Day 9 Diary by Harriet, Cathy & Alice

Privileged enough to wake up at the late hour of 7.45 (5.30 having been normal over previous few days: FML). We drove quickly and dressed rapidly in anticipation for the scrumptious breakfast that was awaiting us. We were not disappointed, consuming between us 6 pancakes, 6 eggs, half a large pig!, cereal, toast, muffins, yogurt, mountains of fruit and 5 hot drinks. This left us prepared and ready for a day of hard core trekking. At 9am we joined the rest of the gang in the air and conference room for a wee chat about the rainforest and the creatures that lurk within (thank you Lee for the traumatising video on leeches) .We then changed into what was to be the coolest trekking gear ever to be seen in the jungles of Borneo equipped with leech socks, tribal bands and very discreet camouflage paint. Those who were sceptical were just jealous. We set of on what was to be the sweatiest walk of our existence. A thin film of sweat remained on our skin for the entirety of the walk and a competition began among the youth for the best back sweat. (Charlie came out top) Friendships were permanently damaged as some were not as good participants as others!

The canopy walkway was an experience (not feeling at all safe at any point, especially when the two groups met in the middle of a rickety bridge.)

Returning to Majau 5, we successfully removed the buckets of sweat that covered our pale, bloated bodies and changed into more cooling attire. Harriet sat on the bed and read her new Borneo book while Cathy and Alice felt it appropriate to wash some underwear.

Lunch was calling. Watermelon, chicken, soup, rainforest burgers, rice, beef, potatoes, pasta, every fruit possible, and tea. We then after lunch gathered in the Conference Room and thought of our interview question for the Voices of Sabah project with the Malays.

We prepared ourselves for another trek that afternoon but plans were postponed due to a tropical downpour – torrential rain lasting for over an hour. This pleased us as was evident as all 3 of us fell asleep within 5 minutes of relaxing on our beds (sweating drains you) in full trekking gear. ( Cathy in boots, Harriet and Alice in Leech socks-surprisingly comfy!)  we awoke an hour and a half later with PABS knocking on our door – the rain had stopped – it was time for our next trek. We jumped up, already prepared, and ventured into the jungle. We saw various species of bugs, out favourite being the leech. Rupert had one on his shoe but no blood was drawn. Most animals were sensibly hiding as it was still raining. But we did see some species.

Dinner was calling. Not really hungry at all we managed to squeeze in a casual 10 staas,4 bowls of pumpkin soup, orange chicken, beef rendang, fried cucumber, half a peach cobbler with banana bread, jack fruit and a galleon of sugared cream and more fruit!

Whilst Cathy and Alice went on the night drive, Harriet ventured back into the jungle to witness the miracle of tree frog mating. Cathy and Alice saw a Thomas flying squirrel ( different species from ones we saw in Sepilok) and a very small and cute Slow Loris. How our guide spotted these in the top of trees at night astonished all on the night drive.

We returned to Majau 5 to shower again, covered in rainforest, juices knowing that we will dream about the rainforest and the breakfast that awaits us at 8 am. A truly smashing day and we are pleased to have Sholto again with us for our crazy trekking. Goodbye until next time from Harriet, Cathy and Alice and hi to or mothers Heather, Lynne and Sophie who hopefully might read this on the blog.

A SUMMARY OF THE MEETING DURING AFTERNOON.

We had a briefing from PABS about ‘Forests and why they are important as a follow up to yesterdays sound bites recorded by Sam Bowers towards the ‘Voices of Sabah reflections’. Quintin has also been recording the sounds of nature which we hope also to use in the recording. Some of these are on the blog already for you to hear.

What PABS told us:

1.

Tropical Forests cover about 15% of the land surface of the globe.

They contain about 25% of the carbon in the terrestrial biosphere

Roughly 13 million hectares ( the same as the size of Peru) are converted from Tropical Forests to other land uses each year.

This accounts for a fifth of the global carbon emissions

This means that land cover is the second largest contributor to global warming.

2.

Forest resources directly support the livelihood of 90% of the 1.2 billion people living in extreme poverty.

They are home to nearly 90% of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity.

Local communities depend on the Rainforests as a source of fuel,food, medicines and shelter

Therefore the loss of forests jeopardises poverty  alleviation

Climate change will hit the poorest hardest.

3.

At local and global scales forests provide essential ecosystem services such as carbon storage, watershed protection, water flow regulation, nutrient recycling, rainfall generation, and disease regulation.

Protecting Tropical forests has a double- cooling effect by reducing carbon emissions and maintaining high levels of evaporation from the canopy.

4.

The causes of deforestation are multiple and complex and vary from country to country

Local pressures arise  from using forests for food supply, fuel and farmland

Sabah – palm oil but also because of development and growth other land uses too.

Whilst millions of people still cut down trees to make a living for their families. A major cause of deforestation is now large scale agriculture driven by consumer demand as is possibly the case with Sabah. In recent years deforestation has shifted from a state- initiated to  an enterprise driven process .

The drivers of the demand for agricultural land vary globally:

In Africa it is still primarily small scale subsistence farming

In South America it is large scale agriculture such as beef ranches and soya plantations.

