The show was interesting but not astounding. I think part of it is because the maoris here are a long way removed from those who performed the dances and rituals we were shown. Nevertheless we got to see how one village would approach and greet visitors, some singing and dancing including some audience participation huka dancing.
After the show we were given a guided tour of the complex. We were shown where they keep their arts of carving and weaving alive. That was pretty interesting. They had a nocturnal kiwi exhibit where we saw a pair of the strange birds moving around in an artificial night time habitat.
After a stop at a mud pool we were taken to the geyser we had seen earlier. Here we learned that if we stayed longer a second and larger geyser would eventually erupt. So stay we did and were rewarded with a finer display. The overall eruption seemed to take about half an hour.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seoWD7Mgw2U[/youtube]
We didn’t have long before our afternoon activity. We grabbed lunch and our swimming clothes before heading out of town to Waitiaki White Water Adventures for our cruise down a local class 5 river. This turned out to be a huge amount of fun. 23 tourists in 4 inflatable rafts with professional guides both in the rafts with us and in kayaks ahead of us went down 13 rapids and 3 waterfalls, the largest being a 7 meter drop. We had to work by paddling forward and backward on instruction and when necessary jamming ourselves down into the raft for the big drops. Towards the end we were allowed in the water to float down one of the rapids which added to the fun. On two occasions we paddled back into the rapids to bury the nose of the raft into the water flooding the front section making us all very wet. This was all funded by Helen’s missed sky dive so we all ended up happy.
Today we’re heading back to Whangarei. We spotted a 3D maze on the way back yesterday which we’re keen on doing today. So it’s off to breakfast and packing up the camping gear. When we get back to the boat I have plenty of pics to upload.
]]>While our first pickup wasn’t until 10:30, no one really had a decent lie in as the latest we could have breakfast [...]]]>
While our first pickup wasn’t until 10:30, no one really had a decent lie in as the latest we could have breakfast was 7:30am. As we were all up we popped into town in the morning to pick up drinks for later.
At 10:30 we were picked up and taken the Extremo Canopy Tour to participate in one of around five different zip line activities in the area. The activity comprised 14 lines, a rappel from a tall tree and a ‘tarzan swing’ which began more as a freefall than a swing.
Of the 14 zip lines, 4 of them cross the valley giving runs up to half a mile in length. 12 of the runs we took solo but a couple we had to take in pairs. The last of the 4 runs, and in fact the last run of all, was called the superman run where we were suspended horizontally and zipped hundreds of feet above the valley at around 50mph. All very exhilarating.
After lunch we were taken in a mini bus for our waterfall rappelling activity.
Helen bowed out of this one but the rest of us geared up to rappel down 6 separate waterfalls. Most of them were quite small but the 4th was well over 100ft high. It turned out to be quite exhausting but a lot of fun. There was a sneaky trick on the last waterfall as the rope was just a little too short causing us all to fall in the cold mountain water. The following video shows us all descending the 4th waterfall and a demonstration by one of the helpers.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2DHfC4Cjag[/youtube]
Having been dropped off back at our cabins we had about 90 mins for our final activity of the day – our night hike. This turned out to be a 
guided tour through some woods. Jess’s disposition was not helped when the second creature we were shown was a tarantula. We did see a variety of creatures though from leaf cutter ants through to a sloth in a tree.
We were all quite exhausted by the day’s activities and all were asleep shortly after wolfing down pizza.
This morning had an earlier start. We had been advised to get to the Monteverde Reservation at 7am to avoid the lines at the ticket office. This meant breakfast at 6am. We arrived in good time and soon met our guide. Unfortunately, the other four people assigned to our guide arrived much later causing us to wait nearly an hour for the start of our tour.
