Turtles

Our trip to Turtle Island began with a return trip down the river. We stopped for a break half way down and were lucky to run into this wild orangutan. Very cute.

(It is supposed to be this way up)








Then we sailed on towards the Island, passing this wading fisherman.











The is Seligan Island where the Turtles lay their eggs. The dents in the sand you can see are old nests.

We spent the afternoon on the beach, sunbathing and snorkelling amongst the coral and tropical fish. Richard learned that a) coral is sharp b) snorkelling leaves your back exposed to the blazing sun and c) small fish can be quite territorial and have bony mouths.



By early evening the turtles in the hatchery had begun to surface. Each night the rangers collect all the eggs as they are laid and transfer them to these protected enclosures to save them from the monitor lizards. They take about 55 days to incubate and 3 days to dig to the surface.







However, just occasionally the rangers miss some eggs.

These babies hatched on the beach and we got to see them waking up. Suddenly there were 50 or so tiny turtles making a break for the water. We followed them to make sure they weren't eaten on the way.

Our guide said that we were lucky - this happens less than once a month.


After dark the female turtles begin to arrive on the beach. Once they have begun to lay, you are permitted to watch one of them.

Ours laid 95 eggs, and was one of 32 to come ashore that night, laying over 2600 eggs between them.

We watched the eggs being buried in the hatchery and then a basket of new babies being released into the sea.


A late night, but worth every moment. At least this night there was AC.