Turtle Summer - Week 1
Yesterday marked my first full week on Crete, Greece so I thought it was about time I’d write my first blog post here. After having spent two nights in Heraklion, I took the bus to Mátala. Mátala is located on the south of Crete and is known as a hippie town. During the Vietnam war, a lot of Americans moved into the many caves here to escape the draft. This is now the selling point for a lot of tourists. In fact, the day of my arrival was the last day of the yearly free music festival with the headliner being a Bob Marley cover band.
Mátala beach
The rock formations is where the caves are located. They were man-made during the Neolithic period.
This festival meant that the camp site at which we are all staying was quite crowded but as the Archelon organisation is a returning guest there was a designated area for our tents and the ‘living room.’ This ‘living room’ (or base camp) is not so much of a room as it is a half open shed with a stove, fridges, electricity, a common table, and many more of the necessities.
As opposed to some of the other projects in Greece, this project was small and when I arrived, there were about 14 other volunteers. From the start they were all very welcoming, making the adjustment to the upcoming 7 weeks of camping a lot easier. Especially after going out with them, I felt a lot more confident about spending my time with these people I just met.
View from the bar
As Mátala is so small, it is easy to go out for a quick drink. All of the bar/restaurant/cafe owners are aware of our volunteering for the sea turtles and they are so kind to us.
The next few days after my arrival consisted mostly of spending time in or around the sea, doing my shifts, and hanging around in town. Not bad at all, if I may say so myself. As I’ve only just arrived, I got some inductions to teach me all the ins and outs of the projects. In order to raise awareness (and money) for the sea turtles, we have a kiosk in town where people can buy trinkets and get some information on sea turtles in general, our projects, and what they themselves should, and better not, do when it comes down to the turtles. Many of our other duties include keeping base camp clean, cooking dinner, doing handy shifts (such as fixing bamboo shading for when the hatching season begings), shopping, and… morning surveys! I had my first morning survey yesterday morning and was great! During the morning survey, we walk approx. 9 km of beach in teams of two (so about 4,5 kms each). Whenever we find turtle tracks we (after having taken a lot of pictures) try and locate the egg chamber, log the exact location, and put a bamboo tripod over top to inform people not to disturb the nest. We have a lot of nests at the moment, that are not always in the most covenient of places which is why we also check if all the markers are still in the right place and if the turtle nests are undisturbed. This means the morning shifts start very early in the morning as it would be that much harder to do under a burning sun. So on my first morning survey we found two new nests! The tracks were easy to spot and after some digging we found the egg chamber. As you may expect, I was super excited to feel the nests and see some of the top eggs with my own two eyes. The eggs were the size of pingpong balls and pretty well hidden. For the first nest, my shift buddy found the egg chamber first, but for the second one I did! It is a feeling of accomplishment for sure. It was a very good first morning survey, although I have to admit, I’m pretty excited for hatching season too.
All in all, it was just a great first week and I can’t wait for the rest of it!
Turtle tracks!
