The Shire of Exmouth and Turtle Mainia

I arrived in Exmouth on Sunday January 8th with my tour group. The group checked into a hostel, and I checked into the dorm I will share for the next four weeks with 9 other volunteers. None of them were in the room when I got there, so I just threw my stuff in and went out with my tour group to Turquoise Bay. We went snorkling there, and it was great. There was a really strong current, so you walk up the beach and then just ride the current back. We saw reef sharks and a turtle in the first few minutes. I can't explain how blessed I feel. I have never seen a sea turtle in my life, and now I am in this incredible country where I can just walk out ten feet into the ocean and swim with them. It is beyong amazing.

After we went snorkling, the tour group dropped me off and went back to their own hostel, with plans to meet later at Gracie's pub. I got to meet a few girls that I would be volunteering with, and they said they were going to the Sunday social. I guess every week the volunteers get together and do something, and that week it was a pool competition, which happen to be at the same pub I was meeting my group, so we walked over together. I went and picked up my friend Lucy and a few others, and we had dinner at the pub. I didn't talk too much to the volunteers, but I could see that they looked like a good group of people. After we ate and chatted a I said goodbye to Lucy. When you are travelling, you know that sooner or later you know you will have to say goodbye to everyone, but it is still hard. It is great to know that there are such amazing souls all over the world, and I am grateful for the chance to meet and learn from as many as I can.

There was a cyclone warning here when we got here, and I was a little nervous. Some people were really excited because they have cyclone parties, where you just find a secure building and drink until it passes. Even so, I am glad that it passed over us with only a tiny sprinkle of rain, which in itself is apparently really rare here; they have no wet season. And thankfully it didn't affect the turtle nests.

The next morning the volunteers went to the CALM office, which is Conservation and Land Management. They work with the Ningaloo Turtle Program, and the Jurabi Turtle Centre and the volunteer. We got a bit of an introduction, to learn what we would be doing. The first week is pretty busy. In the morning we meet at 5:30am to go out to the beach to look at turtle tracks and see what they were up to in the night, and if they laid any nests. We get back around 9am, and then have time off during the day.

At night from 6 to 11pm we work with the Jurabi Turtle Centre as a Turtle Scout, which we are trainning for now. They offer guided tours on the beach to see turtles laying their eggs. They have really strict rules, to have the least chance of disturbing them. Once we are trainned, we will look for turtles that the groups can come and see, and also talk to people that are on the beach looking themselves about the Turtle Code of Conduct. It is about how and when to approach a turtle, how far back you should stay, when and if you can use a small flashlight.

So that is what I will be doing for the next few weeks, although after this week I will have every other day off, so it is not very busy. There are two remote camps, and I might go stay at one for 5 days and help out there.

I have only gone out on two mornings and one evening so far, and it has been amazing. I know that I am saying amazing all the time, but how else can I explain what I am doing here. Everyday blows my mind, and I see and do things I couldn't have even imagined. I got to help walk a turtle back to the ocean who was stuck behind some rocks. I got to see more than a dozen turtles on the beach or in the ocean in the moonlight. I got to see a turtle actually dig her bodypit, then come up behind here and actually see her lay her eggs. And I get to do this everyday, while helping them collect important information about turtles, and help people have their own amazing experiences with them. Some one told me that I would loose my enthusiasm after seeing them everyday, but some how I doubt it.