21st May - Cukai River anchorage - zoo - mall - refinery - turtle hatchery - high tea

Wednesday 21^st May

Great to be reunited with BadGirls Lyn and Janice

Today we went on our first East Malaysian Rally excursion.

An eccentric/eclectic collection of events…

First we went to a small zoo, which was nice and leafy

and which provided me with a good photo opp for tapirs, relaxing, or so our kindly guide told me.

I do love a tapir or two!

There were a few orangutans, very interested to sit by the water and stare at their visitors.

A very large rhinoceros hornbill

And the odd slightly sad tiger and lion, and a very lonely gibbon.

But…we have just been to the Singapore Zoo so maybe we didn’t appreciate this ambitious little fauna park as we should.

Next stop, quite a long way north up the coastal road – a shopping mall!  Why not??  I bought some Ol’ Bitey Bega cheese – Bega cheese is everywhere!  One should never be surprised to find it, lurking in far-flung fridges.

After this we kept driving north and through an enormous Petronas oil and gas refinery.  No stops for photos so I took a quick shot out the bus window.  For posterity!

Next stop – total joy; a turtle hatchery!  A few kindly people have set up  turtle rescue on this lovely beach.  We just adored these fit little creatures.

They have VERY strong paddling fins!!

We were able to pick them up and wave them around in the air for a few photos.

But…best of all, we took a big bucketload down to the beach and set them free, having first given them names.  Nothing like a bit of anthropomorphism!  Mine was…Miranda!*

Go Miranda!  Go!

We were all totally elated, setting free our darling little turtles.  So were the Brahminy kites elated…  OH NO!!**

Last stop was back on the riverfront of Cukai Town – high tea in a marquee!  High tea Malaysian style… We had tea, water, coconut drinks, mangoes, curry, various unidentifiable items, wrapped in banana leaves.  Just delicious – dinner!!

We will probably leave tomorrow to continue up the coast towards Terangganu.  I think most boats are leaving then so we will go in some sort of convoy.***

Sazli and Pete releasing turtles

*  Why Miranda, said Pete, bewildered.  O brave new world which has such people in it!  No I didn’t start quoting from The Tempest; nobody, as Misty says, likes a clever clogs!

**  Apparently only one out of a thousand of these little hatchlings will survive to return to this very beach to lay her eggs.

*** Boats here in the Cukai River:

Out of the Blue II – Lyn and Chris

Zoa – Janice and Mick

Calypso – Paul and Maureen

Labarque – Patrick and Elizabeth

Jackster – David and Jacqui

Ajax – Mark and Heather

Magnetic – Yolanta and Trevor

Yolo - Karen and Jason
Saol Elle - Myra and Porric

And maybe I have forgotten someone…this is very possible…

Janice, on the turtle beach, taking a photo of me, on the turtle beach...