This news was less then exciting to say the least. Megan has class 9:30am Monday, and does not function well on less then 8 hours of sleep. Asking her to work on 2.5 hours or less was more then just unrealistic. The sign-ups came and went, we wanted to go but just couldn't see making it happen, "probably next term".
Luckily for us there is a tour guide group which posted an event on Facebook to go see the turtles in conjunction with the research group. And best yet the trip was 6pm to midnight and on a Wed night when Thursday was a holiday. PERFECT! We quickly signed up!
Due to previous bus experiences (see the waterfall trip), Megan was leery of sitting in the back of a bus flying around bumpy windy roads at night. Contacting the group I proposed following behind the bus. The day we were to leave, Laura, Bob, and their daughter, India, joined us in our car. Thanks to Bob's negotiations we got a nicely reduced cost (since we weren't using the bus service).
Off we go, me at the helm chasing a white bus with a big blue stripe. There was nothing more important to me that night then to NOT LOSE THAT BUS! It was a little challenging but I managed. There was one pit stop along the way to allow a poor young British tourist to loose her dinner off the side of the road. Off we go again making darting turns down roads which look like they wouldn't go anywhere and eventually landing us on a very bumpy dirt road on the beach.
We eventually stopped at a small shack which was to serve us some dinner. A bit sketchy? ohhh yeah! Food cleanliness?... Food what? Seeing as it wasn't till 9pm when we finally reached this place we didn't care. Gobbling down the BBQ chicken we were recharged and ready to see some turtles.
Above, you can see Megan on the left in pink, India on Laura's lap, and Bob on the right as everyone enjoys dinner.Prior to going on this trip there were a few things that we knew about ahead of time. One, you can't use normal flashlights - at the time all we knew was that you needed to cover them with red cellophane. Also we knew that headlights, the flashlight thing with an elastic band for around your head, was greatly preferred. Of course finding something specialized like a headlamp was impossible in Grenada. So instead I bought and borrowed a couple little flashlights, covered the ends with red cellophane and then mounted them to the bill of two hats we had. When we arrived I was quite disappointed to find out that the 9 LED flashlights I was using were too bright! bummer... so essentially no one could use their flashlights except the tour guide.
As the group poured out onto the beach in total and complete blackness we were all quite shocked to see we only had to walk about 50 feet onto the beach to find our giant Leatherback Sea Turtle. Standing in complete darkness (except for two very dull red lights) made even seeing this monstrous beast very difficult even though it was within inches of us. Eventually eyes adjusting I was astonished to see the size of this turtle. Comparatively our turtle was only a medium sized one at a bit over 5 FEET LONG! My facts could be a bit skewed but what I understood the guide to say was that they are often about 6 foot long full grown. That is one frigg'n HUGE turtle.
So what the heck is a sea turtle doing on land anyhow right? They come on shore this season to lay eggs. They find the perfect spot, similar to a dog finding the perfect spot to do their business, it doesn't look any different they any other patch of sand to us but for some reason the turtle thinks this one spot is just right. The researchers count the eggs and ensure that perfect spot truly is a safe and good location for the eggs. If it's not, they will re-locate the eggs to a better location. The researchers also microchip the turtles for traceability, essentially they insert a chip the size of a grain of rice just under the skin in an area the turtle has almost no sensation in. Then when they find turtles they scan them and can tell what turtle each one is, and track their measurements (if they grew).
So now that we are seeing this ultra incredible sight we want to share it with everyone at home and prove that we actually saw what we said we saw, right? Out comes all the cameras... now here is where that whole red light thing kicks in. Turtles use the reflection of the moonlight on the crashing waves to determine what direction the ocean is. Essentially when they are done laying their eggs they move towards light. This system works great when nature is left alone, but enter us humans and you can see how beach side property completely screws them up. They either can't get back to the ocean or don't come on to shore at all in the first place, hence they are an endangered species. Now, red light is dimmer and different enough that the researchers can use it to work around the turtles without messing them up too bad. Except when the turtle is all done, at that point all lights must go off. We learned this the hard way... more on that later.
So everyone's got their cameras ready, but we cant use any light, so no flash. This leads me to a question, do you know what the single most important influence on photography is? LIGHT!!!! Now, we're all on a beach with an amazing Leatherback sea turtle in front of us which our naked eyes can barely see even with the dim red light and cameras can't see a thing. Luckily for me I know a little (not a lot) about my camera and photography. New digital cameras usually won't take a photo unless they can establish focus on the subject, the camera cant focus on solid black. First step, put camera in manual focus mode. Cameras work on a simple mechanism, the more light available the quicker it can take a photo. Hence all your night shots are usually blurry, because you couldn't hold the camera still long enough, even though that same amount of time worked just fine for outdoor soccer shots. So secondly I needed to hold the camera PERFECTLY STILL for about 20 seconds, that wasn't about to happen without a tripod. What is all this equating to? A big long winded excuse for blurry red & black hard to distinguish photos... see below... :)
Above - Most the photos taken are from behind the turtle using the little light the guide had to light what you see. We were always in back to reduce the amount of light in the turtles face.
Above - this blurry lump is a turtle head, one of only three shots I have of the front of the turtle.
Another thing to note, although there looks like there was a lot of light in these photos that is due to altering the contrast and brightness a LOT. The original photos are black with a slight red glow.
Above - that was the money shot! the best shot I had of the night. all the white you see on the turtles back is just sand which the turtle flung up there while digging.
above - this shot is of a researcher with his left arm holding the turtles left rear flipper out of the way while the guys right arm catches a few eggs (the white blobs). This shot is thanks to a very nice British girl and the only other person on the trip with an SLR, who I later found out was staying in our apartment complex. (Convenient for swapping the couple good shots we each got out of the 40 or so I took).
At one point we did get to each take a turn touching the turtle. It's hard to describe what it felt like other then like leather. The shell was soft but firm. The ridges down the shell were very hard and almost barnacle like. I reached down further and felt the turtles hind leg and flipper. The skin was silky smooth and soft, not at all what I expected. The flipper was a bit harder but still pretty soft. Through all of this the turtle really didn't seem to care about us. With the exception of getting confused about the lights. The shots i have of the front of the turtle were taken as it slowly turned towards me and started moving in my direction. I was only a couple inches from her in that head only shot. We quickly turned off all our lights and the turtle re-oriented herself and headed off to the ocean.
Now, so you have an idea what the turtles actually look like, I Googled the leatherback sea turtles and found the below images...
These guys are doing exactly what we were doing. Either this photograph was taken before they knew about the affects of flash and white lights or the photographer got a nice chewing out right after this shot was taken.
Megan and I hope to go back up there again before sundown and hope to see a turtle or two come ashore when there is still some light out, doubtful but hopeful. This trip probably won't happen for a while but I'll make sure to post about it when it does. This was quite an experience.
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