Half an hour from Libreville, across the sea, is a place called Pointe Denis.
No prizes for guessing that you need a boat to get there.
With the scorching Savannah on one side and the cold, green Atlantic on the other, this place holds a special appeal for some fascinating sea giants!
Yes, it's the nesting place for the huge leatherback turtles.
This is the place where these gentle monsters lay their eggs during breeding season. They travel all the way across the Atlantic from Brazil and land up on the shore at Pointe Denis.
November-December is generally the breeding season. And if you are in Gabon, it's something you should not miss.
I got the opportunity to see this fascinating phenomenon thanks to my children's school. They had organized a study trip for primary school children and asked us parents to accompany them :)
We were put up in cottages at Maringa beach resort and spent the entire day on the beach, playing in the sand and swimming in the cold water. We could see shoals of colorful fish swim past us in the cool green water.
An amazing sight!
And what an exciting experience! There you are, standing in knee-deep waters with the fishes swimming past you, all around your legs! Thrilling!
After dinner, all of us waited eagerly for the guide to call us. These turtles lay their eggs only at night.
And the guides keep a watch on the sea shore to see if there are turtles approaching.
We were armed with raincoats in case it rains. Some had torches covered with red plastic films.
White light disorients the turtles, we were warned.
At 35 minutes past 10 at night, two guides came to us with the news that they had seen not one but three turtles approaching!
Talk about good luck!
We were up on our feet and on the way to the beach within seconds.
Well, it wasn't a very short distance to the beach and by the time we reached the place where the first turtle was supposed to be laying her eggs, she had already done her job and left, leaving only her tracks behind. Bad luck :(
We went further ahead knowing that there were two more ladies in the family way.
Oh no!
The second one had also left.
I hoped and prayed that the third one would not be so quick. But she had decided to disappoint us too.
An entire trip wasted!
Just then a voice called out in the darkness,"There's one more further ahead!" ........And things started looking bright once again :)
We started walking in that direction as fast as we could.
When we reached, we saw the lovely lady deeply engrossed in her work.
My! She was huge!
She could easily have carried half a dozen 5 year olds on her back.
She was digging a nest for her babies.
Slowly and gracefully she dug out the sand with her hind legs....... (ummm..... flippers?)
She was in no hurry at all. Once she was satisfied with the depth of the hole, she started dropping her eggs one by one.
1, 2, 3, 4, ......... 19, 20,...... 32,.....and I lost count. She must have laid about 50 .......I suppose. Now don't expect me to be accurate with these things........ Let's leave this job for the conservation people.
These Leatherback turtles are protected. That's because they are highly endangered. Their population has been consistently dropping over the years. ( I wondered how that was possible when each female was trying to compete with Gandhari from Mahabharata)
Almost as if he had read my mind, one of the guides told us that half the turtles won't even survive their journey from the beach to the sea. And once in the water, there are other dangers awaiting them.
Hmmm........ survival of the fittest!
Our lady continued with her job despite our presence on the scene.
So strong was her urge to lay eggs, that even when one guide gently lifted her tail for us to see the eggs dropping, she did not stop.
Personally, I thought it was a gross invasion of privacy....... but that is what we were there for, isn't it? To watch her laying eggs....... how insensitive!
I decided to adopt the scientific approach and watch a 'natural phenomenon' happening and felt slightly better.
Mrs. Turtle finally finished laying all her eggs. But she was not done yet. With the same slow deliberate motions she started covering up her nest.
" That's what's called protective maternal instinct!" I thought.
She made sure that her babies would be safe from predators in her absence.
She then patted the sand and took 2-3 slow turns to smooth it out.
The entire exercise ...... right from digging the hole to patting it smooth must have taken more than 2 hours and the lady was exhausted. She sat on her nest for some time panting and drinking air in huge gasps.
I could no longer watch with clinical detachment and my eyes started filling up with tears.
I felt like reaching out to her, stroking her head, and giving her a back massage......
I felt like telling her, "Yes sweetheart! I know what you are going through........I perfectly understand."
But we had to leave her to her own resources. We trudged back to our cottages with sleepy children in tow, while the beaming, proud mother, slowly and elegantly made her way back to the sea.
