Introduction to Project Orion II

Project Orion II - Rovering with Turtles
is the 4th Scouts of the World Award (SWA) Voluntary Service Project of the SWA Singapore Base.

The 2nd installment of this project will be led by 9 youths from Singapore and they will return to Setiu, Terengganu, where the pioneer team had left their legacy a year ago.

The primary aim of the team would be the conservation of sea turtles, but that would not be their only contribution during the project duration of 26th June to 10th July. The 9 passionate youths will also be involved in mangrove replanting, repair work for the villagers and WWF info centre and English and conservation awareness education for the children.


"Leave the place a little better than you first found it." - Lord Baden Powell

Sunday, July 4, 2010

KBS Night Patrol - Mingxian finally gets to see some eggs!

HELLOOOOOOO, this is Mingxian again! :D Judging from the happy photo above, I bet you all have already guessed that this is going to be a happy post! :D :D

Four of us (Chow Wee, Jia Wei, Jason and me!) headed down to Kuala Baru last night for our patrolling! We reached Kar Tar's place at 2130h and waited for Abang B to bring us over to the jetty for our boat ride.

We've heard stories of the scary boat ride from Si Jie because the boat nearly capsized that night. I felt really apprehensive about the ride because I CAN'T SWIM FOR NUTS. Abang B brought his young son Ashraff (11 years old!) along and we were all super impressed with him. The little boy was extremely independent and really adorable. There were barely any lights around but he led us down the dark path confidently. At that moment, i was so ashamed of myself for being so afraid of the dark.

Well, looking really retarded with a FDA, I got on a rather big boat with comfy sofa seats and i said to the rest of the team members:

"Eh not bad leh! Not very small what!"

But one of them nudged me and pointed towards a small little boat beside me. Looking really retarded with a FDA, i boarded the boat very clumsily, found a seat and held on to the side of the boat for dear life.

Fortunately, the ride was a rather smooth one and i actually really enjoyed it! The nightsky was dotted with stars and the night breeze was really refreshing. :D We arrived at the first checkpoint where the first pair (Chow Wee and I) alighted with two of the rangers and started our patrol.

We walked along the shore for probably 30 minutes before the rangers turned towards the trees. We headed over to where the second team left the boat and took the boat to our next check point.

We met up with the second team (Abang B, Ashraff, Jia Wei and Jason) there and was delighted to find out that they found a clutch of 12 Terrapin eggs! Excitedly, we dug a hole in the hatchery and we all got our turns to place the eggs gingerly into the nest. :D


Abang B! :D
The Oblong-shaped eggs :D
Abang B then got a call from one of the rangers that he found another nest near the hatchery! We headed down and Abang B allowed us to have the chance to transfer the eggs (14 of them this time!) from the nest into the pail. We had to be really careful with how we handle the eggs because mishandling of eggs may result in deformities in the baby terrapins.

We rested for a while at the river mouth before heading back to the hatchery again. The four of us sat down to talk outside the hatchery and Abang B brought some food out for us. It started raining then and we headed inside the house to sleep.

We didn't really have a good sleep thoough and we woke up at 0730h to head back to Kar Tar's house. I was really happy and cheery the entire day because I was so afraid that this trip would be unfruitful too! The others kept joking about how I scare the turtles/terrapins away and that I'll definitely not see any during my night patrols. Tsk. :( BUT WELL, I STILL DID! TWO CLUTCHES OF EGGS WOOOOOOOOOT.

We absolutely enjoyed the boat ride back because it was really refreshing and relaxing. :) We took a photograph with Abang B and his adorable son! :D






:D :D

2 clutches of eggs are probably nothing compared to what the other teams have seen during their Telega Papan patrol but I'm already very grateful for it. :D I did behave slightly crazy about it after that... but you can't really blame me for it since the entire team was talking about how jinxed I am and that anyone who goes on patrols with me will never see turtles/terrapins/eggs BUT I DID. WOOT, I BROKE THE CURSE HAHAHAHA.



P.S: If Yong Liang has a fruitful trip tonight, then maybe the 'suay' one is Sijie! HAHAHAHAHAHA


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