Well, I've been back in cold wet England for a week now. I'm just about getting back into the swing of things. I've been lucky enough to get some work that will see me through to next spring.
So a little summary for you. We had 51 nests in Hania this year, the highest count for a few years. Of these, 48 of them hatched successfully (the severe weather towards the end of August claimed the other three). The smallest nest had just 48 eggs, the largest had 175!
We had well over 3000 hatchlings successfully making it into the sea.
Over the course of the season, 52 volunteers worked for ARCHELON in Hania, coming from 13 different countries. Thank you to all of you - I hope you had a great time in Crete!
Cya soon
John
Friday, 22 October 2010
Thursday, 2 September 2010
Wildlife on Camp - Part 2
Just a very quick update to post a photo I took today of a very unusual bird to have on camp. A Griffon Vulture!
These birds are not especially rare on Crete, but it's the first one I have seen, and to have it land so close to us was amazing. These are huge birds! Unfortunately, I couldn't get a really good photo, but you can at least see what it is!
On a more related note, the nest count is at 48 now, so we may get up to 50!
Monday, 19 July 2010
Sponsor a Sea Turtle
The work that we do here in Greece is only possible with the help of people from the general public - whether they are locals, or as is usually the case tourists here on holiday.
One of the best ways to support Archelon's work is through our sponsorship programme. There are several options available - and for more information, you can look at Archelon's sponsorship page. It's a great idea for a present!
That's it for now, proper update coming soon!
P.S -29 nests now!
One of the best ways to support Archelon's work is through our sponsorship programme. There are several options available - and for more information, you can look at Archelon's sponsorship page. It's a great idea for a present!
That's it for now, proper update coming soon!
P.S -29 nests now!
Sunday, 4 July 2010
Nest Update
Just a very quick update about our nests!
So far we have 18 nests in Chania - not bad, but could be much much better!
We've had a few nests this week, the first of which was on Monday, and was found by Sean & Helen, who are part of the ISKA volunteering team.
I went out to give them a hand with the nest, as it was the first time they had seen one - after sorting everything out, I was invited to their place for a coffee.
Wow, what a place!
I've added a links section to my blog, and if you look at the Arete Apartment's link, you will see - they have 2 apartments that they rent out, and they have a stunning location, complete with their own menagerie of animals, including some very cute chicks, geese and dogs.
As well as the nest on Monday, we've had a few more, including another right outside our camp! Also, two of the volunteers saw a turtle whilst snorkelling near camp too - I'm very, very jealous!
Hopefully this week will be just has productive!
So far we have 18 nests in Chania - not bad, but could be much much better!
We've had a few nests this week, the first of which was on Monday, and was found by Sean & Helen, who are part of the ISKA volunteering team.
I went out to give them a hand with the nest, as it was the first time they had seen one - after sorting everything out, I was invited to their place for a coffee.
Wow, what a place!
I've added a links section to my blog, and if you look at the Arete Apartment's link, you will see - they have 2 apartments that they rent out, and they have a stunning location, complete with their own menagerie of animals, including some very cute chicks, geese and dogs.
As well as the nest on Monday, we've had a few more, including another right outside our camp! Also, two of the volunteers saw a turtle whilst snorkelling near camp too - I'm very, very jealous!
Hopefully this week will be just has productive!
Wildlife on Camp
No, I don't meant the volunteers.
For the nature geeks like me, there is a fair bit of wildlife around camp at times. As well as the mosquitoes, flies, spiders etc, there's some really cool stuff.
Eleanora's Falcon
These amazing birds visit the camp in early and late summer, usually just as it is starting to get dark. This photo is terrible, but they are fantastic to watch. they are supreme aerial acrobats, they fly around camp chasing after flying bugs - which they then devour whilst airborne.
Sardinian Warblers & Goldfinches
We have an abundance of small birds around camp, mostly finches and warblers. The above photo shows a Goldfinch on her nest - we were lucky enough to see 3 chicks being fed here - although there has been something of a tragedy, when they took their first flight, they were soon gobbled up by some of the local stray cats! The below photo is a photo of a young Sardinian Warbler, these have been very successful, they have avoided the cats, and I think their are about 4 young ones being constantly fed by busy parents.
Long-eared Owl
This bird has been causing problems on camp since we got here - especially in the early days when it was just a fledgling. It is very, very loud, and can be a little startling when you first hear it! It has got much quieter now though, and we don't hear it every night. The above photo was taken by Alex Boudey.
