Saturday 28th July 2012.
Today we had another 5.50am wake up to clear the beach up of the driftwood, so it is easier for the baby turtles to get back to the sea after they have hatched. Considering this was our last day of doing work, we made sure we put the extra effort in so we could feel a sense of achievement and that we have really made a difference in the end. The walk back from where we had finished was really good! Looking at the amount of work we had actually done, it felt really rewarding. Once we had got back to Gilbert’s crib we had a lovely breakfast of rice, omelette and two slices of toast. Not that it’s an unusual thing to have rice for breakfast here! It’s certainly something that we will remember about the meals; having rice with breakfast lunch and tea, so parents be warned that we might crave this when we get home due to this difference of not having it three times a day.
Today we had another 5.50am wake up to clear the beach up of the driftwood, so it is easier for the baby turtles to get back to the sea after they have hatched. Considering this was our last day of doing work, we made sure we put the extra effort in so we could feel a sense of achievement and that we have really made a difference in the end. The walk back from where we had finished was really good! Looking at the amount of work we had actually done, it felt really rewarding. Once we had got back to Gilbert’s crib we had a lovely breakfast of rice, omelette and two slices of toast. Not that it’s an unusual thing to have rice for breakfast here! It’s certainly something that we will remember about the meals; having rice with breakfast lunch and tea, so parents be warned that we might crave this when we get home due to this difference of not having it three times a day.
At 9.30am we went for a walk to go and see some of the local monkey spots. We took our backpacks on the walk with the 3 litres of water so we could get a taste of being in the main trek, with heat and the weight; however, the walk was only for 2 hours and on our main trek we will be walking for about 7 hours a day. To see the monkeys we walked through quite a lot of overgrown greenery and a lot of bugs which made it feel like a real jungle experience. When we saw the monkeys all that you could hear from many different directions was ‘aw’ they were so cute, little black monkeys swinging from vine to vine in the trees. To be honest they were still cute even when they started throwing little sticks and fruit at us - and that says something. Now I know where the saying ‘cheeky monkey’ comes from. On the way back we went for a little walk to go and see a view of the ocean from above Ostional, which was simply beautiful. We could see the beach, the trees, all of the local’s houses and the school’s sports area. After that we walked home got a shower and sorted all the little things out such as washing. Then had tea, and guess what we had for tea? Rice, with carbonara. Good old rice!
Tonight we had our turtle patrol, so shortly after tea the people who did the 8-10pm watch left and on their time they saw 5 turtles laying their eggs. Then after they came back the group of 10-12pm left, they also saw 5 turtles laying eggs. 12-2am saw 4 turtles laying eggs. Sorry that those times aren’t detailed, the reason for that is because I wasn’t there so I’ve just had to hear from other people. However I can give detail on the times of 2-4am because I was there. We saw 7 turtles, but one of the times when we spotted the tracks we expected it to be of a normal size (about 2ft) but then we came across something so surprising, we all actually stepped back. This turtle was around 5ft! It was enormous! It was a Leather Back Turtle which only normally lay between November and April. Then as we started to go near its eggs, it noticed us out of the corner of its eye and decided to turn around and shuffle towards us, and considering the size of this turtle it can move extremely fast! So as it started to come towards us, we assumed it was going to attack. It looked like something off a horror film, we all just backed away getting faster and faster, switched our lights off hoping it would forget about us and go back, but then when we turned our lights back on, there was a turtle still coming towards us so yes by that time we thought let’s leave it alone and moved on. It was actually really frightening! But after that we were all glad that we didn’t have a 6am wake up and finally had a sleep in, phew.
Quote of the day: Leah is speaking about bears “is Mr Taggart here, or is someone else talking about bears” –Alice (by the way, Mr Taggart loves bears and constantly goes on about them)
by Leah Samuels x
P.S. Can Miss Carey or any of the other parents please try and contact my mam and dad to give them the blog address. They’ll need it to see what time I arrive home as well as reading about my adventures!
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