On Sunday the 29th, 16 young adults from all corners of the world began to arrive one-by-one at Geneva Airport in Switzerland. Mike Horn also arrived in Geneva yesterday and had the opportunity to meet the young explorers in the evening. While his sailboat 'Pangaea' awaits in Kuala Lumpur for his return, Mike Horn is looking forward to getting to know the youths as he participates in the camp inbetween his other obligations throughout Europe.

The youths were informed in October of their great chance to be accepted amongst almost 300 applications to travel to Switzerland and attend the 10 day Selection Camp. The camp, as its name suggests, selects outstanding youngsters to join Mike Horn during his current 4 year environmental expedition, named the Pangaea Expedition. Throughout the 10 days the youths will engage in intensive courses learning about state-of-the-art technology, sustainability and the environment, fitness and health and communication skills which will prepare them to meet the challenges of the Pangaea Expedition and form them as ambassadors to communicate their experiences to their families and peers around the world.

A busy time lies ahead for the youths. The frst day starts off with a visit to a local electrical plant where they will learn about renewable energies, followed with group discussions and film and photography skills.

Updates and photos will be posted daily as we follow closely the youths and begin assessments to see who will be chosen for the next leg of the Pangaea Expedition in India.

With those inspiring words Mike said goodbye to Pangaea’s newest Young Explorers as a successful Borneo programme came to a close in Miri, Sarawak. The YEPs have now returned to their homes around the world, where they’ll hopefully spread Pangaea’s important message by starting their own environmental projects.

There were plenty of hugs and a tear or two as the YEPs said goodbye to each other, as well Mike, Cathy, Martin and the ship’s crew, who have all bonded into a kind of Earth-saving family aboard the beautiful Pangaea over the past three weeks.

“It’s not the end of the adventure,” said Eugénie Guillaume, 18, of France. “It’s the start of a whole new one.” And it’s been an incredible adventure: releasing baby turtles and building a reef on Lankayan Island, diving some of the most beautiful reefs in the world, including Sipadan Island, falling in love with baby orang-utans at Sepilok, cleaning up a variety of beaches and remote paradise islands, and overcoming fears in the tight passages of the Mulu Caves.

It’s now over to the YEPs to use this range of experiences to fulfil Pangaea’s aim – to become ambassadors of the world and unite the continents in the fight for nature. Saying goodbye to the other YEPs, Michelle Nay, 19, of Switzerland commented: “I really hope we meet again, and get together to do projects all over the world. That would be a dream for me. We don’t live in one country, we live in the world.”

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Carrying Pangaea’s message across the globe is one of the most important roles the YEPs can play. Said Mike: “Don’t ever lose your passion to conserve Mother Earth, who takes care of all of us. Today is today; life is now, so think about doing things now – tomorrow is already too late.”

With the Borneo YEPs now at home and hopefully planning their own projects, Mike and Pangaea are sailing towards new horizons – the Sultanate of Brunei and soon on to India, in preparation for the next Young Explorers Programme early next year.

Here’s wishing safe seas and fair winds for Pangaea, support and bright ideas for the YEPs and their projects, and good luck for the new YEPs attending the training camp in November. – There’s exciting stuff ahead !

Friday was largely swallowed by bureaucracy – even though we’re still in Malaysia, we’ve crossed into Sarawak, requiring immigration and passport checks, which took a lot of taxi rides and waiting around, trying to get it all sorted – plus a journey in a large truck that drove us into town. But eventually (albeit 10 hours later!) we finally started our journey up the Tutoh River on the ‘express boat’ which roared off into the gathering dark, dodging floating logs and treating us to a gorgeous sunset with lush jungle racing past on both sides. Marudi is about three hours up the river, where we stopped for the night in the local hotel – which is definitely not on the Michelin list. We slept three to a room – and that’s not counting the cockroaches…

