CLAIRE'S DIARY

EGYPT Day Three 18th September

After a much better sleep in the middle of the desert we got travelling again quite earlier as we had a fair bit of distance to cover. Again it was another day just driving through the desert so not an awful lot to report today..oh except I am the champion at UNO!!!

We stopped off at a few more oasis. Today we were also escorted by police. It is common for the tourism police to follow such obvious tourists buses like ours as 3-5 years ago a whole bus load of german tourists were shot down and killed in the middle of the desert so to prevent tourism being affected throughout Egypt they have got very strict policies to protect their tourists which is a nice feeling…but I must say having police follow you makes you feel really uncomfortable although you know they are there to protect you!!

We arrived at a cute oasis that seemed to me much larger then the majority of other oasis we have stopped off at.. this time we were spending the night here on top of one of the residences roofs..which shall be interested at least we get a toilet and can shower (finally!). but before we settled down for the night we shown around the old style of village that were once set up for people living in the middle of the desert. The township was generally set up with really high mud brick walls that caused shadows and allowed air to move through making it much cooler and more bearable to live in.

I spent some time at this village observing the people and how much they relied upon donkeys. Donkeys are extremely common right throughout Egypt they are hardy animals and they are capable of pulling/carting heavy items. But I was interesting to see that the locals here relied so heavily on these donkeys and they seemed to be flogged to death but they were all relatively healthy and well looked after…well that was my initial thoughts. Before to long a group of 5 young boys came screaming down the street as they all tried to hop onto the back of a single donkey as it kicked and carried on trying to control the kids around him…the kids kicked, pulled and jumped all over this donkey. It made me think just what is the general attitude towards the animals…I set out on a quest to find out!!! (come on give me a break if there are no native wild animals for me to observe I had to do something to remain sane)

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EGYPT Day Two 17th September

After a bizarre night in the black desert we woke up had some breakfast then back onto the trouper van to head deeper into the WesternDesert. We made a few random toilet spots along the way but not much to see or do when you are surrounded by sand…we made a few visits to some oasis but can I just say before you all go oh wow how nice. an oasis is not how you see them on tv or imagine them to be. They are literally little spots of civilisation that have set up camp as there is access to water. there are no natural springs or palm trees for some reason as how I imagined them to be…

but not to worry we stopped of at several oasis some larger then others. We hoped out and wondered around one of them and picked up a few goods for the road trip and it was really quick odd…if anything I felt like I was in Mexico. A singular main street with smaller alleyways coming off and men everywhere…I was beginning to notice that you never saw woman or little girls it just seemed to be men and boys everywhere. For this reason ensuring that I was covered up was a must…not because it was what you had to do but I felt extremely uncomfortable with all the men looking at you it was really quite an uncomfortable odd feeling…so if you ever visit ensure you bring adequate clothes to cover up.

We ended up driving majority of the day until we left the Black desert and arrived at the white desert…Jon and I loved it cause we really didn’t notice the difference sand was sand…!!! But we were mistaken it didn’t take long before some amazing stone formation started to appear on the side of the road and they were spectacular. They made the desert look like snow..these stone formation were in many different structures obviously affected by wind. We pretty much did the same routine as last night we pulled over and camped out. This time we drove a fair distance away from the road and we camped up right beside some large rock formations. It was great to get ontop of the rocks and watch the sun setting over the desert quite a romantic experience. Before to long it was night again and I was much more prepared for the camping this time round. Oh and did I mention little foxes were common around the white desert so I was determined to stay up until I saw one…but I didn’t manage…and I was even more disappointed in myself when I woke up and saw fox prints all around jon and I and where we were sleeping so foxes were so super close to us and I didn’t even see them..oh well.

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EGYPT Day One 16th September

Thanks to Kumuka, Jon and I were lucky enough to get to experience Egypt…and I mean the whole of Egypt.

Well initially I was really excited.. Egypt is a place that I would never have gone out of my way to go and visit but at the same time I was very interested in seeing the pyramids and temples…well that was before I arrived.

I cant tell you how quickly my excitement for Egypt went!!!!

After arriving at the airport we hoped into a taxi, thanks to Lonely Planet we ensured we bargained down the driver to a reasonable price. But if you thought roads were bad in Australia we have nothing on Egyptian roads..there roads are two laned but they somehow manage to turn them into a four laned road and literally who ever has there nose in first has right of way. Every car is scratched all up the side and the side mirrors are all knocked off as there just isn’t any room between the cars…it is crazy and on top of them squeezing in they still drive so super fast….

After being dropped off in the middle of Cairo at the wrong hotel we managed to get another taxi driver to take us to the right hotel and we were so hit by the heat and the smell (it is a very dirty city) we decided to stay in….and we were super tired from the flight.

As it was a prearranged tour we meet up with the group the next morning and we headed off first thing out to the Giza Pyramids….ok so although the country did send off a great first impression I was getting excitited to see the pyramids…but I didn’t have to be excitited for to long. Whilst still weaving the hectic streets of Cairo we could see parts of the pyramids begin to appear behind the buildings. I couldn’t believe it the pyramids seemed to be in the middle of the city??? All this time I have been deceived by text books and made to believe that they are in the middle of the sandest deserts!!!!!

We drove right up to the first of three pyramids and got to get out walk around they even allow you to climb up the first few blocks of stone to get pictures on the pyramids….we were allowed 1 hour free time to take in the three pyramids and slowly work our own way around them all…I wasn’t so disappointed with the pyramids after a while as there is a fair amount of desert on the opposite side of the pyramids from where we entered…but it was still disappointing to see that civilisation has built right up to one side of this sacred historical site totally taking away the atmosphere that I was expecting…oh and the pizza hut restaurant right on the edge was a real shame also….by the end of the hour we had taken some great pictures…after a strong warning not to get on any camels as the men will not let you down and take you far far away and then demand loads of money, I was to excited to see an animal and stupidly went up and starting patting and talking to a camel and next minute before I could say no they had me reefed up on the back of this camel.. Poor Jon went into instant panic mode…he had no control of the situation.. but nothing eventuated except some great photos but WARNING do not pat, talk or even look at the camels at the pyramids the men will suck you in then demand money!!!!

Anyway we managed to escape the camel situation quite comfortably. The third pyramid was open so at a price you were able to go up inside the pyramid. We bought our tickets and before we knew it we were inside this amazing historical construction. It was so small we had to crouch the whole time and it was extremely humid….after a small corridor down then up again we finally ended up at a small room which was were a tomb was found. This room had high walls and ceiling and it really gave us a weird feeling…but unfortunately due to the humidity we couldn’t stick around for to long and you didn’t have to be claustrophobic to feel uncomfortable…

After taking in some more pictures of the pyramids we headed down the bottom again to see the sphinx. This was really cool. I actually felt more excited seeing the sphinx for the first time then the pyramids. We took heaps of photos and dodge the many tourists and looked at it for as long as possible before you unintentional stop appreciating what you are looking at and then we headed off for some lunch. Remember when I mentioned the Pizza Hut restaurant right new the pyramids…well this was basically right beside the pizza hut we ended up having a prearranged buffer luncheon overlooking the Sphinx and the three pyramids…pretty amazing but pretty unfortunate to have development so close…

After a quick lunch we stopped quickly at a perfume factory…I was excited until they started the pressure selling and we left pretty quickly.

