Turtles at last!

So the reason why I haven’t been writing the last week was, that Thushan had dropped me off in Rekawa, his old project area (actually we were supposed to go to his recent project in the North, but that’s another story).
Rekawa is now a protected sanctuary and loggerheads, green turtles and olive ridleys come here to nest. Leatherbacks unfortunately haven’t been seen the last two years and hawksbills roam the area but don’t nest on the Rekawa beach.
During the day, this 2km-only stretch of beach looks like this:

And yes, there was indeed only this ONE person to be seen and he was with me.
From 7pm onwards, it is forbidden to be on the beach at all, unless you are with the guided “turtle watch” tours. Which I was. Every evening.
And the turtles were there too.
Huge green turtle mamas, bigger than any turtle I had ever seen in the Rescue Center, crawled all the way up to the rim of the vegetation. One could see their tracks in the light of the moon and stars (so many stars!) which were not outshone by some stupid restaurant illumination.
Only one time I was allowed to watch the digging of the egg chamber, which is an amazing thing to see, as you would never think that those clumsy looking back flippers can be so versatile and precise.
And then the eggs dropped. All 120+ of them. Compared to all the preparation and covering up, this is the shortest part of the process. When the turtle started messing up the place for camouflage afterwards, I always got covered in sand too. I insisted to stay until I could see her leave back to the sea. And the guides either found another turtle for the meantime or were kind enough to wait with me, listening to the sound of the waves rolling in and the clapping and trashing of the turtle.
When we walked back one night, I could see PaV next to me, beaming: “Now you FINALLY saw that too!”