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

Day 11

hat a wonderful RELAXING day we have finally had.

Back to that in a minute!

Last night after we had our celebration dinner we said our goodbyes to Simon, Kylie, Jackson and Lachlan who are leaving tomorrow to start the journey home.

Several of us went to the Irish Bar for a few cocktails and when we left, Sharkie decided to party on (because it was now his birthday) with a few Dutch friends and got home around 3.00 am!!!  Brad said he was doing and saying weird things!

We all had to meet in the lobby at 6.00 am to check out and jump on the bus to take us to the airport again. We flew to Sandakan and from here caught a boat for an hour to Seligen Island where the green sea turtles and hawksbill title come every night of the year to lay eggs - this is what we are going to see tonight.

When we checked into our rooms, we then went down to the beach and swam and snorkelled for two hours before lunch. The water is so clear and as warm as bath water. After lunch we all had several hours sleep and then went back to the beach for another swim - if possible the water was even warmer. It was such a relaxing day and our feet and legs really appreciated the salty water.

We have now all had showers, listened to a very interesting talk about turtle conservation and are about to watch a turtle movie, have dinner and then we wait for a call from the ranger to say the turtles have arrived and are laying their eggs so we can run down and have a look.

The rangers will also release lots of the hatchlings later tonight into the sea - going to be awesome to watch them scurry into the water. So we have to do a sit in and just wait for the ranger to call us - it could be any time from 6 pm to 3 am. Let's hope the turtles decide to come early!

Can't wait to tell u all about it in our next post.

Love to all and safe travels Simon, Kylie, Jackson and Lachlan.  We miss you already.

Donna

Day 10

This morning was another early start with everyone meeting Jerome in the lobby at 6.15 am to pick up our breakfast pack. We jumped on our mini bus and made our way to the airport to catch a little plane to Labuan.   On the plane they served us peanuts and soy milk!!!!!!

When we got off the plane we jumped on another bus to have a tour of Labuan Island and ended up at the Commonwealth War Cemetery. This is the final resting place for over 3,000 Australian, British Soldiers and locals.

The Cemetery is beautifully maintained and it was quite moving as we all formed a horseshoe around the Cenotaph, Jerome spoke and Brad read out the Ode.

As we moved around the headstones Jerome explained that of the 3000 bodies buried here over 1700 of them were unknown. Unfortunately when their remains were found they were unable to be identified. So sad to see so many headstones without a name. Also there are still 200 bodies completely unaccounted for. So sad for these soldiers families.

When we left here we caught a little speed boat that held all 14 of us and 3 crew (very squishy) to Menumbok,

We jumped on a bus and started the 3 hour drive back to Kota Kinabula. It was a quiet trip home with almost everyone falling asleep. Jerome took us to a lovely spot on the water where we had satay sticks and the biggest jugs of freshly squeezed pineapple/mango juice - yum.

On return to the Le Meredian more afternoon naps. Now we are all in the lobby waiting to join up with Jerome, Kezz and Uncle for our Celebration Dinner. The enormity of what we have accomplished is starting to hit us and we are looking forward to the night together.

Love to all and talk tomorrow

Donna xxxxxxx