But back into the trouper bus and we were off…out to the WesternDesert.

Ok well I love camping and I love the great outdoors but for some reason this felt really odd. One minute we were driving (as we had done all afternoon by this stage) in the western desert looking at what seemed like the same sight the whole time (sand sand sand and some more sand) when we stopped…this was the campsite…side of the road (well not right beside the road) but we just stopped. Out you get make your dinner and have a great night…

Jon and I freaked!!! But we have no sleeping bags we need to shower…and um excuse me toilet???? There was nothing…I started to get excited this is great we are really one with nature out here, but Jon wasn’t so amused. But sure enough we managed.

Utilising the minimal ground contour to use as privacy when going to the toilet and the ground was our bed!!! Somehow I managed to get a far bit of sleep in…..GOOD NIGHT BLACK DESERT!!! GOOD NIGHT EGYPT…

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BORNEO DAY TEN 27th June

Well here goes…I am terrified of height but why am I so excited I am about to pully myself over 35metres above the jungle floor to what….what I am doing this for….? Oh no so many questions starting going through my mind…did I really want to go through with this?

Of course I did just those pre nerves I love adrenalin.

But on our way to the tree site we were stopped by a local guy who was waving frantically for us to come over, so we did. And to our surprise he had found a male sitting up in a tree just a few metres in from the shore. Well you can imagine my reaction I instantly jumped out of the boat and headed in shore to find this HUGE male sitting high up in a tree. I was so super excited. We hadn’t yet discovered a male our previous two encounters were females so this was special.

The film crew eventually caught up with me and set up camera so we could capture some of the natural emotion. The orangutan was quite exposed up there in the tree and he wasn’t sitting in a nest so he had obviously chosen this particular spot to dry out before headed deep with the jungle to escape the heat. We knew that he wouldn’t be able to sit there for long due to the sun very quickly heating up the day so we decided to stick around and wait for him to move.

So we waited….and well as soon as I was settled for a minute I was confronted by the most disgusting sight that I have ever seen in my life and having worked with animals for so many years I have been exposed to some feral sights (eg faeces, rabbit guts etc) but nothing could prepare me for this….Leeches EVERYWHERE and I am not exaggerating there were leeches absolutely everywhere. On me on the leaves on the ground on all the camera gear absolutely everywhere…I hate it…I couldn’t sit I couldn’t stand still I was so uneased to have so many blood sucking exo-parasites around me it was awful!!!!

But fortunately the sun made the orangutan feel extremely uncomfortable and it was only about 30minutes later that he decided to move. It was so amazing. He moved with such grace yet he was such a large male. He was not flanged yet, he didn’t have the check pads that older males have (generally males older then 15) but he certainly wasn’t far off…he was massive!!!

I couldn’t believe how well he managed each branch and moved so quickly. I was sure we wouldn’t be able to get heaps of great footage but he moved so quickly and accurately through the trees it was amazing he was gone before we knew it.!!!! I was buzzing like never before this was the best encounter he was super close to us and he moved around doing his usual thing not the least bit phased that we were there…

Well in the meantime admiring this amazing male we had cancelled the tree climb because it was getting to hot and we really wanted to capture the morning light up there above the canopy. So instead we decided to go exploring for more orangutans. We headed down stream towards Sukau village where we had spent the previous weekend. It was such a nice day to go exploring I had my legs covered so I wasn’t worried about more sunburn!!

After a couple of hours heading down stream we veered up a small stream which took us thick in the jungle we were bound to come across orangutans here, it was nice and quite and the jungle was relatively thick. As most part of the jungle only goes back about 10 metres thick before palm oil plantation this was a very thick part of the jungle easily 100metres thick…But we were cut short just ahead we were confronted by a palm oil plantation which was surrounded by electric fence…It was such a shame the beauty of the jungle we had just gone through was so stunning and it was so easy to think about the habitats that were once standing where the palm oil plantation is now existing…

So after a frustrating few minutes I demanded we headed away from the plantation and back into the jungle. Only about 10seconds into the jungle again Jon spotted something in the trees and it was another orangutan…It was a mum and her baby the baby would have also been around 2 years old..

They were playing up in the trees. They were sitting exposed on top of the trees eating and carrying on. The baby was so cute. I was convinced that the baby was performing for us. Every time she moved or did something she would look down at us to make sure we were all looking. It was so special…I decided that I wanted to get closer to them. We had sat in the boat looking up at the two orangutans for over 30 minutes and they were really giving us quite a show. So we slowly paddled the boat over to the shore and I jumped out…

They were right above me. it was great. The baby stared right down at me. you could tell that she wasn’t the least bit annoyed or concerned that we were there. Having both the mum and the baby not phased about us being there was a good indication that they hadn’t encountered bad experiences with humans before having no bad associations with us. So that was very pleasing. I stood underneath them for several moments. It was definitely a moment that I cant put into words. Travelling down the river to find a mum and her baby then jumping on shore and having them sit just above me only metres high in the tree….absolutely a one off experience.

They decided to move and head deeper in the jungle so I followed (with cameraman on tow) and we ensured that they weren’t scaring them.

But before I knew it I was deep in the jungle suddenly feeling super vulnerable. Hearing noises that I had never heard before, I could hear a male orangutan calling out in the distance and I heard some bushes close by rustle. Within seconds I was in awe of these amazing creatures and next moment I was super scared thinking about what path I took to get where I was and what animals could be within metres of me, having walked straight into their homes. It is amazing how vulnerable we can feel as soon as you step out of your comforts.

But found my way back to the boat and was struck heavily by the awful view of the palm oil plantation again, it was in the exact direction that the mum and her baby were heading. I was brought to tears thinking about the affects that habitat destruction like what goes on here in Borneo has on wildlife…I hate to think about it!!! It kills me!!!

We headed back out to the main river (Kingabatangan) and headed back towards the Sukau village. We decided to stop briefly at a small shack that I curiously wanted to explore. We didn’t find anything to exciting except a small track that led deep within the jungle. We followed the track for ages as it meandered through the thick jungle and took us steeply up a cliff face and to the top of a mountain. But we didn’t discover much wildlife just some amazing fauna. Mosses, fungi’s and some vines like never before. They were all so colourful we found a gorgeous pale pink mushroom that looked like something that belonged on Alice in Wonderland. After a great workout…tackling the steep climb up and down we headed back to the boat to have some packed lunch before heading to Suaku stopping off at the lodge we stayed at last weekend. Upon arrival I was greeted with leeches!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ARGGHH they had found there way into my skin and I was totally unaware of it.. I had lost my guard when I was enthralled by the orangutans…I freaked out there was no way I was able to flick of a blood sucker of my own leg. Normally I am not fazed by creepy crawlies or small things like this they just don’t get to me but today was somehow different. Maybe because of the gross welcoming they gave me this morning!!!!