Sunrise saw us back on the boat for another six hours, before swapping to narrow motorised pirogues for another two as the river shallows and narrows. So it’s a long journey, although you can fly in just half an hour – but then you’d miss the half the adventure, and a glimpse of life along the river. Gunung Mulu, as the park is known in Malaysia, was proclaimed a World Heritage Site in 2005 and it boasts the largest cave passage in the world, and the largest chamber – the Sarawak Chamber is 600 by 800 metres, and 100 metres high. Deer Cave was our first stop after arriving at Mulu in the afternoon: a 40-minute walk through the jungle brought us to a huge cave opening, which is famous for the three million bats that live inside it. At about 6 pm they’re supposed to swarm out to go out eating for the night – but that night they seemed to be afraid of the rain (they don’t call it a rainforest for nothing). We walked back in the dark, listening to a jungle orchestra of frogs, birds, bats and other nightlife tuning up for the evening chorus. But the best part of this adventure came the next morning. We set off after 8 am for the 3.8 km walk to Clearwater Cave – with 425 steep steps on extremely damp and slippery boardwalks. At the entrance we donned Petzl helmets and headlamps so that we could disappear into the darkness – it was a lovely feeling to walk beyond the railings where the average tourists must stop and turn back.

We spent the next five hours slipping, slithering, squeezing and scrambling through this immense cave system – 150 km of majestic chambers and galleries of stalactites and stalagmites, connected at times by extraordinarily narrow passages, so skinny we couldn’t bend a knee; you had to inch through head or feet first like a snake. At other tricky parts we relied on ropes to help us across. We covered almost five kilometres of the system. “But in terms of physical effort, five kilometres underground is like 30 kilometres above ground,” said Phillippe Bence, our cave guide. We were constantly drenched and muddy – it felt like a real journey into the centre of the Earth, complete with bats, spiders, swiftlets and even snakes. At one point we slid through a crack in the rock that was the width of a forearm, from wrist to elbow. “I was feeling a bit claustrophobic at the first narrow passage, sliding between two slabs of rock. But it was ok, everyone was helping each other, and Phillippe was there for us, giving good advice, and that was important,” said Eugénie, Guillaume, 18, of France.

“It was a little bit scary,” added Rodrigo Steinman, 16, of Brazil. “It was a challenge, you had to work it through in your mind.” Eventually we came to a clear, strong-flowing river in a chamber hung with huge stalactite chandeliers. We followed it for the last 1.5 km to the end of the trail. “We were so hot, the cool water was like Christmas for your body,” said Eugénie. The river led us out of the cave system and back out into the daylight, grubby from head to toe and quite tired, but exhilarated by an incredible experience none of us had had before. “We wanted to give the Young Explorers a chance to explore something new, a brilliant opportunity in one of the world’s most amazing caves,” said Mike. “They handled it well – they kept moving and all helped each other. I think the group has bonded even closer.” Another long boat journey, overnight at a guesthouse at Long Terawan, brought us very happily back to ‘Hotel Pangaea’ – home of showers, dry clothes and Cathy’s excellent cooking. There is such as thing as too much nasi goring.

However, sharing the space with the nine Young Explorers are several crew members needed to sail such a ship (skipper, engineer and sailors), as well as the Mike Horn team, which includes several logistics managers, a doctor, dive master, videographer, photographer and journalist. But while space is at a premium, everyone’s considerate about keeping general spaces tidy – although it gets pretty crowded in the galley at mealtimes!

The Young Explorers have bonded into a tight unit, and they’re amazingly caring of each other. They’re working hard – they’re busy with activities (such as reef dives, beach clean-ups and sailing duties) almost non-stop, plus there are journals to write, video clips to edit and lessons to learn from Mike, Christian, the onboard dive master, and Dr Roswitha Stolz, a physical geographer from the University of Munich. They’ve all perfected Mike’s concept of ‘stealing sleep’ – grabbing a quick nap on a sail bag or in the main saloon area! But they’re definitely remarkable youngsters – each one is extremely aware of the opportunity they’ve been given, and they’re making the most of every minute. So how are they getting on with the expedition? “We are in love with each other!” said Eugénie of France.