Being in the clouds, we were subject to mist and rain for our entire tour. Few animals were out but we did get to see a number of rare and interesting birds. Our guide, Eric, was excellent as he told us all about the plants and animals in the cloud forest and all the various natural remedies they were used for. He also had a good sense of humour. For example, when Helen asked if one particular fruit was edible he replied “only if you want to howl like a howler monkey.” We thought it was funny.
This evening we were up for our sunset horse riding trip. John, Helen and Jess all bowed out of this one leaving just Ben and myself going in this one.
We had a really good time. The ride was for two hours. For the most part we followed winding trails through woods and fields. Despite being novices we were allowed at times to pick up the 
pace over and above just walking everywhere. Noone else joined us on this trek so with the two helpers we made a party of four. It seemed my horse was used to being behind Ben’s horse as every time I tried to pass Ben’s horse took it on itself to block the way. If I left my horse alone it would follow on behind Ben’s. This kept us entertained for some time.
The highlight for us was ending up in a sort of field where we were allowed to gallop the horses up the field three times. The slight downside was at the end of the third run when I fell off the horse. Not quite sure what happened but the saddle ended up being on sideways and I had to pick the best place to take a dive / roll. I ended up with nothing more than a few scratches and found the episode quite funny although it could have been more serious.
The ride ended up at sunset when we saw the sun set off to the right of the Golfo de Nicoya – a spectacular sight.
My body now aches a little too much so it’s off for a hot bath and cold beer.
]]>The passage across the lake was very pleasant. I was surprised how quickly we reached the locks to take us down to the Pacific side. Again, we were rafted up to Alcheringa II. Navigator who left after us had caught up and two other sail boats, traveling slower than us, arrived at the same time. We all locked down along with a tourist boat. Between the first and second locks was a small lake which we traversed still rafted together. The down locking was fairly straight forward although some rope burns were acquired by Sam.
We separated leaving the the third dock and headed down the river. Before reaching the first lock I had phoned the office at the Balboa Yacht Club to book a mooring. They told me to call back on Monday. Francisco advised us this was probably due to today being a holiday and that we should try going into the mooring field anyway and trying our luck. I had also tried hailing them on VHF channel 6 to no avail. After breaking from Alcheringa II they moved on ahead. Later we both dropped off our advisors. It transpired we were both heading for the yacht club. I was concerned about getting a slot but headed in to the dock to gain some attention. We heard Alcheringa II call the dock for a pick up for their guests who had been acting as line handlers. We then heard Navigator up the river request a mooring which was granted. I then jumped on the VHF stating we were right outside the office and asked for a mooring and was granted one. Alcheringa II then said they wanted one too and were told there were no more. Not sure of the ethics here but I’m sure Alcheringa II were not pleased. I feel we’d tried well in advance and bar someone not prepared to do any work on a holiday in response to my phone call we would have had our slot confirmed a couple of hours earlier. Sadly, Alcheringa II, who arrived first had to turn away.
The mooring we have been given is right on the outside of the field next to the canal so we do get thrown around a little when the tugs go past. The big ships hardly batter us at all.
We soon found an internet connection and soon had the boat network up and running and four laptops hitting emails, etc. Having done this we went ashore to have a beer in a bar, get some groceries and have a look around. This was when we discovered a major planning disaster. The public holiday was something to do with Martyr’s Day one of the consequences being that alcohol was not served for the entire day. Cokes and water substituted for beers in the bar.
Next came our exploration and search for groceries. We never found a grocery store despite asking for directions from two people. We did pass some sort of religious festival which was severely testing the faithful with rants and monotonous music.
We ended up back on the boat for a couple of hours before heading out for a meal at the local TGI Friday’s. Again no beer, just soft drinks and water but we filled ourselves with western restaurant food not had for weeks. Having brought towels we made use of the yacht clubs showers before returning yet again to the boat.
Sam and Annie later went out again to visit some places they’d picked in the city. We understand from John they returned sometime between 3 & 4. They’re still asleep so we’ll find out what they were up to later.
