Walked up to the pier this morning as we had booked a one night stay on a tiny island 40km out to sea so we could have the experience of watching sea turtles coming to shore to lay their eggs and also release new born baby turtles into the ocean!

There wasnt anything to do during the day so after a 5min walk which took us all the way round the island and finding 9 eggs by a mother turtle who had been disturbed during the laying process, which we buried, we lazed on the beach for the afternoon.

When night came our group were all left in the canteen to then wait for the first landing. We were quite lucky as instead of the 1-2am landings there usually is, a turtle came to shore at about 9pm!

Lead in the dark down to the beach we came across a huge female mother turtle lying in a big hole in the sand. Didnt really see much as they are sensitive to light, but it was amazing to be there! She laid 71 eggs in total, (good on the girl for not getting stage fright with 30 tourists gawping at her) which one of the rangers collected as soon as they popped out. We then left her to bury the eggs she thought she had left. Eggs are collected every night from every laying turtle, because if not then they are most likely to be dug up by another turtle a following night.

It was then to the hatchery where all the eggs from each mother are put into seperate 30 inch holes in the sand and then covered to wait to hatch in about 8 weeks.

It was after this part that we were taken to release the baby hatchlings - there was about 50 of the little funny things all scrambling over each other in a basket, which one of the staff then tipped over to let them all run funnily into the sea. Some not knowing which way to go, ran round in circles for a bit until being placed into the right direction.

This was the best part of the night for both of us, it's just a shame when you know that only one or two of them will survive as the rest will get eaten. No one still knows what happens in the time between them going into the sea as baby's to when we see them as massive shelled creatures.