In SE Asia – ie Sabah and other countries it is somewhere between the two above, with palm oil, coffee and timber the main products.

Reference: The Little REDD Book – produced by the Global Canopy Programme.

Day 7 diary by Paul Baker from observations made by the group.

Today started with a walk on the beach at Turtle Island to watch the sun rise. After an early breakfast we caught the7am boat back to Sandakan. Over the previous day Sholto had become ill with a fever so on arrival in Sandakan, Sam (our Medical officer) and Lee took him to the Doctor who then referred him to the Duchess of Devonshire Hospital for tests. He was tested for everything imaginable including Denge fever. All the tests were negative and Sam and Sholto were able to join us  4 hours late on Kinabatangan River. Sam’s report back on the Doctor and Hospital was very positive and how reassuring they had been.

It is said that the Chinese Imperial merchants sailed up the Kinabatang River in search of the precious bird’s nests. Its floodplain is one of the most exceptional areas in Malaysia and so a must for us in studying conservation.  Over the centuries 5 distinct habitats have evolved- waterlogged and dry forests, saline and freshwater swamps and limestone forests each contributing towards the most diverse concentrations of wildlife in Borneo.

The river is 560kms long and this river is estimated to have the largest concentration of wildlife in all of Malaysia. The river cruise on the Kinabatangan river was outstanding and we were able to observe Proboscis, Long tailed macaque, pig tailed macaque and silver langur monkeys in detail. The author despite 7 trips to Borneo previously had never seen all these in such abundance in the wild and we were able to gather a vast number of photographs and details. We also saw a wide variety of birds including Wallace’s Hawk –Eagle, Wrinkled Hornbill, Oriental Pie Hornbill, Rhinoceros Hornbill and Crested serpent Eagle. A full list of all observations will be made at end of expedition and put on this site.

The photographs taken will also be available but they are an outstanding selection.

Paul Baker: ‘We are staying at the Nature Lodge KInabatangan at Kampong Bilit. The Rainforest experience for the group has really started although some work in Sepilok Rainforest Reserve helped to prepare them for looking carefully and quietly to see as much as possible in the Rainforest.

Sam ‘An unforgettable experience as nightfall creeps over the river ‘

Day 6 Diary by Hamish Sandison

Day 6   18^th July  – Turtle Island Diary by Hamish Sandison

The day started in a rather unspectacular fashion to the noise of Tom Mitchell screaming ‘Hamish there’s a Moon Rat, watch out’.  This of course was a lie, and I had grown used to these sorts of comments from Tom over the past week. I wasn’t in the greatest of moods due to the fact that i had spent the previous night in a dorm of 8 trying to get to sleep. The journey to Sandakan was relatively short and lasted no longer than 40 minutes, in which I read my book. I have never been much of a reader but for some reason I was rather obsessed with my current book which I had only started two days previous and was already 250 pages through. Once we arrived at the port, which wasn’t the cleanest place I had ever been, we sat and waited patiently for the boat which promptly arrived. We split into two boats, a girl boat and a lad boat. The journey proved uneventful with majority of people falling asleep. We did stop off for a photo opportunity to see how the local fishermen caught anchovies. We arrive at Turtle Island an hour after setting off and spent the next hour settling down in our rooms.

After lunch we were giving until 5 30 to relax and go to the beach. This was our first extended period of free time on the trip so far and we made sure not to put it to waste. We all rushed to the beach and relaxed. A fair few number opted to hire our some snorkelling gear and went out to sea to explore the choral. I too had an opportunity to see the fish in action was rather put off after seeing people returning to the beach with jelly fish stings. The wild life in the choral was very diverse though, with many crabs proving a source of entertainment for the younger people in the group. After the beach we all felt rather tired and went back to our rooms to clean up which in the end proved impossible, the showers we all salt water! The next part of the day was why we came to Turtle Island in the first place. We were waiting outside the canteen when Rupert called to us alerting us to come and see what we had found. Rupert had stumbled across a turtle nest in which more than 60 baby turtles were trying to make their way to the surface. All of us crowded round in excitement and each collected a few turtles and rushed to the beach and had turtle races, this was by far up there with one of the most amazing experiences I had experienced.

Once supper had concluded we were shown upstairs to an information room which told us all about the information of the program on the island. We saw real turtle skeletons and learnt all about the current laws regarding Turtle protection. Next we moved into the video room and watched a brief video on the life cycle of the turtles in Malaysia. Then we waited.

We had been sitting and waiting for over an hour, waiting for the warden to give us the signal. We had been sitting in darkness and in the silence so as not to scare off the mother turtles. Then we got the call and Lee quickly told us to get up and run over to a place where a turtle had begun to lay her eggs. It was a rather surreal experience, only the back of the turtle was lit up and what we saw was rather perplexing, it appeared that the turtles were laying ping pong balls. Once the turtle had finished the warden counted the eggs which added up to 92 eggs. We then briefly had a tour of the hatchery and then once again headed back to the beach to release some more baby turtle. It had been the longest and most tiring day of the trip so far and wasn’t made any easier by the fact that we were getting a wake- up call at 5 30 am the next morning. With this information in our heads we went straight to sleep.

‘Places like these represent  a healthy future for all of us and show it is not too late to stop the crisis of species loss’