The last 20 hours we amazing! We hooked up with John Ben, the manager of the Huon Coast Leatherback Conservation Project traveling 20 minutes south of Lae by banana boat. The communities are committed to patrolling the beach all night to monitor leatherback turtles coming ashore to lay eggs and hatching's that appear 60 days later. After walking up and down in the rain it was about 3am and Rich and I came across tracks the size of truck tyres. We had missed a turtle who must have decided to drop in for a short visit. Exhausted from walking up and down in the sand we decided to catch some z's, me finding it hard to sleep with a rat rustling around in my bag eating my bananas. Then suddenly one of the rangers came saying quick, you'll have to hurry, a turtle has come ashore and is laying her eggs. With adrenaline kicking in we managed to run halfway up the beach. She had just finished laying her eggs and was covering them up. So big and beautiful. A survivor. (You know only about 2 of every 1000 turtles make it to adulthood.) Very inspirational.
(Didn't actually get to see the little ones hatch. This photo's courtesy of John.)
By the time she'd finished her job and went back out to the big sea it was an hour till sunlight. I decided to stay up and listen to stories from one of the old men who was a natural storyteller. Had some good laughs over a hot tea. As the sun was rising there were a lot of mackerel jumping not too far off shore. Everyone (besides Rich who was peacefully sleeping) were up and ready to help. Old men and small children. Some jumping in the outrigger canoes pulling the net around, others on the end of the ropes pulling the net in like a tug-o-war. There was a lot of excitement and yelling. After 4 different catches the grand total was 924 fish. Not being much of a meat eater myself and having never been fishing before it was a totally new experience. Oh yeah, and there were dolphins not too far off shore as well, picking up the fish we'd missed.
Amazing time - such an escape from office work!!
1 comment:
Wow, this is an amazing entry. What an experience that must of been. I´m happy you guys were able to experience that, wish I could of gone too!
Cheers
Post a Comment