The reason for picking the Balboa Yacht Club is their 24 hour launch service. This made Annie and Sam’s trip out last night possible without waking us up for a ride to and from the boat and also avoiding exorbitant marina fees. Looks like it’s working.
This morning I’ve made more progress uploading pictures from the time we’ve been off the net but it’s not yet finished. Click on the link for ‘Recently Updated‘ to see the entries where I’ve added pictures. The slide shows can be clicked on to go to the Picasa Website where larger versions of the pictures can be found as well as full screen slide shows.
I’m still catching up on pictures, including those of the transit but for now, here is a truly awesome time lapse movie of our down locking put together by John.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6zCAnPjcPs[/youtube]
The fort [...]]]>
Feeling good about the completion of the battery projects we decided to do a little tourism in the afternoon. We went ashore and visited the Grenada Museum followed by a climb up to Fort George which overlooks the town and where, on October 19th, 1983 Maurice Bishop, the prime minister, was killed.
The fort is a little run down and is occupied by what appears to be the local police and their training center but we could still walk around. In a few places there were some spectacular views of the bay where Dignity is anchored, the lagoon, the Caranage and the town.
In the evening we had Jim over for dinner who brought margaritas.
Project work is going to run into difficulties soon. We are still awaiting parts for a number of projects. To save money we ordered a lot of stuff online in the US and shipped to Ben’s girlfriends home. Three weeks on, one vendor is still playing up, being very uncommunicative and not sending the goods. We now have this in dispute with the credit card company. We still have a number of things we can do but this will cause difficulties at some point. Not fun.
Near term weather is looking good for the parade tomorrow so we’re looking forward to that. We will probably take the bus up to Gouyave for their Friday Fish Festival. Looking a bit further out it looks like the Caribbean is going to get it’s first hurricane next week. Currently it is called Invest 90 and will probably named Tropical Depression 3 fairly soon. If it makes it to storm strength then it will be name Ana. All the computer forecasts have the storm passing over the northern Caribbean. Weather watching is a several times per day event as one needs to be ready to head south if a storm changes direction.
Leaving you with video from Fort George and remaining pics.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxTnbGY5P5U[/youtube]
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What a long day it was yesterday. We walked to the national stadium in time for the listed 1pm start of pageant. Due to earlier rain everything was delayed and things didn’t kick off until nearly 3pm. Once it started it was a bit confused as I think things were out of sequence to accommodate bands that hadn’t yet arrived. The first five bands were what’s called ‘Short Knee’ bands. It is very traditional but from our perspective, once you’d seen one you’d seen them all. The costumes were all very similar. They would come on stage and all stomp around accompanied by a chant to the same rhythm as all the others. For a while we wondered if they would all be like this.
Next came a sort of in between act where the band was made up of several groups. Each group had a theme. A story about vampires and slayers was narrated while each group came onto the stage. In the end it was just more stomping around but with more variety and some falling over and dying.
Then it went into the fancy costume parade proper. The bands had gone to a great deal of effort with their costumes. Each band was again made up of different sections. The band would have an overall them with each section would have a sub-theme. The 
sections would have the same costume, sometimes having a single participant with a very elaborate costume. Each section would have a different colour too. At the end they would all come onto the stage together in a riot of colour.
The music they would dance to was the usual thumping carnival music with the usual jumping and cavorting that comes with it.
One of the bands had had a few cruisers help out and join in. Matt and Karen from Where II took part. Matt played the ultimate tourist by bringing his video camera on stage with him.
We left after the last band played but before the results of the competition were announced so we have no idea who won the costume competition. Our favourite was “Journey to the Temple of the Sun” which had an Inca theme.
We will get to see all the costumes again this afternoon coupled with the steel bands for the final street parade.
