A Turtle watcher's Diary
2009 Season
Wednesday, June 24, 2009. West is Best.
First day out west, Sam and I were met by the smelliest dead cow
which had somehow made its way onto the beach, causing the walk of
West 2 to become somewhat of an obstacle course, avoiding breathing
for a while and cautiously testing the air after passing. Sam and I
had at least one nest for the first few days, with Ainslie’s walks
being somewhat less successful she was starting to lose faith.
However a hot morning on Monster lead to a tired and thirsty Sam and
I waiting at the beach bar (on a beach there are rarely people?!?!)
trying to amuse ourselves while waiting for ages while Ainslie
measured up her many turtle activities on her own. This led to Sam
and I sunbathing, exploring the beach bar, complaining about their
poor tiling and using their showers to cool off.
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| Chuckle Brothers |
Several days our journey back home intercepted the Turkish army playing their war games, this consists of sitting in their many tanks behind small bushes. As none of us spoke particularly good Turkish, and weren’t sure how they would feel about our intrusion, we drove quietly trying not to do anything wrong. As Sam doesn’t actually let his camera leave his hand and photos of army personnel and land is forbidden, he obviously thought it would be a good idea to take photos.
A trip to the supermarket was filled with much hilarity as Sam found
sweet corn with decidedly moustache-looking growths from the ends of
them. Persuading Ainslie we needed some, the Chuckle Brothers later
made an appearance in the Guzelyurt household.
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| St Hilarion Visit |
Trying to fill our afternoons, and as the house was ridiculously hot, we decided to go off on a drive to see what we could find. We found a ‘Wooden faces of Cyprus’ exhibition, the army border to the South side and the most amazing views we were ‘forbidden’ to take photos of.
Turtle activity remained relatively busy, with several nests each day, ending in a disappointing find of two predated nests on Message. Large metal pegs are now being used to hold the wire cages down for forcefully than sticks, which will hopefully lessen the threat of predation by stray dogs.
Finding out my degree results, a celebration was planned, camping on the beach. Great, or so we thought. Dampness and a chilling wind meant our high spirits were flattened and a sleepless night followed.
After our morning on the beach on change over day, we ‘treated’ ourselves to a visit to St Hiliarion castle. Walking up the millions of stairs in the searing mid-day heat, oh what a treat. Amazing views and a good laugh at Sam taking so many photos of himself meant it was an end to a great week out West. West is Best. Ella
Friday, June 26, 2009.Mini-arabada /
Litter progress with Belediyisi
8 nests on Alagadi now taking us up to 73! This was the busiest
night I have seen in 5 seasons of night work here. The team pulled
together working hard through the night, communicating well so that
nothing got missed and we were off the beach by 5.30. Very pleased.
Though, our guests were bit of a dissapointment as the majority only
stayed to see the two loggerheads that nested within the first hour
of darkness. Even with 5 green turtles on the beach at the same time
digging, they could not be tempted to stay to see one lay, they
don't know what they missed! Very generous in leaving us donations
though that will keep us in oats and a roof over our heads. Our
faithful companions Penny and Sally stuck it out until dawn and at
one point were even left with a clipboard to monitor a turtle. I
struggle to count the number of turtle encounters I had but at the
end of the night at the midpoint we found the tell tail track of a
loggerhead that had emerged, headed directly towards the group
unseen and u-turned back into the sea. We concluded that Sally's
snoring had put her off, although I don't think Sally had chance for
any shut eye in all the commotion.
A huge thanks to Penny and Sally for your help, cake, and beach
banter. Also to Alagadi residents Pat and John for your help in
securing our turtle merchandise.
Friday, June 26, 2009. An update on the
arrabada!
Numbers from last night's craziness just in - on Alagadi 1 alone
there were 8 nests (3 loggers, 5 greens), 5 u-turns and 5 false
attempts. On Alagadi 2 (iki) there was one nest, 5 u-turns and 2
attempts. Nice one to those on the beach (except the people who need
to learn the 24 hour clock!) and to those who typed up the data for
an hour today (after too many jamjar mojitos last night)! Seemingly
all the turtles in the world were on Alagadi last night as the
daywork ladies had only one u-turn and one attempt to contend with
this morning. On the volunteer side we say goodbye to Celli for a
week and hello to Michele, our resident german from last year, and
Mehmet, our resident Turk also from last year. Hosgeldiniz guys.
Turk, Turk, Turk it up! Tonight is our much loved boss man Mr Robbo
Robbo's night off so it's left to the rest of us to man the beach
and hope that nothing goes shockingly, horrifically wrong during
this time. Not on my watch people.
Thanks to people at home for keeping us up to date with current
affairs, the sad news about MJ came through last night and in
tribute we will all be moonwalking the beach tonight and having a
one minute radio silence in between turtles. Heee heee, shamone big
man.. Becca x
This page is a mirror of a blog written by volunteers of the Marine Turtle Research group. Information about the MTRG can be found here.
For more information about the turtles of North Cyprus, their nesting and hatching, follow the links.