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17/5/2013: A last goodbye to Pom Pom Island
Yesterday afternoon I left Pom Pom island for the very last time (at least this time around) and while I was happy to leave, it was also a little sad to leave behind new friends!!
It has been an absolutely fantastic experience but it has also been a lot tougher, both mentally and physically, than I ever thought it would be!! Based on what I read on the TRACC website I expected to arrive in a place that had a good, structured turtle program up and running but instead I arrived in a place where nothing much was set up (on the turtle side - the diving was very organized and well going) and that gave me the opportunity to set my mark on the program. However, coming in as a volunteer knowing little about the research centre and the geographical area that was not only a daunting but also very stressful and difficult task and I ended up with a lot more responsibility for the turtle project that I was ever meant to have! For the first 4 weeks I was on my own (except for a few lovely days with Carris and Shawn) trying to run fast enough to get all the different surveys and patrols done and that was not an ideal situation and as a result my enthusiasm and will to work hard took a serious hit.... That combined with the lack of a healthy varied diet, lack of sleep (sometimes to extremes) and the stress of ending up with a responsibility that wasn't meant to be mine has definitely put its marks on my time on Pom Pom island but I have enjoyed my stay hugely and a few days from now I am sure that I all I remember are all the good times that we have had – Because we DEFINITELY had MANY, MANY, MANY good times!!!!!
6 weeks ago I arrived in Semporna unsure of what kind of challenges and experiences were laying ahead and today I'm back in Semporna ready to leave behind a very special place that I don't think you find very often but keeping with me tons of fantastic memories!! Memories of the first time I saw a turtle, first snorkel survey, the day we went to Mantabuan in a crazy storm, our many kite flying attempts, countless trips to other islands, memories of centipedes in my tent, cold jungle showers in the rain, stinging jellyfish, fun dives, coral collection, beach clean ups, island parties, freesbie beer games, beautiful sunsets, sunrises, turtle patrols, nesting turtles, countless sleepless nights, extremely hot days, flies, memories of late night conservations around the bonfire, Tanduay drinking, snorkel tests, memories of sunny days and rainy days, of stressful days and peaceful days, memories of difficult days but most of all memories of a lifestyle that tests your physical and mental strength every single day, a lifestyle that pushes your boundaries and that lets you discover new things about yourself!!
I have met great people and made good friends that I hope I will see again someday (some I will hopefully be so lucky to see again already this summer in KL or in Singapore)!! Am I going to miss Pom Pom Island? Yes!!! Do I think I would ever consider coming back for a short stay? Yes!!! Will I look back at this trip as being one of the best experiences of my life? Yeah I probably will!! And at the end of the day that is the most important thing…. Who cares if I worked a little too hard or occasionally was stressed out, what matters is that I felt like my efforts and work made a difference and that I learned so many things that I could not in a million years learn in a lecture hall back in college and so in my opinion my stay at TRACC can only be described as successful!!!
Last night I got to have one last night with Tim, Sofie, Theresa and Dino and I must say that I cannot picture a better way to end this chapter of my travels! Now I am on my way to the airport to catch a flight to Kuala Lumpur where I this afternoon will have my first few hours in Wildasia’s office where I will do an internship until the end of July/beginning of August – A part of me is sad to leave but I am SUPER excited about the new adventures that lie ahead!!!
If you have any last questions about Pom Pom island, my work there or anything related to TRACC in general please let me know one of the coming days and I will try to answer them – otherwise I will now leave this page be and start telling stories in the “Wildasia, Kuala Lumpur 2013” instead!
Susannah x
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16/5/2013: Mega stressful morning but I now have a plan!!
So I went to bed last night being worried, sad, annoyed and frustrated and while I still feel annoyed and frustrated that the trip was postponed so late that I had already spent a lot of money on a flight ticket, had almost 2 weeks of doing nothing before going to KL and that those two weeks were the reason why I at the end of the internship won't have enough time to go to Vietnam (I was originally planning on going to Vietnam for 3 weeks after finishing the internship but when the offer of the dolphin trip came I decided that that was worth not having time to go to Vietnam for), I am now no longer worried because after 3 hours of running around like a mad talking to lots of different people, a plan has now been made!!!
