In search of turtles…

It is a few minutes after midnight. The moon has just set behind the clouds that run from horizon to horizon. We are on the beach. Ross, Kim, us and four guests piled into the beach Landcruiser. Plus of course Phinda butler Khaya. His first time to try see turtles he tells me in Zulu. Camera in hand he is just as excited as we are.

The Cruiser speeds north over the hard beach sand. Waves lap at the wheels at times and pale white ghost crabs fake left and then fake right trying to outwit the oncoming vehicle. Most succeed and make it away safely.

Tracks! Like the spoor of a large tractor they march up from the water to the dunes. And then back. Ross jumps out to check and GPS the nesting site. Something must have made her nervous, for there is no nest Ross tells us back at the vehicle. The search continues…

More tracks! Just one line this time. Engine off, lights off too, Ross jumps out and his headlamp bounces up the beach after the tracks. And then bounces even higher back to us a minute later. “We’ve got a bus!” he tells us excitedly. We all dismount and follow him up the beach. There she is! In the lee of the dunes she lies. Huge! And beautiful. A leatherback turtle. Her front flippers labour to sweep sand over her nest, disguising the exact location from would-be predators. Looking at her I knew that I would struggle to find words to write down. It is just awe-inspiring.

Completely in a trance she has no idea we are there. And we crowd around taking photos and then measurements. “1.57 metres” Ross reads off the measuring tape that we have just lain across her carapace. She weeps salt from her eyes.

Soon she is done and turns, heading back for the ocean. “No lights, no pictures please” Ross tells us. She will head for the light, or the flash. No doubt exhausted from the nesting she heaves her way down to the beach with her front flippers in the darkness, heading first for a lighthouse and then straightening out towards the breaking waves. Ross follows her into the water a ways, his headlamp held high, shining down on her. Cameras snap away. And then she disappears beneath the waves, to the depths of the ocean. Her babies are left to grow and then fend for themselves. And next year she will return again, to the same place, within 3km of where she was born, to lay again.

Back in the vehicle now we go off in search of more turtles. More tracks! Up and down. Ross rushes off and then back. And then we follow him up the beach. Three ping-pong ball eggs have been left un-buried. They are light and fragile to handle. And then we bury them and walk back to the vehicle. The crabs keep trying to dodge us as we race on.

More tracks! Just a single track heading up the beach. And smaller than last time. Ross rushes up the beach after them again and bounces back to us. A loggerhead this time. Also disguising her nest Ross thinks at first, but then she starts to dig. We move in closer and each find a perch up on the dune right behind her.

One back flipper at a time she scoops sand out from behind her. Slowly. Carefully. The hole grows beneath her. Within ten minutes it is as deep as she can reach. She scoops sand out from the sides making the little sand cavern bigger. And then she is done. “Please count the eggs” Ross asks us. They come out in two and threes. About eighty eggs laid in ten minutes, half filling the hole. She scoops sand into the hole, covering up her eggs. She is still busy disguising the nest when we leave, the four guests keen to get home.

 

I nod off on the drive back, for it is almost 4am now. What a remarkable night. Both species on the beach. In one night. Memories to treasure for life!