We went back to the boat for a quick bite to eat and to get ready for the night mas. This time we put on our ‘Digicel’ teeshirts and carried our red light sabers to join Jim and several hundred other revelers behind the Digicel truck. As a result of the Pageant delays the night mas start was delayed from 6:30 to 8:30. We turned up just after 7 to enjoy the build up. Part of our Digicel gear included a flask into which we could have as much rum and coke as we wanted poured in throughout the night.
Once the procession started we made our way very slowly around the lagoon and into the Caranage. We danced along with all the rest and both of us from time to time were ‘ground’ by strangers. I’m not sure of the right term for this but it reminds me very much of what Bonobos get up to and it’s very groinal. We enjoyed ourselves while adrenalin kept the fatigue at bay. Around midnight Helen began to fade so we left Jim to the crowd and made our back to the boat falling asleep instantly.
Despite the long day and lots of rum last night we’re in surprisingly good form this morning and looking forward to the final procession this afternoon when everything comes together. Given the experience so far this will hardly fail to please.
The one downside of all of yesterday was to learn that one of the other cruising boats anchored near us was burgled last night while they were ashore. Just shows that there are thorns in this bed of roses in paradise and we do need to take care.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3l9vVbyMKQo[/youtube]
]]>[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tSb078LsGk[/youtube]
]]>[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tSb078LsGk[/youtube]
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We arrived a few minutes early only to find the place jostling with cruisers looking to sell unwanted gear and those looking for bargains. We managed to pick up some free guides to Australia and an RS232 cable splitter which I need to talk to some of my gear.
Bristol Roses were there looking to sell some of their US charts and guidebooks. Where IIs were wandering around as were the Jacksters.
Helen and I took a little walk up the hill from Whisper Cove and found a lovely plot of land overlooking the bay. It would be a great place to build a home and we wonder why one hasn’t been built there. No doubt someone owns the land and is hanging on for the right event. Here’s a panoramic video from the location.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zp6tiiewGuQ[/youtube]
Back at the marina we again bumped into the Jacksters and ended up inviting David and Jacqui over for a curry aboard Dignity.
Back aboard Dignity is was down to clearing and cleaning ready for our trip to Trinidad. I 
wanted to check and clean the props and decided if I was down there on the hookah I may as well clean the hulls too. I’m beginning to despise this job as it takes all the fun out of being in the water. Down here the wriggly critters are prevalent so despite putting my wetsuit on they still got into my hair and neckline.
The evening came David and Jacqui joined us. We had a great evening sharing stories and the odd joke. I managed to find one that David didn’t already know which, if you know David, is quite a result. In the end they left around midnight, the real one, which is a testament to how much we enjoyed the evening. We have roughly similar plans so hopefully we’ll be bumping into the Jacksters (not literally) from time to time.
Checking the weather this morning it is again looking like Monday evening offers the better weather window for Trini. For a while it was beginning to look like tonight would be better but now the odds are shifting in favour of Monday again. Probably for the best as we’re a little tired this morning.
Final note. Yesterday I discovered a page on the winlink site that shows our current and recent positions on a single page. This gives you a better idea of how we’re moving about and should be pretty good when we’re covering larger distances. I’ve provided a link to it on our ‘Where Are We?‘ page for future reference.
The following pics include views of the boat to give a sense of the place we’re anchored.
]]>Another possible piece of luck is I got talking to the store manager and he learned I may have some spare batteries. We may have a deal on where I can borrow some of his top end tools in exchange for a battery or two. Given that I’m unlikely to sell them all this would be really good if we can pull this off. Having the best connections possible has no substitute so getting hold of good tools will make my future rewiring work the best I can do.
After clearing everything up we had just enough time to clean up, shower and go ashore to meet Inge. Inge is someone we’ve been trying to meet for two months. She is good friends of Des and Sue from Desue (who we got to know well in St Martin). She also runs the local radio net a couple of times per week. We’ve had a number of near calls for meeting up but for one reason or another it never happened until yesterday evening.