I was meant to leave Pom Pom island today and then catch the night bus to Kota Kinabalu from where I was to take a bus to Tenom where the Sabah Agricultural park is. After two days there I was to return to Kota Kinabalu to pick up a camera and a lens for Steve and then fly to Kutching to meet the boat. Now, I will instead leave Pom Pom island today, spend the night in Semporna with Tim and Sofie tonight and then fly to Kuala Lumpur tomorrow morning where I will be starting my internship right away. It is all a bit rushed (I am sitting here writing on my website when I really should be packing since the boat is leaving in 2 hours) and I would have liked to stay on Pom Pom island for a few more days and then fly to Kuala Lumpur on Monday but Wildasia told me that they actually had work for me to do already Monday morning (a field trip to Perak) so I had to arrive before that and since I will be staying in their office I figured it would be better to arrive on a day when there was actually someone in the office :)
Anyways, my plans might have turned upside down and I am still disappointed about missing out on the trip but I am looking so much forward to starting my internship in Kuala Lumpur (and super excited about starting field work already on Monday) and I think it will be the perfect ending to my time here to spend one night in Semporna with Tim, Sofie and Dino (one of the local staff members) - we have had some really good times out here so it will be nice to have drink with them before going back to civilization!!
I gotta run, because the boat departure is fast approching and as well as packing I also have a lot of amazing people to say goodbye to!! I don't know what the internet situation is like in the office in KL (I would have assumed it was not a problem but who knows) but as soon as I settle in a little bit I will tell you about the work I will be doing there and hopefully I will have time to write a little last note on my experiences here on Pom Pom island!!
Take care of yourselves and each other,
Susannah x
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15/5/2013: Time flies and my time on Pom Pom island is coming to an end
The last couple of days have passed so fast and today is my last day here on Pom Pom island! After coming back to the island Friday morning I had to take a few days off "water work" which meant I had 3 dry days in a row - Ask me if I was going mad!!! But being out of the water doesn't mean there isn't any work to do and so I had the turtle patrol for 4 days and even though we did find 2 turtles none of them nested... super disappointing!
Monday morning I was back in the water doing turtle surveys and whereas it has very much seemed like hard work the last few weeks the realization that I only had a few more days left with the turtles made it seem less like work and more like fun. Tuesday I did a couple of fun dives with Flic (one of the two divemasters) which was amazing - There is something amazing about breathing under water while seeing the surface of the ocean 18 meters above your head!!! We only did two dives that day but I was so lucky to get to see both stonefish, frog fish, several cool nudibranches, crocodile fish, lion fish, scorpion fish and of course lots of the lovely turtles that I see everyday :D Was a great second last day!!
Today was then my last full day and I slowly realized that I should have started to "one-last-one"-things a lot sooner because as the day progressed there was more and more things I would have liked to do one last time... BUT I think I did pretty well, I managed to sqeeze in: A morning high tide survey, my daily quiet 20 minutes at the end of the jetty, making a turtle work schedule for the next 2 weeks, having lunch, sailing to Timba Timba, doing a 0.7 nautical mile low tide turtle survey, boat ride back to Pom Pom in the rain, afternoon chill with the others in number 4, a little fun snorkel, a walk around the island, 4 turtle patrols and a goodbye party for Tim, Sofie and I - A very busy but great day..... Until I heard that the dolphin trip is being postponed which means that not only can I not join the trip because I have to start my internship, I now have 12 days without anything to do before my flight leaves for Kuala Lumpur!!!!! I wouldn't say that it ruined my day but I am super, super, super disappointed - I had been looking so much forward to that trip, there has definitely been days the last two weeks where the thought of that trip was the only thing that kept me going... But I will now have a sleep and hopefully things look a little less problematic tomorrow morning :)
Sleep well everyone,
Susannah x
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11/5/2013: Last week here on Pom Pom Island
I'm heading to bed soon but before I do I just wanted to say goodnight to you all!!
I hope you are all well where ever in the world you are - I only have a few more days left here on Pom Pom island, and once I'm back on mainland I'll have a lot more time to update this website, which I'm looking very much forward to, because I have so many stories to tell but way too little time to write it down :)
How are you all getting on? Any exciting news from Ireland? Denmark?
Have a wonderful sunday afternoon, I hope you all have a lovely week ahead of you!
Susannah x
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9/5/2013: Off to Semporna for the second time this week…..
