Tiny On Tour E34 - Turtle Sands Mon Repos Beach

Описание: We make our way south to Mon Repos with the sole purpose of taking the tour at Mon Repos Turtle Sanctuary, to see the turtles come ashore and lay their eggs. The egg laying season is November to January and the hatchling season is March to April.

This is a sanctuary zone and it is a no light area after sunset, the tour groups are brought down to the beach in groups, in total darkness when a turtle is sighted coming up the beach, they usually have 4 groups max and you have to wait your turn for a turtle to come ashore.

Once the turtle is up on the dune, dug a hole, laid her eggs and covered the hole again, you allowed to take some pictures. This is so that the turtle does not turn around and go back to the ocean and not lay her eggs. The turtles will generally turn away from lights and swim away.

It was a very emotional experience, watching this 90kg turtle struggle to get over the rocks, make its way up the beach to the dune, dig a deep hole with it's hind flippers and lay her eggs. As turtles are not designed for mobility on land she has to stop several times to rest before she could finish laying her eggs and make her way back to the ocean. The whole process takes about 40-60 minutes.

Only one out of a thousand hatchlings survive the 40 years at sea to make it back to the same beach to lay eggs. She spends her time at sea eating and building her reserves as she will not eat once she has started laying eggs and she will lay about 3-4 batches of eggs from November thru January. She will only eat again once her last batch of eggs have been laid.