So I just spent the last two weeks in the gorgeous Perhentian Islands off the North East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia. I was lucky enough to enjoy two weeks volunteering with the Help Our Penyu Turtle Project on the main Perhentian Island in a small resort completely isolated by land. Bubbles Dive Resort is located on a beautiful secluded bay away from the rat race.
The main goal of my visit was to help the Turtles. So this pretty much involved the other volunteers and I taking it in turns to do either a Turtle Watch (8pm-3am) or a Poacher Watch (3am-8am). For the un-initiated this means you walk up and down the beach about every hour checking for tracks and nesting Turtles. And as Bubbles is the third largest nesting site for the Green Turtle then you have an extremely good chance of seeing one. I was initially quite concerned that I would miss the tracks but I soon learnt that there is no chance of this as they are usually up to a metre wide and look a bit like a bulldozer going up the beach.
So once you find a Turtle it turns into the waiting game as it can take on average about 2 ½- 3 hrs to complete the process. So first the Turtle will dig out a body pit with their front flippers then they will use their back flippers a bit like a scoop to delicately dig out a chamber for there eggs. Once satisfied with the depth of the chamber (usually an arms length deep) she begins to lay her eggs which can range from 2 (a very odd occasion) to 150. So by now she could have been working on this nest for more than an hour. So then begins the cover up. First she uses her back flippers again to softly cover the eggs with sand then she begins to move forward with her front flippers, flicking all the sand behind her so she ends up creating a fake body pit to distract predators about 2 metres in front of the eggs. Through this entire process we are recording everything from Track measurements, to the size of the turtles shell and then the times for each step.
And sometimes it can turn into a bit of a rescue mission as on one occasion I had to get the saw out and cut down a branch as she started to panic when she couldn't find her way out between two trees. So you can see why Sea Turtles need all the help they can get when you take into account all the horrible things can happen to them. In the two weeks I was there, one nest was eaten nearly entirely by a Monitor Lizard only days out from hatching (luckily there were still some left as I got to release some of these hatchlings, so cute :-p ), then 4 chambers were eaten by Red Ants and these were also only days away from hatching, so you can imagine how disgusting it is to find poor babies being eaten alive by ants.
But then if all that excitement is not enough then we all got to lead at least one Snorkel Tour which takes us and the other tourists to some gorgeous locations. Including Coral Garden with a gorgeous array of Tropical fish and even the odd Bumphead Parrotfish and Blue Spotted Yellow Stingray, then its onto Turtle Bay, where yes you guessed it you get to see some Turtles in there feeding grounds. After all that excitement its off to Shark Bay where you get to swim with Black Tipped Reef Sharks which get up to about 2m long. I really enjoyed these Snorkel Tours although the abilities of the guests can range from expert divers to never having swam in there life so you can really make a big impact on some of these guests. Then you've got jungle trekking, the odd use of your handy man skills, a traditional Malay Dinner in the village and then a beach clean to round out the two weeks.
The food was unlimited so every meal time you can pig out to your hearts content with a mix of Asian and Western food. Then with a full belly and a tired body its usually time for a nap in a hammock. I also saw some pretty intense storms. Usually when it rains in Malaysia it pours so you get massive winds blowing you away whilst huge droplets of rain pound you from the East. And it pretty much always happens when you’re eating dinner in the open sided restaurant so everyone dashes to pull down the plastic walls and runs from the tables next to the open sides. Probably the worst part for me was all the injuries sustained. I still have a water logged ear and my feet have so many wounds I don't know what to do with them plus the cold showers weren't that pleasant.
I really enjoyed the experience and I would recommend it to anyone who has an interest in Conservation (especially Turtles) and doesn’t mind living in a Tropical Island Resort for a while away from the grind (although there is wifi so you can't escape that much). If you want more information head to http://www.helpourpenyu.com/
Thanks to Dan, Hailey, Al and the other vols for making it a great two weeks :-)
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