Michelle Nay, 19, Switzerland
‘We’re doing very well together. Yesterday we had a tough swim, and we had to look after each other in the waves.’

Dongkyun Seo, 20, South Korea
‘I’m getting to know the names of things on the boat. Night watch was interesting, to see the navigation and the map. With responsibility, we learn to take care of our boat.’

Eugénie Guillaume, 18, France
‘When we’re diving, everyone asks each other all the time if you’re ok, do you have enough air. People don’t do that in life, sometimes they don’t even look at each other. We’re looking after each other. It’s humanity.’

Daniel Kotze, 20, South Africa
‘We’re one team – like different parts of a body, each with an important role to play. If you don’t play your part, the body doesn’t function well.’

Rodrigo Steinman, 16, Brazil
‘We’re getting quite close. We’re realising we need each other to make it work.’

Simon Havas, 16, Czech Republic
‘It’s important that we communicate and motivate each other – like when we’re on night watch, when someone might be sleepy or tired.’

Garrett Celestin, 15, United States
‘Everything we do is about team work. As a team we’re great, alone we can’t do as much.’

Daniel Vivier, 19, South Africa
‘We’ve learnt that we need to be vigilant and observe, as every dive is different and conditions change all the time. If I act foolishly or over-confidently, I could put myself and my dive buddy in danger.’

Kerstin Dörner, 18, Germany
‘Space on board isn’t a problem. We all like each other, and we talk openly if there are any conflicts.’

There were anxious phone calls yesterday from the organisers of the event, wanting to make sure we would arrive on time. Yesterday was a sailing day as we journeyed towards the capital – but naturally there was time for some diving and a walk along the beach of Mantanini Island – which of course turned into a beach clean-up! We anchored fairly close to KK, as the capital is known, for the night, feeling quite sad that the sailing and diving part of this expedition have largely come to an end.

But there’s no stopping Mike. Late last night he issued a challenge to the YEPs who were still up for an adventure: “Who wants to dive over two days?” A few of the YEPs were brave enough to load up their scuba gear and slide into the dark water just before midnight on the 4, to emerge more than half an hour later on the 5 of November!. Kota Kinabalu is quite different to what we’ve seen so far – high-rise buildings line the seafront and the gleaming marble-floored yacht club with sweeping wooden staircases was very impressive. Welcoming us this morning was Malaysia’s deputy minister of tourism, Sulaiman A. Rahman Taib, who we’d met before in Sipadan, as well as YB Datuk Masidi Manjun, minister of tourism, culture and environment for Sabah.

The minister outlined some of the steps Sabah has taken to safeguard nature, including cancelling logging contracts worth billions of ringits (the Malaysian currency), and ensuring that 55% of Sabah remains as protected forest. “The biggest problem is managing human greed,” he said. “To supply the greed of a few people, we’re paying the price in needless exploitation of the forest. We need to take only what we need, and leave the rest for future generations. In fact we need to add value for future generations. There’s a place for everyone in this world if we know what to take and what to conserve. ”Speaking directly to the Young Explorers, he said: “Mike has given you a legacy to do all you can for nature, and you are going to leave a legacy. If nine people follow you and nine more follow each of them, the multiple effort will be loud enough for the world to hear.”

Mike then shared his experiences from some of his earlier adventures and what they’d taught him, and then showed a video of the Borneo adventure so far. Then the journalists had time to interview the YEPs, who seemed to enjoy being media personalities. The days are running out on our adventure, but it’s not quite over yet. We waved goodbye to our friendly hosts and are now racing, rocking and rolling (this is being written while swaying from side to side at what feels like 45 degrees), towards Miri in Sarawak, from where we start our inland and upriver journey to see a whole new side to Borneo, the second largest island in the world.

It was a rough swim from for the youngsters, battling the waves as they swam from rock to rock around the headland, but it was an excellent way to celebrate their journey around this northern part of Malaysian Borneo.