We met Inge who showed up with her significant friend Hal at Prickly Bay Marina where we enjoyed a couple of drinks at their Tiki bar during Happy Hour. We then went back to the boat for more conversation and, whatever. We ended up back ashore for pizza. The whole evening was very enjoyable. Hal gave me some great tips for the passage to Trinidad and what to do when we’re there so we’re very thankful for that.
Today we were tourists and took Cutty’s round Grenada tour. Cutty is the same fellow we took to go and see the turtles back in May I think. His tours have a very good reputation and he has a good gig going with the cruiser community.
The day started at 9am with a pickup at De Big Fish. You may have gathered De Big Fish is a focal point and it is. For the reason that they have a pretty good dinghy dock close to the road, Budget Marin and public transportation to shops and the capital. With four others, we were soon heading off to St Georges to collect the remainder of the ride.
Our first stop was at the prison overlooking town. The prisoners get a great view – something seems wrong here. We learned the prison was housing 3 times the prisoners it was originally built for which seems just like the rest of the world.
We then took the winding roads into Grand Etang, the rain forest in the center of Grenada. Our next stop was at a spice kiosk where Cutty showed us some naturally growing spices followed by the opportunity to purchase some at very low prices.
The third stop was at the Annandale Waterfalls. These were set in small but beautifully laid out gardens. The waterfalls could have been magical but were a bit too concreted around and too touristy (hark who complains). They were worth the effort of stopping for though. We had the option to go swimming which only one of our party took up. A couple of locals ran their little enterprise there which involved jumping into the pool below the falls from a high height and collecting tips for their efforts. I noticed their eyes were a bit bloodshot which could be due to their frequent forceful dunkings.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oORkki_DgaA[/youtube]
After that we followed the road up into the hills to 2,000 feet above sea level and 
arrived at the place where one can see the local (from Africa) monkeys. We weren’t disappointed and got to see many of them including having the chance to scratch one of the old timers.
Onward from there we made our way over to the Rivers Rum Distillery. Along the way we stopped for some local interest including some colourful caterpillars which you can see in the slide show below.
Lunch was at the distillery in a nice raised restaurant. We were told lunch was EC$30 each which included a tour of the distillery. Helen and I both ordered rotis and were incredibly disappointed by the size in comparison to others’ meals.
They passed around a book for feedback and we (I) wrote down our disappointment only to discover our rotis only cost EC$10 which is next to nothing. Oh well – had we known we might have ordered two each and been more than satisfied.
Next came the tour which was fascinating. The rum making process was still dependent on the use of a water wheel to drive the machinery that crushed the sugar cane and squeeze all the juice out of it. Most of the rest of the work was intensely manual.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUPeCtRgtxI[/youtube]
The tour ended with a tasting session which included some of the 75%+ by volume strength rum. I felt all tingly after.
I fell asleep on the bus after my double whammy of lunch and rum. I was soon woken at the nutmeg factory. It’s a sorry tale really. Grenada used to be the number 2 in the world for nutmeg exports. Hurricane Ivan in 2004 destroyed 90% of production which has yet to recover. The facility we saw used to employ 140 people. Now it employs 8. There’s a lot of replanting being done so over the coming years the industry will hopefully recover.
Our final stop was at a wonderful little beach on the south side of the island.
This was one of those picture postcard spots. We were able to splash around a little in our bare feet and explore a little before heading back to our various stops.
This was definitely a very good tour and would recommend it to anyone. For a full day out and informative guide the cost was extremely good too.
Back on the boat I was eager to check the effectiveness of the solar charging. The day had been a little overcast but I was pleased to note that the panels had fully charged our batteries despite this. I’m still feeling pleased about this one.
]]>It’s [...]]]>
It’s only a small climb to the main road to pick up the busses. We had thought that all busses heading away from town would take us up island but that was not the case. A local fellow sitting on the wall set us straight and as he recognized all the busses he helped us identify the right one. While waiting we had a little chat about not a lot.
