Changeover 2 - Borneo Paradise

Changeover 2 was a monumental event with loads of fun and games had by all. Situated at the lovely Borneo Paradise, everyone had a good old chin wag to catch up with all the news from the project sites in phase 2 and the participants performed their skits from their alpha groups to fill us all in on their activities. Lots of laughs were had, and everyone enjoyed receiving their mail and blog posts from home.

Tuesday involved lots of swimming and sunbathing the participants all enjoyed the Easter themed games in and around the pool. In the new alpha groups, they had to do a relay race in a ridiculous number of inflatables, an egg and spoon race, a jelly eating competition and a treasure hunt. The winning team Alpha 5 enjoyed their mini eggs to the max!

With a very early start on Wednesday all the participants deployed to their last project of the expedition (aahhh).

Prepared for lots of hard work with PMs Betty and Izzy, Alpha 1 will finish (fingers crossed) the Kindergarten in Tampasak. These hard workers are: Alice Small, Andrew Dockerty, Anna Underwood, Ariana Janjua, Edward Dick, Guy Woodgate, Helen Armstrong, Jack Kessler, James Carn, Jonathon Morris, Rosie Curtis, Roy Johnson, Song Jie Lim, Thomas Hywel-Edwards and Vicki Unwin.

Ready to enjoy the community and eco lodge of Batu Puteh with PMs Alex and Bev, Alpha 2 are: Alex Robinson, Anubhav Datta, Catherine Hirst, David Smith, Estanto Karulus, Fredrick Jago, Helena Brice, Jennifer Sheardown, Lucy Hitchen, Sam Gost, Sarah Turpin, Sophie Hiatt, Tom Lowe and William Novell.

Building the bridge in the amazing environment of Imbak Canyon with PMs Sancia and Skinner and special guest appearance from our admin officer Gill, Alpha 3 are: Alice Baxter, Ashley Smith, Bivieana Fredzex, Charlie Beadle, Christina Stocking, Eleanor Stewart, George Askew, Jia Loon Chong, Jonathon Pilcher, Kate Lomas, Michael Richards, Philippine Ruskamp and Samantha Pitts.

Heading to Danum Valley with Alpha 4 to enjoy the exceptional wildlife with PMs Kate and Penny are: Aleksander Piskorz, Andrew Morton, Christian Davies, Christopher Hill, Daniel Robinson, Emma Williamson, Jasper Fry, Jeremy Marchant, Jon Peters, Lizzie Rumble, Lu Yi Yap, Mark Abram, Sailee B Limat, Sophie de Valk and Stephanie Le Cornu.

Hitting the road to trek round Long Pa Sia then enjoy the diving off Mamutik Island is Alpha 5 with PM Jon and PM/Medic Karen: Emma King, Iman Effendi, Jack Moody, Jessica Greenwood, Lauren Roberts, Malcolm Chambers, Michael Donlea, Michael Anstis, Sieb van Es, Tamara Castelli, Tom Davies and William Evans.

Last but not least are Alpha 6. Chillaxing on the dive island and getting the open water qualification before trekking round Long Pa Sia with PM Bec and PM/Medic Antonia are; Anna King, Camilla Stasiak, Casper Todd, Clare Morrow, Cyril Masuil, Edward berrill, Grace Bickmore, Julia Robertson, Richard Wingfield Digby, Ryan Marshall, Tobias Steadman and William Newman.

Squaring everything away and running the show back at field base in sunny KK are: the big cheese Jim, DEL boy Ed, number cruncher Nic, Martin'll fix-it and Medical extraordinaire/Staff Liaison Officer Carolyn. Out on the road throughout to get lots of good stories and pictures are our intrepid reporter Anna and snap happy Mark. A big thanks goes to Dr Adrian who is off to sunnier skies - we will miss all your invaluable advice and quality jokes.

A Day in the Life of Alpha 4

- BEEP, BEEP BEEP it's 07.00 and time for a quick assessment of the night's kitchen raid. Was it Ed the Bearded Pig trashing the place, or a leopard monkey? Or was it one of Richard's midnight feasts?

- 07.10 and whoever is on housekeeping duty stirs, taking comfort only in the racket they can create to make sure everyone else wakes up too.

