SEATRU - Day 1

May 3, 2008 (Saturday)

After a long bus ride from Johor Bharu, JiaXing (Jackson) and I finally reached Kuala Terengganu, where we met up with Alaric (Lari). We headed to University Malaysia Terengganu (UMT) where Prof Chan, who has been the one driving this program for years, gave us a short briefing on turtles in general. I learnt quite a bit about turtles, cause I knew nothing about turtles before. It's been good and I started looking forward to getting started.

Of all the 8 volunteers in our slot, 4 of us came frm Jit Sin. It's gotta be great to be able to spend some time with old friends. I didn't get to know much about the other 4 new friends until much later. On our way from UMT to Merang Jetty, from Merang Jetty to Laguna Resort, from Laguna to Chagar Hutang - I spent my time appreciating the fact that I was back to the stinky sea again. I was happy - because I have always loved the nature and the sea. I totally loved the sea water that was crystal clear. Malaysia has got something to be proud of, really.

Merang Jetty

Gorgeously beautiful

We're greeted by couple of friendly workers. Adi, Mann, Gary and Fifi (who joined us later), together with the research assistant, Kak Nur, were really friendly and entertaining. Haha.

After unpacking and resting for a bit, Kak Nur told us briefly what were we supposed to do and what to expect.

Our daily schedule

0700: Wake-up & Breakfast

0800: Free time, hourly patrol along the beach

1300: Lunch

1400: Free time, hourly patrol along the beach

1700: Excavation and nest check

1900: Dinner

2000: Lie in the beach and wait for turtles to land

0000: Night shift I

0200: Night shift II

0400: Night shift III

*each shift lasts for 2 hours

Turtles will normally land at night to nest. We're to record down the times of each turtle's activities.

Here's the process of a turtle's nesting-

landing, body pitting, egg chambering, laying egg, covering chamber, camouflaging (sand bathing), returning

During the first night, we're privileged to see couple of landings. Will write more about the turtles in the next few days ;)

The gorgeous that we owned