Up and down the islands (except for Mustique of course) there is a similarity in the bus services. All rely on minivans which can squish in about 18 people. Both Grenada and St Vincent make use of ‘conducters’ who open and close the side door, lean out looking for new customers, help squeeze more people in and handle the money. This leaves the driver to concentrate on driving. And they need to here in St Vincent as they race along the winding roads at break-neck speeds performing acts of driving that would disqualify them from driving instantly in other countries. An example today was overtaking, at high speed, another bus which had stopped on a pedestrian crossing.
Today’s ride may just well be one of those that sticks in our memory. The ride was more memorable due to the local radio station playing Michael Jackson as a result of his passing yesterday. The driving was not too “Bad” but it was certainly a “Thriller”. I thought the lyrics “Don’t stop till you get enough” were quite appropriate. They managed to fill the bus to capacity despite us with our rucksacks, several large people, mother with small child on lap, a man with a ladder and someone else with a box. Amazing.
We survived the ride intact and soon caught a second bus to cover the remaining distance to the closest point we could ride a bus to the mountain trail. This was on the coast road a couple of miles from the trailhead which was also at around 1,100 feet above us. This extra leg was a small price to pay for the money saved. The ‘quote’ for the official ride was US$140. So far we’d spent EC$10 total getting there (less than US$4). The air was stuffy and very humid as we walked through a plantain plantation. I started developing a blister very quickly so we stopped so I could pay it some attention. I think all the walking in bare feet and flip flops have left my ankles with tender skin, unused to the 
rigours of hiking boots. As I was putting my boot back on a lorry/truck carrying teachers and kids from a local tech school came round the corner and stopped, offering us a ride to the trailhead. This was most welcome as it eliminated a climb of around 800ft from our overall ascent to the crater rim at 3,100ft.
We were soon on the trail sweating in what felt like 100% humidity. The vegetation varied along the route as we climbed from bamboo woods to rainforest to more like scrub towards the top. The trail 
was generally in good condition but towards the top it was a bit of a scramble alongside deep gulleys eroded into the volcanic soil. Towards the top we joined up with the leading group of students and their lead who knew the mountain well. I think he’d said he’d climbed the volcano around 50 times so he knew his stuff.
At the rim it was windy and chilly and initially not a good view. The crater floor which I believe is 1,000 feet from the rim was barely visible. We ate our lunch here waiting for the mist to clear and eventually we were reward with an awesome view. The crater is quite large with a bulge in the center forming a circular crater floor. There was a small lake on the floor nearest to us and steam was visible rising from the central bulge off to our left. A video I took perhaps shows this best.
We eventually parted company with the students and teacher who wanted to see if they could descend into the crater further round. 
There was a path for this but we weren’t up to it. Going down was, as ever, much easier than climbing up. Near the top we met a family (John, Lynette, Jasmine and Brandon (we think)). He had a distinct North London accent (Harringay) and she was clearly Australian. They were on their way back to Australia via St Vincent where his mother lives. They were on their way up.
Having made it back to the trailhead we set about walking down the road we had been given a ride up. Close to where we were picked up the first time a minibus stopped by – it was John and Lynette with their guide on the way back down. They gave us a ride back to Georgetown saving us a bit of a hot walk and an EC$ each for the short bus ride (it all counts).
After picking up a couple of drinks we caught a bus back to Dignity. From the start of our walk to the end of the final bus ride I had my GPS running so you can see our walks, our rides and the bus ride home on the following map (if you care to).
View 2009-06-26 Soufriere in a larger map
Back on the boat we’re resting our weary limbs. Finally – here are our pics.
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Before it became too warm Helen and I went [...]]]>
Before it became too warm Helen and I went ashore, walked to the nearby highway and visited a number of shops: ACE Hardware (for a power multiblock), NY Bagels (for a snack), a Cash & Carry and the Grenada Brewery outlet. At the latter we picked up a couple of crates of beer and a crate of Ting which we lugged back to the boat on our trolley.