- At 07.20 breakfast is served, and grumbles about who's taken too much porridge are heard.

- 07.55 means it's 5 minutes to the scheduled time to start work, and Caspar tumbles out of bed.

- At 08.30, after half an hour of waiting for the rangers, the group are cranky after the early start and high levels of caffeine from their morning coffee(s).

- 10.30 and after two hours of hard graft Alpha 4 take a break from digging holes and painting, for a well deserved bag of banana chips.

- At 12.00 it's time for lunch. Housekeeping have outdone themselves yet again, with two packets of crackers and a scraping of peanut butter. The daily squabble over who gets to eat the cracker crumbs ensues (Anu wins). After lunch, the group chill out until their next shift begins.

- 14.00 and back to work with lots of sweating - it's hot.

- At 17.00 the group head back to camp and the queue for the shower begins.

- At 19.00, refreshed and a little less smelly, Alpha 4 relax and reflect on the day's achievements.

- 20.00 decisions, decisions! What feast will we whip up tonight? Alpha 4's amazing cook SJ is guaranteed to impress.

- At 21.00, with a full dinner in our bellies, Alpha 4 sit down to another evening of banter.

A Day in the Life of Alpha 1

- Early morning wake-up for radio check with Field Base and porridge - mmm...

- Off down to the work site for an 8am start and wait to see if the carpenters are there today, to get cracking on continuing to build the Kindergarten.

- After work, the group have been taking it in turns to teach English to the kids, and later to the adults, in the village.

- At 4pm it's sports time in the village, with the choice of badminton or football.

- The evenings are full of experimenting with our food rations to make the best dessert, followed by at least one game of Mafia.

- The various other things Alpha 1 are up to include cooking and Malay lessons with the villagers, and visiting the oil palm plantations.

- By the end of this phase, Alpha 1 hope to have completed laying down the floorboards in the Kindergarten and made a start on the roof.

A Day in the Life of Alpha 2

Hot on the heels of A Day in the Life of Alpha 3, we bring you A Day in the Life of Alpha 2:

- Up at 7am in the comfortable but smelly surrounding of the goat shed, a bit sore from sleeping on the hard floor.

- After a quick bowl of porridge, we're off to the MESCOT building [the project partners] to catch a boat down the flooded river to our work site. This invariably takes longer than planned. We're laden with three bowls [for washing, rinsing and bleaching mess tins etc] and the various parts of our work site cracker lunch, and usually grumpy from the early morning drizzle.

- Wildlife on the journey consists of anything from hornbills and storks to red leaf monkeys and colobus monkeys in the trees on the banks.

- After our radio check with Field Base we get cracking on the day's work. More recently this has involved filling vast numbers of sandbags with sand and wheelbarrowing them half a km to the far side of the eco lodge. However, in that past we've also shovelled ankle deep mud and fished sandbags out of a waist-deep pool full of leeches, where some rampaging elephants had knocked them in.

- Lunch is a relaxed affair, with lots of snoozing in wheelbarrows and drying of socks, accompanied by copious quantities of crackers and peanut butter.

- Afternoon work is much the same: lots of carrying and grunt work. It's quite a big step up for most of us as it's really hard work, but immensely satisfying at the end of the day when you see what you've accomplished.

- After work is always nice and relaxed as we have a couple of hours free. The options are: having a wash on the jetty; strolling over the bridge into town to have some roti susu and a diary writing session; or just relaxing at the goat shed.

- There's always something different going on for dinner as well. The most basic is staying at the goat shed, cooking and eating outside at the side of the road, much to the annoyance of the occasional passing pick-up truck. There's also a riverside cafe next to the MESCOT building, which serves a sumptuous dish of chicken and noodles with a fried egg on top. We've also had cooking lessons at MESCOT and homestays during our time here.

- Finally, after dinner there's usually some kind of entertainment being put on by the MESCOT guys for the tourists - e.g. martial arts lessons or cultural dancing and music shows - which we're welcome to crash. Otherwise, Mafia is always a great game to fall back on...

- Everyone's generally tucked up in bed by 11 o'clock, reading, diary writing or just getting some much needed sleep for the day ahead.

