Friday, 15th January
Today is another special, my wonderful Mum-in-law has her birthday, hope you had a great day Mum xxx
Here we are and it's already Friday, but on waking we just had no idea this was the day! There are days in our lives for good or bad reasons the date is permanently etched on our minds for ever, this was one of those days.
Each night we travel sometimes quite long distances hopping from Island to Island, it can take anything around 5 hours to do and when we arrive to an interesting new view each morning we are quite amazed at how different the day will be. The early mornings are for us, that is Peter and I very hard, we are just not used to breakfasting at the crack of dawn and heading out so early, day after day, but today thank God we did.
We are now anchored by Floreana Island and our drivers transfer us by Pangas to a Green sand beach coloured by Olivine crystals. Then we walk past a lagoon and see perhaps 2 dozen Flamingoes feeding, a sight one of the ladies I would now call a friend, Jan from Nottingham had been looking forward to seeing all week. The whole group has different WOW factors on the wildlife they are most looking forward to spying. We all say it's a bit like a week of checking your 'Bucket List' TICK!!! Another creature observed. So in a few minutes my WOW will be ticked.
We walk along a trail, seeing various birds and small lizards. Over a rise in the land and suddenly in front of us is a long, pure white beach, lapped by the most perfect blue waves and within the waters on the edge of the beach are large round mounds! What are they? They, my friends, are the most beautiful hard working mother Turtles, heading back to the ocean having spent the previous night, lumbering their huge bodies up the beach to dig holes and lay between a 100 - 120 eggs and are now, totally exhausted, making their way back to sea. Talk about a moment that leaves you breathless, we all hurry down to the sand and quietly, giving them space (The golden rule here is ALWAYS give wildlife 2 metres between you and them whenever possible, so not to pass on human germs or frighten them)
We spend about 30 minutes, watching in awe, as these tired girls try to get their strength back and return to the water. It's my Wow moment, I really could cry, having seen so many wildlife programmes, this is real, this in now, and we are here watching this stunning occurrence. The eggs are snug and warm in their sandy incubator, but the saddest thing is only 1% of those eggs will actually get to adulthood. For one reason or another they will perish, be eaten or die before they are a few years old. It just makes what we've just witnessed, so very, very special. I will never forget this.
We head back to the boat for snacks and a quick change before more Wow moments for our group. We are off snorkelling once more and this time some see white tip sharks, some a turtle dashing past, but about a dozen of us witness the most wonderful swimming and diving display by a lone Sea lion who wanted to play. He or she stayed with us for 5 minutes, twisting and turning, swooping and gliding around us. Incredible!
Can you believe it's only just lunch time and yes, we are ready and utterly ravenous because this afternoon after a siesta we head off to another snorkelling site, a beach on Post Office bay and we will swim with and photo and video turtles eating, swimming and wandering just feet from us in this crystal clear water. What an amazing few hours we've had today, it just gets better and better.
After a return to the boat for a quick dry off we head back to Post Office bay to walk along the beach to view The Barrel, which was the reason this place is called Post Office Bay. The Barrel was organised during the mid 1800s when Whaling boats called regularly at the bay and sailors would leave letters and cards for their loved ones and the next person heading that way, hopefully picked up the cards and delivered them. This tradition continues to this day, so I would love it if my Mum in law gets her postcard wishing her a wonderful 94th birthday in the very near future.
Whilst we finish our visit paddling and swimming in the bay, some guys off our boat and another boat belonging to the tour company G. Adventures join the guides, cabin staff and crews for a game of Football on a pitch, evidently by the goal posts, used regularly. Our boat wins the match and off back to The Queen we go to celebrate with another well earned dinner.
P.S. Peter wishes it to be known he was not playing in this game!