This morning we went to Whispers Café, a more Western café, for morning tea / lunch – another smoothie each. A bit more expensive but very delicious. The owner said he is really struggling given the demise of tourism. We were the only customers there. Then we caught the 'ferry' to Shella (too hot to walk especially as the ferry only costs $1 each). We had a lovely relaxing time at the beach in the warm water with no waves! Some donkeys came across our beach site foraging for food - one even had a go at my thong! We then went on a ‘turtle hatching’ tour.   We were told to meet at the hotel at 3:00 ready for the tour to start – in true African style, the tour probably didn’t start until about 4:00. There were 24 of us on the tour so we split into about 4 different boats. The boats took us through the mangroves until we got to Manda Island. After a bit of a walk through mud and sand, we got to a little community. This is where the turtle protectors live. The 2 men (brothers) used to be turtle poachers but the Lamu Marine Conservation Trust (who ran the tour) decided to educate them and then pay them more than they would get if they were poaching to look after the turtles as well so they are converted! The trust also pays for their children’s schooling and put solar panels on their straw houses so they could charge their phones (so they could keep in regular contact with the trust regarding the turtles). As well as a salary, these men also receive incentives if, for example, they report some poaching activity – we reckon they must have been lucky to have scored this gig! As the turtles are endangered, their role is to firstly watch for the mother turtle to come onto the beach and then identify where her nest is. They then keep an eye on the nest so that the crabs don’t get to them (and to make sure poachers don’t get to them as well). And then after 45-60 days of incubation, they help the baby turtles enter the ocean so that the crabs don’t eat them. In a season (approximately 1 year), there are usually about 36 nests laid by the turtles on the beach. Today we were lucky as we got to see the last lot of baby turtles hatch from the last nest of the season. There were about 18 babies today that moved from the nest into the ocean – another 27 did it last night. Some nests can contain hundreds of eggs! The babies are so cute – little flippers working so hard to get to the surf. Apparently only one lucky turtle in every 500-1000 hatchlings survive to adulthood. Turtles reach maturity at 18 years and can live over 100 years. As we skipped lunch today, we were pretty hungry by the time we got back to Lamu. So we had a feast back at the Mangrove Centre. 2 chicken tikkas, 2 Swahili pizzas and 2 tandoori breads with a side of sukuma and a mango juice for a total of $11. Oh and we went out for a lime and coconut slice at whispers with a milkshake each!