In search of turtles

For every experience in life, there is a first time. For me, this was the first time that I went on an excursion in the moonlight, so I could hardly contain my excitement. Along with the guide and I commenced the journey in search of a chance to view this miraculous and rare incident in the Rakawa beach stretch. Although the entire beach stretch beginning from Hikkaduwa, offers wonderful turtle watching opprtunities, we decided to travel far off towards Matara since we had wonderful experiences of turtle watching in the Hikkaduwa beach stretch before. I strained my eyes far out into the long stretch of the beach which seemed to have turned a pale blue-grey covered by the moonlight. Far out in the sea, lights of the ships that were blinking in the darkness seemed like fireflies. The waves slapped against the shore and the white froth of the waves seeped through the sand as it touched the shore.

We began our hike towards the turtle nest in the damp sea sand, and with each step we kept, our feet sank into the sand. Holding onto my friends’ hands, I kept pace with them as much as I could because then, the greatest fear I had, was to be left alone in that vast stretch of the beach where I could not see the end or the beginning. Unlike the city, since there weren’t any lights anywhere close by, the ink black sky glistened with clusters of stars which had peeped out from every corner of their heavenly abodes.

The moonlight enclosed all the nooks and corners of the seashore but still the light was really faint. We felt the cold sea breeze blow on our bodies as we made our way further along the shore. After my eyes got used to the darkness, I could see things properly. A few steps away, I noticed a long thick rope which was laid from the sea towards inland. There were actually two ropes kept side by side and it looked more like a trail that a vehicle tire would have left. When we got closer to the location of the ‘ropes’ I just realized that it was no rope, it was a trail on the sand. Noticing our excitement over the rope the site manager explained to us that it was the trail of the mother-to-be turtle.

Following the tracks, we silently crept onto the mount of sand which the mother-to-be had chosen as the nesting grounds. We gasped at the glimpse of her! She was enormous, and her flippers were wide and long, almost wing like; it was no surprise that she left such a big trail on the beach along her way. She was digging up the hole in which she was laying her eggs while we watched her with awe. It was wonderful, the way the nature had taught them to disguise their nests from the predators; to hide their eggs in the tiny hole which they made inside the huge crater-like hole which they first dig. Not a sound was to be heard except for her labored breath and the flapping of her large flippers which dug up sand from time to time. Since the procedure would take a long time, we decided to clamber down and wait for her to finish her duty.

We chose a nice little spot near the nesting grounds, the sand felt damp and it stuck onto our clothes like Velcro. We didn’t notice time passing by as we fell into a discussion while admiring the beauty of the surrounding beach. The waves slapped gently against the soft sand, some rough and some hardly making any noise at all, as if it was scared that it might disturb the turtle mother who was up on the sand mount. Once in a while, one owl or two hooted from here and there to break the still silence of the atmosphere. By this time, our clothes felt sticky with the salt of the dense sea spray and both our palms, and feet were covered with damp sea sand.

All of a sudden, we heard a rustle among the foliage on the mount which the nesting grounds were located. It grew louder and louder and all of a sudden, a large black disc fell from the mount. It was the mother turtle! She had finished the nesting and was returning home. After her quite rough landing, she slowly started creeping towards the sea, and now we could see clearly for ourselves what had made the ‘rope’. As she used her flippers to move her body to the front, the trails were left and this continuous sequence of trails had seemed to me like a rope. After her arduous process up on the mount, she seemed to be too tired to move fast. So she paused after five or six moves further and then started again after about a 20 second break. Finally once she reached the realms of the waters, she just let the gentle waves carry her across to where she belonged. We watched her with surprise as she just crept into her shell and floated away.

We felt ultimate satisfaction at being able to get a glimpse of these wondrous deeds of nature in its natural habitats. So, we headed back to catch some sleep as it was almost past midnight. The walk back didn’t take as long as reaching there, maybe because our eyes were completely used to the darkness and we were also now familiar with the route. I was thrilled again as when we were heading back and my drowsiness after the long walk vanished! I just happened to look at my friend’s feet, to see how deep they would sink into the sand, when as soon as his feet touched the sand, some sparkling sensation was seen for about two seconds. I honestly thought that I was hallucinating after spending all those hours in the beach. But when I tried it with my feet, it gave out the same reaction. I became highly inquisitive to know what it was and yet, I didn’t want to know the cause and spoilt magic that I felt inside. “I feel like a fairy!” I exclaimed, and my friends rolled their eyes since they didn’t obviously believe in such silly girlish hullabaloo.

We finally reached the place where we had left our slippers, collected them and headed towards the vehicle. Even though everyone was thoroughly satisfied about the successful viewing of the turtles, I think I was the only observer who had not only felt the excitement over the turtles, but also sense the enchantment of feeling sparkling matter under the feet!Our exciting outing proved quite triesome now that the main attraction was over. It was almost dawn when we left the beach and headed to back to Hikkaduwa Coral Gardens, where we were accomodated.