Week 1: Rethymno, Crete - Archelon
I arrived in Crete on the 9th September, along with two of my friends from Uni (Lucy and Matthew). Our flight had been slightly delayed from Gatwick so we were a little later than anticipated but we made it to Chania Airport at around half past 3 Crete time. The taxi from the airport to Camp Elizabeth where we're camping for the month took around an hour, and once we arrived we were greeted by the other volunteers and asked to set up our tents in the quarantine zone (all new volunteers were asked to quarantine for 2 days after a flight to prevent COVID outbreaks at camp).
Because we were unable to leave our quarantine zone we were asked to walk around the rest of the main camp with masks on. We were given a tour and shown the toilet blocks and other important spots and then shown back to our private area before being given some veggie pasta for dinner. In the morning we were informed we were allowed to venture to the beach and outside of camp if we wished, we just weren't allowed to mingle with the other volunteers, so we packed our beach bags and headed to the sea for a day on the beach for day 1. (Photos above).
Day 2 we decided to venture a bit further and took our isolation off to Rethymno old Town, where we perused a few tourist shops, visited the Fortezza (fortress) and had a nice lunch over looking the harbour which was very idyllic. In the afternoon we ventured to the beach again and had a nice time swimming and reading on the beach. Having handed in my MSc project two days before flying out here I've finally got enough time to read books guilt free - I'm currently enjoying Harry Potter on my Kindle 😀.
For dinner we were given a bean chilli with rice and were notified we could take a covid test and integrate with the rest of camp as long as all was well with the tests. As all three of us were negative we joined the others in the main camp area and were invited to the Taverna to watch one of the other volunteers give a presentation about the work we do along Rethymno beach, which is part of the public awareness shifts we do here. It was nice to have more context of what we would be doing, see what was expected of us as presentations and also meet more of the other volunteers. There are around 17 of us at the moment, which is less than earlier in the season I think.
Day 3: Monday morning I was up early (5am) for a morning survey on A-C beach (Rethymno beach is split into sections, A-C, D-F, G-K). We walked from the campsite to A beach (about 45 minutes) where we waited for the sun to rise fully. On the way we were alerted by some tourists that a hatchling was disoriented by lights and was having a hard time reaching the sea. It was the smallest hatchling I've ever seen! The turtles that nest around Greece are loggerheads, and their hatchlings are much smaller than green and leatherbacks. Chiara, Emma and I placed the hatchling in a bucket of sand (with gloves) and covered the bucket so the light was not blinding it and we carried it further along the beach away from the light. We released it slightly closer to the sea, making sure it had enough time to let its muscles get working to be ready to swim, and for it to imprint on the beach. To help it we had to tap on the sand in front of it so it would think it was the vibrations of the sea and follow them, as well as blow on it to mimick the sea breeze. Luckily it then headed to the sea without much trouble. We then started the morning survey by measuring the distance from the vegetation to the sea at the beginning of A beach (these were repeated at the end of A beach and beginning of C beach). We then split up so Emma walked along the high tide line near the sea, China walked along the middle of the beach noting down any Conservation threats such as dogs on the beach, waste water, sand raking around sunbeds, people on the beach before 7am, vehicles or horses on the beach etc. I was walking along the back of the beach looking for any hatchling tracks. Whenever we reached a marked nest (marked with a cage to alert tourists not to put their sunbeds on top) we would check for hatchling tracks, and count them if they were there and then check no hatchlings were stuck on the beach before erasing the tracks. We also had one excavation to do which happens 10 days after the first hatching event. The nest was a relocation and had 113 hatched eggs out of 114! The most successful nest I've ever excavated! The survey took around 3 hours and we walked back to camp. Once we were back at camp I then went for a swim in the sea and then after lunch we had our monitoring induction training.
On Day 4: I had the morning off and then public awareness training in the afternoon so I spent the morning on the beach. Lucy and I also ventured to a bakery near the campsite and I bought the largest crossiant I've ever seen in my life. In the evening I had my first PA shift at a hotel called Creta Star which included setting up an information table with souvenirs we sell to raise money. Most of the guests were German so I wasn't much help, but luckily Alicia who I was with is German and so could speak to the guests. She gave a presentation outside at the pool bar in German which was very very cool location, and we were also allowed to have dinner at their buffet which was very nice! Alicia and I also broke the record for the amount of money raised at that hotel! 308€!
Day 5: on Wednesday morning I was up at 7am to get ready for a Morning PA shift a different hotel called Golden Beach with Holly, we raised over 100€ and were also allowed to eat at their breakfast buffet which was very nice! In the afternoon we played a presentation game at camp to practice public speaking and helped make shading which is out around the nests to guide hatchlings away from hotel lights. I then spent the rest of the day on the beach enjoying the sun and sea.
Day 6: Thursday morning I was back on morning survey, this time I was in the middle noting Conservation threats, we had two excavations but we could only find the eggs for one of them so ended up only doing 1. We had 97 hatched, 6 unhatched with 1 late stage embryo, 1 green bacteria and 2 no visible embryo/development. In the afternoon I went into Rethymno Town with Alicia, David and Lucy and we had a look at some shops and had a nice drink on the water front before heading back to camp. In the evening I went to White Palace Hotel with Holly and I gave the presentation at the kids club outside which was cool, although there were only 2 babies, 1 child, 4 kids club staff and 4 parents watching it was a nice audience for my first one. We didn't speak to too many people but one lady bought 20 keyrings! And the dinner buffet was amazing! There were 3 rooms, one one starters, one for main and one for dessert! All In all a fun evening.
Day 7: Yesterday I was on base camp cleaning duty in the morning and had the afternoon off, so I went swimming with Lucy and Matthew at the beach. In the evening I had a public excavation which was really good fun, we had about 56 people come and watch us dig up a nest, 100 eggs had hatched and 4 had not but unfortunately 14 dead hatchlings were in the nest due to inundation from a storm the previous week. I was in charge of the information table. When we returned we had a fun evening of high school musical songs at camp 😀.
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Day 8: This morning I had a beach walk, which is when tourists book to join us for a walk along the beach whilst we explain what we do as an organisation and show them some nests and answer any questions about turtles. We had two Americans and two people from Belgium and they were all very interested in learning more which was very cool.
Last night there was a mass disorientation, where over 30 hatchlings had made it onto the road instead of the sea and Lieke and Ilona had to go and rescue them and try and guide them to the water. This morning we could see all of the disoriented tracks on the sand which was really sad to see. Hopefully it doesn't happen again tonight.
When we came back to camp I read more of my book (I'm now on goblet of fire) and then went to the beach for the afternoon. This evening we're planning to all go to a Taverna for dinner after the public excavation which is happening right now so I'm looking forward to that. I can also hear the very loud donkeys that live next to camp 🏕 😀.
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