For the first 5½ weeks I didn’t get off the island once but now it seems like I can’t escape Semporna…. This morning I had to go to Semporna to see a doctor as I have 2 nasty infections on my left ankle that just doesn’t want to go away. For everyone else on the island having infections usually doesn’t cause any problems because we have a stack of different antibiotic products (both creams and pills) but none of them have the original leaflet in them and since I am allergic to penicillin it just wouldn’t be a good idea to take any of them, risking a severe allergic reaction in a place where the nearest clinic is 1½ hour away (if CBR’s boat is there which isn’t always the case and then it would take way longer). After having tried to deal with the infections by trying to keep them clean by soaking my feet before using disinfection cream and plasters for the past 10 days without any improvements (it actually just kept getting worse) I figured it was about time to quite being in denial and just get the visit to the doctor over with and so that meant another day off the island.
However, having a day “off the island” definitely doesn’t mean “having a day off”!!! We are currently 18 people at TRACC and that means that we need a LOT of shopping done ALL the time, so since I had to go to town anyway (there is only one boat a day so if you go to Semporna you will need to spend the night) we agreed that it would be good if I did a bit of shopping. Now, when I write “a bit” of shopping you might think that that would mean going to a shop or two and then having time to relax for the rest of the day but that never seems to be the case around here. When you go shopping in Semporna it actually takes more or less all day….. The shopping list really wasn’t that long, yet it still took me a good 4 hours to complete most of the shopping, and I now just have to go to the market in the morning to buy vegetables and it should be safe to return to TRACC (I am not sure they would let me get off the boat if I didn’t bring fresh supplies because the volunteers go slightly crazy when they go a few days without fresh fruit, vegetables and biscuits)!
Well, back to the reason why I am actually here: The doctor wasn’t too worried about the infections, he just prescribed me a 5 day antibiotic pill cure and gave me a Sonotron theraphy session (have no idea what it is but he seemed to think it would be a good idea – It is a theraphy thing that is meant to take away the pain but I am not sure it worked). However, he did seem slightly worried about my general condition, he said my blood pressure wasn’t really what it should be, my pulse was a bit off and I apparently looked like I wasn’t eating a diet consisting of all the vitamins and minerals that I need. I am not at all surprised about that because I know our diet isn’t great (we do get a lot of vegetables but it is the same vegetables all the time and not the kind that are rich in vitamins) but I am surprised that it is so obvious on my body already – The doctor said that that could very well be the reason why the infections haven’t cleared up, my body doesn’t have the energy to fix it or something like that and so he gave me some pills to take the next 3 days which should help the healing process (I have no idea what it is I am taking but I asked if it was vitamins and he said no….. It isn’t always possible to understand what they are saying so it is really a matter of deciding whether you trust them or not)!
Anyways, I am feeling fine - The night in Semporna the other night made a GIGANTIC difference and I feel much more rested and relaxed so I am expecting to be completely on top again in a few days when the pills start working! Until then, I will need to stay out of the water which isn’t really ideal, when you are on an island, where all you really want to do is being in the water but Lizzie (one of the new divers) said I could borrow one of her books and I’ll then sit in the shade, enjoying the sun and the view of the water while putting Sabina, Tash and Becca to work :)
I should go, but before I do you should check of this link – I might have been crazy busy today but I still pretty much saw everything there is to see in Semporna (Read: Nothing) and I have put together a short photo introduction to my Semporna experience.
How are you all getting on? I know that my Danish friends and family are currently enjoy one of the many long bank holiday weekends that we have so many of in Denmark and I guess my Irish friends are still struggling with exams – Good luck with the last few ones guys, I know you can do it!!! You are awesome and even though it might not seem like it, it is over very soon and you (unlike me) won’t ever have to sit another undergraduate exam again!!! Happy days?!?!
Susannah x
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9/5/2013: What a great feeling
I am currently on my turtle patrol night shift and figured I'll just write a quick update before heading to bed in 50 minutes!
Sometimes it seems completely pointless to do all of this walking - we walk and walk and walk and walk and most nights we don't see anything at all......... But then you have nights like tonight where you get a nesting turtle and all of a sudden it is all worth it!!!!! Sabina and I were on patrol when we heard a funny noise in the bushes and found a cute little turtle digging its nest in the sand. It took the turtle around an hour to dig the nest completely - it is an exhausting task for the turtle so it often stops to take a little break. When the turtle is done digging the nest you slowly approach the turtle so that you can see down the nest, and after 20 eggs have been laid it is time to get in there and take the eggs from behind the turtle so that it doesn't get disturbed in its special moment.