Scorpions
You have to be a little bit careful whilst on camp, these tiny little scorpions are hiding in all sorts of places, under logs, in the shower, in people's bags! So you have to be careful, whilst they are not dangerous, they can give you a bit of a sting!
Balkan Green Lizard
These guys are cool - the green one's are the males, the females are a drab grey colour. I usually can see one whenever sat in my tent. They have, though, also taken a bit of a bashing from the family of cats too!
For the nature geeks like me, there is a fair bit of wildlife around camp at times. As well as the mosquitoes, flies, spiders etc, there's some really cool stuff.
Eleanora's Falcon
These amazing birds visit the camp in early and late summer, usually just as it is starting to get dark. This photo is terrible, but they are fantastic to watch. they are supreme aerial acrobats, they fly around camp chasing after flying bugs - which they then devour whilst airborne.Sardinian Warblers & Goldfinches
We have an abundance of small birds around camp, mostly finches and warblers. The above photo shows a Goldfinch on her nest - we were lucky enough to see 3 chicks being fed here - although there has been something of a tragedy, when they took their first flight, they were soon gobbled up by some of the local stray cats! The below photo is a photo of a young Sardinian Warbler, these have been very successful, they have avoided the cats, and I think their are about 4 young ones being constantly fed by busy parents.
Long-eared Owl
This bird has been causing problems on camp since we got here - especially in the early days when it was just a fledgling. It is very, very loud, and can be a little startling when you first hear it! It has got much quieter now though, and we don't hear it every night. The above photo was taken by Alex Boudey.
Scorpions
You have to be a little bit careful whilst on camp, these tiny little scorpions are hiding in all sorts of places, under logs, in the shower, in people's bags! So you have to be careful, whilst they are not dangerous, they can give you a bit of a sting!
Balkan Green Lizard
These guys are cool - the green one's are the males, the females are a drab grey colour. I usually can see one whenever sat in my tent. They have, though, also taken a bit of a bashing from the family of cats too!
Tuesday, 15 June 2010
Just like buses!
It's been a slow start, we've been stuttering along with the odd nest - 3 nests spread out over the full 14.5km of beach. And then this morning, 2 newly laid nests within 500m of each other.
Unfortunately, they are on the short stretch that we are unable to protect fully, I'm just walking it every few days.
The first one we found was right in amongst some sunbeds, so we will need to add some extra protection.
The 2nd one was right at the end of the beach, in probably the nicest stretch of sandy beach in hania.
So that's us up to 5 now, and a turtle has been trying to nest in Tavronitis, so should be 6 very soon!
Unfortunately, they are on the short stretch that we are unable to protect fully, I'm just walking it every few days.
The first one we found was right in amongst some sunbeds, so we will need to add some extra protection.
The 2nd one was right at the end of the beach, in probably the nicest stretch of sandy beach in hania.
So that's us up to 5 now, and a turtle has been trying to nest in Tavronitis, so should be 6 very soon!
Location:Hania, Crete
Monday, 7 June 2010
Frustration....And Relief
So, as mentioned in my previous post, we've had one (we're guessing it's the same turtle as she left what looked like marks from a barnacle in the sand) making tracks at the Kato Stalos end of our beach for around 5 days. She eventually came up and laid her nest!
Here's a few photos of the tracks, these were taken by one of the current volunteers - Alex.
As you can see, in the first track, she walked into the sunbeds, before returning to the sea. This has been happening quite a lot already!
However, the sunbeds didn't stop her this time - she laid the eggs - all 143 of them, right in the middle of a block of sunbeds.
As the nest was too close to the sea, we had to relocate the nest to a safer position. 150m further down the beach is a wider spot, backed by trees. Hopefully this should be a good spot for the nest - I guess we'll see in 50 days!
I'll try to add some photos of the nest later, including some from the relocation - I forgot to bring my memory card, so can't add them now!
See ya soon,
Herb
Here's a few photos of the tracks, these were taken by one of the current volunteers - Alex.
As you can see, in the first track, she walked into the sunbeds, before returning to the sea. This has been happening quite a lot already!
However, the sunbeds didn't stop her this time - she laid the eggs - all 143 of them, right in the middle of a block of sunbeds.