But I eventually removed the leeched from my legs and bleed to death!! Well ok slight exaggeration but I bleed and bleed and bleed for hours after removing them…but well I really looked the part now. I had blood seeping through my pants I was sweaty with sweat marks all over my shirt and dirt from scaling the cliff all up my backside and down my legs…I really looked like the true adventure…

After a quick drink break the locals had informed us that they had spotted a herd of elephants down stream. Well you can imagine my reaction I was in the boat ready to go before the locals could even finish telling me where they were!!!!!

So back in the boat and we turned around to head down stream to find elephants…

Well we found them and wasn’t I excited!!!!!!!! I cried as soon as I saw them they were absolutely amazing they were right on the waters edge clearing all the long grasses as they consumed large clumps of grass at any one time…There were easily 12 of them but I was convinced that there were more. I don’t know how they got the name pygmy elephant they certainly weren’t small. I was admiring the elephants when the scene suddenly changed in the back ground I heard a shot gun…I screamed I couldn’t believe what I had just heard I instantly went into panic. But the local grabbed me and told me to settle down because it is very common for palm oil workers to start setting off the shot guns to deter the elephants from heading towards there plantation they weren’t actually shooting the elephants with intent to kill them..well it was a slight relief but I still couldn’t believe that this was how they deterred the animals. Let them be don’t bloody develop agriculture so close to amazing forests and animals like this…I was still furious the noise went off the whole time we remained with the elephants.

The elephants headed down stream a bit and gave us an opportunity to jump on shore.. I was so excitied. I just wanted to get super close to these animals, to see animals in the wild was such a buzz and I had never before seen pygmy elephants!! And David Graham (BB06) had told me that the one thing he wanted me to do was to touch a pygmy elephant for him, well I didn’t plan to touch them but I did want to get nice and close…

I couldn’t believe how quickly I lost them considering the immense size of the animals the certainly are very cryptic with their environments…but it didn’t take long before I spotted the mum and her baby only about 20metres away from me. It was the best experience watching them so close consume huge quantities of grasses absolutely demolishing everything in their path. I could see why the plantation don’t want them around they just clear a path destroying/flattening everything in there way!!!

After admiring them for a long time at this close range we heard a bull (male) close by and thought I had better let them be and headed back to the boat…

Wow what a huge day it was meant to be a nerve recking tree climb and it turned into the best animal experiences, three orangutans and a herd of elephants…wow it really feels like nature is on my side!!!!

Well early to bed because they nerves are going to spark up again as I have the tree climb tomorrow now!!!

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BORNEO DAY NINE 26th June

Well a very early wake up call. We wanted to beat the sun rising so we boarded the boat at around 4:30am to head up stream and around the second bend to set up the camera on the shore to get the mist and the sun breaking through. We waited. We waited so more. Then we waited some more. And within minutes that sun was up. No mist. No spectacular colours. It was just light.

We headed back to base camp around 8am very disappointed with our attempts to capture a spectacular sun rise. The locals reckon it was the first morning in weeks that there was no mist sitting just above the river…

Not to worry after a big breakfast we boarded the boat to set up stream in search for orangutans.

I had a boat to myself whist the rest of the crew where in another boat. We once again discovered heaps of proboscis monkeys, macaques, crocodiles, birds including this time the rhinoceros hornbill, but no orangutans.

It was a long morning. Sitting in the direct sunlight, looking constantly for hours and sitting in the make shift long boat where the vibration of the engine was running through your whole body. Not only does your eyes begin to play tricks on you but your neck get severely stiff and your butt well I wont get started with how sore my bottom was….but these concerns were the least of my issues once I returned back to base camp around 2pm. I had severe sun burn on the top part of my legs. It was sun burn like never before. I have fried myself all day every day in my high school years and never before have had I suffered from such extreme sun burn. My top part of my legs from sitting in the boat all day were fried!! Literally fried!!!!

So as you can imagine due to not being able to move…..we had a relatively quite afternoon. Just before sunset we headed back out on the boats (determined to find some more orangutans)…Don’t worry I lathered my legs in sunscreen and used an umbrella to protect it from further burning and wind burn!!!

We didn’t manage to find any orangutans. So we decided to out a bounty on one…$100 for any local who manages to find an orangutan.

But I wasn’t to stressed out already found two amazing orangutans in the wild and tomorrow we are set to climb the Mangarus tree. The second largest tree species in the world where we have had a rigging team from the UK spend the last few weeks prepping this tree to get us up and above the canopy of the bronean jungle….to see the real impacts of palm oil….

So orangutan or no orangutan this tree climb tomorrow is taking up all my excitement right now..early to bed need to rest my already burnt legs for the tree.

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BORNEO DAY EIGHT 25th June

Well thankfully we had a bit of a sleep in this morning…Before being picked up by our UK guide who was going to take us for a week long journey deep within the bornean jungle. At around 10am we departed our hotel in Sandakan and headed towards Bilit village…Another village that is upstream from Sukau village.

After a solid 4 hour drive through continual palm oil (AGAIN) we arrived in Bilit and we greeted by a very welcoming smile, Bart (yes named after the Bart Simpson) was the local who was to look after us during our week stay. Looking around the village I saw a volleyball court, soccer field and a small school I through that this adventure in the jungle wasn’t going to be as hard as I first thought…well that was until we unloaded the car to find that we were to head over the other side of the Kingabatangan river and trek inland before we reached our camp site.

We boarded the boats and headed across to our camp site…first impressions it wasn’t so bad at least there was a semi roof on each of our make shift cabins. But no power what so ever, including no hot water (not that I really wanted one with the extreme heat and humidity) but this week was going to be a real challenge. We uploaded the boats and got relatively settled into our new homes before drinking litres of water and deciding to hop back into the boats and go and explore the river.

We headed up stream in the hope to find some wildlife…well it didn’t take long before we discovered a group of Proboscis monkeys jumping frantically between the mangrove trees over hanging the river. Whilst observing this family group we didn’t even realise that we had stumbled across a HUGE water monitor…we tired to keep the boat stable from the strong Kingabatangan river by holding onto an overhanging branch. After about 5minutes relying on this branch we realised that just above our heads was a water monitor easily 3metres long sleeping. We got some great footage after we all settled the nerves!!! Even our local guide shat himself!!!

We spent the afternoon cruising up and down the river. We didn’t find any Orangutans but plenty of nests. Birds every where including hornbills and storm storks. We decided to head back to camp before night…but the sunset was to beautiful so we stopped of and jump ashore to take in the amazing colours of the sun setting. We ended up driving home in the dark arriving back to our base camp with only torches to guide our way…I forgot there was no power!!!

Trying to avoid the disgusting heat and the huge amount of mozzies buzzing in my ears I tried to get some sleep but not much luck!!!

