Our second week of work started with a day that included tree planting. We had to drive for an hour to get to a river where we would take a boat journey, and then trek to an area where the local people are trying to keep the area populated with indigenous trees instead of palm oil trees which have been […]
It’s incredible to see just how intelligent and human-like Orang Utans are. I thought I’d start writing snippets as I will forget the amazing moments where we just look at each other and go ‘wow’, or ‘they’re just like us’….. 12th – 17th March. Our first week is in the nursery area, with the OUs who are between 3 and […]
Next door to the Orang Utan rehabilitation centre is another sanctuary for Sun Bears. Here, rescued bears can roam large areas of forest, dig for grubs, climb, forage and rest in the trees within the enclosures. They are the second rarest bear species, after the giant panda. The sun bear population has declined by at least 30% in the last 30 […]
During our week of quarantine to ensure that we didn’t have any viruses that we could pass on to the OrangUtans, we took a trip to a Proboscis Monkey sanctuary. This privately-owned sanctuary is located within a palm oil estate and it gives people the chance to observe these monkeys very closely. We could walk right past them and they […]
In the afternoon we were taken on a tour of the nearby town – Sandakan. Our first stop was the Sandakan Memorial Park. This is a beautiful rainforest garden which was the site of a Japanese POW camp during WWII. In July 1942, 1,500 Australian prisoners of war were transferred from Singapore to Sandakan as a forced labour to build a military […]
I first heard about this volunteering project from a friend I’d made whilst volunteering in Zambia. She has been here and absolutely loved it. I was initially a little put off as volunteers have to commit to 8 weeks, but after seeing the place on the ‘Paul O’Grady, Animal Orphans’ T.V programme I decided it was time to stop thinking […]
Borneo – Sepilok Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre. Days 1 & 2Read More »
It’s nice to end a busy holiday with a few days at a beach, and Sri Lanka’s coastline is beautiful. After arriving at our penultimate hotel we got changed and went down to the beach where we spent £1.00 on a couple of coconuts. The sea seems mostly calm, but there are some good waves breaking near to shore and […]
Our journey from Ella to Mirissa was approximately 6 hours by road, and we found that by leaving early (5 a.m.) we could make a stop at Udawalawe National Park for a safari drive. Udawalawe has over 250 elephants and it was created to provide a sanctuary for wild animals displaced by the construction of a reservoir. We didn’t see […]
Sri Lanka – Ella to Mirissa and Udawalawe National ParkRead More »
Yet another vastly different stay. An old tea plantation house which has been turned into a hotel with just 6 bedrooms. The epitome of ‘getting away from it all’, this estate is in the hills and an hour’s drive away from the town of Kandy. We arrived in time for afternoon tea and cake served on the veranda, and chatted […]
Our accommodation here couldn’t have been more different to the tent where we had stayed on the previous two nights. We were in this location as apparently climbing up Sigiriya rock is ‘a must’ when visiting Sri Lanka. On arriving at the hotel we walked into a huge open lobby area with views of ‘the rock’ in the distance, and […]