As the nest was too close to the sea, we had to relocate the nest to a safer position. 150m further down the beach is a wider spot, backed by trees. Hopefully this should be a good spot for the nest - I guess we'll see in 50 days!
I'll try to add some photos of the nest later, including some from the relocation - I forgot to bring my memory card, so can't add them now!
See ya soon,
Herb
Wednesday, 2 June 2010
Things are starting to happen!
So, we've been here for almost 3 weeks now, so I should probably update this.
Having arrived in Hania 2 weeks earlier than last year, things were a little less hectic this time.
We got camp up pretty quickly, a new bamboo roof was made over a few days, and last years emergency waterproofing makes an excellent mulberry protection sheet. It's also very cool underneath it, if a little dark. I call it the cave.
We've been doing morning survey since the 20th of May, and although we got our first nest on the 29th (which was on the Kolimbari beach), the first tracks on our main beach, HL, appeared this morning. Along with 3 sets of tracks on PR - which we cannot monitor every day because we can't afford the bus tickets!
The HL tracks went up to a set of sunbeds, and although she moved them slightly, they caused enough of a problem to stop her getting any further. A similar story on PR! This is frustrating, if they were stacked at night, our nest count could be up to 3 now!
Ah well, maybe tomorrow!
I'll update you all soon!
John
Having arrived in Hania 2 weeks earlier than last year, things were a little less hectic this time.
We got camp up pretty quickly, a new bamboo roof was made over a few days, and last years emergency waterproofing makes an excellent mulberry protection sheet. It's also very cool underneath it, if a little dark. I call it the cave.
We've been doing morning survey since the 20th of May, and although we got our first nest on the 29th (which was on the Kolimbari beach), the first tracks on our main beach, HL, appeared this morning. Along with 3 sets of tracks on PR - which we cannot monitor every day because we can't afford the bus tickets!
The HL tracks went up to a set of sunbeds, and although she moved them slightly, they caused enough of a problem to stop her getting any further. A similar story on PR! This is frustrating, if they were stacked at night, our nest count could be up to 3 now!
Ah well, maybe tomorrow!
I'll update you all soon!
John
Location:Hania, Crete
Wednesday, 12 May 2010
Leader's Seminar
Today is the last day of the Leader's Seminar in Athens. Whilst most of us don't need much training, it's been nice to meet the people from the other projects and find out the different issues they face.
We've also had presentations by some of the founders of ARCHELON, which have been interesting to find out a bit more detail on the history of the society and also a few new things about Caretta caretta.
Tomorrow is the big move day. The 5 of us on Crete will be going over to the island on the ferry. Ive somehow managed to avoid te ferry so far, so not sure what to expect.
Anyway. Time to get up and get to the rescue centre. Speak soon!
We've also had presentations by some of the founders of ARCHELON, which have been interesting to find out a bit more detail on the history of the society and also a few new things about Caretta caretta.
Tomorrow is the big move day. The 5 of us on Crete will be going over to the island on the ferry. Ive somehow managed to avoid te ferry so far, so not sure what to expect.
Anyway. Time to get up and get to the rescue centre. Speak soon!
Location:Athens
Wednesday, 28 April 2010
Here we go again!
Right, so a new season is due to start in Greece.
Let's see if I can keep this updated this year past mid-july, I missed out allsorts last year, but it just got too busy! We ended up with around 43 nests on the beaches of Hania (including ones found ont he beaches that we didn't fully protect), with thousands of hatchlings safely making it to the sea.
On the 9th of May I will be flying out to Athens to attend the leaders training for a few days before heading straight to Hania to setup the project.
The good news is it looks like we will be monitoring most of the beaches in Hania this year, so should be able to protect more nests! There will also be 2 leaders, so we should be able to get more work done.
Well, that's it for now!
John
Let's see if I can keep this updated this year past mid-july, I missed out allsorts last year, but it just got too busy! We ended up with around 43 nests on the beaches of Hania (including ones found ont he beaches that we didn't fully protect), with thousands of hatchlings safely making it to the sea.
On the 9th of May I will be flying out to Athens to attend the leaders training for a few days before heading straight to Hania to setup the project.
The good news is it looks like we will be monitoring most of the beaches in Hania this year, so should be able to protect more nests! There will also be 2 leaders, so we should be able to get more work done.
Well, that's it for now!
John
Tuesday, 21 July 2009
A bit of an update!