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BORNEO DAY SEVEN 24th June

We meet up with Mincho the same guide that took us up river yesterday afternoon, this time we headed down stream to the research site to search for wild orangutans. The research site it 6sqaure kilometres with 3 site stations where researchers can use to sleep when they are researching wild behaviours. We arrived at the site and Mincho allowed us to visit their forest rehabilitation site, which is pockets of the jungle that are a bit patchy they plant fig tree seedlings to supply more natural foods for the orangutans at the site. Only 5 minutes into the jungle and I looked down to discover 5 leeches on my pants….YES 5 already….ok ok I know I am an animal lover and I have to brave all elements to discover and see animals in the wild but 5 leeches come on leeches give me a chance I was only there for such a short time yet to decide to attack me in numbers!!!!!!!!!! I could have died….but instead Mincho and I decided to get a bit personal and swap our underwear…well not really. I just gave him my socks and he gave me his garters, cause I was silly enough to wear shorts and I would have got eaten alive by leeches if I continued any deeper. So a quick uniform change and we were off.

Orangutans you would assume are easy to find in the wild because they are so large and bright, but well like any wild animal they are cleverly very cryptic in their natural environments and very difficult to find. So instead of looking for bodies in the canopy you smell…yep that’s right you try and locate the smell of orangutan feaces and you know you are close. Every morning when they leave their nests after a nights sleep they will go to the toilet so you can easily smell an orangutan. Well we stopped a about 15 minutes heading deep into the jungle and they guides could smell feaces. I stopped I smelt and all I could smell was mozzie repellent but hey I trusted them….
We kept walking only about another 5 minutes before we decided to have a short break. And jon of all people spotted a nest. I went over to investigate and it was quite a fresh nest, you can tell by the state the vegetation that is used to construct the nest is in. obviously the fresher the vegetation the newer the nest, and well this particular nest was very green still. We called the guides over and in doing so we saw the nest move. I don’t know if it was my eyes playing tricks on me hoping that there was an orangutan in the nest still but I thought I saw it move.

We stayed underneath the nest for about 20 minutes trying to determine if there was an orangutan still using the nest. While we waited we discovered very fresh feaces directly under the tree, and yes this time I could definitely smell it, just like baby poo…really believe it or not but it smelt like poo!!!

We decided to radio a couple of researchers to study the area more closely for us to allow us to continue walking.

We kept walking and we discovered some interesting things along the way like a mouse deer (although it was very skittish and didn’t stick around long) a tiger orchid, heaps of animal tracks including sun bear scratching on a tree trunk, elephants and wild boar.

We started to head back to the original nest site as we were having no luck with the orangutan side of things and the two guides we left to search they area thoroughly had found the orangutans. It was a mum and its baby only about 30 seconds away from the original spot that we were first looking in.

They were amazing, they kept peering down at us we such curiosity. The baby started to show off a bit and bounce up and down amongst the branches while mum just keep her cool and kept a close eye on our every movement. But we were right underneath the tree they were in and we were able to get some great footage of the two of them eating and slowly moving above in the tree. The baby was the cutest. Towards the end of the encounter the mum started to make some great audio for us, but although it sounded great her intentions weren’t these were signals to her bub to come close. Mum had obviously had enough of our company and after about 30 minutes decided to head off with bub on her back.

It was a great experience.

We packed up the camera and headed back to the boat. It was a relief to finally reach the river only because it was our only opportunity to remove all the mud we had collected all the way up our legs whilst trekking as well as do our first leech search to see how many leeches had managed to find their way to our blood!!!!

After getting the all clear and removing majority of the mud from our bodies we headed to the KOCP office which was situated right in the heart of the Suaku village. We had a great chat with other workers about the opportunities that KOCP had provided them and why they had become involved etc etc…and it was great to hear that many of them before working for KOCP had no appreciation for their native wildlife because they had always been there but since working for KOCP they not only have received English lessons but they have also learnt to appreciate the wildlife which they pass on to their families and friends.

After a good hour or so at the office we decided to go home and shower, by this stage it was well into the afternoon and we were convinced that we were still covered in leeches and who knows what else.

So we headed back showered freshened up before headed back down the horrible trail of palm oil to Sandakan.

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BORNEO DAY SIX 23rd June

Well another extremely early start to get to the Sandakan Fish Markets…And yes, I am not complaining but we were up before light…5am start to get to the hustle and bustle of the local fish markets. However, it was well worth it once we were there. It was only 2 minutes from where we were staying and as soon as we arrived, we were amongst it. It as amazing to see all this commotion. Every thing seafood you can think of you could find it here at the fish markets coming fresh of the back of the trailer boats into baskets that were being pushed away with makeshift trolleys to local markets stalls to be sold off throughout the day. These men and woman do this every morning each day of the week. They were very excited to see us all there and they were all very proud to show us there fish/seafood to the cameras…

I saw stingray, shark, crabs, crays, prawns and so many fish I couldn’t even recognise each of the species such a variety but most of it was tuna….the smell was intense I wish we had smell a vision on the camera to allow you all to smell this intense smell. The seafood fishy smell was incredible.

We stayed there until the sun came up. So it was a great start to the day, really throwing myself into the full cultural aspect of Borneo. Back to the hotel for a quick western buffet breakfast which was a great change from all the noodles we have been eating for breakfast lunch and dinner but I didn’t come to Borneo to eat western food…

Before we left Sandakan, we stopped of at the local Buddhist temple, which is located on top of a hill, which allows the temple to over look Sandakan city. We got some happy snaps of the views and took in the amazing architecture of the temple. Whilst observing the views we had a White-bellied Sea Eagle fly past with a huge fish in its talons which was really special…considering we were not their to see animals we were taking in the local culture yet we couldn’t escape the amazing animals that are home to Borneo.

We then left the temple and headed straight to Sukau to which is a local village right on the river bank of the Kingabatangan River, which in my eyes is one of the worlds richest wildlife hotspots. We went to Sukau to meet up with a French couple who have dedicated their lives to orangutan conservation and have successful set up a research project (KOCP) which enables local people to research wild orangutans and also has enabled them to purchase land that is now declared sanctuary. We had planned to visit KOCP for the weekend so we had to stay at Sukau, which was very exciting.

Although I was very excited to visit Sukau, it was so hard to escape the flood of palm oil that is constantly in your face the whole time we drove the 5 hour trip from Sandakan to Sukau. The last ½ hour was down a dirt road right through the middle of a plantation. It was so hard to maintain my excitement of visiting Sukau with all this palm oil everywhere…how can there possible be an amazing jungle on kilometres away when all I have seen for hours is oil palms I just couldn’t comprehend it. But sure enough just as we were really close it suddenly turned to thick jungle and we were surrounded by the amazing calls that Borneo nature produces.