Loop No. 2 returns!

Hooray, the Phase 2 Loop has successfully made it round its tour of Alphas 1-4 and returned safe and sound to Field Base to tell the tale. The first and most important thing to report is that everyone is doing great and there is plenty going on at all the project sites. Here's a rundown of all the latest news...

The Loop set off from Field Base last weekend, with Logistics Martin (aka Bob) and Expedition Leader Larissa sharing the driving, and Administrator / Accountant Gill manning the GPS and navigation side of things. It was a bright and early start as the first stop was Alpha 4 down in Danum Valley, a full (and long) day's drive from Field Base in KK. Arriving late afternoon, the Loop set about its normal business of distributing post (and blog comments, of course), collecting outgoing letters, and opening a small mobile shop of essential items that participants might need - shampoo, postcards, mozzie repellent, choccie bars etc...

Caspar and SJ relaxing in the spare Alpha 4 hammocks

After a delicious dinner featuring banana fritters and custard for pudding, everyone hung out and chatted then headed for their bunks ready for another long drive for the Loop and some hard manual labour for Alpha 4! The next day the group had arranged with the local rangers to help dig up an elephant's skeleton known to be underground nearby, and as the Loop departed they were hard at work with pick-axes and shovels. (Unfortunately, it took a full two days of digging and the assistance of a JCB and a Caterpillar earth mover before they located the elephant. Even more unfortunately, once it was found it quickly became obvious that despite being dead and buried for over a year the elephant was not yet fully decomposed and gave off a nasty niff once un-earthed, at which point Alpha 4 beat a hasty retreat. They do now have a three-foot elephant bone at their camp site as a souvenir of the experience, however!)

Alpha 4 digging for buried elephants...

The Loop's next stop was Alpha 2 in Batu Puteh. As the blog has already reported previously, due to heavy rains and high water levels Alpha 2 have had to evacuate their riverside campsite and set themselves up temporarily in the village goat shed. Although the river is now finally starting to drop, they are still at the goat shed at the moment, but it is hoped that the next group in Phase 3 will be able to return to the campsite. As the Loop discovered, it is actually not a bad little place - nice and dry, with a handy porch for cooking and storing muddy wellies.

Alpha 2 relaxing at the headquarters of MESCOT, their project partners

Despite the inclement weather, Alpha 2 have still continued to get stuck into their work and are building up plenty of muscles doing lots of lifting and digging at the eco lodge, where they have been laying paths and walkways. And it appears they're not tired enough from all that activity, as they're still finding time to fit in a bit of sport and this weekend they've got a football match scheduled with the community.

From Batu Puteh, the Loop headed on to Alpha 3 in Imbak Canyon. It was Martin's birthday so the Field Base visitors were greeted with great festivity and an enormous feast of Thai curry followed by Project Manager Skinner's now legendary bannoffee pie. After a slow start to the phase due to (yes, you've guessed it) the rain, Alpha 3 are now flying through their work on the suspension bridge and are hoping to complete the foundations by the end of this phase.

Andrew getting the Alpha 2 kitchen ready for breakfast - very early!

It was an early-ish night with very full stomachs, as some of the group were getting up even earlier than the Loopsters the next morning to go on a dawn walk with the rangers. Close behind, the Loop headed off at first light for the final leg of their journey, visiting Alpha 1 at Tampasak. As well as cracking on with the floor and wall supports for the Kindergarten, the group there has also found time to organse a sports day for the local kids. However, despite spending their days wielding tools and lugging heavy loads around their work site, puny Alpha 1 still lost the tug-o-war!

The kids of Tampasak showing Alpha 1 how it's done...

Finally, as you know Alphas 5 and 6 sadly can't receive a visit from the Loop as they are all out either trekking in the jungle or diving on Mamutik island. However, we are still in touch with them every day over the radios and can report that all is well. Alpha 5, first of all, have had a brilliant trek - the total opposite of the weather experienced by the trekkers in Phase 1, with scarcely a drop of rain! They've now moved across to Mamutik to complete their diving courses. Alpha 6, meanwhile, are just completing their trek and preparing to return to KK for Changeover - when the whole expedition gets back together, sorts out all the kit and swaps into new (and final!) Alpha groups for Phase 3.

