¤ Break Free ¤ Go Solo ¤ Smile ¤ Enjoy ¤: Turtle Nightlight ~ Ma' Daerah

27-29 June '08

Went to Ma' Daerah, a turtle sanctuary at Kerteh. Why would I go there just to see turtles??? Well I haven't been to these places before, plus I really like animals, and the whole turtle sanctuary thing sounds really intriguing.

Shall start with this place Kerteh. It's like a small town, and to those who does'nt know where it is... It's in Kuantan. Nah, it's at the edge of Terengganu, near Kuantan. So still remember your form 2 /3 Geography syllabus??? It's one of the place in Malaysia which has aplenty of petroleum. Besides that, their quite famous for their keropok lekor.

The fellow Taylorians took a bus to Kerteh. As the turtle sanctuary was far in, we had to walk around 15-20 mins or so. And it's a steep road at some point, some of us nearly slipped. Eyes must be on the ground most of the times, it's not only muddy and rocky but dunky as well... loads of cow dunk.
This picture reminds me of New Zealand. AHhhh... just that there's no pine trees and the cow weren't black and white. Every morning they will be let out and start grazing grass. Want to know how to differentiate a KLites from the others? Just ask them what animal is that (in the pic) and surprisingly they will answer horse. I heard my friends shouting :"Wow, there's horse here!!" I followed them, and saw something that looks like cow. Geeezz...
Couldn't wait to see the sea. (tho just came back from Redang) We walked straight down to the rocks near the forest. Were told not to go there or wander around at night as the sanctuary was surrounded by virgin forest.

This is the view from the rocky zone. What's a nice view without a nice person with a nice smile with a nice tan?! =P

Everyone was excited! Jia Yi~ Shi Hoay~ Julie~ Pheikvay~

Balitong's familia....
Newly built toilet.

Supposed to be the girls'.

The boys' loo doesn't have a door for every shower.

Ended up, boy's and girl's loo.

The wheather was scorching. Even the cat followed us lazing and lying around.

Turtle time! We get to see experts act as midwives. The turtles may take more than an hour to find for the strategic spot to place their eggs in. So when the turtle dug a hole, the midwife will start to collect their eggs as soon as they are laid.

At the same time, we the volunteers will start to help them to count the number of eggs. After counting, transfer the egg to a bucket, then bring them to hatchery. Write at the board the date
and number of eggs. All this small steps are crucial. When they are hatched, we will count the number of hatchlings. If the numbers doesn't tally, we have to find out the reason whether they were unhatched or undeveloped.

Once they are hatch, we immediately let them out to the sea. Take around 50 days to hatch. Lower temperature will result to more male hatchlings, vice versa.

The pit

Turtle tracks looks like the tractors. One way to know whether the island or beach you go to has turtles, is by spotting parts of jellyfish at the seaside. Jellyfish is a delicacy among the turtles.

Aliens... It's slightly brighter than the blue sand we saw in Redang. I went for a walk with pak cik, to check on the other turtles. And he collected what he called kunang-kunang for me. Asked him isn't kunang-kunang same as kelip-kelip which are fireflies, he said yes, just that these has no wings. (sweat)

We took our blanket out and slept on the beach. Was hoping some turtle come up to me and sleep with me... hehe. Woke up early in the morn waiting for the sunrise. Was right in front of me... coool! Snap... snap... snap...