Off I go!

After having signed many forms, purchased quite a lot of camping gear, and a lot of waiting, the time has finally come to go to Greece! I'm flying to Heraklion where I'll be staying for a short while before making my way to the project campsite in Mátala. For the next two months I'll be assisting in the monitoring and protecting of the Loggerhead sea turtle nests and the nesting adults. This means that with a group of volunteers, we'll try to inform the public about the turtles, we'll be relocating nests if necessary, and many more efforts to get as many turtles back to the sea alive and well!

So, how do you pack for a trip like that? Fortunately, the organisation provided a list of some packing essentials such as a tent and a sleeping bag, but also a torch that shines red light. During this project there'll be night shifts too, and the red light won't disturb the turtles (they can barely see any red light, which is not surprising considering that red light is also the first to be filtered out underwater).

To sum up some of the gear I'm bringing:

• Head mounted torch

• Pocket torch

• Waterproof bags

• Laken water bottle

• Tent

• Sleeping bag

• Dive torch

• Sleeping pad

• Camera

• Camping set