There'll be another update on the blog as soon as the new Alpha groups are announced, so you'll know who is where for the final phase. Keep an eye out for that towards the end of the week...

A Day in the Life of Alpha 3

The Loop is still out and about on its tour of the Alpha groups. So far Loopsters Bob, Gill and Larissa have dropped in on Alpha 4 in Danum Valley, Alpha 2 at Batu Puteh and Alpha 3 at Imbak Canyon, and today they are on the final leg of their round-trip, which sees them at Alpha 1 in Tampasak.

Each of the Alpha Groups has been asked to prepare a 'Day in the Life' that we hope to publish here on the blog to help friends and family at home get more of an idea of what the average Raleigh day looks like here in Sabah. Those will be trickling in over the radios and in person via the Loop, and we hope to get them online over the next few days. For now, Alpha 3 in Imbak Canyon get a gold star for sending theirs in early - and here it is:

07.00: Andy wakes everyone up, if they haven't already stirred. All listen to jungle sounds...

07.15: Everyone makes porridge in their individual mess tin, tailored to personal preference but usually with loads of sugar. The more adventurous add raisins and hot chocolate powder.

08.00: The Day Leader and Deputy Day Leader radio in to Field Base with the daily update.

08.30: The Day Leader then ushers the whole group across the river to the Alpha 3 work site, with everyone sporting ultra-fashionable trekking sandals. Once safely across the river, they switch to hiking boots for the muddy and steep ascent to their work site.

Rest of morning: Half of the group collect sand and gravel from the riverside in baskets and cart it all up the hill. It is very sweaty work. Meanwhile, the other half of the group begin mixing cement, which they pour into the foundations for the bridge, where the steel suspension cables will be attached.

12.15: Alpha 3 break for lunch, which is prepared by that day's housekeeping team (2-3 participants who stay behind to cook, clean the camp site etc) and usually involves crackers, peanut butter, chocolate spread and home-made pâté fashioned from Raleigh Rations. Project Manager Sancia offers a lunchtime pilates class, which everyone joins in. Sancia's Salon then opens for eyebrow plucking etc, and some of the group nip off for a quick sunbathe.

14.00: The group return to work. Some manage a leeching and screams of 'Argh, get it off' echo around Imbak.

16.00: After two more hours of sweaty work, all relish a swim in the river. Some make use of the waterfall for a power shower. Others choose to hang out at the beach area close to the camp site.

17.00: On return to camp, jerry cans and buckets are filled with water and slowly carried uphill by groaning participants. The housekeeping team begins preparing dinner as the sound of rumbling stomachs echoes around the Canyon. It's time for some reading and letter writing to keep everyone's mind off food...

19.00: Dinner is announced and the ground shakes as all rush to form a disorderly queue. There is much pushing and shoving to re-queue for seconds and then again for pudding.

20.00: Once everyone's appetite is satisfied (or there is no more food left, whichever happens soonest) the evening is filled with chatting and games - the most popular being mafia and fancy dress nights (including a recent hip-hop/gangsta party, during which the outcome of a girls vs. boys dance-off is still hotly debated within the group).

21.00: The night gets darker, the cicadas get louder and everyone heads off to their hammocks for a hot and clammy night's sleep. A few stay up chatting until the wee small hours (which for weary Raleigh participants means about ten o'clock!)

Phase 2 – the story so far…

We hope you’ve all been enjoying the photos on the last blog posting (below). We hope to have some more pics for you soon. Meanwhile, the participants have been in their new Alpha groups for over a week now (which incidentally means the expedition is halfway through, already!) Here’s a quick round-up of what everyone’s been up to so far in Phase 2:

Alpha 1 down at Tampasak have been making a few improvements to their campsite and have built what they assure us is a luxury long drop. (Field Base can’t wait to check that out when we visit on the Loop!) The group has been settling nicely into village life, playing football with the local children, going along to church on Sunday morning, and continuing their cooking and Malay lessons. Alpha 1 are making progress fitting the floor of the new Kindergarten they are building in the village, and have also visited the nearby palm oil plantations.