The person that is to take the eggs out of the nest quietly lay down behind the turtle and starts removing some of the sand around the back flippers and if necessary you move the flippers to the side (it is so cool to touch the turtles flippers) so that you gain access to the nest without touching the tale. Then while laying on your stomach you just slowly take out one egg at a time from the bottom of the nest and collect them in a bucket - you need a pretty big bucket because some of the turtles lay up to 140 eggs but you are definitely not garantied that many!
Once the turtle is done it will quickly start to move its flippers to cover up the nest (at which point you need to jump fast if you don't fancy getting sand shoveled in your face) and that is our cue to leave it alone as it will need rest before heading back to the ocean. The bucket is then brought to the hatchery where you dig a hole that is 60cm deep and has a diameter of 20cm and all the eggs are then (again one by one) but down in the artificial nest before it is filled with sand and a little plastic fence is then put around it. When the turtles then hatch the little fenced area will fill with little baby turtles that are then gently moved to the ocean at dawn - but that is not for another little while because it takes 8-10 weeks for the eggs to hatch so let's not get ahead of ourselves :)
It might sound very technical and very boring but it is an absolutely amazing experience!!!!! There is something fantastic about holding a bucket with 100-something eggs in your hand knowing that 20 years from now some of them will return to that very spot to nest themselves and also knowing that you have just saved the little turtles from being someones lunch or dinner... It is unfortunately very rare that a nest is left undisurbed if we don't move the eggs to the hatchery, it is very upsetting having patrolled for hours during the night and then the next morning realizing that a turtle had nested just after you went to bed and someone has already dug it up......... But what a great feeling when you get to be there, making sure that they are safe :)
"Our first nest in the hatchery - It was a great night and amazingly enough it is still as exciting every time we find a nesting turtle"
Egg status: 294!!
I'll now head to bed and get a good 2 hours of sleep beofre it is too hot to stay in the tent hehe
Susannah x
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7/5/2013: Back in the "Office" for a little while
I can't belive how fast our 24 hours in Semporna went - It seemed like we arrived and an hour later we were back home on Pom Pom again.... So strange how fast time pass when you are having fun/are "on holiday" (yes for us a day in Semporna doing shopping for the camp does qualify as holiday)!!
After getting an amazing 7 hours of sleep I was more refreshed than I think I was when I arrived on the island and I am now ready to kick butt for the next 9 days before leaving to help Steve (the peoject owner) on his dolphin survey trip.
Steve had two new boats built for TRACC and it is now time to move them from Kutching in Sarawak to Pom Pom Island but this is a distance of 1500km and it is therefore the perfect opportunity to carry out dolphin and other marine mammal surveys along the way. Steve has therefore put together a team of staff members from TRACC that gets to come along to help out with the survey as sort of a little treat for working so hard and I have been so lucky to be asked to join the trip because he is so happy with all the hard work I have done out here - So exciting!!
The surveys will be done in conjunction with Dr Linsay Porter who is an expert on Marine mammals in Asia and our main task as part of the team will be to watch out for dolphins along the coast - Dolphins are apparently much more common in Sarawak than in Sabah (the county where Pom Pom island is), there is usually a pod at the mouth of every river so it should be really interesting. We have been told that it is common to see Irrawaddy dolphins, Indo-Pacific Hump-Back, Finless Porpoise and they have previously also seen Long-Snouted Spinner Dolphin, Pygmy Killer Whale, Melon-Headed Dolphin and Bottlenose dolphin - so I guess a lot of dolphin identification teaching will have to take place prior to departure!
Because it is such a long trip it will be devided into two sections, one from Kutching to Kota Kinabalu and one from Kota Kinabalu to Pom Pom Island. Because I will be starting my internship in Kuala Lumpur at the end of May I will be joining the first part of the trip which means that I on the 20th of May will fly from Kota Kinabalu to Kutching where we will spend a day visiting Bako National park where we'll get to see organutans and on the 23rd we'll then start the boat trip where we besides seeing dolphins, should be able to see crocodiles and we'll then arrive in Kota Kinabalu on the 27th (and I'll be flying to Kuala Lumpur the next morning).
