 so it's just as well. Everyone was very nice but I didn't gel with this group. It was a big group.  Too big for one van so for the first few days, we were split between two vehicles.  This is not conducive to bonding with your tour mates!  I literally only learned one person's name on the last day.  

I'll finish up the last day and flight (including Seoul, Korea) stop over in another post.  I have to go to bed, work tomorrow!  

Sepilok

We had a short drive to Sepilok the next morning after a leisurely late breakfast (8 am!).  Sepilok is an orangutan rehabilitation centre and 43 acre forest sanctuary.  They receive injured, orphaned, poached etc orangutans.  Blame the palm oil industry for pretty much everything bad that happens.  Orangutans are endangered so every one saved is another one that can potentially be released back into the wild. 

Before I came to Borneo I watched several episodes of Orangutan Jungle School which I would highly recommend.  You really get to know how much like humans these animals are.  

But first we stopped at our hotel.  It is by the same owners as the lodge at Kinabatangan River but even nicer.  It was too early for our rooms so we just dumped out bags and back out the door.  

Then off to the rehabilitation centre!  They have a feeding at 10 am and 3 pm.  After a certain age and level of jungle competence, the orangutans are released into the 43 sq acre forest reserve. The staff put fruit out on an outdoor platform for anyone who wants a free lunch (non-human).  They say they put out less appetizing food (mostly vegetables) so the orangutans won't come back if they have enough tastier jungle food.  So, the fact that we didn't see an orangutan is good news, at least that's what they kept telling us anyway. 

But no worries, the pig-tailed macaques were highly entertaining.  They give the orangutans a few minutes, then we the coast is definitely clear, they move in for their free eats!  There were lots of them. 

I took a million pictures and then a baby showed up so I took a million more. 

It turns out the jungle isn't the only place to see the orangutans!  The junior nursery (not the babies though) gets a feeding at 10:30.  We we went there once most of the outdoor platform was cleared.  The nursery is open to the released orangs too so there is a mix of adult and littles.  But behind glass.

It's basically like a school yard with lots of climbing opportunities out there. And lots of orangutans! Including a new mom and her baby.  Those babies are too much! 

A quick bathroom and cat-scritch break 

He doesn't look like he wanted a head scritch
but he really did.  

Next up, the Sun Bear Conservation Centre right across the road. 

We could look down at the bears from a platform so it was hard to see their faces as they rooted around for grubs.  They kind of look like fat rottweilers from above. 

Sun Bears are not nearly as engaging as the orangutans unfortunately since they are both vying for adoptions.  

this: 

It was finally late enough for us to get our cabins at the resort.  And lunch.  

Apparently, this is the only photo I took.

We had a free afternoon.  Some of the people took a cab to the probiscus monkey sanctuary, some used the pool or rested.  Joe and I went back to Sepilok for the 3pm feeding. We already had tickets so it was free re-entry.  But Joe forgot his ticket. So, the nice man at the door asked Joe to show his pictures on his phone.  Joe didn't have any pictures from the morning.  I doubt the nice man at the door had ever met a tourist who did not take one single picture of the orangutans in the park.  Not one.  So he turned to me and asked me to show him some selfies I took of the both of us.  Not a selfie to be had.  I'm sure he thought we were the worst liars at this point, or maybe space aliens still learning how to human.  But I managed to find one picture where Joe photobombed my shot of the park entrance. It is technically outside of the park but he let us in, probably because he could not deal with our weirdness. 

photobomb to the rescue

I hoped this time we would get to see some of the wild orangutangs.  Plus, there were way fewer people.  The resort had a free shuttle (a guy driving a little green car). 

There weren't nearly so many people there.  It was raining a little bit which is not great for wildlife viewing since the orangutans don't like rain but I was hopeful. 

rain but no people.  Also no animals

So, it turns out, no one likes the rain.  Not even the macaques.  Not one animal showed up.  We asked the volunteer there. He said it was very unusual that there was nothing!  Not even a squirrel stopped by.  So, back to the nursery. 

Mom and baby were there but as soon as this big guy showed up, they skedaddled.  

Sepilok is not far from the resort but since it was raining, and I am gibbled, we had the shuttle come back to take use to the Skywalk Nature reserve which is between the resort and Sepilock.  They have raised walkways through the jungle. This is when I discovered that Joe does not like heights. But he is a trooper and we went in. We found Juli, an American member of our group there so we went over the trails together. 

It was hot so we didn't see much, just lots of signs telling us how awesome the birds and animals we weren't seeing are.  

Joe even climbed a viewing tower.  This picture does 
not convey how much he did not like it. 

The only animal we saw, a black squirrel with a red belly.
google tells me it is a 'Provost's Squirrel'.  He is licking the tree sap

Joe with a 'Tractor Millipede'.  

crossing the 'lake' on a swing bridge. 

We walked back to the resort after that.  Just in time for the night walk.  We were going back to the sky walk.  Joe had had enough so he declined. I went even though my feet were killing me.  

We saw some cool animals.  Of which I have terrible photos. I have to learn to use my camera at night. We saw a Red Flying Squirrel, a Western Tarsier, a Bornean Slow Loris, and a Flying lemur which is not really a lemur. It's actually a Colugo.  Here is a photo of the Tarsier I stole from the group chat. 

I was dying at the end of the walk.  I was ready for bed.  We walked back to the resort and I crashed.