Turtle Islands - practically in the Phillipines.

It was a very early start to the KK airport to enjoy our full service flight to Sandakan - thank you Malaysian airlines for the juice and peanuts and full entertainment package - pity it was only a 50 min flight before we landed on the sunny East coast and made our way to Selingen Island by speedboat ( or spine jarring hell boat depending on your point of view and which way the swell was heading !!! )

The Island is in the middle of the Turtle Sanctuary group of Islands, a national park continued on the Phillipino side which is good for the breeding turtles who return here to where they were born.

The accommodation was basic and food woeful but the beach and hatchery was right there and the turtle tracks practically came up to the restaurant.








It rained on and off during the afternoon but we rested and swam and waited for night when the turtles in the hatchery would emerge and maybe a mummy would come onto the beach to lay. We were fortunate to see the babies in their little wire nest enclosures and then even luckier to be able to shoo them on their way to the sea and a hopefully long and happy life.





When the mothers lay the rangers scoop up the eggs and put them in labelled nests to improve survival rates and aid research and then 2 months later when hatched they are returned to the beach to imprint their geological position and hopefully return in many years to start over again.

It rained and we waited and waited but as it is off season only a couple of turtles come each night ( 5 the night before ) and it was not our night but the sleep was good.


Graeme, Wendy, Luke, Simon, Kate, Bec, Marcus.