No prizes for guessing that you need a boat to get there.
With the scorching Savannah on one side and the cold, green Atlantic on the other, this place holds a special appeal for some fascinating sea giants!
Yes, it's the nesting place for the huge leatherback turtles.
This is the place where these gentle monsters lay their eggs during breeding season. They travel all the way across the Atlantic from Brazil and land up on the shore at Pointe Denis.
November-December is generally the breeding season. And if you are in Gabon, it's something you should not miss.
I got the opportunity to see this fascinating phenomenon thanks to my children's school. They had organized a study trip for primary school children and asked us parents to accompany them :)
We were put up in cottages at Maringa beach resort and spent the entire day on the beach, playing in the sand and swimming in the cold water. We could see shoals of colorful fish swim past us in the cool green water.
An amazing sight!
And what an exciting experience! There you are, standing in knee-deep waters with the fishes swimming past you, all around your legs! Thrilling!
After dinner, all of us waited eagerly for the guide to call us. These turtles lay their eggs only at night.
And the guides keep a watch on the sea shore to see if there are turtles approaching.
We were armed with raincoats in case it rains. Some had torches covered with red plastic films.
White light disorients the turtles, we were warned.
At 35 minutes past 10 at night, two guides came to us with the news that they had seen not one but three turtles approaching!
Talk about good luck!
We were up on our feet and on the way to the beach within seconds.
Well, it wasn't a very short distance to the beach and by the time we reached the place where the first turtle was supposed to be laying her eggs, she had already done her job and left, leaving only her tracks behind. Bad luck :(
We went further ahead knowing that there were two more ladies in the family way.
Oh no!
The second one had also left.
I hoped and prayed that the third one would not be so quick. But she had decided to disappoint us too.
An entire trip wasted!
Just then a voice called out in the darkness,"There's one more further ahead!" ........And things started looking bright once again :)
We started walking in that direction as fast as we could.
When we reached, we saw the lovely lady deeply engrossed in her work.
My! She was huge!
She could easily have carried half a dozen 5 year olds on her back.
She was digging a nest for her babies.
Slowly and gracefully she dug out the sand with her hind legs....... (ummm..... flippers?)
She was in no hurry at all. Once she was satisfied with the depth of the hole, she started dropping her eggs one by one.
1, 2, 3, 4, ......... 19, 20,...... 32,.....and I lost count. She must have laid about 50 .......I suppose. Now don't expect me to be accurate with these things........ Let's leave this job for the conservation people.
These Leatherback turtles are protected. That's because they are highly endangered. Their population has been consistently dropping over the years. ( I wondered how that was possible when each female was trying to compete with Gandhari from Mahabharata)
Almost as if he had read my mind, one of the guides told us that half the turtles won't even survive their journey from the beach to the sea. And once in the water, there are other dangers awaiting them.
Hmmm........ survival of the fittest!
Our lady continued with her job despite our presence on the scene.
So strong was her urge to lay eggs, that even when one guide gently lifted her tail for us to see the eggs dropping, she did not stop.
Personally, I thought it was a gross invasion of privacy....... but that is what we were there for, isn't it? To watch her laying eggs....... how insensitive!
I decided to adopt the scientific approach and watch a 'natural phenomenon' happening and felt slightly better.
Mrs. Turtle finally finished laying all her eggs. But she was not done yet. With the same slow deliberate motions she started covering up her nest.
" That's what's called protective maternal instinct!" I thought.
She made sure that her babies would be safe from predators in her absence.
She then patted the sand and took 2-3 slow turns to smooth it out.
The entire exercise ...... right from digging the hole to patting it smooth must have taken more than 2 hours and the lady was exhausted. She sat on her nest for some time panting and drinking air in huge gasps.
I could no longer watch with clinical detachment and my eyes started filling up with tears.
I felt like reaching out to her, stroking her head, and giving her a back massage......
I felt like telling her, "Yes sweetheart! I know what you are going through........I perfectly understand."
But we had to leave her to her own resources. We trudged back to our cottages with sleepy children in tow, while the beaming, proud mother, slowly and elegantly made her way back to the sea.
Well-written.
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