Along the way we'll get breakfast and dinner at cafes and at night we'll stay at hotels at night but one of us will have to sleep on the boat which should be really fun (we'll be sleeping in a hammock on the boat)! It sounds so luxurious in comparison to our little camp site here and on top of it being an incredible experience it will all be paid for so I will get to see all these amazing things and not even pay a single cent for it - am feeling really lucky and I can't wait to go!!!
So I have exciting things ahead (I also have the internship but I will have to tell you about that another day because I am getting tired and want to try to get a bit of sleep before I am back to work) but it is a bit weird knowing that I have less than 10 days left on the island.... The 9 days I have left will be absolutely packed though, tomorrow we are going to Pandanan to do turtle surveying for the first time, Friday I'll be going on a couple of dives with Flic, Saturday we'll head to Bohey Dulang and Sunday is tubing/body board day - and then I'll if cause have a lot of turtle work and turtle planning that will be fitted in around all of that so I guess I will probably be pretty tired by the time I leave :)
Thanks for messages in the guestbook - It is really nice to hear from you! I hope you are all getting on well? Happy?
Am sending lots of happy thoughts home to you all, and if I could I would send a hug (I think it might be good that it is not possible to send hugs because it would be a very sweaty hug HaHa)
Susannah x
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6/5/2013: Off the island for a day!!
Today it was time for me to jump on the boat to Semporna purely to prevent me from going insane!! The last week has been mental and I must admit that it has simply just been too much - I have because of turtle walks, surveys and training of new snorkellers only managed to get 9½ hours of sleep since Friday morning (it is now Monday evening) and when you live in a very primitive place where you are constantly surrounded by the same few people, the heat is unbearable and the humidity is even worse then that is the ultimative receipy for disaster.....
Thursday afternoon we had 3 new snorkellers coming in and while it is great to now have more people around then it is a lot of work to do all the training to make sure they are comfortable in the water and comfortable with the work we are doing while at the same time having to carry out the surveys and do the turtle walks every night! The 3 new girls that are on the turtle project are really great and their presence will definitely lift some of the weight off my shoulders as they will be able to take some of the workload off me. However, I think it is very important that they are not just dropped in at the deep end but are being given guidance and help to settle in properly and so it will take a few days before we get a full work routine going and before I can sit back and relax for a few days. BUT today I just desperately needed to get off the island because the lack of sleep and the stress of work has hit me hard and so Tim (our project manager and dive instructor) and I took a day in Semporna!! :D
Now, you might think that a day in Semporna is relaxing but that is FAR from the case!! We had pages and pages of shopping that needed to be done but we checked in to the hotel when we arrived and while Dino and Tim got fuel for our boats, I got to take a little 2 hour nap (delicious!!!!). It is amazing how two hours can change everything - Two hours sleep in a clean cool bed is like 10 hours of Pom Pom Island tent sleeping, I already felt more relaxed and a lot less tired after my nap and so the shopping was actually pretty fun. We did a mix of food shopping for the camp and personal shopping for the other volunteers on the island and I don't think I have ever enjoyed walking around in a chaotic shop as much as I did today - It was priceless to see the faces of the local people when we bought 2 trolleys (packed MAX) of canned food, vegetable, sauces and sun screen, they must have thought we were going on some sort of insane survival trip for months and months....
Somehow the day disappeared so fast, we finished the shopping at 7pm, went for dinner straight after and it is now 9pm and our "day off" is now already over..... I am slowly realizing that a change in scenary every now and again can really help you stay sane in situations where you feel drained of energy, stressed and tired - I haven't even slept much yet but I already feel much better!!!!! I'm now going to take a long hot (clean) shower, then I'll jump into a cool, clean bed and I will then hopefully get a good 7 hours of sleep before we need to get on the boat back to Pom Pom with all the groceries and shopping :D TOTAL EXCITEMENT.... About the shower and the sleeping bit mostly but am actually also kind of looking forward to getting back to the island to finish the training of the new girls so that I can have a relaxing day at the beach on the island soon before I leave in 10 days..... Yes, I am leaving in 10 days - so much has been going on that I haven't had the time of the energy to update this site with all the latest news but I will hopefully get a chance to do it soon!!! The short version of the news is that I have been offered an internship in Kuala Lumpur which is simply just too good not to take and so I will be leaving Pom Pom Island in mid May, then help out the staff from TRACC carrying out a dolphin survey in Sarawak (Borneo) for a week before heading to KL to start my internship - A longer version will follow soon, I am SO excited about the internship and I cannot wait to tell you all about it :D
I hope you have all had a lovely weekend and that you are now starting a peaceful week! Am thinking lots about you all back home, you are missed hugely
Susannah x
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1/5/2013: FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY!!!
