Week 2: Rethymno ARCHELON

 Day 9: On Sunday 18th September I had my first morning survey on beach G-K with David, we were driven at 6:10am to the end of K beach, dropping off Matthew and Lieke at D beach who would walk to F and meet us there when we both finished. Once we had taken taken sea level measurement at K beach we then walked towards G, a lot of J and I are completely gone because of Coastal erosion so we made it to the end quicker than Matthew and Lieke made it to F. David and I had two excavations to do along the way, with one live hatchling in one of the nests which we had to assist to sea but which made it which was good. David and I carried on and surveyed beach F for Lieke and Matthew and met them around the hatchery area where a lot of nests were relocated too, where they were assisting two hatchlings to sea and completing an excavation. Once they were done we were then picked up in the car and taken back to camp. 

That evening I had another public excavation outside creta star hotel, which had mostly no visible development which means a lot of the eggs were not fertilised. 

Day 10: On Monday I had morning Survey on beach A-C with Matthew and Alicia, we had one excavation which had quite a High success rate of hatchlings to sea, and I also found out the hatchling we had reburied the week before had made it to sea! After morning survey I headed to the beach for a while and then took a walk down the road to have a look at a few shops before heading back ready for IT at Club Marine Hotel with Eleni. We spoke to quite a few people from lots of different places including German, Polish and Lithuanian. We also had a nice buffet dinner.

Day 11: On Tuesday I was on BC duty which is base camp cleaning, so I had to clean the surfaces, take any washing up back to the cupboard and empty bins/recycling. Lucy, Matthew, Jonathan and I decided to head to Rethymno Town on the bus and explore the Rethymno botanical gardens which was like a big park in the middle of town which was a nice morning. We sat and had a drink near the fountain after walking around and looking at the plants. Jonathan is a retired head of science teacher who now works for the Royal horticultural society and he was a really cool person to walk round the garden with because he could tell us about the plants. 

When we got back from the garden I went for a quick swim in the sea and then Jonathan and I were on IT at Panorma Hotel together that evening. We spoke to quite a few people again and enjoyed another hotel buffet for dinner. 

Day 12: On Wednesday I started the day on IT at Golden Beach Hotel with David, we spoke to less people and most of the guests were German so I wasn't much use but we still raised a bit of money and got a buffet breakfast whilst we were there. That evening I had two public excavations, one of which I gave the speech to the 70 people watching, explaining what we were doing and providing facts about the turtles etc. We had mostly unhatched eggs at the first one but the second one we had two live hatchlings that had to be helped to sea. We also recieved 4 new volunteers, all from one of the other crete projects in Matala - two were returning from earlier in the season, one from Germany, one from Australia, one from Ireland and one from the UK. 

Day 13: On Thursday I had my first morning survey on D-F shift with Chiara. Unfortunately the weather wasn't very good, it was the first time it rained and was very windy which made the walk quite hard and meant we couldn't excavate the nest we were meant to. Lucy and I decided to go to a local bakery for a bite to eat that morning and hade a nice praline crossiant. That evening I was on IT either Lucy at White Palace and I was meant to give a slide show presentation to the kids club in the evening but everyone left after the family disco so we didn't end up doing it, we still raised quite a lot of money despite not doing the slide show and I had a nice buffet dinner. I think white Palace has had the best buffet so far. 

Day 14: Friday was my first day off. Lucy and I both had the day off and we had booked to go on a day excursion to the South Coast. We were picked up from the bus stop near the campsite at 8:15am and it took us an hour to collect all the others from the hotels up towards Chania way. Our tour guide amused us with his funny slightly mis translated commentary along the way. Our first stop was the Prevali Monastery where we got to look around, and read about the culture and history. There was also a small area of animals to see and a small museum inside. 

The second stop was Plakias where we looked around the shops and Lucy and I went for a swim at the beach while the sun peaked out. We were back on the coach after an hour and a half and were taken to see the Roman Floor Mosaic of Argyroupolis. Which also happened to be near to a corner which seemed to soley have avocado themed shops and cafes. After the mosaic the coach took us to Agyroupolis water springs where we stopped for lunch around 14:30. There were three tavernas underthe waterfalls so Lucy and I chose one with a few waterfalls with cool blue lights and had a few different dishes to share between us including stuffed pumpkin flowers, dakos, saganaki, chips and grilled vegetables. All of which was very yummy. I also tried some cretan mountain tea. 

Unfortunately the weather started to get a bit grey and it started raining whilst we had our food. After the waterfalls we were taken to Kournas Lake which was very beautiful, unfortunately it was still raining but I can imagine it was even more beautiful in the sunshine as well. After the Lake we were taken back towards to north side of crete and we arrived back at the campsite around 7pm.

Day 15: on Saturday I was on Morning Survey A-C with Fergus and Nick and we were done in around an hour, which is the fastest morning survey I've ever done. With it being near the end of the hatching season there are now only 3 nests on A-C which haven't hatched or been excavated and there were no tracks to count either so it was very quick. The people who were on morning survey D-F were lucky enough to see a mass hatching event in the morning, with over 40 hatchlings heading to sea! Which must have been amazing! In the evening I was on hotline duty but luckily it didn't go off in the night. 

Day 16: On Sunday I was meant to lead a beach walk with tourists but we were told all beach walks had been stopped for end of season so it wasn't going ahead. So I decided to take my morning off to walk the coast to Rethymno Town and take a look at the Archeological museum of Rethymno. Lucy and Jonathan joined me and we were pleasantly surprised to find out that apparently that this past weekend was the European day of culture and so the entry to the museum was free, which was unexpected and Very nice. We had a look at all the displays and read all about Cretes History, before walking into town for a nice cold drink. We also walked past a triathlon which was happening and watched a few people crossing the finishing line before heading back to camp. 

That evening I was on slide show presentation at the Taverna on the campsite which happens every Sunday at 8pm. Andy, Nick and Will assisted on the IT table and I gave the presentation to around 25 people who were there eating their dinner. We sold quite a lot of souvenirs for that shift and even met a lady who had an archelon tattoo! 

Day 17: Yesterday I was on Morning Survey on G-K with Gemma where we had two excavations. One was a relocation nest which only had 9 eggs, but they had last hatched which was good. The other had 83 unhatched eggs, but most were no visible development which means they might have been the females last nest of the season and had not a lot of fertilised eggs. After a few days of not great weather, the weather finally improved and the water was super clear. We found one hatchling stuck in some dried seaweed and when we released it it sped off towards the water. It was the most energetic hatchling I've seen so I named it speedy. The water was so clear and calm that we even managed to see it take its first breath in the water after being swept up! In the afternoon I spent my time swimming in the sea and reading on the beach (I'm now on Half blood prince) and then helped Lucy as Chef to cook a vegetable egg fried rice for dinner. In the evening I was on IT at Royal blue hotel with David, which was a slightly slower shift with not a lot of people interested in talking to us. 

Day 18: Today I had a pretty chilled out day, I had a free morning which I took to have a rest and was on stock check in the afternoon which entailed counting all of the stock we have in the cupboard and kit bags which go to hotels with us to sell. That took just over an hour but once that was done I had a free afternoon and evening and spent most of it on the beach today swimming. However its been really really windy today, with a few peoples tents looking like they're going to fly away!