Turtle sisters & morning turtle

Turtle sisters

I didn’t think it could get any better than my first midwife experience, but this night was a special one. The first turtle we found was at the far end of the beach literally between the rocks and the sea. She valiantly attempted to dig her nest but every few minutes the surf would wash over her and fill up her chamber. She tried to move, but there wasn’t far she could go. She tried for half an hour before giving up and going back to the sea. Thankfully, they often come back the next night.

Turtle Midwife!

Flying sand

On our second patrol we were sitting on the far end of the beach, when we saw a turtle coming out of the water right towards us. We hurriedly got out of the way (though they are so slow and ungainly on land that it takes them a long time to do anything). She wandered all over before deciding on a nesting spot. Once she had almost completed her digging, another turtle came up out of the water and decided to nest in almost the EXACT location! These turtle sisters were literally nose to tail. Ocean Spirits’ protocol is not to interfere. This made egg catching and tagging very difficult, so we had to radio the second team to help out. I tried to tag one while the other was covering her nest and kept getting what felt like buckets of sand thrown in my face. At one stage they were whacking each others' flippers and shells as part of their cover-up job. Whew, what a process. The great news was that one of them was the one who had come up earlier but struggled in the surf (we got her tag number). Good for her!

While getting up for my last patrol at 5 AM, I saw a dark shape close to our sleeping “camp”. When we looked closer, indeed it was a turtle! This is exciting because it is rare to see one during the daylight (by the time she is done, it will be). We had great opportunities to take photographs, as normally we are not allowed flash, and the red torches that we use don’t provide much illumination. We even radioed the house so the others could come and see. So, here they are so you can get a good look at a turtle in all her glory. And me with my head in her rear - the glamorous part of the job.

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