This is probably long overdue, but things are pretty busy at the moment. After 2 months with mostly around 6 or 7 volunteers, we suddenly have 10, and 6 more arriving in the next week (including 2 from Leeds Met!). This might sound like a good thing (and it is!) but they all need training, and writing the rota is a nightmare.
So on to the turtles...
Today we found our 19th nest, which unfortunately needed to be relocated. This can normally be done very quickly, but I had 2 new Greek volunteers with me which meant answering lots of questions! A good morning for training though! That nest, and a couple more tracks with swims and body pits meant they have now seen more turtle stuff than some of the other more "experienced" volunteers (one poor Danish girl hasn't yet even seen a nest yet!).
I'm very happy with the number of nests we have so far, at the beginning of the season I'd have been happy with 15, and didn't really hope for anywhere near 20. Now it seems we should easily make that target, and perhaps, with unmarked nests, we might get up to around 25. Last year there were only 11 on this stretch of beach.
We also put out the first lot of nest shades out this morning, our first nest, which seems like it was laid years ago, is due to hatch in around 5-10 days, hopefully before my visit to England.
This all meant that morning survey, which has been taking 1.5-2 hours, took 5 hours today! I'd promised I would go help Mel out on the first kiosk shift straight after MS, but now I will only make the last hour! What was worse though, is that the supermarket only had sugar free Milko. Disaster!
So on to the turtles...
Today we found our 19th nest, which unfortunately needed to be relocated. This can normally be done very quickly, but I had 2 new Greek volunteers with me which meant answering lots of questions! A good morning for training though! That nest, and a couple more tracks with swims and body pits meant they have now seen more turtle stuff than some of the other more "experienced" volunteers (one poor Danish girl hasn't yet even seen a nest yet!).
I'm very happy with the number of nests we have so far, at the beginning of the season I'd have been happy with 15, and didn't really hope for anywhere near 20. Now it seems we should easily make that target, and perhaps, with unmarked nests, we might get up to around 25. Last year there were only 11 on this stretch of beach.
We also put out the first lot of nest shades out this morning, our first nest, which seems like it was laid years ago, is due to hatch in around 5-10 days, hopefully before my visit to England.
This all meant that morning survey, which has been taking 1.5-2 hours, took 5 hours today! I'd promised I would go help Mel out on the first kiosk shift straight after MS, but now I will only make the last hour! What was worse though, is that the supermarket only had sugar free Milko. Disaster!
Friday, 10 July 2009
Myrtles Morning Survey
Hi All,
It's been a while, but I thought I'd share a few photos from a morning survey last week, I was walking the beach by myself, so thought I'd get a few snaps in too!
It was quite a busy morning, within 500m of starting the beach I found this:
It's an abandoned egg chamber. The chamber had lots of rocks in it, so I assume the female turtle decided that it was unsuitable - she then went back into the sea.
Not much happened for the next kilometre or so, but then I found this!
It is a pretty much perfect nest, with a distinct camoflage pit and camoflage. A short dig was all that was needed to find the eggs
The only problem however was it was far too close to the sea. If we have northerly winds here the sea can come very far up the beach, and this nest would be washed away. So I had to relocate the nest (with a little help...)
20 minutes later, and the 123 eggs were safely positioned further away from the sea.
Things are slowing down a bit turtle wise, we have been stuck on 14 nests for about a week now!
I'll try to write more soon!
John
It's been a while, but I thought I'd share a few photos from a morning survey last week, I was walking the beach by myself, so thought I'd get a few snaps in too!
It was quite a busy morning, within 500m of starting the beach I found this:
It's an abandoned egg chamber. The chamber had lots of rocks in it, so I assume the female turtle decided that it was unsuitable - she then went back into the sea.Not much happened for the next kilometre or so, but then I found this!
It is a pretty much perfect nest, with a distinct camoflage pit and camoflage. A short dig was all that was needed to find the eggs
The only problem however was it was far too close to the sea. If we have northerly winds here the sea can come very far up the beach, and this nest would be washed away. So I had to relocate the nest (with a little help...)
20 minutes later, and the 123 eggs were safely positioned further away from the sea.
Things are slowing down a bit turtle wise, we have been stuck on 14 nests for about a week now!
I'll try to write more soon!
John
Tuesday, 23 June 2009
Things that go BOING! in the night!
The cicadas have started calling. The fact that they haven't been has seemed very strange. They were one of the first things I remember hearing last year.