And of course there was an ACT project involved. There was a huge amount of rubbish on the beach where they set off – polystyrene, shoes, and an abundance of plastic bottles. The YEPs gathered up as many as could fit into several black rubbish bags, and returned to the boat, tired and happy, as a gorgeous orange sun sank into the sea. The pile of rubbish stacked in Pangaea’s stern is growing alarmingly, as this was the third beach clean-up of the trip. After we sailed away from Lankayan and the turtles, Mike found the perfect little island in the Sulu Sea, about 100 metres long, for an evening barbeque on the beach. With white sand, large lime and sandstone rocks and plenty of greenery, it really was a tiny paradise, except for the rubbish that had been washed up.

So after a fabulous evening on the island, with meat and potatoes cooked over the open fire, the YEPs returned to the island the next morning where they filled eight large bags and collected 216 recyclable plastic bottles. They’ve now been compressed on board Pangaea into a manageable block, stacked with the others. After the last two days of fairly solid sailing, the YEPs are becoming very efficient sailors, jumping to the sheets and halyards as Mike shouts instructions from the helm, or guides a young helmsman or woman on sailing and the wind. We’ve now crossed into the South China Sea and are anchored at Mantanani Island for some diving tomorrow, before heading for Kota Kinabalu on Thursday.

Lankayan Island, where we’ve been anchored for the past two nights, is the centre of the Sugud Islands Marine Conservation Area (Simca), and an important part of their work is the protection of green and hawksbill turtles that use these islands as nesting grounds. After just missing the release of a batch of hatchlings on the night we arrived, a small band of bleary-eyed explorers made sure they were on the beach the next morning by 6am, just in case any more tiny turtles had hatched in the night. We were lucky: Achier Chung, marine biologist and Simca’s conservation manager, was standing by with a bowl full of about 50 wriggling babies, climbing all over each other in their bid to get out into the ocean. With the sun just rising over the horizon, they dashed across the sand to the water, little fins flying, occasionally having to detour through a large footprint, or battling over piece of coral. “I wanted to help them because they need to get to the water for food,” Eugénie Guillaume, 18, from France. “But we need to stand back and observe, let nature unfold. It’s instinct, they just know where to go.”

While these youngsters were spending their first few hours of life in open water, the human Young Explorers were continuing with their ACT projects – building the aeroplane coral reef and conducting another reef transect in the colourful waters around the island. They were done in time to be back on the island in the evening, for yet another ACT project: patrolling the island for adult female turtles that had come ashore to lay their eggs. In a bid to safeguard these threatened reptiles – it’s believed only 1% of all hatchlings make it to adulthood – the island conservationists move the eggs to hatcheries where they’re numbered and monitored, to stop them being eaten or damaged. About 10 minutes into the first circuit of the island, the YEPs found the tracks of a green turtle that had moved up the beach into the plant fringe, where she’d laboriously dug a hole for her eggs. Half an hour later there 79 ping-pong ball eggs laid and already saved, as she slowly made her way back into the water. The ‘Pangaea batch’ is now buried in the hatchery, and in about seven weeks, we hope to have a full nest of young turtle explorers! But the night was only getting better. While the female was laying, word came through that a batch of eggs laid in September had now hatched, and the first small turtles had dug their way up through the sand, ready to face the world.

They were clearly exhausted by the effort of digging through 70cm of sand, and the little things were fast asleep. Achier then worked a little natural magic: she wiggled her fingers in the sand of the nest, which prompted an immediate mini-stampede of babies, all pouring out of the earth. There were 23 in all, who were gathered into a bowl and then released on the beach, where they flip-flapped their way into the water and a brand-new life. This morning saw another ACT project, and another link in the chain of life. The YEPs went back to the island to clean the hatcheries. “After a batch has hatched, we leave the nest for one week, in case there are any more turtles still digging their way up through the sand. We count the egg shells and any that haven’t hatched, to learn more about them,” said Achier. It was a smelly business: any intact eggs have to be opened, to learn why they didn’t hatch – can you imagine what a two-month-old bad egg smells like? “It was kind of disgusting, but interesting to see that most had simply not been fertilised – very few had died while they were developing. I had five that didn’t hatch and 70 that hatched. Most are surviving, so that’s good,” said Garrett Celestin, 15 of the USA.