It is horrible that Kingabatangan river is recognised right across the world as a wildlife hotspot yet it is so enclosed by oil palms that the remaining jungle is simply a tiny strip that runs along the river bank and even in section the plantation break right through right to the rivers edge. I couldn’t believe it when I saw just how thin the pocket of jungle was in some areas. Makes you wonder so many different things..I couldn’t help but think about what Borneo would have offered to wildlife 50 years 100 years 200 years ago. Can you imagine being the first people to explore Borneo. WOW the array of wildlife would have been so intense.

Anyways we arrived at Sukau and we let our hair out (so to speak) I basically needed some time to chill out after seeing so much palm oil, before we were meet a few hours later by a local guide who was working for KOCP that was going to take us for a boat cruise down the Kingabatangan river.

We headed up stream and it didn’t take long before we saw our first orang. She was only a sub-adult female but I couldn’t believe where we found her. It was a pocket of jungle I was just referring to above. She was in an area that was only 3 trees deep and we could see palm oil through the trees. The pocket only ran for about 2 kilometres before the oil palms took over the jungle and it came right up to the river bank. Which would mean that in order for this female to move she would have to risk moving through this plantation and taking to the ground which is very rare for orangutans as they are a completely arboreal speices…so it was quite full on to see my concerns actually real life concerns. I was so tempted to go on shore and call her down and take her home with me…give her a better chance at life (as unrealistic as that sounds) it was so unfair to see her home so small and so restricted…

We stayed observing her before my emotions and frustrations got to much and we decided to move on. Then only about 50 kilometres up stream on the same side of the river we saw another orang. This time a much bigger animal but we couldn’t make out what sex…So here we have two real life situation where these animals have been forced to live and inhabit these tiny pockets of rainforest. I couldn’t believe it why cant the plantation go about their business as usual but allow for at least a jungle corridor along the bank to enable these animals to migrate and move about freely without being restricted in every direction. River one side, plantation on two side and small strip of jungle leaving only one option for their natural migration.

It started to get dark and I think the locals driving our boats were sensing my frustrations and decided to take us home…
Oh I should also mention as well as the two orangutans we saw many family groups of proboscis monkeys, long-tailed macques, birds everywhere and a small sized crocodile.

But home to a great dinner and ready to go foot and explore the jungles within the KOCP research site I cant wait…

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BORNEO DAY FIVE 22nd June

We decided to have a bit of a sleep in this morning as we didn’t have our first arrangement till about 8:30 when I had organised to meet up with another worker from the palm oil plantation but this time it was the son of the owner. Sean Lee who is the general manager also of the sanctuary section of their land and was very helpful in giving me some insight into why his father had decided to leave a small pocket of mangrove to allow the proboscis monkeys to have a safe haven. It all happened when a worker took a dying proboscis monkey to his dad many years ago and his dad prior to seeing this dying monkey had not believed there were monkeys in the area. When he saw this dying monkey he decided to not extend his plantation to the ocean instead declare the land sanctuary to ensure they can survive in the area. (But might I just add at this point the tiny strip of sanctuary will eventually cause inbreeding in the monkeys as they have no corridor or section to allow them to move outside of this small pocket) but not to complain it was great to hear a plantation owner/worker being considerate towards the environment.

After this extensive interview we headed to the second feeding platform, which is quite deserted to film some more shots of the monkeys up nice and close and we managed to get some more great footage. We even had an episode were a male and three of his females were within a metre of me. It pays to be patient, very still and a little bit of knowledge to predict their movements doesn’t go astray either. It was great to get this up close perspective of such a unique looking animal. The males nose is so bizarre, it is almost like it is made from rubber and is detached from the face. Every time the male moved it was like the nose had a mind of its own and would move in the opposite direction, or move 20seconds after the head had decided to move, quick bizarre.

We spent a couple of hours with these family groups before heading back to our accommodation again, where we were greeted by a family group of Cervet monkeys. We had not seen this family group yesterday, which according to the local people was quite unusual. However, we soon worked out way. One of the mothers was carrying a 1 day old baby. It was the most beautiful looking thing I had ever seen. Such a bright bright orange colour. I have never seen anything quite like it before, and the face was so pale and wrinkly. It is funny how nature works when Cervet monkeys give birth their babies are this bright orange colour and when they grow up they turn into a dark grey almost black colour, and proboscis monkeys are born a dark grey colour and as they mature they turn light grey and orange..

We had a quick lunch before we had to say good by to the Proboscis monkeys that had spoilt us with footage the last few days and head off on the road trip to do our last leg to Sandakan, which is on the west coast of Sabah.

We had no arrangements this afternoon once we reached Sandakan except to cruise around take in the sights and relax for five minutes, something that we hadn’t found time to do before now. So we decided to head to the waters edge and have a nice cold beer. It is quite a small city so there wasn’t much exploring that had to be done and we still had a couple of occasions where we knew we were going to be back in Sandakan so we just chilled out…well that was until we found a Karaoke bar.

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BORNEO DAY FOUR 21st June

Well yet again another early early morning…but this time to head into the palm oil plantation to interview a few of the workers and the manager. He was Chinese and struggled a bit with the English side of things but managed to grasp a good understanding of why he was in Borneo, and what his views on Palm on were, and I think the biggest thing that I learnt was that he was brought to Borneo by his parent many years ago to begin a business to bring some money into the family, he openly admitted to being a business man and only concerning himself with business dealings and initially had no real concerns for the environmental damage the plantation he is in charge of was having.

After a long chat we decided to head deep into the plantation so he could show me how it all worked and what was involved with harvesting the bunches of fruit. Five star transport we hoped onto the back of the managers truck, which mind you was full of stale bread to feed to all the dogs in the village, and we headed into the plantation. I never appreciated how hard the plantation workers worked. To get the bunches of fruit down you have to first remove the palm fronds that are holding the bunches close to the trunk then using an extended hack saw you rip the bunch down. Well they said that it wasn’t a woman job…I certainly showed them!!!!!

We headed back to our accommodation by 9am to see the first morning feed with the proboscis monkeys. And once again we were so lucky to have two different family groups come down and feed and they weren’t small group either. We were so spoilt for choice. We spent majority of the day working with the monkeys and setting up cameras to try and capture them moving around. And we managed to get some Great footage!!!

We went for a bit of an adventure deeper in the mangrove swamp and we decided to not proceed any further when we came across six huge water monitors cruising around in the watery undergrowth. I am not that afraid of reptiles and actually have quite an appreciation for them. So it was something special to see these huge creatures cruising around in the wild, but due to the large size of them I suddenly felt incredibly vulnerable and we decided to head back before one of us got attacked.

Once again it absolutely poured down with rain. It was a nice relief though it made the temperature a bit more bearable. But due to the extent of the rain we didn’t see much monkey activity only a few individuals braved the conditions while the others kept to the shelter of the trees.

After a solid day following the family groups through the mangrove swamp we decided to call it a day nice and early. Nice tiger beer to finish off a very successful day.

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BORNEO DAY THREE 20th June

Well a very early start this morning, up at 5:30am local time to attempt to see the sunrise over the Tea Plantation and watch the sun hit Mt. Kinabalu.

