KatieTheKat

Well well. Here, I am, back from camp. And what a fantastic camp it was! I mean super-amazingly-extraordinarily-scumptiously-turtlelischiously-incredible!

Things started off with a bang on night one. We arrived at camp and spent about 2 hours setting up the big shade cloths which had been torn down in cyclone preparation the day before. (The bang hasn't come yet). But once the work was done and sunset was upon us (the we, by the way, is me and Michael, who had been at the camp all summer), we went down to the beach for a little turtle tracking. We had not gone far when Michael pointed out a turtle emerging from the water down the beach and we crouched down in the sand to watch. I couldn't believe that we were watching a SEA TURTLE crawling out of the water in front of us. Oh.. wait.. it seemed to be sinking back down into the waves again.. and back it went into the ocean. We got up an carried on a bit. But then suddenly there was another one. A big one. Once she had made it far enough up the beach and started digging out a nest, we crept up behind her to get a closer look.

As she dug and dug and dug some more, I (slowly and inconspicuously as possible) turned around to watch the setting sun. But I got more than I bargained for, because not only was the sunset stunning against the turquoise sea, but as I looked, a dolphin leaped in an arch out of the water right in line with the setting sun. We watched a whole pod(?) of dolphins jumping and playing in the sunset as the turtle behind us kept digging away.

This turtle, by the way, was a big one. Michael informed me that she was a Green, and not a Loggerhead which are more commonly seen on that stretch of beach. She dug a very large hole, but in the end (and apparently Greens have a habit of this), she decided there was something wrong with it and headed off into the dunes in search of better sand.

Just as we were about to creep after Mrs. Green, however, I looked back towards the ocean and saw that another turtle was crawling out of the water right behind us (and a little off to the side). So we were stuck for the moment, as turtles have very good eyesight and so any movement on our part might have frightened them and disrupted the nesting process (on the other hand they are rather deaf, so we could speak freely). Mrs. Loggerhead (as this is what the new turtle was) marched purposefully past us up the beach and towards the dunes which, when I dared to glance up, I saw that Mrs. Green was just emerging from. A turtle-to-turtle encounter was imminent. What would happen?

Well, it wasn't really all that exciting. They met face to face and paused for a moment to take a look at each other. We wondered if one might crawl right over top of the other, but no, they just passed side by side. I believe that they passed on the right like true Aussie citizens. No wait, other way around. Oh I'm not sure. But anyhow, that was it for the turtle-to-turtle encounter.

But that is not the end of the story by any means. You see, while Mrs. Green simply wandered back down and started doing some more digging behind a little dune mostly out of sight, Mrs. Loggerhead had by this time turned around herself and happened to be headed straight for us! Michael and I were crouched behind a little clump of grass, lying in the sand with our toes pointing to the ocean. For a moment it looked as though Mrs. Loggerhead would veer off to the side, but no, she was definitely making a beeline for my side of the grass clump. I could hear her breathing as she labouriously dragged herself along, less than a metre away from me. And then she came to my leg, which happened to be sticking out to the side a little bit. I felt a hard nudge as her turtle-nose pressed up against my calf. She paused and seemed to sniff me, and then seemed to try to nudge me out of the way. Then I guess she decided I was just a sort of deformed rock and I felt her flipper as she began to crawl over my foot. It was so amazing and I so enthralled that I didn't mind that her tough belly felt like sandpaper rubbing over my foot.

As if that weren't enough, perhaps she took me as a good sign - only a few metres further off, Mrs. Loggerhead started digging out a nest. We were able to get a great view under the nearly-full moon of the entire process from digging out the nest and egg chamber to laying the eggs (unfortunately we couldn't see the actual eggs coming out due to her particular anatomy and position in the dune) to meticulously and carefully covering it all up again and finally returning to the sea.

Well you might think it would be impossible to beat that first night, but many more exciting events were to follow in the remaining days and nights. I learned how to monitor the beach in the morning for turtle nests - how to follow the tracks and locate a nest, and how to distinguish these from "false crawls" which might have some body pits of dug out sand but no eggs.

We went on a little hike in the hills across the road where we saw termite mounds and caves filled with stalactites, stalagmites, roo droppings, and one full of bats. Not to mention the enormous spider.

I had my first snorkelling adventures. How incredible to kick your way through warm, clear waters through coral beds swarming with colourful fish and sea cucumbers! It was a bit odd at first to duck my head under the water and breathe through a tube, always having to trust that the breath I drew in would be one of air and not of salt water, but I mostly got used to it.

One night we went fishing on the beach. It seemed to be turning out a lot like all of my previous fishing expeditions - I caught a number of remarkable pieces of seaweed and lost a lot of bait, but no sign of a fish. Eventually, we decided that we had had enough and declared that this would be the last re-baiting of my line. So I cast it out into the wind.. we didn't see where the hook had landed, but suspected it might be down the beach somewhere (it was awfully hard to cast into the sea with the wind a-blowing). The next one made it into the water (not very far, but far enough).. and I caught.. a bit of seaweed! But the bait was still on the hook. Time and time again, I cast into almost exactly the same spot and time and time again, the line came back with a little seaweed but still the bait clung on. On about the fifth cast, I started to reel my line in and felt a very large clump of seaweed - wait a minute! That doesn't quite feel like seaweed. The end of the rod was actually bending down just like they tell you it should. Sure enough, I managed to catch my first fish - a Spangled Emperor. Too small to keep, so we threw it back, but I'm told they are mighty tasty.

One of the most exciting adventures came on the second-to-last day in camp (i.e. yesterday). When Michael was out monitoring the first couple of stretches of beach (our job at camp was to monitor nesting activity daily starting at sunrise), I got a call from him over the radio. Attempting to mimic the radio protocol that I had observed over the last days, I answered:
Michael (correct protocol): "Bungelup Camp, Bungelup Camp, this is Bungelup Mobile. Over."
Katie (mostly OK protocol): "Bungelup mobile, this is Bungleup Camp... Over"
Michael: "... there is a loggerhead still on the beach just South of camp. We may need to help her back to the sea. Over"
Katie : "Shall I come down now then?" (oops might have forgotten to say "over")
Michael: (describes directions, etc)
Katie: "Over and..er.. Out"
Michael: "(perhaps a little surpressed laughter here?) Bungelup mobile out".
Sure enough, I found Michael and with him was an old Loggerhead resting in the sand dunes, an awfully long way from the ocean. Her tracks showed that she had come over a steep dune and then started wandering around rather aimlessly, unable to find her way back. She seemed to be alright, apart from being a little exhausted, and when we got some buckets of sea water to pour over her and cool her off, she seemed to gain some energy. She was an old woman, this turtle - the back of her shell was worn and topped with an algae toupee. On the side of her head, a large barnacle protruded behind one of her dark and globular eyes. It took us a good hour and a half to direct, coax, prod, push, and force her back past the dunes so that she could get back to the ocean. But it was a wonderful opportunity to admire turtle anatomy close up and in the daylight.

Now I am back on Exmouth, which seems relatively tame, but I'm sure many more interesting turtle and snorkelling adventures will be mine in the weeks to come.

Ta ta for now!

Kat.