Project Manager Betty collecting oil palm kernels.

After the recent heavy rains across Sabah, Alpha 2 in Batu Puteh have been keeping a close eye on the Kinabatangan River. When the rising water eventually got a bit too close to their camp site at the weekend, they decided to pack up and de-camp to higher ground in the village. So, until the river levels drop, Alpha 2 are now safely installed in the goat shed (minus the goats). It might be a little bit smelly, but it’s actually a lot more luxurious than the description suggests and in many ways it’s an upgrade on the Alpha 2 camp site as it boasts four walls, a floor and a roof! Despite the rain, Alpha 2 are keeping busy laying pathways at the Eco Lodge, as well as learning traditional dancing, music, cooking and the ancient Malaysian martial art of Silat, with the local community.

Alpha 2 Project Managers Jon, Nic and Penny gave Field Base visitors Ed and Dad a guided tour of their luxury goat shed.

Alpha 3 have also been suffering from river-related problems. In fact, they win the Phase 2 prize for the longest journey to reach their camp site. After an un-scheduled overnight stop in everyone’s favourite place, Telupid, they eventually managed to make it as far as the very smart Imbak Canyon Rangers' Camp (pictured here and built by previous Raleigh expeditions). However, the group's attempts to reach the Raleigh campsite were then thwarted because the river was too high to cross. They finally made it to their campsite on Monday this week but it’s continued to rain hard ever since, hampering their efforts to get stuck into work on the suspension bridge.

Imbak Canyon Rangers' Camp

However, rain has eased in the last couple of days and Alpha 3 have been busy moving lots of sand and gravel, to begin mixing the cement for the bridge foundations. They also held a Gangsta Rap party last night to mark the halfway point in the expedition - we're looking forward to seeing the photos from that...

Alpha 4 down in Danum Valley have maintained their Kings and Queens of Fancy Dress reputation by throwing an '80s party to launch Phase 2. They’ve also trekked to Tembling waterfalls, cleared trails, made sushi (we’re very impressed!), collected wild ferns to eat for their dinner, and continuing their attempts (so far in vain) to stop the resident bearded pig raiding their camp kitchen. Remaining on a wildlife theme, lucky Alpha 4 reported yesterday that they'd spent an hour watching orang-utans in the trees around their campsite.

The Alpha 4 Bearded Pig, nicknamed Ed (confusingly, as she's a sow with piglets...)

Down in Long Pa Sia, Alpha 5 have been enjoying their trekking, which (touch wood) has been unusually rain-free so far - so much so that Field Base has had to check that Alpha 5 are actually still in Borneo, after they reported that the overnight weather had been "dry and cold". Today they are trekking to spectacular Maga Falls, before a final four days back towards Long Pa Sia and the return to KK, from where they'll head over to Mamutik Island for a week's diving.

Beautiful Maga Falls, near Long Pa Sia in south-western Sabah

Finally, over on Mamutik, Alpha 6 have been enjoying some welcome sunshine. As well as gaining their PADI scuba qualifications, they have been planting coral and assisting with a seabed clean-up. They also managed to squeeze in some time to lounge around on the beach, go snorkelling and play volleyball. This week the group left their paradise beach for the depths of the jungle, and headed down to Long Pa Sia to begin their 12-day trek. So far, that's been going really well and the sun has been shining on Alpha 6...

Mamutik Island at sunset

The Loop vehicle - manned by Bob, Gill and Larissa - will be heading out from Field Base this weekend, calling at Alphas 1-4, so we hope to bring you more news and photos when they're back next week. Please keep your comments coming in the meantime - anything received before Saturday will be printed out and sent round with the Loop. The Alpha groups love hearing from you!

More photos from Phase 1...

Hi blog readers and thanks as always for your comments, which the Field Base volunteer staff are continuing to pass on to the Alpha groups whenever we get the chance.

A few of you have asked if it’s possible to see more photos. As you may have gathered, it’s tricky for us to get hold of pictures during each phase as the project sites are quite remote and therefore far away from computers and blogging opportunities.

However, we have managed to get hold of some great pictures from Phase 1, so here are a few highlights from the first few weeks of the expedition.