Not that there hasn't been plenty of wildlife here. If you sit, watch and listen for the half an hour around dusk (like I am doing now!) you can see and hear all sorts. The smaller birds, mainly warblers and tits soon stop calling and find their roosts for the night. Then the Red-footed Falcons arrive and you see their amazing aereal acrobatics whilst they feast on the many flying insects. They catch and eat the bugs in-flight whilst swooping and gliding over and between the bamboo and mulberry trees.
As the light fades they are replaced by several bats, which I think roost in the mulberry trees. The insects don't stand a chance! Once the light really goes you can often hear bull frogs shouting, although this is happening less now. You can also occasionally hear what I beleive to be a Scops Owl calling, i'd love to go find it, but don't really stand a chance, their call can be heard for miles!
That's also when the creatures in the bamboo start to make themselves known (based on the evidence from Tasmania, a certain BIG Northerner would completely brick it! ;)) I'm not even sure what they are, they are possibly rats, all I know is they make a racket, and when they decide to fight in the trees they like to use my tent as some kind of trampoline... It's not a nice way to be woken up at 3am!
On a side note, things with the turtles are going well, we have 8 nests in Xania now, on our 5km stretch of beach. Last year they only had 5 nests at this point, on 14.5km of beach, and none on the bit we are monitoring!
I'm off now cos the mosquitoes have come out and are starting to eat me alive!
That bloody cicada is still calling!!
Not that there hasn't been plenty of wildlife here. If you sit, watch and listen for the half an hour around dusk (like I am doing now!) you can see and hear all sorts. The smaller birds, mainly warblers and tits soon stop calling and find their roosts for the night. Then the Red-footed Falcons arrive and you see their amazing aereal acrobatics whilst they feast on the many flying insects. They catch and eat the bugs in-flight whilst swooping and gliding over and between the bamboo and mulberry trees.
As the light fades they are replaced by several bats, which I think roost in the mulberry trees. The insects don't stand a chance! Once the light really goes you can often hear bull frogs shouting, although this is happening less now. You can also occasionally hear what I beleive to be a Scops Owl calling, i'd love to go find it, but don't really stand a chance, their call can be heard for miles!
That's also when the creatures in the bamboo start to make themselves known (based on the evidence from Tasmania, a certain BIG Northerner would completely brick it! ;)) I'm not even sure what they are, they are possibly rats, all I know is they make a racket, and when they decide to fight in the trees they like to use my tent as some kind of trampoline... It's not a nice way to be woken up at 3am!
On a side note, things with the turtles are going well, we have 8 nests in Xania now, on our 5km stretch of beach. Last year they only had 5 nests at this point, on 14.5km of beach, and none on the bit we are monitoring!
I'm off now cos the mosquitoes have come out and are starting to eat me alive!
That bloody cicada is still calling!!
Saturday, 13 June 2009
Xania
I've been in Xania (Or Chania or Hania or any other of the dozens of ways of spelling it) for almost 2 weeks now, I have no idea where the time has gone.
We are starting to get nests now too - after a week without anything, we've had our 2nd and 3rd nests within 2 days, the last one was found this morning whilst I was doing some nest relocations in Rethymno (it's my day off, what else would I do??).
Our camp is very nice, much nicer than the Reth camp, there is no electricity, but it's good to have somewhere that is just your own. The beach is nice too, but it's long. Morning Survey is a 5km beach walk, with a 5km walk back to the camp too! The Xania kiosk is in a great spot too - look at this view!
There are quite a lot of birds around in the Xania campsite too, we have a family of Red-footed Falcons visit us every evening to feast on the flying bugs. We also have lots of small warblers - one of which flew inside a hot car and got itself a bit dehydrated. The poor thing looked like it was on it's last legs - lots of water and half an hour in the shade and it was back full of life and shouting for it's mum!
That's it for now, I've got a few bits & pieces to do before heading back over to Xania.
Cya!
John
We are starting to get nests now too - after a week without anything, we've had our 2nd and 3rd nests within 2 days, the last one was found this morning whilst I was doing some nest relocations in Rethymno (it's my day off, what else would I do??).
Our camp is very nice, much nicer than the Reth camp, there is no electricity, but it's good to have somewhere that is just your own. The beach is nice too, but it's long. Morning Survey is a 5km beach walk, with a 5km walk back to the camp too! The Xania kiosk is in a great spot too - look at this view!