We rested through midday. In the afternoon I picked up dinghy fuel from Prickly Bay Marina and made another trip back to the brewery outlet for two more crates of Ting and one more crate of beer. We are now set, drinkwise, for June and July.
At 6pm we met up outside Budget Marine with Cutty and a number of other cruisers to be taken to the north of the island to see turtles coming ashore to lay their eggs. For the record, among the group were Liz & Bob from Yanena (probably spelt incorrectly) who arranged the group outing, Judy, Jim & Charlotte from Heatwave and Marianne and Theo from Double Dutch. Hopefully we’ll see these folks again.
The trip north took around 90 minutes. We stopped off about 10-15 minutes before the target beach to pick up our guide who was associated with a local research group. She gave us a short brief on what to expect and some do’s and don’ts – in particular no white torches and no camera flashes as these would disturb the turtles.
We arrived at the beach around 8pm and began waiting. We saw no action until around 9:30pm when someone spotted some baby turtles hatching and we received word that a turtle had landed at the other end of the beach around 700 meters away.
We first made our way over to where the baby turtles were surfacing. The average nest has around 100 eggs, most of which will hatch successfully. In this case we saw around six to eight early arrivals scrambling around roughly making their way to the sea.
A few who had red light torches were able to guide the baby turtles to the sea by shining their light ahead of them as they had an instinct to follow the light.
Here is a brief video of the baby turtles crossing the sand
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrU1FAqiCNw[/youtube]
Next we trudged to the other end of the beach to see the turtle reported to have landed there. Along the way we were nervous of treading on other baby turtles that may be hatching and making their way to the sea. Fortunately, I don’t think we squished any. Nor did we see any others. In the low light our eyes would play tricks on us. In the distance I thought I saw a massive turtle but it turned out to be a boat.
E
ventually we made it all the way to the other end of the beach where we found some researchers helping a 1000lb turtle dig her nest. She was having difficulties as her right flipped appeared injured and was not removing sand effectively. The turtle would only begin laying her eggs when she can feel no more sand beneath her. This was not going to happen without help.
It was exhausting just watching her and eventually a reflex must have triggered and she abandoned this attempt to try elsewhere.
The researchers knew when we were able to come close to watch. During the early digging we were asked to stand well away which we did. As the hole developed we were allowed to come close. When this turtle made a second attempt she was left alone with just the researchers to help as this was clearly going to be a difficult night for her.
Fortunately, another turtle
came ashore as we were heading back to the taxi. Again we stood off until it was ok to come near. This turtle was fit and able to dig her hole without assistance. Soon we were able to come close and watch. Methodically she would excavate each side of the hole with her hind flippers creating quite a deep, squarish hole for her eggs.
When her senses told it was time she went into her egg laying trance. In this mode she was practically senseless to what was going on around. We were able to touch her carapace (soft shell) and her fore flippers without disturbing her. She was also unphazed by the researcher holding her rear flippers apart so they could count the eggs and we could see them.
In order to preserve the species they were prepared to move the nest if it was too damp which would put the eggs at risk. The researchers felt this nest was ok so no preparations were made. Two types of eggs are laid. Normal yolk filled eggs are laid which will produced babies. Around these, smaller yolkless eggs are laid as filler so that the yolked eggs don’t get too much sand between them.
Midnight approached so we had to head back to the taxi careful again to avoid any possible hatchlings. We saw a third turtle ashore to nest and lay her eggs along the way. It was nearly 2pm before we finally returned to Dignity. We were exhausted and fell asleep immediately. This was a one of a kind day and if you ever get an opportunity to do this yourself, seize it.
Here is a video of the two turtles we saw digging their nests. You should see the difference between the injured turtle in the first half and the fit turtle in the latter. Enjoy.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iquyH7qJJ6I[/youtube]
Finally – all the pics.
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