Anything for the Turtles

As the title hints, we are willing to do anything for the turtles, including walking around in the early hours of the morning, in the rain, freezing our butts off and lifting heavy termite-infested, centipede-housing logs.

The beach at Pom Pom is continuously plagued by lots of pieces of drift wood. This is a problem because when the turtles come up the sand to try and nest, the bits of wood obstruct their paths, resulting in the turtles not being able to lay their eggs.

Macho Women conquering all the logs

Therefore our task was to pick up the pieces of wood and make piles all along our side of the beach, in order for them to be burned later. We chose the most ideal day to do this: rainy and cold. In a sense this was good because we didn't get even more burnt in the process.

On various occassions Steve pointed out old turtle nests which are about 50cm x 50 cm circles in the sand. It was weird to think that only six months ago little baby turtles crawled out of their eggs shells buried in these nests and cautiously made their way to the sea. It made us think about what those turtles are doing now. Did they even survive or were they devoured by bigger creatures along the way?

We all ended up with cuts and bites on our arms and legs and exhausted, but we were pleased by the fact that we will be making a difference by hopefully enabling more turtles to come onto the beach and nest.

Enjoying some marshmallows

In total it took us two hours to make twentyone piles of wood and we took advantage of our hard work the following evening by making smores around several bonfires. Laura and Em thankfully had each brought a bag of marshmallows which we devoured under a sky full of twinkling stars. The sweet smell soon attracted the dive instructors from the resort and we gladly shared our sugary delights with them.

More Info on volunteering with TRACC
More Photos on TRACC facebook