October 3

As the nesting season is drawing to a (slow) close and the Turtle Tours have ended, we have begun to supplement our outreach activities with events centred around the heart-warming turtle babies that are emerging almost daily at the SOS hatchery. Their big eyes and frantically-waving tiny flippers are enough to sucker anyone into loving sea turtles, and they are a great vessel for helping our organization to generate interest and support for the conservation effort. In other words, no one can just walk right by a precious baby turtle. We have started hosting public hatchling releases from the beach just down by the hatchery, where guests who are willing to make a small donation to the cause can hold and release their very own baby turtle, taking part in setting them on the first steps of their epic journey. We can only do a few of these public releases, as it is hazardous to the babies to put too many hatchlings into the same place along the beach too often, as the fish and crabs would eventually learn where to just wait for the turtle buffet. Therefore, these events are something rather remarkable for those that visit the island – and they never cease to captivate us volunteers either, no matter how many hundreds of hatchlings we have already seen.

It is a bit of a difficult affair, the public release, as we of course have to prioritize the safety of the baby turtles in the hands of two dozen eager tourists. We pass out tickets to keep track of the volume of participants, take them all through a quick how-to briefing (in up to five languages), have them all wash their hands in buckets of sea water, and line them up (“Camera flashes off please!”) at the high-water mark, where they are allowed to go no further, each with a waving baby turtle in hand. It is always incredible – the width of the grins on their faces, the sight of thirty-plus, sunburnt tourists gaping wide-eyed at the miracle of nature in their palms. Tonight’s release was exceptionally fantastic, as it was set against the backdrop of one of the most awesome sunsets I have ever seen, each stunning colour magnified in the great pallet of sky that stretched endlessly in great expanse above the ocean, unfettered and un-obscured by any tree, building, wire, or crane of any kind. It was just the chaste beauty of mother nature on broad display, and I am not sure any words or photos would do it justice, but I have tried to attempt it with both.

On the count of three, each of our guests sets their energetic turtle baby onto the damp sand and cheers happily as dozens of hatchlings scurry towards the welcoming sea. Racing and betting are encouraged.

The little turtle babies glowed silver in the soft light of the magnificent sunset, silhouetted against the pink, grey-blue, and diluted orange of the endless sky reflecting on the shimmering expanse of sand beneath them. Gentle foam waves reached out like motherly hands to lift each tiny hatchling into the shimmering waters beyond, while majestic thunderheads towered above in strange and awesome shapes. Within the grandest, central tower of cloud – centred over the giant glowing orange globe of the low hanging sun – purple and white streaks of lightning crackled in electric veins across the expanse of the darkening mist at the heart of the cloud. Rising over the peak of this thunderhead was a crescent moon, like a crown jewel over the panorama painting.

And then they were gone. Misty grey streaks of rain fell like a soft curtain between giant clouds thousands of feet above us and the evening settled into darkness around us. We headed back to our truck, walking backwards through the sand to continue watching the lightning show above us. I mark that afternoon as easily one of the most remarkable of my experiences here.

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