Touchdown Sydney

So excited to have touched down in Sydney and be on our way back to see all our families and friends.

As we sit on the bus heading back to Newcastle we are reflecting on the past two weeks:

Ali - the adventure of the amazing race is drawing to a close as we head home to reality. Awesome experience that we shared together and one that I would love to see others experience.

Sharkie - sad the trip is over but happy to be able to unpack the bag full of pressies for others!

Rhi - adventure of a lifetime with amazing people. Sad it's over but happy to be home.

Carol - fantastic time with wonderful group of people and can't wait to see Sharkie's documentary.

Lou - life changing experience. Found it tough but had great bunch of friends to help me through it. So glad I took on the challenge.

Holly - great historic adventure and challenge and amazing mateship. Happy not to eat rice for a long while !

We all feel like we have been part of the amazing race. Check out our stats:

In the past 14 days we have been on:

·         8 flights

·         7 boat rides (113 km by boat)

·         40 coach, car or ute rides

·         110 km trek through the jungle

·         30km of general walking

·         1 train ride

We have stayed in:

A Longhouse, tents, 2 star hotels, Chalets, River Lodge, 5 star Le Meredian hotel.

We have crossed:

·         3 suspension bridges

·         9 rivers

·         Sulu Sea and South China Sea

·         Visited 3 big cities of Sandakan, Labuan and Kota Kinabalu

·         Visited 7 small towns and

·         Been through 22 villages.

So our amazing adventure has come to an end. We have all come back safe and sound, created new friendships and cemented old ones.

An amazing bunch of people from all different walks of life who came together to do something incredible for Camp Quality. CQ is so lucky to have such courageous and passionate people as part of its family.

We have all come back with such knowledge of what actually went on during the POW's captivity and with a real desire to pass this knowledge on.

What happened to these soldiers is described as Australia's holocaust and one of its worst war time atrocities and yet barely any Aussies even know about it.

Having walked in their footsteps we get some idea of where these death marches took them but we will never fully understand how they just kept going without food, water, boots, and clothes and riddled with sickness such as malaria, ulcers or battered and bruised bodies from beatings from the Japanese.  They continued to drag their poor bodies along the track as they knew that if they stopped then they would be shot or stabbed.

Their story needs to be told - they need to be recognised for their bravery. Do yourself a favour and google the Sandakan Track Death March or better still contact Wayne from Sandakan Spirit and book a trip over to Sandakan to walk the Track. You will get to meet the amazing Jerome - a guide who goes way beyond what is expected to ensure all your needs are catered for. He is a wealth of information regarding the Death March and is so passionate about ensuring that these courageous POW's story is told.

Thank you to everyone who supported us in every way to get us here. A massive thank you also to Beaker who ensured that the blog that I sent him at any and all hours (depending on when we had wi-fi) was always posted.

Until the next adventure,

Donna x

Day 14

How fantastic it was to have our first ever sleep in since we arrived. 9.30am wake up and then a yummy breaky at Le Meredien.

After breaky we all headed to do some last minute shopping.

We then headed back to our hotel to pack our bags and were excited when Kazz showed up to say goodbye to us all - what a lovely young man he is.

After this all the girls headed off for a pedicure and manicure - it was so relaxing and our feet really appreciated the attention!!

We are now sitting in the lobby of Le Meredien waiting for Jerome to come and collect us for our trip to the airport.

We are coming home!

Day 13

Another 5.30 am wake up to be on a morning boat trip for two hours up the river on the lookout for a crocodile for Louise!

True to form of our guides we spotted two big ones - one in the water and one on the bank and two baby crocs. We also saw lots more monkeys playing in the wild, an Orangutang and heaps of different birds. We arrived back at the Lodge about 7.45 am and had a nice breakfast. After we checked out we jumped on the boat again for 5 minutes and then back on our bus.

We arrived at Gomantang Caves. This is massive caves filled with bats, birds, rats and millions of cockroaches!

