Turtles: The search is on
Witnessing a loggerhead turtle laying eggs is a rare privilege.
One of the highlights of the Kosi Bay Trail, only five hours’ drive from Durban, is a nocturnal search for turtles, writes Leon-Ben Lamprecht.
The trail is vintage slackpacking, with hikes tailored to each group. You walk for two or three days, over distances ranging from 8 km to 15 km a day, through coastal and dune forest, past vleis and lakes, over rivers and on beaches.
On day 2 of the hike – after dinner at our overnight destination, Ukuthula Adventures - we meet Victor Ngubane, who grew up in the area.
We head to the beach to look for turtles laying eggs, with Victor as our guide. He warns us that torches are like chocolate-chip muffins at a Weigh Less meeting: taboo. Our search begins.
Do you feel lucky?
Sometimes you see a turtle immediately, but luck is not on our side. Only after an hour-and-a-half’s walk does Victor spot tracks in the sand. I hope it’s a leatherback, because Willie Labuschagne, who manages the Kosi Bay Trail, had told us earlier that seeing one of these coming in from the surf is rather like watching a small car come ashore...
It turns out to be a loggerhead, about 1,5 m long – easily a metre shorter than a leatherback. The females return to their birthplace to lay eggs, and about 60 days later the babies hatch and hope to make it past the waiting ghost crabs into the sea and adulthood. We wait at a safe distance until she’s finished digging her hole. She uses her flippers to shovel the sand away. Once the female starts laying she goes into a kind of swoon. Only then can we start taking pictures. What a sight!
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Submitted on 18 March 2010 | 14:34:58
The photo says a thousand words. You talk about not using torches yet a bright flash is seen in the photo and people are overcrowding the poor turtle. People should be exposed to nature, but nature should not be exposed to people in such a way. It surprises me that the poor turtle could even lay an egg. This is the reason why only registered tour operators should be allowed to be on the beach at night on this unspoilt part of the country.
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