Happily both Dongkyun Seo, 20, of South Korea and Garrett found live babies, which were released to make their way in the world. “I was pulling out egg shells when I saw this little black thing sticking out of the sand, wriggling. I helped it a bit with my finger and out it came. It was amazing, I saved a life!” said Dongkyun. A third live one had a damaged fin, which meant it would be instant shark food if released near the reef. But she was flapping away as hard as she could, determined to survive. So the little one joined us on board Pangaea as we sailed away from Lankayan Island, and was released in deeper water. With a damaged fin the odds are stacked against her, but here’s hoping that in 20 years or so, our little fighter will be returning to Lankayan to lay her own eggs.
 

Mike, as usual, looks at life from a slightly different angle, which is why the noon-day heat saw the Young Explorers building a metal aircraft on Pangaea’s aft deck – with welding help from engineer Jaçek Pronewicz. The plane infrastructure, made out of metal rod, was then anchored on the sea bed just off Lankayan Island in the conservation area of the Sulu Sea, where over time it will hopefully become a new coral reef. “We put it at a depth of about eight metres – it has to be not too shallow, not too deep so that the coral will grow,” said Kersten Dörner, 18, of Germany. “We each had our country’s name carved onto a block of wood that we attached to the frame, so we’ll always be flying ‘Pan-air’ even when we’re not there.” Creating the reef was another of the Young Explorers’ ACT projects, and it serves two purposes – it creates a new ecosystem supporting coral and fish stocks, and gives divers and snorkellers another reef to learn about and enjoy.

But simply placing a structure is not enough to create a reef. A battery was wired to the structure, sending a small electric current through it. That causes a reaction with the salt sea water, which forms a coating of calcium carbonate over the entire structure – that’s electrolysis. It’s a bit like gold-plating it, only the layer is calcium carbonate rather than gold. “We believe the coral larvas floating in the sea are attracted to the current,” said Dr Roswitha Stolz, physical geographer from the University of Munich. “But most importantly, the calcium carbonate is the right material for the larva to attach to – they can’t settle on the metal.”

The larva turns into polyps, which slowly grow to create a new coral colony, which in turn becomes an entire ecosystem supporting new corals, small fish, sponges and more. Over time the metal will rust away, and by that time the coral will have grown enough to support itself. “I’m already planning to come back, and hopefully by that time it will have become a proper coral reef. Let’s see!” said Simon Havas, 16, of Prague, Czech Republic.

We sailed away from Sandakan yesterday afternoon, bound for the Turtle Island reserve about 40 kilometres north of the town. Arriving shortly before six, we were too late to get permits, so after a quick dive from the boat (to a shallow reef teeming with beautiful fish and a variety of colourful corals), Mike decide to sail on to what was little more than a small dot on the map: Sebaung Island. But perhaps ‘One-tree Island’ would be a more appropriate name, as through the binoculars in the growing dark we could make out just one tree and two bushes.

Armed with torches, the YEPs jumped into the tender and went to explore. Sebaung is tiny – about 100 metres by 50 metres of rock and bleached white coral rubble, with some hermit crabs and a startlingly beautiful black-and-yellow banded sea snake – it’s not often you see them on land. But the really bizarre find was a white sea bird, long dead, that had been strung up in the tree, along other traces that people had stayed on this tiny spit of land: a lean-to shelter covered in bits of plastic, and places where the coral had been arranged to protect a fire. Quite peculiar – there are plenty of fishing boats around, so it’s unlikely anyone was stuck there.

Sadly there was more evidence of human influence: the skeleton of a turtle that had been someone’s meal, plus loads and loads rubbish. That prompted the unscheduled ACT project – to clean up the island. This morning the YEPs filled 10 large dustbin bags with plastic bottles, old shoes, fishing line, polystyrene, plastic bags, chip packets and more. Mike held up a bright orange cigarette lighter. “This is the kind of thing that kills turtles,” he told the YEPs. “Lighters, toothbrushes, lids – the turtles love the bright colours, but they get stuck in their throats and they die.