It absolutely smells so rotten from all the bat poo. It is hard to breathe as you are walking through it. The special species of birds that live in it make their nests out of their own saliva. These nests are sought after in Hong Kong and China and are said to extend your life and provide longevity. Up to $5,000 USD is paid for them.  For this reason the cave is guarded and guards actually sleep over in this cave to ensure their is no thefts - how they can possibly stand it is beyond all of us !!!!

Three times a year climbers come in and climb up the cave walls to retrieve the eggs so they can be exported to Hong Kong and China.  Should the climbers fall, they land on huge mounds of bat poo and it breaks their fall and literally saves them.

For lunch we were taken to an English Tea House right on the top of a hill overlooking the water. We had some cocktails, English fish and chips and yummy scones with cream and jam. Such a beautiful spot.

Once leaving we were on our way to a tour of Sandakan. First stop was a beautiful Buddhist temple perched on top of a hill with the most sensational view.

Next stop was Sim Sim Water Village.  People build their homes in the water. All their rubbish including their sewerage goes straight into the water - the water is filthy and the kids swim in it.   Because the houses are built over water, babies are kept inside until they are about 3 and then taught to swim. 

Last stop was the local markets where a few more trinkets were purchased. We then returned for an afternoon cocktail at the English Tea House before we head to the airport to catch our flight back to Kota Kinabalu for our last night.

Hugs,

Donna

Day 12

Such an exciting night.

After our dinner we all settled in for a Uno Tournament while we waited for a call from the Ranger to say the turtles were on the beach.

At around 10.00 pm the call came out "turtle time" "turtle time" from the Ranger. We all grabbed our head torches and followed the ranger to the beach.

"Helen" the green turtle had burrowed into the sand and was laying eggs. We all gathered around to watch as the ranger grabbed the eggs to put in a bucket as they were laid.  Once Helen was finished laying they announced she had produced 93 eggs. We then left her to rest before she would make her way back into the water.

We then followed the ranger to the hatchery. Here a 75 cm deep hole was dug and the 93 eggs put in and covered with sand to wait the 8 weeks for them to hatch.

We then made our way back to the beach and formed a horseshoe around a basket which had 66 very active baby turtles who had hatched. When released, they scurried for the water and we were able to touch them as we helped a few that went the wrong way back on track.

Unfortunately they are easy prey in the water and only about 3% of them survive.

We all then went to bed and left the rangers to continue their work through the night. When we got up this morning we were told that 9 turtles actually made nests through the night and the rangers collected 696 eggs for the hatchery.

We had our breaky and jumped on the boat to make the hour journey back to Sandakan, saying our goodbyes to beautiful Turtle Island.

Our bus was waiting for us at Sandakan and we then went to Labuk Bay Proboscis Monkey sanctuary. These are funny looking monkeys with big noses. As they were fed they provided lots of entertainment with their shenanigans and they came very close to us. There was so many of them.

We then jumped on our bus again for another 2 hour drive to Sukau and then on a boat again for a five minute ride to the Borneo Nature Lodge.   We checked in and had our lunch and then all went for an afternoon nap.

We met again at 3.30 pm ready to go on our two hour river cruise.

For 2.5 hours we cruised up the river in an open boat. We were able to get so close to the animals in the wild including lots more monkeys, beautiful birds and to top it all off the Borneo pigmea elephants - very exciting. It was awesome to see them all in their natural habitat and was definitely not something we would ever normally experience.

We then returned to the Borneo Nature Lodge for showers before dinner.

This extra few days tour had been so amazing and I am so glad we stayed on to really see the sights of Borneo (besides jungle!). It has also been great to have Jerome come along with us just as one of us, and not our guide. He is great company and we taught him how to play Uno last night,

Simon, we are still on the lookout for Louise's crocodile and our guide is hopeful that tomorrow will be the day!!!!!

Hope you guys (Simon, Kylie, Jackson and Lachlan) had a good trip home.

Love to all our families back home - until tomorrow,

Donna