The Second Night Patrol

On the night of the 30th of June, another batch of 3 team members went for the second night patrol at Telaga Papan. To put it simply, Calvin, Ka Jun and myself walked the length of Telaga Papan 1. But as always, the devil is in the details.

I am very happy to say that our patrol managed to spot a grand total of 3 sea turtles! In addition, from those 3 turtles, we managed to recover 2 clutches of eggs. The first clutch had 54 eggs and the second one held 84 eggs but alas, 3 of them were cracked. In the case of the second turtle, the clutch of eggs it laid was actually stolen by thieves. What makes it heartbreaking, is that the theft happened while we were waiting for the first turtle to finish laying her eggs. The realization that we missed the second clutch of eggs by minutes was agonizing to say the least.

Kak Shila (one of the WWF staff members) told us that such thefts happen too often for comfort and once again, it provided us with a glimpse of the uphill struggle that is turtle conservation.

While seeing the green turtles and recovering the eggs were a definite highlight of the patrol, we were also provided with a fine display of nature that night. At some point around 1am, the overcast sky became increasingly ominous, the wind picked up dramatically and it got cold very fast. Predictably, the rain fell soon enough and the patrol retreated to what was probably the best shelter on the beach: a rickety pondok used to house a sampan that barely covered us.

However, Pak Ali (one of the rangers), through, what I believe to be magic, managed to produce hot bags of milo and keropok for everyone. He also went off for 5 minutes and came back with a watermelon. How he did it, I have no idea but believe me when I say we were all thankful he could.

So in a nutshell, we saw turtles, we recovered eggs, we ate like kings, it rained on us, we got owned by nature and we enjoyed it thoroughly.

Anyway, it's the start of a brand new day and it's mangrove replanting with the village children today! Everyone's getting ready and we can hardly wait. We'll get details up tonight!

Have a great day!

Chow Wee