20/11/10 Turtle vs Tortoise

The second week has seen the newbies settling in nicely. We’ve shed blood, sweat and tears in the 2 weeks we’ve been here (the tears tend to come from the onions!).

The sights and wildlife continue to amaze us all here on Curieuse and the work we do allows us to see more than most. Our daily turtle walks are showing more and more turtle activity, the number of tracks left by the nesting females seems to increase each day. Megan has been christened the ‘Turtle Whisperer’ as she has seen turtles on every walk!

It’s only Wednesday and we’ve already done our 2 Coco De Mer walks for the week. By far the most strenuous of our many walks, our main topic of conversation during the hike is sweat (lovely!). Our purpose is to start a census of all the Coco De Mer trees on the island, a process which is expected to take up to 5 years. I don’t think I’ll be here that long though.

My favourite part of the Terrestrial Project has got to be our Giant Tortoise census. We only get to do it once a week and it’s so much fun! The tortoises have amazing character and are great to work with, though it isn’t always easy keeping track of which ones we’ve counted as they tend to look the same.

I’m getting used to the mosquitoes and the many other critters lurking around now, my tan is coming along nicely and I only have 3 more weeks left to cram in as many sights and experiences as possible. Time flies when you’re having fun!

20/11/10 Turtle vs Tortoise