Talang Satang National Park

Last Saturday, we went to Talang Satang National Park. 

I took the liberty of copying and pasting from the Sarawak Forestry Corporation website for you:

Sarawak’s first marine national park, Talang-Satang was established with the primary aim of conserving Sarawak’s marine turtle population. The park comprises the coastline and sea surrounding four islands of the southwest coast of Sarawak; Pulau Talang Besar (Greater Talang Island) and Pulau Talang Kecil (Lesser Talang Island) off Sematan, and Pulau Satang Besar (Greater Satang Island) and Pulau Satang Kecil (Lesser Satang Island) off Santubong, near Kuching. These four “Turtle Islands” are responsible for 95% of all the turtle landings in Sarawak. The park also includes the Pulau Tukong Ara-Banun Wildlife Sanctuary, two tiny islets which are important nesting sites for colonies of Bridled Terns and Black-Naped Terns.

So there you go. Proper explanation. I didn't know it comprised four islands. Thought I heard our guide told us it was three islands. And no, I don't know which island I went to. So for the purpose of referring to them later in this post, I shall refer to the island I went to as Talang-Satang island. :)

Apparently, the night before we went there, 7 turtles were on the island laying eggs at night!! OMG excited max! @_@ I was so excited. Walking around the coast, I kept hoping to see the adult turtles. Ahhh.. Anyway, as we went past another island, our guide (Ryan) told us that there was only one turtle on that island last night. So yeah sorry I still don't know which island I went to. =.=

But let's start at the beginning! We drove up at about 7:10 am and arrived at about 8:20 am at the jetty at Sematan. Not bad. Just one hour 10 mins. There was hardly any traffic at that time that's why. Empty roads save for us. Bit spooky to tell the truth. Loong stretch of road and no cars. Hahaha

After breakfast, we waited for the boat to arrive at about 9 am. That's Benz in the photo. He was walking in front of me and I can't exactly ask him to go away or run in front of him to take photo. Actually I can. Maybe I'll do that next time..

Crystal clear waters.. It was ok but at least not dirty. As we got further out to sea, the water was much clearer and greener.

My trusty blue towel. Doesn't matter that people are laughing at me hahhaa including the guy at the back zzzz.. I came back in the same shade of skin and that's good enough for me. :)

Lucky I didn't get sea sick this time round. Actually going to the island, I felt a bit dizzy and kept burping out air. SY, the guy in the black cap was worse than me, I think. He held a hand to his mouth and kept burping too...looking at him made me feel worse hahha. 

Lucky on the way back to mainland, I felt ok. Much better. Him, he closed his eyes, found a comfy spot to lay down till we reached back.

This is where the eggs hatch. After the mother lays the eggs at night, they scoop out the eggs and put them in one of this little wire mesh thingy, with labels and all. Apparently one of this little thingy represents one mummy turtle. Quite a lot eh.

The island is quite isolated, I think. I mean, when on the island, you can't see the mainland. Just sea everywhere and other islands.

Tried the Pano Camera app but didn't turn out so well.

To show you how clear the water was. Ok lah..alot of little fishes around, and sometimes you spot little turtles swimming. While snorkeling, the guys also saw a small shark. Eeeek. No idea how they know its a shark but our guide says so, so should be. Better don't cheat me!

Cs looks so weird in this photo hahha but its the only photo of us both..so..

The leetle baby turtles that just hatched..so cute. They are tiny and waddling about. I didn't dare hold them for too long and quickly set them back.

Hahah he was wearing swimming trunks underneath. And his hair is getting really pong - time for a haircut!

There were many turtle eggs around the beach. Some proper ones like this, some just the shells, and some bad ones.  You have to dig slightly to search for it though. Cos the turtles dig/make a hole to lay their eggs right.

The path the turtles make climbing up the beach. Actually I tilted the camera. It was nowhere this steep!

These poor turtles are the ones that didn't survive. Too little, they get eaten by bigger fishes. Of course lah got sharks in the water leh!

I actually thought they would keep the turtles for longer until they are bigger before being set back into the sea, but no, the newborn turtles are being sent back to sea immediately after the record it etc. 

So fast. But they are so tiny! How to survive? Sigh..that's why only about 1 or 2 out of 10 survive. Poor things. People, stop eating turtle eggs!

Boon and ying watching Vero in the water or at the fishies. Either one.

If you want to go to the island, be warned though. There are really very basic necessities on the island itself. The beach is not large or very clean. Because there are some bad turtle eggs on the sand, there are sand flies, many sand flies. We all sprayed on some mosquito repellent and yet I came back with a grand total of about 8 mosquito bites, at least!! My legs are freaking ugly now.

Btw, photo below stolen off err..I think it was Benz's FB. :)

Also, there is not much things to do on the island. We arrived at about 9.30 am and left by about 2+ pm. Tooo much time to spare doing nothing. It was hot. There was a house that serves as their office and living quarters. But other than that its jungle and beach . 

That's probably the only place of shade from the sun, besides from the office itself. We came up with games to occupy our time. You have to bring your own food and water, or stave and die from dehydration! HAHaha not funny! Toilet facilities - well, there were two cubicles and both the flush wasn't working. So I didn't bother going snorkeling. No way I'm going into that toilet to change yucks. So yea, just to prepare you guys who are planning to go anytime soon. :)

Photo above stolen off Doreen's FB page and below photo stolen from Ryan. Credits to both of them. Thanks.

Last group photo! OK bye!