REVIEW: Turtle sanctuary cherating

This is my first road trip with my SO.. and he has chosen Cherating, near Kuantan. It is quite a quiet town. My friend, whom taging along also comment that it's no different from a ghost town. Oh well, I always prefer something serene & quiet. My SO prefers city life though. But he always accomodate to my request especially for vacation.

 

I guess there isn't much attraction in Cherating, and what attract me the most is the turtle santuary in Cherating. You get to release baby turtles to the ocean!!!

 

If you are expecting a world class or "atas" santuary (like Singapore Zoo or Night safari or even Dolphin lagoon in Sentosa), you will be greatly disappointed. It is a small santuary just beside Club Med Cherating. The entrance is free.

 

DO NOT REMOVE YOUR SLIPPERS OR SHOES! Unless you have really tough feet. I remove mine, and I'm tearing the whole journey. Perhaps my feet are more sensitive. When you enter the santuary, you can go to the mini education room. It consists of several displays of turtles, dugong and how the baby turtles dig their way out of their shells.

 

Next you will enter 3 little ponds when they keep the turtles! *YEAH*

Below is the baby turtles pond. You can see the baby turtles are learning to dive, swim around or just playing rough with their siblings.

 

 

This is the small netting for just born turtles or they are feeding the baby turtles before releasing them to the another pond? There is no tour guide, so I just guess *keke* With the contraint space, the whole group of turtle do looks like a cluster of cockroaches *YIKES* 

 

 

These are the adult turtles sharing the little pond with the baby turtles (as above). I'm not sure why they are keeping the adult turtles. Perhaps for studies or the turtles are too sick to release to the wild?

 

 

 

Below are not turtles. Maybe is terrapins? They are housed at different pond from the turtles. I guess different species cannot live together?

 

 

 

After visiting all the ponds, you can walk out of the gate and head towards the hatchery. The santuary will picks up the eggs from the beach, and relocate them to the hatchery. Different batches will be tag with the dates. I was hoping that I can see baby turtles hatching or crawl out from the sands. But no luck =(

 

 

The highlight of my visit - release the baby turtles!!!!! Each turtle costs RM5. My SO got me 6 baby turtles to release and the in-charge gave us 7 baby turtles instead! He must see my sparkling eyes when my SO is passing the money to him. And maybe also I'm jumping around while waiting for my baby turtles! *BLUSH*

 

The baby turtles are so adorable! Their eyes are sparkling big unlike terrapins. They feels harder than terrapins too.

 

 

 

 

My SO took a video of me and my friend releasing the baby turtles, and it is totally hilarious. The turtle my friend release will automatic dash to the ocean. For mine, it will stone for awhile before making a few attempts to dash to the ocean, and stone for awhile more before the waves splash into it and the current pull it towards the ocean. 

 

I feel quite sad saying goodbye to them because they are totally adorable! How I hope I can bring them back to Singapore and keep them as pets. But I know they can only survive in the wild. I hope the next time I see them is they come back to the santuary and laying eggs. And I will be there releasing the baby turtles =)