Bernie and Graham's big adventure: Langkawi nature

A lovely couple of days relaxing in our little beach side village of Pentai Cenang.

We've been exploring daily on foot until we reached melting point and then it's been a beach or pool swim to cool down.

The sea is very warm and you miss that refreshing cold shock you get when jumping into the sea back home.

Our little villa is about five minutes walk from the beach and is in a quiet back lane that would have been rice paddy fields.

Often by the time we have walked back from the beach we are so hot that we jump onto the villa pool.

We have the resort to ourselves as no one else is expected to check in for a few days.

We've had amazing thunder and lightening storms, one at night and the power went off and one during the day. Spectacular weather change in 30 mins. We got caught out on a walk and had to shelter in a beach shack.

The little frogs down our back lane loved the rain and provided a deafening frog chorus!

There are so many wild cats and dogs here. There is a move to protect the pure dingo dogs but they are breeding with ferral dogs and the population is increasing and some now carry rabies. There is concern the tourists and construction workers are feeding the dogs and making them dependant on humans. The pure dingos are very healthy, strong and well adapted to living in the jungle. They all have a curly tail which is a bit different.

Every day we see kittens and mamma cats. An Australian woman has established The Langkawi Animal Shelter and Sanctuary Foundation (LASSie) and they are doing great work but up against funding challenges. They have a project to sterilise the stray cat and dog population and are staffed by volunteers and a rotating team of vets (some volunteers) and veterinary students. Volunteer vets stay for up to a month and work in the clinic assisting the two resident vets.