Leatherback Sea Turtle Nesting Adventure
Caroline Hawkins of England witnessed leatherback sea turtle nesting as part of her 4-week holiday in Trinidad during July 2005, and told me all about it in an e-mail interview…
It was a last minute decision with some of the local people (I think it was in Grand Riviere) - they were telling us about it and we decided to go!
It was just some local people - not an organized tour. Only one of them knew the area really well.
We were not fully prepared and only had one torch between 8 of us! I'm not sure that I would recommend them to others!
We stayed at a local guesthouse, which I would not recommend! It's probably better to drive to the nearest proper town for accommodation.
The guesthouse had tarantulas, bats, snakes in the front lawn - like I said, it was a bit of an adventure, but I wouldn't do it again!
Beautiful, warm, comfortable night air.
We parked the cars and the 8 of us walked down to the beach. The air was filled with the sound of frogs, crickets and a wailing sound - these were the turtles.
It was pitch black but the sky was absolutely filled with stars - it was the most beautiful night sky that I'd ever seen.
We only had one torch between us - it was a bit of an adventure! There was no human development nearby - no lights, it really was an untouched gem.
As we approached the beach, there were about 12 leatherback sea turtles, laying their eggs in the sand. They were crying out in pain as they laid their eggs. It was the saddest and most mysterious sound that I had ever heard.
They were brushing their flippers against the sand, covering up their eggs after they had laid them, then they shuffled along, back into the sea.
We stayed there for about two hours and there were turtles there the whole time, coming and going.
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Go with a proper tour group, but you may not be able to see the truly untouched parts that only the locals know about.
10/10 - it was one of the best experiences of my life!
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