There are quite a lot of birds around in the Xania campsite too, we have a family of Red-footed Falcons visit us every evening to feast on the flying bugs. We also have lots of small warblers - one of which flew inside a hot car and got itself a bit dehydrated. The poor thing looked like it was on it's last legs - lots of water and half an hour in the shade and it was back full of life and shouting for it's mum!
That's it for now, I've got a few bits & pieces to do before heading back over to Xania.
Cya!
John
Wednesday, 10 June 2009
Sorry!
It's been a while since my last update, but I have been very busy and haven't had much time to write! Anyway, I've installed a new app on my phone so I can write more often!
I have been in xania for just over a week now, things have been hectic. There wasn't much of a campsite when we got there, but this quickly changed, by the time Mik and myself (with a lot of help from Eric, a local musician/carpenter) got the kiosk built -which was much more difficult than the Reth one - the volunteers on camp (Lucy, Mel, Krysty and new arrivals Deborah and Colin) had pretty much sorted the roof, Walls and kitchen.
We started up the kiosk straight away, and Mik and I did the first morning survey on Thursday (with a massive hangover...) we found one set of tracks, but not much else. The beach we are monitoring is 5km long, and is mostly pebbles, so walking can be hard work - especially at 6 in the morning. After we arranged a couple of slideshows at local hotels, Mik left back for Reth. The following morning I started training the volunteers on the monitoring work, with instant success. We found Xania's first nest of the season!
Things are starting to settle down now, Krysty has left, which now leaves just me an 4 volunteers, but we might get a new person today.
Oh one last thing, I must say thanks to bernie 'clickety click' Dewhurst for taking the time out of his Crete holiday to pay me a visit. It was good to see a face from home, and the pizza ice cream went down a treat! Thanks!
John
I have been in xania for just over a week now, things have been hectic. There wasn't much of a campsite when we got there, but this quickly changed, by the time Mik and myself (with a lot of help from Eric, a local musician/carpenter) got the kiosk built -which was much more difficult than the Reth one - the volunteers on camp (Lucy, Mel, Krysty and new arrivals Deborah and Colin) had pretty much sorted the roof, Walls and kitchen.
We started up the kiosk straight away, and Mik and I did the first morning survey on Thursday (with a massive hangover...) we found one set of tracks, but not much else. The beach we are monitoring is 5km long, and is mostly pebbles, so walking can be hard work - especially at 6 in the morning. After we arranged a couple of slideshows at local hotels, Mik left back for Reth. The following morning I started training the volunteers on the monitoring work, with instant success. We found Xania's first nest of the season!
Things are starting to settle down now, Krysty has left, which now leaves just me an 4 volunteers, but we might get a new person today.
Oh one last thing, I must say thanks to bernie 'clickety click' Dewhurst for taking the time out of his Crete holiday to pay me a visit. It was good to see a face from home, and the pizza ice cream went down a treat! Thanks!
John
Thursday, 28 May 2009
One week in!
It's been a few days now, so it's probably time I caught up. Things have been busy here in Reth, the public awareness side of things is pretty much in full swing now, we are doing 6 slide shows a week and the kiosk is open 12 hours a day. The monitoring work will start on Sunday, which is when things will get really busy!
Last Sunday saw my first encounter with an adult Loggerhead Sea Turtle, unfortunately, it was a dead one that had washed up on the beach near our base, Camping Elizabeth. There were no obvious reasons for it's death, but the decay and amount of flies told us it had obviously been dead a while and just blown in with the wind we had last week. As is usual in these situations, the Port Authority are informed and they arrange for it to be measured and then the Municipality will bury it.
I have spent most of this week in the kiosk training the new staff, we've had a steady flow of new volunteers, and we are now up to 12 volunteers here, but I will be taking 3 of them with me to Chania on Tuesday. I have also been going along to some of the slide shows, as I'll need to start doing them myself soon. I really want to get over to Chania now, it will be hard work as we will need to get the camp built up, the kiosk built and start work on the PA stuff, but I want to be on my own site. I will also need to start doing the Chania monitoring work pretty soon – the first nest in Greece (in Zakynthos) has already been laid!