“Look at this toothbrush – there’s no village nearby, and here’s a toothbrush, perfectly intact. They’re almost impossible to destroy. Can you imagine how many toothbrushes get thrown away?” Another disturbing find was several plastic ampoules that had contained sodium cyanide. Dr Roswitha Stolz, a physical geography expert from the University of Munich, explained that it’s used by people collecting fish to sell for the aquarium trade. “They empty the cyanide in the water and it tranquilizes the fish, making them easy to catch. But of all the fish caught, only 4% make it to the destination alive.

“There’s also a growing market in China, Hong Kong and Japan for live fish – people want to touch their fish before it’s killed and eaten. A live Napoleon, or humpback wrasse, of more than 50cm fetches up to US$4 000 in Hong Kong.” The rubbish was sorted into types, and it will be compressed on board Pangaea and recycled. Glass was left behind. “It’s silica, a natural substance, and it’s a waste to use heat to recycle it. It’s better to use the natural energy of the sea.”

Pangaea made the most of the breezes for an afternoon of sailing, with five sails up at one stage, and later the gennaker. Destination: Lankayan Island, a dive resort and conservation area, where the YEPs did two dives, through two shipwrecks and later a night dive. Sadly we arrived just too late to see some turtle hatchlings making a desperate dash for the sea, so instead we celebrated Halloween at the resort’s restaurant. More hatchlings are due early on Sunday morning – maybe we’ll be lucky then?

We returned to the Sepilok Orang-utan Sanctuary outside Sandakan today, and were privileged to be allowed into the rehabilitation area and the nursery, to watch these orphaned animals being taught the ropes – literally. With orang-utans set to become extinct within 10 years – if circumstances remain as they are – their plight is serious. They’re the second largest ape and the largest tree-dwellers, but their natural habitat is disappearing: they’ve lost 80% over the last 20 years.

Which is why Sepilok, the oldest and largest sanctuary of its kind, was one of the three Act projects for the Young Explorers. It takes in baby orang-utans who’ve either been orphaned, kept as pets, or captured on the palm oil plantations because they eat the young trees. They’re placed in quarantine for three months or more and cured of any diseases, and then they start the rehabilitation process: they’re taken into a huge jungle gym area of the forest, where they’re encouraged to do natural orang-utan stuff – hang about in trees and swing from vine to vine. “They’re a bit lazy, though,” says Hayley Bagnell, our guide. “We have to hide food at different levels or up in the trees to get them moving. We also team them with older orang-utans so that they learn wild, natural behaviour.”

Hayley represents Orang-utan Appeal UK, which raises funds for Sepilok and sponsors the on-site vet and nurse, plus pays for helicopter trips to release the animals in the wild. One of the youngsters we watched at play was completely emaciated, moving much slower than the others. He had probably been a pet that was fed human food, which is no good for these vegetarian, banana and honey-eating primates.

“We feed them bland food so they don’t get too dependent on us – the forest fruits are much tastier and sweeter,” said Hayley. After several years the orang-utans are moved into the reserve, although they can still come for food twice a day if they choose to. Much later they are released into the wild in the Tabin Rainforest Reserve, a 121 000 hectare area (twice the size of Singapore) that’s home to wild orang-utans. “These wild populations offer them a sustainable future,” said Hayley.Sepilok is a beautiful sanctuary, but the YEPs had plenty of questions about the set-up, chiefly that the viewing and feeding platforms in the reserve were all squared off. “They were concerned that there were so many sharp angles – nature just isn’t like that,” said Mike. “They are full of ideas of how we can return at some stage to design and build more organic and natural structures for the orang-utans – we hope that they’ll form a project together to raise funds and adopt their own orang-utan. In between all of us, we have the power to support one of these ‘men of the forest’.”