Tiny Turtles

Day 2

We woke up at 9am this morning - a lie in due to mine and Annabelle's late arrival the night before - and headed to a pre-prepared breakfast of eggs and toast. The chefs at the house make us 3 meals a day from Monday to Friday, so we're well catered for here! The chefs are also lovely people. Our first task of the day was a beach clean-up, in which Annabelle and myself were led by Trish. Trish usually specialises in Sports Development but was taking part in this activity for this morning. We trekked down the beach picking up every little piece of plastic we could see. It was a job that clearly needed doing, especially in order to prevent the plastic from being eaten by the fish - which is both bad for the fish and for the people who eventually eat those fish. The volunteers here do a beach clean-up once a week in order to keep as much washed up rubbish from entering the ecosystem here.

We headed back to the house afterwards, sweaty and covered in sand, and had a lunch of rice, curry and poppadoms. From now on, you can assume that every meal will be of the same key parts so I've been told! Sri Lankan food is mostly served here, but with a much lower level of spice to my relief. Needless to say I enjoyed my first Sri Lankan curry!

Our task this afternoon was to help Fraser out at the turtle hatchery. Fraser specialises in Marine Conservation and has worked at this hatchery for the past 4 months. We were given a quick tour of the turtles in residence, including the days-old baby turtles. We even got the chance to hold a couple of the baby turtles - sooo cute. Soon it was time to get to some work, and we began by feeding some of the turtles with raw fish that we had to snap in half and throw into the tanks. After that, one tank was in need of a good clean and so we drained the water from it and scrubbed the walls and floors around the turtle who lived there. He didn't seem to mind too much, bless. It was strenuous work in the heat, and the woman who owned the hatchery didn't hold back on telling us which spots we'd missed! It was so lovely working here this afternoon. The turtles were all so beautiful and some were bigger than I even knew turtles could get. Such wonderful creatures yet sadly so endangered. Fraser explained to us why conservation work such as this is so necessary in Sri Lanka. Green turtles are killed and eaten by some locals who believe that turtle fat will make them live longer. They are also captured and sold on illegally for the same reason. The practice of killing and eating turtles is illegal in Sri Lanka, yet it still happens. And so this sanctuary helps to keep the population of turtles of many types in Sri Lanka on the rise instead of falling.

We came back to a dinner of, yep, rice and curry this evening before spending the night hangout out together and getting to know even more about each other. I feel truly at home here already, and can't believe this was only my first day! Despite still getting used to the hot temperatures and the inevitable bugs, I'm very very happy to be here. Onwards and upwards!