Last Sunday saw my first encounter with an adult Loggerhead Sea Turtle, unfortunately, it was a dead one that had washed up on the beach near our base, Camping Elizabeth. There were no obvious reasons for it's death, but the decay and amount of flies told us it had obviously been dead a while and just blown in with the wind we had last week. As is usual in these situations, the Port Authority are informed and they arrange for it to be measured and then the Municipality will bury it.I have spent most of this week in the kiosk training the new staff, we've had a steady flow of new volunteers, and we are now up to 12 volunteers here, but I will be taking 3 of them with me to Chania on Tuesday. I have also been going along to some of the slide shows, as I'll need to start doing them myself soon. I really want to get over to Chania now, it will be hard work as we will need to get the camp built up, the kiosk built and start work on the PA stuff, but I want to be on my own site. I will also need to start doing the Chania monitoring work pretty soon – the first nest in Greece (in Zakynthos) has already been laid!
Saturday, 23 May 2009
World Turtle Day (Or, Myrtle's decline into alcoholism)
Apparently it's World Turtle Day, we actually only found out, or remembered about it today. So in place of actual prepared celebrations, we had a good meal, followed by raki - the cheapo awful stuff you can buy for 2 Euros in an unmarked plastic bottle! Most of the volunteers haven't had this before – and they all hated it. However, Myrtle really let herself go and really enjoyed the celebrations, but I think had perhaps a little too much.
Today has been the best day so far, had a gyros after kiosk, the wind has dropped, and we could finally have a swim in the sea! We start doing slideshows on Monday, and hopefully start monitoring work in a week or so, I'm hoping I can do some here before I leave for my project. The first Chania volunteer starts tomorrow, but we still won't be starting until there are a couple more.
Friday, 22 May 2009
Ooh, Sunburn!
Last year I managed to go the whole 5 weeks without getting sunburnt, this year, I haven't even managed 24 hours. The culprit is the kiosk. I wasn't really expecting to be building it for 4 hours in the middle of the day, and I forgot to wear a hat, which means burnt scalp – brilliant!
I've been here a couple of days now, and I'm starting to get back into it. I have just done the first kiosk shift, which went well, we were “donated” a total of 68 Euros, not bad for the first kiosk shift of the year. There are only 9 of us at Rethymno so far, and only 2 English, the other, typically, is from Hull – can't get away from the place!
I have a meeting with the Crete co-ordinator later today to discuss what we are doing with Chania, I believe I'll be going over to start the project there on the 30th of May, but nothing has been decided yet. In the meantime, I'm pretty happy being at Reth!
Tuesday, 19 May 2009
I'm Here, Well, Nearly...
I've just arrived at my hotel for tonight in Heraklion - Hotel Rea, it's nothing fantastic, just a simple cheap place to stay for the night. Complete with bed, showers (not all hot...), breakfast and the suprising bonus of free wifi - so I'm making use of it whilst I can!
I arrived in plenty of time for my flight from Leeds Bradford (Thanks Helen!), and after stumping up an extra 16 quid because my bag was overweight, I proceed through security, sure enough as soon as I walk through the gates all sorts of lights start flashing and sirens go off. After a thorough examiniation I convince security I'm not a terrorist and they let me through. Apparently the studs in my jeans set off the alarms.
By the time I get in to the lounge area, we're told our gate will be announced "shortly", only to be then told it's going to be delayed by an hour. Not a big issue, I grab a Pear Cider and a sandwich from the bar, and watch a couple of episodes of 2 and a half men on my laptop.
The fight goes pretty smoothly, until I reach baggage reclaim, and discover that somehow the great big converyor belt monster has eaten my sleeping bag, which was straped to my backpack - must have been quite delicate too, the straps are neatly folded back up. I hang around until verything has come out and check lost & found with no luck. Ah well - It could be worse, it could have been my tent!
So I'm gonna get my head down now, don't have much to do tomorrow except get over to Rethymno, and maybe replace my sleeping bag. I'm gonna dream about my first Mythos, and first Gyros of the trip!
Tuesday, 5 May 2009
14 Days and Counting
Right, so it's 2 weeks to go.
I've got the official invite, I've booked my flights, the leaving do is organised and I've bought a tent (it's just like Brian's 'Party Tent' from last year!)!
Now all I can do is count down the days - 14 to go, only 9 of them actually in work!
Can't wait :D
I've got the official invite, I've booked my flights, the leaving do is organised and I've bought a tent (it's just like Brian's 'Party Tent' from last year!)!
Now all I can do is count down the days - 14 to go, only 9 of them actually in work!
Can't wait :D
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