We drove up to a great vintage spot so ensure we capture the moment. Unfortunately we waited and waited only to see a whole heap of mist covering every single bit of the peak of the mountain. So no spectacular sunrise today…

After this slight disappointment we headed off to explore the tea plantation including the organic tea gardens and the jungle tea. Both these teas are environmentally friendly, with the jungle tea simply allowing the tea to grow in between the existing jungle. Not sure of the long term affects of this, as in the effects it has on soil quality etc, but for the time being the jungle is thriving and the tea is growing great. So a good combination in my eyes. The organic tea was a bit more controlled but once it is planted there is no human intervention on any level except when it comes to harvesting the tea. I couldn’t go by without picking some tea for myself. It was very wet, cold and difficult due to the continual slope of the tea fields, but least now I can say that I have hand picked tea!!!!

Well after a quick explore of the tea factory we headed off to Labuk Bay.

Labuk Bay is a small pocket of mangrove swamp that has been declared sanctuary, and the sanctuary owners are also palm oil plantation owners. So I decided to head to Labuk Bay and spend some time searching for wild Proboscis monkeys and also allow myself the opportunity to get to know the sanctuary owners. We arrived at 2;30pm just in time for the afternoon feed. Each day the rangers here feed the proboscis monkeys twice at day at two different feeding platforms. We went to a feed station where the monkeys are not used to people around. It was a platform/board walk that had been constructed by the local people to allow them to access deeper in the mangrove swamp, and the ranger at Labuk Bay are utilising it as a great feeding spot. So we were very lucky to be given this unique opportunity. On our way to feeding platform it absolutely poured down with rain. I have never in my life experienced rain come in so quickly and so heavily within a matter of seconds!!! The rain did not deter the monkeys as soon as we arrived at the feeding platform so many long-tailed macques and proboscis monkeys came down to feed upon the pancake with no sugar and cucumber. Proboscis monkeys have very large stomachs, making them look fat, but they have a four-chambered stomach exactly like a cow, to help break down their vegetarian diet. The proboscis monkeys are commonly found in two different groups family and bachelor groups. We were pleased this afternoon to have 2 family groups and 1 bachelor group come down and feed right near us.

We headed back to the platform near our accommodation. Here we saw in the distance a family group of cervet monkeys which was quite special, they are such cute looking little monkeys. Later on in the afternoon as we were relaxing out the front of our rooms we spotted heaps of proboscis monkeys and long-tailed macques as well as a pair of pied hornbills, white-bellied woodpeckers, black eagle (which makes a sound identical to our wedge-tailed eagle) a brahimy Kite, white-bellied Sea Eagle (which was a huge size), squirrels everywhere and the cutest short-clawed otter. Every where I looked I was surrounded by wildlife…I was in my absolute element. Even though I was being eaten alive by mosquitoes and I was well over due to reapply my repellent I was fixated on the jungle. It was alive with animals moving everywhere…

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BORNEO DAY TWO 19th June

Well we had an incredibly early start this morning, we had to have breakfast then head out to the centre of KK to shot a quick scene before packing our bags and heading of for the beginning of the road trip.

The city was buzzing at 6am in the morning. It was dead still and then within minutes it was as if the whole city wakes up at the same time, the city was moving with people, cars and mopeds.

We eventually left for road trip but not without a quick stop of at Signal Hill, which was erected in the early English settlement as a look out point. Today it is a great location to get a all over look at KK.

We drove for about 2 hours with continual stops along the way to capture the magnificent Mt. Kinabalu, which is the largest peak with south-east Asia. I climbed Mt. Kinabalu during my last visit here to Borneo; unfortunately, we didn’t have time in our busy itinerary to fit the mountain climb in this time round. However, we were able to capture some great footage of the peak breaking through the clouds.

Next stop, which was a good 4 hours from KK we stopped of the Nibalu roadside markets where I got to sample some of the local fruits including snake skin fruit and Rambutan. Both extremely tasty and nothing like what we have here in Australia. Unfortunately, I found Nibalu markets to be a bit commercialised with many of the souvenirs wrapped up in plastic so we didn’t stick around to long.

Next stop only about 20 minutes from Nibalu markets was Kundasang, which also had some great markets this time a lot less commercialised and friendlier local people. I got the vibe that majority of the tourists stopped of at Nibalu and not at Kundasang so we got a very warm welcome when we started to shop around. I ended up purchasing some fruit to have on the rest of the road trip and the locals were very happy to pose for photographs on the conditions they got to see the photo afterwards, which they found very amusing.

Whilst at Kundansang we visited the war memorial, which has been set up in memory of the many Australian, English, and local Bornean people who died in during WWII (1944-1945) when they became prisoners of war to the Japanese soldiers. During the time that these soldiers were POW they were sent on a mission/death march from Sandakan to Kundansang with over 1600 Australian soldiers dying along the way to the harsh conditions of the bornean jungle. It was quite touching to be there at the memorial and read about the horror stories that these soldiers had to endure. I am not much of a historian and before coming to Borneo, I knew nothing about the death marches, after discovering this war memorial, I am deeply sorry that this part of history is not taught at the schools.

Next stop only about 1 hours drive from Kundansang was Poring Hot Springs. This is usually a tourist destination after they have conquered the Mt. Kinabalu they come here to the Poring Hot Springs to relax their bodies before continuing their journeys. But I came here for a different reason. There is a large pocket of jungle here that often is home to wild orangutans. I have heard that recently the park rangers here have had a citing of a single sub-adult female so I decided to stop in here to have a look for myself. I spent a tiresome 1 ½ hours searching for this female orangutan and couldn’t find her anywhere let alone I couldn’t even see a single nest which they construct each night to sleep in so I didn’t get a good feeling about it. She must not have been close.

We decided anyone to hang around until later in the afternoon when most animals are primarily active to see if we could hear her moving about in the jungle canopy. And before we had any warning she was literally in the trees above us. It was amazing to see her just there so close unphased by having us there. There were a couple of park rangers with us also who frequently feed her some bananas to ensure that she remains healthy but it was quite hilarious when they provided her with this small treat that they ran as soon as she came down onto the ground. It is extremely rare to have Orangutans come to the ground they are a completely arboreal animal, but this particular orangutan was slightly habituated so coming to the ground meant that she could get a free meal.

Before I knew it she was only centimetres away from me. I sat silently on the ground a short distance away from her and let her move about, as she desired. In addition, it must have been odd to her that I didn’t run away like the rangers had done only minutes earlier. Therefore, she wandered over and lay on her back right beside me. I couldn’t hold back the tears having such a magnificent animals right there beside me unphased by my presences yet so oddly curious as to my every movement it was a unique encounter and one that will remain with me for a lifetime. She didn’t end up eating the bananas instead she found it more interesting to stare into my eyes and thoroughly take in every detail of my body. At one point, she held my hand and was looking at my hand features just as curiously as I was looking at hers. This encounter lasted about 30 minutes before a group of long-tailed macaques came quite close, obviously wanting to share in some of the bananas but this orangutan was not going to let it happen so she took of into the trees with bunch of bananas in hand.