The endless hours and hours and hours of night patrols have now finally paid off..... We found a nesting turtle!! We patrol the beach 4 hours around high tide every night and since I have been the only turtle volunteer here for a very long time that means that I have been working mad hours - Late nights and very early mornings!! It is illegal to sell turtle eggs in Malaysia but there are still many local people that earn substantial amount of money on poaching. A local worker on Pom Pom Island earns around 600 ringgit a month and in some places turtle eggs go for up to 4 ringgit an egg and as the turtles lay somewhere between 80-130 eggs at a time that pretty much adds up to half a month's salary that can be earned within a very short time frame. The local staff on the island are if cause among the lucky people that actually have jobs but most of them have families to support back in Semporna and so it is tempting for them to earn a little extra cash. This puts us here at TRACC in a bit of an awkward position because we are here to protect the turtles and we therefore cannot and will not let the locals take the eggs - But how do you go about being foreigners coming onto their islands, telling them what to do and not? It is illegal but what gives us the right to enforce the law? What gives us the right to take away that extra little income that might enable them to pay for hospital bills or school?
The last few weeks have been frustrasting for those of us at TRACC that are involved with the turtle patrol because if cause we don't like to run after the locals as are we the police and I personally feel awful when we have to set after them when they late at night decide to do a little "walk" down along the beach with a bagpack (we have tried talking to them and their managers and while it seems to have improved the situation a bit we still see them walk off).... It isn't a nice atmosphere because I know that they are good people and I know that they don't know how much of a negative impact their actions have on the turtle population but I am also an environmental scientist that firmly agrees with the ban on turtle egg poaching! Being here, living so close to this kind of culture clash has really opened my eyes to how easy it is to sit somewhere cosy in the western world and preaching about how humans shouldn't think they are more important than any other species on this planet but we are not the ones struggling to put food on the table!!! We are not the ones to whom fishing one fish today is more important than fishing 10 in a month because cathing one fish today means that you won't have go to bed hungry!!
I am not weaving on my believes!! I still believe in making international treaties, protocols and laws to ensure that all life on earth is sustained and I still believe that every person in this world has an obligation to live a lifestyle that doesn't compromise the needs of others (that being animals, plants or other humans) but I must say that I now have a better understanding of the difficulties the world leaders face when they try to make international protocols on biodiversity or climate change. It is not a matter of not wanting to protect the environment (I'm sure almost all people in theory would agree that it is a good idea to protect all life on earth) but it is a matter of having different reference points and backgrounds. Out here 10 turtle eggs will prevent hunger today, in the western world 10 turtle eggs will not make a difference today but we know 20 years in the eggs to allow them to become mature turtles that can then reproduce themselves is beneficial for the turtle population but what value is that to the man who will be starving for 20 years? Humans are no different from all other life on earth, we have a survival instinct and I believe that for as long as we have people struggling to survive on a day to day basis in this world, we will have to think about conservation from more than just a scientific point of view. Many people say that we as humans should not be the ones deciding the faith of other species but I guess what I am trying to say is that while that is completely true, then is not even worse that some people decide the faith of people they have never met just to save a rare organism that most people have never heard of??? I am just playing the devil's advocate here, because if cause I think that it is possible to find a balance between the two, all I am just trying to convey here is that conservation issues aren't always as black and white as they sometimes seem from our cosy living rooms :)
But back to the actual topic: The turtle nest!! After a months of walking the beaches at all odd hours a day to minimise the risk of having poachers taking the eggs we finally found a nesting Green Turtle and it was one of the most amazing things I have seen. The turtle came up on the beach and starting digging at around 10.30pm and after 2 ½ hours the whole thing was over and we could relax knowing that there are now 136 little turtle eggs safely burried in the hatchery at PPIR that will hatch in about 8 weeks or so! You are not allowed to use flashlights or flashes on cameras when the turtle nests so we didn't get any good photos but we will try to get some photos next time we find a nesting turtle (which now that we have entered nesting season should be fairly soon).
I apologize for the lenght of this post - I got slightly carried away and I am also VERY tired so I think I will now go to bed and have a peaceful sleeping knowing that we did something very useful tonight.
Sleep well everyone,
Susannah x
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