[Also, a quick note on picture size: on our slow internet connection here it can take a painfully long time to upload large files, so apologies if the photos are not as big as we’d prefer.]

Thanks for bearing with us and we hope you continue to enjoy the blog!

ALPHA 1 - BUILDING A KINDERGARTEN IN TAMPASAK

ALPHA 2 - HELPING TO COMPLETE THE ECO-LODGE IN BATU PUTEH

ALPHA 3 - SUSPENSION BRIDGE CONSTRUCTION IN IMBAK CANYON

ALPHA 4 - CLEARING TRAILS AND ASSISTING SCIENTISTS IN DANUM VALLEY

ALPHA 5 - TREKKING AROUND LONG PA SIA THEN DIVING OFF MAMUTIK ISLAND

ALPHA 6 - DIVING OFF MAMUTIK ISLAND THEN TREKKING AROUND LONG PA SIA

Phase 2 Alpha Groups revealed...

Hooray, everyone made it safely back from Phase 1 and, for a mad 36 hours from Monday evening to Wednesday morning, all volunteer staff and participants left their campsites around Sabah and met up again to find out about Phase 2 projects, get to know their new Alpha groups, wash all their grubby kit, pick up fresh supplies, play games, eat donuts and generally catch up.

The Raleigh Malaysia Spring 2008 expedition blog can now exclusively reveal who will be where for the next three weeks:

Joining Betty and Izzy in Alpha 1 to continue building a Kindergarten in the village of Tampasak are: Alice Baxter, Andrew Morton, Charlie Beadle, Christian Davis, Edward Berrill, Jasper Fry, Jonathan Pilcher, Julia Robertson, Lizzie Rumble, Lu Yi Yap, Michael Anstis, Vinay Gandhi and William Evans.

Off to Alpha 2 in the community of Batu Puteh with Jon, Nic and Penny are: Camilla Stasiak, Emma King, Iman Effendi, Jeremy Marchant, Jessica Greenwood, Jonathan Morris, Kate Lomas, Ryan Marshall, Roy Johnson, Sailee Limat, Sieb van Es, Stephanie Le Cornu, Tom Davies and William Newman.

Heading to Alpha 3 in Imbak Canyon with Sancia, Skinner, Medic Carolyn and (for the next week or so) Photographer Mark are: Alex Robinson, Andrew Dockerty, Anna Underwood, Ariana Janjua, Clare Morrow, Cyril Masuil, Edward Dick, Grace Bickmore, Jack Kessler, Jack Moody, Malcolm Chambers, Michael Donlea, Rosie Curtis, Tamara Castelli and Thomas Hywel-Edwards.

Spending Phase 2 in Danum Valley Conservation Area with Alpha 4 Project Managers Kate and Alex are: Alice Small, Anna King, Anubhav Datta, Caspar Todd, Emilie Halligan, Jennifer Sheardown, Lauren Roberts, Richard Wingfield-Digby, Sam Gost, Samantha Pitts, Sarah Turpin, Song Jie Lim, Tobias Stedman and William Novell.

On the adventure projects, kicking off Phase 2 with a 12-day trek followed by a week’s scuba diving are Alpha 5 with Bev and Karen: Aleksander Piskorz, Ashley Smith, Bivieana Fredzex, Christina Stockting, Dan Robinson, George Askew, Guy Woodgate, Helen Armstrong, Jia Loon Chong, Lucy Hitchen, Mark Abram, Philippine Ruskamp, Sophie Hiatt and Tom Lowe.

Meanwhile, diving first with trekking still to come in a week or so’s time are Alpha 6 with Bec and Adrian: Catherine Hirst, Chris Hill, Dave Smith, Eleanor Stewart, Emma Williamson, Estanto Karulus, Frederick Jago, Helena Brice, James Carn, Jon Peters, Lewis Bowick, Mike Richards, Sophie de Valk, Vicki Unwin.

Finally, at Field Base making it all happen are: permanent staff Jim and Larissa, and volunteer staff Anna (Comms Officer and blog author), Antonia (Medic), Ed (Deputy Expedition Leader), Gill (Administrator and cake chef), Martin / “Dad” and Martin / “Bob” (both Logistics).