TURTLE WEEKEND

One of the many things I didn't know about Gabon is that, according to National Geographic, five of the world's seven species of sea turtles come to this remote coast, making it one of Africa's most important sea turtle nesting grounds. And all this going on within a 20-minute boat ride.

For some time now there was talk among our friends about going to Pointe Denis (the patch of land cutting into the ocean I can see from my window) to see the turtles. I have never been interested in turtles really, neither have they been high on my list of the wildlife I wanted to see (a list opened by the gorilla by the way, which, I'm starting to believe, does not exist; it's all just a huge worldwide mistification to attract tourists). But we signed up for the trip of course because being outdoors has really become our thing and we take every opportunity to do something fun.

We thus took the boat to Pointe Denis last Saturday, our backpacks full of food, sleeping bags, our inflatable IKEA pillows in cute colours, mosquito sprays, tent... Typical camping stuff. The plan was to get to Pointe, walk through the savannah and forest to a hotel/lighthouse called Phare de Gombé (a walk we'd already done before), have a picnic, walk a bit more and put our tents up on beach, in a deserted turtle scientists' camp.

The walk was great, the forest amazing, the savannah hot but beautiful, the beach deserted and blue and golden and green. We saw a lot of elephant and buffalo tracks, but sadly no animals. There were several old turtle nests on the beach, which was rather promising. We put up our tents on the terrace of one of the cottages (which seemed a fantastic idea later on, when the rain came) and went to see another savannah nearby. On our way back it started to rain heavily, and when we reached the camp we swam in the ocean, its surface suddenly so changed by the raindrops. It was great. At night, around 9 pm, we set off in search of the turtles.

The night was stunningly black. It was cloudy and without moonlight there was nothing but our torches to light the way. We walked in the direction of Phare de Gombé and reached it without seeing a single turtle. We thought it might have been a bit early, so we had a drink at the hotel. Back at the beach, we soon found a fresh turtle track (which really looks very much like a tractor track) and followed it. We found an enourmous, around two-metre long seaturtle, digging her nest, grunting and looking as exhausted as a turtle can. We were in awe. This creature was so big, so graceful, so beautiful. We stood there, right next to her, and watched her lay her eggs. Then we accompanied her back to the water, taking a few pictures. It made us feel guilty, because the light disturbed her a bit. But we couldn't stop ourselves, can you blame us? She was amazing.

We walked on and saw another turtle, a bit smaller but very big nonetheless. The whole procedure repeated and we walked the turtle to the sea. We were exhausted (it had been a long day in which we walked for about 20 kilometres) but very happy. Even more so beacuse we hadn't expexted this to be so exciting. We went to bed with big smiles on our faces and passed a terrible night on the flat wooden floor of the terrace, getting no sleep whatsoever and ending up with 700 mosquito bites each. But I still think in was worth it.

More pictures here.