This is what I had come to borneo for this is what is driving me to continue my conservation plight. These amazing animals in the wild which are struggling for survival it absolutely kills me inside to image the world without species like the orangutan.

Well after this inspiring experience we headed off for another 1hour drive until we reached our first stop off the Sabah Tea House. It is a plantation that grows tea (obviously) but not in your traditional way they actually incorporate organic tea farming and forest tea farming to ensure they done disturb the surrounding pockets of jungle.

We stayed in a traditional long house which was a great experience, felt like a real local person showering with the many insects that were attracted to the light and sleeping pretty much on a thin mattress with a mozzie net above me. We were treated to a personal concert which was the local villagers doing a traditional dance for us, which quickly lead into me attempting to learn the moves for myself which was great fun…then off to bed we had a full on day today so I don’t think the thin mattress will have much of a toll on me getting no sleep.

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BORNEO DAY ONE 18th June

We departed Brisbane at 11:59pm and had the most shocking flight all the way over to Kuala Lumpar….Turbulance like never before!!!

But finally we arrived in Kuta Kinabalu (KK) at 9:50am (local time) and were meet at the airport by three local guides, from Borneo Adventures, who helped me obtain my filming permits by being my local sponsors. We quickly stopped in a local drinking hot spot to absorb the humidity and the new smells that borneo has to offer before we were dropped of at our hotel to take in the afternoon.

The three of us (Myself, Jon – production assistant and Bryan – cameraman) took our cameras and lonely planet guides and set out to explore KK. We got some great footage including local settings of the streets, boats, houses in small alleyways with all their washing hanging out the windows). I interacted with the local people and wandered the streets soaking up the culture of Sabah. We discovered some local markets were we took in all the different fruits local to Borneo and the amount of dried fish was incredible…At the back of the fresh markets were some fish markets which absolutely stunk of well fish obviously. But I was blown away at the different types of seafood that were for sale at these markets. Everything from shark, tuna, reef fish, sting ray, prawns, pilchards, abalone, and many other fish species that I couldn’t identify. All this seafood was spread out on the top of benches and they would went them down with water every so often to keep them looking fresh.

After a long explore around the city of KK Jon and I went to the local supermarket to check out the different food types for sale. And well everything was different, I did not find any products that were familiar to me back at home, except the twisties yet they had some unusual flavours, teriyaki salmon, teriyaki chicken, hot tomato, chilli, and chicken.

We decided to continue our cultural experience of Borneo by having a local dinner across the road at some little road side market stalls. Well being vegetarian they don’t offer to much in the way of selection it is basically noodle with vegetables or rice with vegetables and you have to make sure when you order a meal with no meat you have to also mention that you want no seafood. Fish to the local people is not meat so they will drown your meal in fish!!!! I learnt the hard way…..

I cant wait for tomorrow because we start our road trip over to the other side of Sabah to Sandakan….

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ONLY A FEW HOURS TO GO…17th June

Well the day has finally arrived..I am leaving to make my dream a reality. In less then 5 hours time I will be at Brisbane international airport shooting the first segment of my documentary..

As you can imagine the nerves and gitters have certainly kicked in and the more I think about it the more I realise that I don’t think it has actually hit me that I am leaving.

I am so determined to share this amazing experience of mine with you all so I will certainly be ensuring that I post a regular diary entry for you to keep you all posted on my daily activites.

But let me warn in you advance that Borneo is where my heart is and I can only imagine that the next two weeks are going to be massive personal experience for me and I am sure that I am not going to want to come home….So expect some emotional entries as I tell you about my adventures, in one of the worlds most natural wonders the Bornean jungle!!!

Until then I will arrive in Sabah Malaysia at 9:50am (Malaysian time) so for those of you on the east coast of Australia that will be 11:50am…So think of me as I embark on this adventure…

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MY DREAM IS BECOMING A REALITY 12th June

The day I turn 24 I leave to make my childhood dream a reality…

At exactly 11:59pm on the 17th of June I leave Brisbane airport with my crew to film my first wildlife documentary.

Ever since I was 15 I have aspired to be half the person that both my idols Steve Irwin and Dr. Harry Cooper are, and it become evident to me a long time ago that I would never reach such success in life due to having no public profile to make my voice heard…..

Although to many Big Brother is frowned upon, with many people being unable to recognise us contestants as being worthy of success or even having creditable substance to our personalities…if it were not for Big Brother I would not be 6 days away from living my ultimate dream.

This adventure ahead of me is not only a matter of satisfying my lifes dreams and desires but about going on a personal journey and ensuring that my passion within me remains true and strong. It is this passion alone that drives my motivation to ensure that my conservation efforts are a success, and a success that will be recorded by the number of species that I conserve and the amount of money that I contribute to conservation projects across the globe.

With this excitement and this amazing adventure that I am looking forward to…I am so incredibly scared and extremely emotional. Why am I scared…Failure. Failure is certainly a possible outcome and failure is something that cannot be avoided. Failure of this project means that I have failed to the animals…I am quite content in my own lifes satisfactions to obtain another job in the zoo industry, however I would be giving up on the wild animals…the animals that are desperate for help.

Regardless of what life throws at me I am leaving, I am producing a documentary, and I am going to do it as well as I possibly can. I want to share each and every experience of this journey with you all..

Make sure you stay tuned to this online diary as I will be updating it daily while I am over in Borneo…

Until then…………..

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GETTING BACK TO BASICS 22nd May

It is easy to feel like you are failing when your dreams are yet to become a reality and when others around you are succeeding at everything they are involved with…Well that is how I have been feeling of late with the whole post big brother exposure dawning upon me and seeing the end to my 5 minutes of fame.

Having a best friend like Dave certainly doesn’t help. Going from one reality tv show straight onto the next constantly appearing in magazines and being invited left right and centre to gigs I often sit back and wonder should I give up on all this documentary plans and get back to my life that I loved so dearly and enjoyed so thoroughly and was so simple…working at the zoo.

Well I decided I was sick of wondering and so I spent last Sunday going back to the roots of what has made me who I am today and discover if setting my sights on becoming a recognised coservationists was what I really wanted to do…

I started my day by spending it with my loved one (Jon) and heading to Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary on the gold coast. My first place of employment that allowed me to get paid to do what I loved so much, working with animals. I got to say hello to all my old friends, Mouse the Dingo, Brutus the wedge-tail, Marlin the pelican, Heath the golden brushtail possum, snuggles the koala and squirt the major Mitchell…It was so great to say hi, but at the same time so awful to face that I no longer hold a bond with any of these animals. I have walked in and out of their lives with no real impact.

So after spending a day with the animals I heading off to dreamworld to experience an eviction from a publics point of view. After chilling with the production team I headed out to the crows got my seat and witness a full eviction….

