A Wildlife Treat.

It had been a scorcher of a day, with barely time for lunch, we had had a visiting cruise ship and so ended up working a 13 hour day. The guests had all been taken back to their ship and the island returned to the peace and tranquillity we know it for. Jerry, one of the volunteers thought that he may have seen a green turtle track earlier, so a few of us walked down the beach to investigate and it was only this that enabled us to experience something that I will never forget and what will probably be one of my main lasting memories from Aride.

After finding that the track was that of a Hawksbill turtle, Melv and I went in search of a coconut for tea to make a coconut Dahl, when I got back to the house the phone was ringing - I dashed to answer it - it was Regis, one of the rangers- I think you want to come quickly he said – why? I asked - just outside your house he said – what? I asked again getting little impatient - Regis has this frustrating way of not actually spitting out what he wants to say and it can get very frustrating at times. Turtles are hatching - finally he said it - WHAT I shouted and immediately called out to Melv, who was making his way to the well. I couldn't get to the beach quick enough, I ran up the path to where we sit for breakfast. I could see Ben, Jerry (the 2 volunteers) and Regis all leaning over excitedly giggling as they looked at the ground. They were chattering away to the small black objects in front of them.

It was amazing, like nothing I had ever seen ever in my life, over a hundred small hatchlings making their way out of the nest and down the beach. They looked like small black currants in the sand - dotted unevenly and moving. I ran to get the camera from the office - I ran as fast as my bare feet could carry me over the uneven terrain. There was no time to waste, it was like I wanted to freeze time, to stop the hatchlings, to hold the moment, but I couldn't. I got back to the beach as quick as possible, completely out of breath and so excited I could barely speak. The sight in front of me was indescribable, watching these small hatchlings about the size of 50p pieces making their way down the beach, coping with the dangers in front of them.

They are perfect miniatures of a turtle, but with eyes not yet open and no distinguishing markings, just uniformly brown. They kind of ‘paddle’ along the sand, using their flippers to waddle, but although clumsy they are quite swift and taking a picture of them was quite a challenge. Foot prints alone presented them with a major upheaval, they struggled to avoid crab holes, and fortunately we were there just to give them a little helping hand. The excitement amongst the group of us was infectious, whilst we wanted the small turtles to make their way and to go out to sea, we wanted to keep watching them and didn't want it to end.

We counted a total of 130, which could be a total nest or may be that some of the individuals will hatch later and follow on. It was around 7pm, the sun had only just gone down and so it was still quite light, which we never expected. I must admit I always thought that may be we would never actually see such a sight, or if we did it would be under muffled torch light (so not to distract the turtles) and never thought it would be in almost day light - what a privilege. When all the hatchlings had made their way we stood and watched out to sea, as the last of the daylight disappeared, realising that we had just experienced something very, very special and we looked back and saw all the tracks in the sand...