Turtles! (One of the very best things we have done in Oman.)

Yesterday afternoon, later than intended but what else is new, we packed up the car and embarked on a drive down the coast of Oman.  

A couple of months ago, I called Ras Al Jinz, a Green Turtle Reserve, to inquire when we would be most likely to see turtles if we came to stay and go on the guided turtle walks.  The woman told me that June and August are the best months for turtles and so I booked a room with two sets of bunkbeds (the cheapest option for four people, and this place is pricey).  

I can say with absolutely certainty that by yesterday Eli and I were both dreading the trip, for two main reasons.  First, our children are not awesome in the car.  (I blame this on the fact that they have spent very little time in cars in their lives.)  Our response to this is not necessarily something that helps our sanity:  we plug the iPad into the car speakers, wedge the iPad in between our seats, and try to talk to each other above the soundtrack to whichever movie is on (the way there was "Finding Nemo"; the way home was "Tangled").

The second reason we were dreading the trip was that we knew that the turtles lay their eggs (and hatch) at night, and that we would be going on 1km long walks to and from the beach at 8:30pm and again at 4:00am.  Our children are always in bed by 7:30pm, and while they are early risers, they are almost always asleep at 4:00am (I fear that we have a stretch coming where this will not be the case but that's what you get when you take your children on trips with 11 hour time differences).  So we knew we would most likely be carrying tired children rather significant distances in the middle of the night.

I suppose this is a good moment to acknowledge my husband's willingness to do the crazy things I decide we must do in order to live happy and full lives.  I mean, tell me, how does one go on living, not having seen Green Turtles laying their eggs?  In Oman, my husband gets one day off each week and many of them have been sold out with these types of sort-of-fun-sort-of-not-fun activities.  Eli is a good sport as well as a good person.

But you guys.  This experience actually was amazing.  The pictures below capture the morning walk well, but there were no cameras permitted on the nighttime walk.  The flashes are so disturbing to the turtles that they will turn around and go back into the water without laying their eggs.  (And, you really can't photograph anything without a flash because it's pitch black.)

We saw a few baby turtles (so so so adorable!) and five mamas burying their egg clutches.  Only two or three turtles mature per 1000 eggs laid, so the babies were likely eaten by fish once they got into the ocean. On land, the eggs are hunted and eaten by foxes as well as crabs.  Once the eggs hatch, if foxes find the little packs of turtle babies, they bite and kill as many as they can so they can have a proper meal before they all run away.  On our way back from the nighttime walk, Tommy found a dead little baby turtle, and the guide said that the foxes were the likely cause of its death.  (Tommy did not find the dead baby turtle overly disturbing, to be honest.)

Eli and I enjoyed this activity much more than our children did, and having the kids with us made it pretty rough.  I think that if I were going to do it again (and I just might, depending on who comes to visit us), I would put the kids to bed at the normal time and only do the morning walk.  It was hard to wake up, but there were fewer people on that tour and we saw just as many turtles and it wouldn't have messed the kids up quite so badly.  We didn't get back from the 8:30pm tour until 10:00pm.  (My kids are very funny about the dark because they aren't usually awake in the dark and they think it's very interesting and noteworthy.)  I would also have dinner somewhere other than the lodge, even if it was a PB&J because the lodge restaurant was way to expensive and not that great.  

My final comment (apart from the photo captions) is that I can't imagine going anywhere to see the turtles other than this reserve.  It is sketchy at this reserve -- you can't shake the feeling that a group of 30-50 people is disturbing the turtles, it seems pretty disorganized by the guides, and our fellow tourists were borderline rude (on the nighttime tour, people actually ran toward the guides when they indicated there were turtles, which seems dangerous in the dark as well as risky for the hatching turtles).  So, going somewhere that didn't focus on the wellbeing of the turtles would be fairly depressing I imagine.  

A mama burying her egg clutch.  They dig a hole, lay the eggs, and then cover the eggs.  They do this sort of deceptively, as there is a hole left at the end, but it is about a meter in front of where the eggs are actually buried, so that predators will look in the wrong place for the eggs.

These were our fellow turtle tourists.  What do you think those people had in their backpacks?  (Asks the lady who did not carry any water on the nighttime walk and had very thirsty children as a result.)

A baby flapping his way into the ocean.  If the babies see lights, they go toward the light instead of the ocean, so one of them accompanied us up the beach during the nighttime walk.  Thankfully he was discovered (before someone stepped on him!) and carried down the beach to help him make it into the water.  

The guide, Tommy, Lulu, and me watching the baby turtle.

Here's a turtle crawling back into the ocean after finishing the whole egg laying process.  That nice man grabbed Tommy so that he wasn't directly in front of the turtle -- I think it was hard for Tommy to override the instinct to come to where we were when he saw the turtle heading directly at him.

The tracks they leave in the sand are very distinctive.  The beach this morning had loads of the tracks on it.

Tommy took this photo -- not so bad except that Grandpa Ollie might not like it because our heads are cut off.  Grandpa Ollie hates that (understandably).

There were so many crabs on the beach!

Tommy found a very tall rock.  So he climbed it.

Lulu didn't want to walk.  But I could barely stand up straight any more from the carrying and her daddy was sort of over it too.  Poor Lulu!!!

Lulu settled into walking and found herself enjoying the morning (it's about 6:00 here).  The lodge is in the distance.  Also, she picked out that outfit herself.

Our room.  The kids slept on the tops, obviously.

We stopped at a random beach near a sink hole that we intended to visit but skipped.

Bringing the trip full circle:  on the random beach was a dead turtle.  Very sad.