Day 55

Yesterday was a packed day for me. A group of volunteers and I headed to a small remote beach that we call 'L Beach' for the afternoon. It's pretty easy to get to with only a 15 min bus ride from camp. Upon arriving you cross over the National Road, which is equivalent to a highway, and make your way down a path for a few minutes. You arrive at this tiny quite bay which has two big jumping cliffs on both sides. And yes, I did jump! The left side is around 10 metres high and the right side is several higher then that. Becky and I were the only two girls to jump both of them that day and I a still shocked at myself for doing it. Mostly because I am scared of heights, to the point of never being on roller coaster and only a few years ago I started to use escalators. No joke!

The guys obviously had to show off and jump first into the water, so after seeing them alive was good reassurance for me. But once getting to the edge the jump seems so much bigger then from the ground and I started to question myself. Mom you popped into my head right away, and I almost chickened out when Becky spoke up and said "Common we can't not go in front of the guys." which is very true. Then she grabbed my hand told me not to be a twat, I quickly grew a set of balls, replied "Let's go" and we jumped! It was so much fun, and after we got applauded by a tour boat full of tourists watching to see if we would all go. Very proud of myself for jumping, gave me such a high after landing in the water safely. AND got some sweet pictures to prove my story.

We left shortly after lunch because some people had shifts within the hour, and myself and Kerry had to get some sleep since later that night we had night survey. It was the first night survey of the season and I got to go. We left camp around 10pm and headed down to the far end of the beach opposite the Harbour on J and K sector. I was beyond excited because walking the beaches at night means that if you are lucky, a chance to see a live turtle! We started our night walking and within 3 minutes Heike (monitoring leader) was crawling on all fours on the beach because she thought she saw something. The hard thing about morning survey is no light is allowed or else the turtles will be scared away. We are only able a red light because the turtles can't pick up on that as much. So after getting our signal of one red flash of the light Kerry and I dropped to the ground and crawled up to what looked like a big rock but was actually a sea turtle!!! Can't believe we found one that fast! It was amazing to see one in the wild and I even started to laugh a bit the way the turtle moves. She was digging her egg chamber and every few seconds would toss sand up in the air with her flipper. Apparently all the years Heike has been doing this she had never had a reaction like mine, which was giggling.

The turtle ended up hitting clay in the sand so she decided not to lay her eggs and abandoned the chamber she just dug. They are very picky as to when and where to lay their eggs. She slowly but surely moved her way back to the water. I just can't describe the feeling I felt when seeing one. Especially since fairly close to this entire encounter was a bar full of drunk tourists who were totally oblivious to what just happened. I just witnessed something not many people have, or ever will. Which is a endangered sea turtle in her natural habitat digging an egg chamber, and these people were just thinking if they wanted vodka or rum. Even some volunteers who have been here for more than one season have not got to see what I saw last night.

We continued walking the beaches till 3 in the morning and we witnessed 2 other sea turtles on the beach. However they were just 'swims' which is when they emerge from the water on the sand, and basically don't like the area for one reason or another and do a loop around right back to the water. Night survey was a success seeing 3 sea turtles and bonus; 1 couple doing the dirty on the beach. Most awkward thing to walk by, thank the lord it was night time and nearly pitch black or my eyes may have been scared for life!

I have the morning and afternoon off to sleep and get back on track from last night which is nice, and this evening I have a kiosk shift that starts at 7pm. However the Italy game is on at 5pm here, so I will have to find a close TV to the kiosk and run over at the last min! Wish me luck!