So many emotions, so many feelings so many mixed vibes…but I am happy to say that the combination of seeing the animals that we once so important to me and then experiencing the wonder of having people crowd around you for a photo or autograph really made me want more then ever before to be successful in this documentary venture that I have chosen and to make sure I AM a voice for animals.

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MY INSIGNIFICANT LIFE 10th May

In a world where society is so engulfing and stereotypes become an integral part of set identities it becomes so hard to differ or set new margins for adopting a greener way of life…

Growing up with a passion that is so strong and has thus far directed and controlled my every discussion in life, I find it extremely difficult to accept how engulfed in society I am, and how much I struggle to adequately live with the environments best interest at mind. I too often desire to look my best, purchase the latest craze and fit in to accommodate my own self confidences within this harsh superficial society. I put my disappointments at ease by reinforcing myself that you can not prevent the human race advancing nor can you change the world, instead you have to live a life that doesn’t segregate you from normality but remain true to yourself and by striving to continue my work in conservation I am returning more to the environment than what I am using up through my ‘society living’.

Well having this mentality is what has made me feel comfortable and satisfactory with my lifestyle thus far in my life…that is until Tuesday…..

I met up with two PhD students at the University of Queensland whom both are studying the effects of palm oil in the region of Borneo Malaysia. These two women were truly amazing and both have so much intelligence, passion and self driven qualities that I felt insignificant and like I have been wasting every second of my life. Although I have been feeling complete with my level of dedication and determination for wildlife conservation, these two women both individually have achieved so much more. They proved to me that you can live in this difficult society, but still remain completely grounded and dedicated to conservation, not just partially like how I feel I have lived.

It is times like this, when you meet truly inspirational people that you set new bench marks for yourself. Although you have to crawl before you walk, I have already adopted a new approach to my conservation work. I am starting at the ground level and working my way up!!! I can not expect to change the world and protect all species alone, nor can I do it solely through documentaries as I have had planned to do, I need to get my hands dirty (so to speak) and work on the ground level and be there and lend a helping hand when needed…

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LOGIES 07 8th May

Ok Logies is supposedly the biggest awards event of the year for Australian TV. Recognition is given to outstanding programs/talent through a variety of different categories…
I was just wondering if anyone noticed the documentary category? Not a single wildlife documentary….don’t get me wrong the documentaries that were nominated are absolutely amazing docos and worthy of their nomination…but come on Australia were is the educational/exciting entertainment through wildlife documentary???

No wonder there is no appreciation for our native fauna, no one in the TV industry creates worth wildlife documentary entertainment…

It is through the power of media/tv that society is so heavily influenced…take a look at fashion and our perception of money and how supposedly important money is…and TV programs like ACA and 60minutes who cleverly perceive how we should view our government through articulated stories and covering only what is siginificant to media not to the viewer.

Why is every animal program targeted at children? Oh and might I add there were no animal related programs in the childrens catergory for logies either…

Why is no executive producer allowing the opportunity for society to be influenced so easily through the power of media by producing a entertaining award winning wildlife program???

I think I need to make a stand!!!

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ANIMAL CRUELTY 2nd May

Ok we all know it happens and it continues to happen even though there has been constant pressure to alleviate all forms of animal cruelty. I was on the internet just today and stumbled across the animalcruelty.com website. It basically gives you the cold hard facts on current animal cruelty and it emphasizes that animal cruelty isn’t just about the animals but it is about us and what we are doing to prevent it…

The website covers all areas of animal cruelty including animal experimentation, factory farming, fur trade, hunting and harvesting and entertainment animals…

It is very easy to be left with the sense that this issue is way to large and I am too insignificant to make a difference…How do we go about ensuring that animal cruelty does not continue? Conservationists and animal right activists have been fighting this issue for years…why hasn’t it been stopped?
Why is it that there is still an issue?

Why with all the technology and the rate at which our technologies are advances are we having to resort to animal cruelty?

Why do people still see entertainment through animal cruelty?
Why is it fashionable to wear a dead animal?

I am left with these questions milling through my mind…I just can not comprehend why in todays day and age we are still faced with animal cruelty.

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EARTH HOUR 31st March 07

Today marks an important day in Australia history...well in my eyes anyway. WWF has successfully conducted an event that has become headline news for weeks, has attracted government recognition and support and has mad a whole city stand still for an hour. Earth Hour was conducted in Sydney at 7:30pm this evening and was aimed to have the whole of Sydney turn off all its lights for a whole hour to mark the importance to act upon global warming now, and to emphasize just how easy it is to make a difference.

This event has eliminated my last two diary entries, with me suggesting that we are having too many conservation days, and are flooding people with awareness to a degree where people no longer care. Earth Hour has given me hope that people still do care.

WWF has allowed Earth Hour to develop to a point where it will be remember and hopefully in the following years, become a benchmark for other cities within Australia and internationally to follow suit.

I take my hat of to WWF for their endless efforts to conservation, and hope that Earth Hour is an inspiration to smaller wildlife charities to host events that receive the recognition that it deserves.

NATIONAL PARK DAY 28th March 07

Today I had the honour of presenting the Minister of Environment and Multiculturalism the honourable Lindy Nelson-Carr, an award on behalf of WWF for their continuing contribution for bilby conservation in two of Queenslands National parks, Astrebla and Diamantina.

I had a fantastic time and met some amazing people, but once again I was so disappointed that nobody cared. I accept that not everybody is as dedicated to the environment as me and that is ok, but I once again raise the question are we having to many days allocated for conservation awareness…

Did anyone know it was National Parks Day? None of my flat mates did…and to be honest I didn’t realise until I arrived at Brisbane to present this award..

The fact that there are extremely dedicated charities out there that are constantly developing days dedicated to specific causes is absolutely fantastic and important. But have we conservationists flooded those who aren’t as passionate causing conservationists to be compared to Jehovah witness door knockers….annoying and constantly nagging people to come on board with our plight. I would hate to think that this was the case.

WORLD WATER DAY 22nd March 07

What a more perfect day to write my first diary entry...World Water Day. The international observance of World Water Day is an initiative that grew out of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro.

Although awareness days like World Water Day are vital to continue education and to conserve the world environments and its animals, it is evident that many of these days go by unnoticed or do not recieve the recognition and support that it deserves.

Is it because we have too many charities or too many days allocated to conservation? To much focus on one issue ie Global Warming, only encourages people to become mentally flooded with the environmental crisis that they can easily forget the severity and the urgency to act now. It is similar to that of World Vision, how easy has it become to watch the advertisements of starving African children without being left with the feeling of guilt...only because we have seen the adds for so long that we begin to feel the issue is to large and as an individual we are unable to have a significant impact.

As much as I am writing these words, I like to disagree with them. It is up to individuals to band together and support each others plights to ensure that the world does become a better place.

Every little bit counts...the environment and its animals need our support no matter how large or small

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A society is measured by the way it treats those at its mercy. If we allow our closest living relatives to go extinct during out generation we will diminish all humanity.

- Leif Cocks, President of AOP- www.orangutan.org.au