A mother's love

On my last morning at Mwamba Field Study Centre I was woken up at dawn to RUN along the beach about 20 minutes to watch a turtle laying eggs. I was SO excited! In my six months before there had not been one turtle nesting, though volunteers patrol the beach every night hoping to sight one. If someone spots a turtle and reports it, they get paid 500Ksh (about $9CDN) for their troubles, so the TurtleWatch organisation is pretty much guaranteed to know of every turtle nest up and down the strand.
Usually turtles nest under the cover of darkness- it was really a treat to see this one without flashlights!
When we arrived, the mama was EXHAUSTED. She had already finished the laying bit and was steadily covering up her clutch with sand.


When she had finished covering, she struggled up a bank to get back to the water. It was absolutely amazing watching this ancient-looking creature use flippers to move her heavy body up hill in slow, jerky, laboured movements.


At the top of the hill, she paused to look at the view, and the stretch of slippery sand she still had to cross to get to the water.


The grooves and furrows in the sand left by her flippers, shell, and tail were so cool.


Victory!


In one wave, she was gone.


Her home. This is the next place she will meet any babies that survive.

And so started another day.