My Nonprofit Reviews

It is 7:30 in the evening and everyone is ready to go, the volunteers with their sleeping bags and torches and the Cape Verdean soldiers with their AK47 rifles. Ten of us get on to or into the pick up truck and head for the beaches. It is already quite dark as we head down the dirt tracks; Christian (who is head of the Turtle Foundation on Boa Vista) is driving, he knows these tracks well but even he has to be careful due to the constant changes made to the tracks by the heavy rain. We arrive at our first destination, Norte Beach. Here two of the soldiers along with two of the volunteers, Eva and Kasia, get out of the back of the vehicle and head for the tent on the beach. The rest of us continue on towards our final destination on Canto Beach. We arrive and place our sleeping bags into the tent, Christian, Magda and I, along with one of the soldiers, head to the beach to start the patrol. Harrie and the other soldier lie down and try to get some sleep. The first patrol is from 8pm until 12:30am. It is now very dark, the only light is from the new moon and the stars but there is a lot of cloud cover, it takes some time for our eyes to become accustomed to the conditions. Christian is coming on this patrol for the first hour or so in order that he can give me a briefing on the turtles. We start walking west along the beach trying not to stumble over rocks and other debris, the only sound is the non stop crashing of waves from the Atlantic Ocean. There is a very welcome cool breeze blowing off the land towards the ocean, the temperature is still near 30C. Christian explains the life cycle of the turtles to me. The females tend to return to the beaches where they were born to nest. They can build up to 6 nests in one season; this is probably nature’s way of literally making sure that they do not put all their eggs in one basket. The females wait for the coolest part of the night to come up onto the beaches, once they select a spot they will spend up to 90 minutes to build a nest and lay their eggs before returning to the ocean, it is during this time that they are at the mercy of the poachers. Some of the females will wander all over the beach before finally selecting a nesting spot; others will make several trips in and out of the ocean until they find the right spot. The eggs hatch after 7-8 weeks and the tiny turtles fight there way back to the ocean where they will be swept up by the currents. Unfortunately there are many predators on land and at sea that are waiting for them. It is estimated that out of every 1000 eggs laid only one turtle will make it to maturity. It takes 35 years for turtles to reach sexual maturity and even Christian admits that where they go to in the vast expanse of the world’s oceans is not fully understood. We reach the end of the beach and stop to rest for 10 minutes before turning around and heading back down the beach. In the distance we see car headlights, in the still darkness these could be many miles away but as we get near to the end of the beach we see a single light which is moving and heading in our direction. This is unusual because poachers would not carry torches that would give away their positions, however we feel obliged to investigate. Even in the darkness our figures could be made out against the light coloured sand so we move off the beach and into the scrub to wait. The light continues to approach but then stops, Magda the soldier and I give chase, Christian returns to get the car. When Christian catches up to us we have lost sight of the light, whoever it was will have clearly seen the car headlights and will have been alerted to our presence. This could be a diversion to take us away from the beach where the real poachers could be lying in wait so we quickly return to the job of patrolling the beach. Christian retires to the tent for some sleep whilst the rest of us continue to patrol the beach. Time passes surprisingly quickly and it is 12:30am, Magda and the first soldier return to the tent, I decide to stay out and go on the second patrol, I have not yet seen my turtle. Harrie and the second soldier emerge from the tent and find me on the beach, we start the routine again. We are about half way along the beach when Harrie raises his arm to signal us to stop. About 10 metres away is a dark line in the sand leading from the ocean and at the head of the line is a turtle, probably about 4 foot long, and she is using her flippers to slowly propel herself up the beach. She appears to stop and then turns around and heads back into the ocean. We move closer to see what is happening, there is a washed up tree branch on the beach which she has bumped into, this has caused her to abandon her attempt and return to the ocean. Harrie gets out his log book and makes a note of all the details, the soldier drags his boot through the turtle trail to mark it. We continue to patrol to the end of the beach and stop for a rest, after 10 minutes we head back down the beach, again half way down the beach there is a second trail up the beach but no sign of any turtle. On checking the trail leads up to another obstruction on the beach which has caused the turtle to turn around into the ocean, this is probably the same female we saw earlier. Harrie again gets out his note book and records the details while the soldier crossed the trail. By the time we get to the end of the beach I am feeling very tired, it is now 2am and I have at last seen my turtle so I decide to retire to the tent for some sleep. I am woken at about 4am by a trashing noise in the tent; the soldier sleeping next me in the tent is hitting a crab, which has entered the tent, with a stick. There are some set backs to sleeping on the beach in a tent, as well as crabs there are acid bugs which when crushed ooze a sticky liquid that causes nasty skin burns. I go back to sleep. At around 5:30am an excited Harrie enters the tent, the turtle came back again at around 4am and this time she made a nest. Harrie and the soldier waited until the turtle had finished and returned to the safety of the ocean. This is the fulfilment of the purpose of the patrols. We quickly all get up and grab our sleeping bags and mats and return to the pick up. It is now day light and we drive back down the tracks to pick up the soldiers and volunteers from Norte beach. On the way we pass some buildings in the distance which I recognise to be Baia das Gatas, a small community of fishermen and I suspect turtle poachers. We arrive at Norte beach and are quickly joined by Eva, Kasia and the two soldiers who have been patrolling this beach; they have seen nothing last night. We head back towards Fundo das Figuieras, on the way we pass two young men walking close to the beach and in the distance is a man on a donkey. Christian stops the vehicle behind a small hill and climbs to the top to see what is going on. Sometimes poachers will hide the meat from a kill and then return to it at a later date. After a few minutes another man comes by on a donkey, we figure that he will tell the other people of our presence so our cover will be blown. We head for home.

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