1st July 2010 As the huge ferry ploughed away from Kefalonia it churned up giant waves in it's wake and the wind whipped hair into my eyes. Today, after six weeks, Aaron and I left the Katelious group volunteer project and began the next step of our adventure, making a journey over land and sea to Georgia. Liz, Ueli and Peter also left on the same ferry to mainland Greece, having been with the group for four weeks. As Aaron and I made our way back to Athens we reflected on what a wonderful, but exhausting time we had experienced in Kefalonia. Starting the project in May had been ideal since there were not many volunteers at that time, so we got to know each other and the group leader Manu and his wife Fiona well. When we arrived we started with just the Mounda beach patrol and the school shift, before Koroni, night patrols and other activities were added. This gave us a great opportunity to become familiar with the work and the area. At the beginning of the season the Mounda...

23rd June 2010 When we first arrived in Kefalonia Aaron decided that during one of his once weekly days off from volunteering with the Katelious group he wanted to hike to the top of the highest mountain on the island, Mt Aenos standing at over 1600m above sea level. Everyone who knows me will know how much I enjoy hiking, but seeing as we do an awful lot of walking on our 'work' days the prospect of wanting to do something even more strenuous in our spare time seemed crazy to me! During our first two weeks in Kefalonia Aaron didn't have a map and so fortunately didn't risk the trip. On his third day off he kayaked about 20km to Zakinthos Island with Manu and Marcus. By the fourth week the impossible finally happened...Aaron managed to tire himself out and spent most of his day off sleeping! On my first day off I got the bus with Elina who's from Finland, to Argostoli, the capital of the island. There we saw the picturesque, colourful harbour and spent most of the...

17th June 2010 After ten nights with virtually no turtle activity on Mounda beach myself and the other Katelious Group volunteers were beginning to tire of the long night patrols where we walk the beach from 10pm to about 6am. Manu reassured us at the last meeting that this was less activity than usual for this time of year, so he expected it to pick up again soon and we all hoped so too. Sure enough two nights ago other volunteers saw the third nest, followed by the fourth and fifth last night. Tonight I was patrolling Potamakia beach with Jon, from Oregon and Aaron was patrolling Kaminia beach with Vanessa, from Ireland. Both Jon and Vanessa arrived with the Katelious group just a couple of days ago. As we strode out across the beach the quarter moon shone brightly in the clear sky, I was excited at the prospect that I might get to see a turtle nesting again tonight and I was hopeful that the light would make our patrol easier. However Potamakia has a steeper incline than Kaminia...

 June 28, 2010 Movie night at the villa went swimmingly last night. After my Koroni morning shift I spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon scouring the mini markets from Katelios to Skala for popcorn kernels. I finally struck pay dirt at the Galaxy mini mart in Skala, the self ascribed "Best mini market in the galaxy." Caroline and I had selected seven titles from the movies my Dad had digitized from our old VHS collection and saved and my laptop. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade won out in a vote over the likes of There's Something About Mary, another Harrison Ford vehicle The Fugitive, a cautionary tale about the conservation Star Trek IV, Maverick, another cautionary tale about conservation Aliens, and Top Gun . Manu and Fiona brought over their projector and speakers so we all wouldn't have to squeeze in around the ten inch laptop screen. I popped up loads of popcorn experimenting with a garlic and curry flavored batches. They were interesting....

10th June 2010 By Jean It's a whole different world from ours, so close to us, yet so far away. When walking on the sandy beach all you can see of the sea is the deep blue of the sky reflecting off the shiny surface of the water. However only a few meters away from the sandy shore, underneath this blanket hides rocks, plants and animals nothing like those we are used to seeing in our everyday lives as we walk on the dry crust of the earth's surface. Kefalonia is where I had my first snorkeling experience which allowed me to peer into the exciting world of the reef in Mounda beach. On my first trip I got hooked and have been going every free evening I have since then. Today I was eager to go snorkeling again, for my third trip, but no one else wanted to go this evening so I headed down to the beach on my own. I waded slowly out into the sea, the cold water tingling my skin. Once I was out far enough I strapped the snorkel onto my head tightly and plunged into the sea. It w...

June 22, 2010 A storm rolled in last night bring with it huge surf that flattened out Mounda beach according to Ueli. James and I cycled to Koroni this morning and the normally placid Ionian extremely furious. We found remanents of three body pits and some tracks. Unfortunately, the waves wiped away most of the signs of the activity making it data collection difficult. I took a scenic route back cycling through the villages of Thiramonas and Mavrata and was caught in a fast moving thunderstorm. Most of the clouds burned off by the time I reached the villa. The waves were still coming in hard and heavy so I took a broken boogie board the girl's had in their apartment and did my best to 10-4.

Friday, June 18, 2010 Since the discovery of the first two nesting turtles on the night of the 3rd we've had a dearth of turtle activity on Mounda beach. Night after night patrols have trudged in around dawn with nothing report. That is until the morning of our lie in on the 16th the Manu came knocking in the early hours. As we had already encountered several tracks, we were exempted from a trip down the beach. The new volunteers who arrived late the night before were roused and sent down to the sand for a bleary-eyed crash course in Loggerhead turtles and their nesting behavior. It was a good thing as Jon and Vanessa would be on night watch that night. The patrols had each encountered a turtle nesting on the beach. Neither was one of the two turtles from two weeks before and one wasn't tagged at all.   Early in the morning of the 17th, during a rest break at the very end of the beach called Mounda point, Ueli and Vanessa watched a turtle pull itself out of the water, craw...

By Jean 4th June 2010 Today we were very excited to hear that the Mounda beach morning patrol had found lots of turtle activity from last night! There were three sets of tracks on the beach where turtles had crawled onto the beach looking for somewhere to nest, however for some unknown reason they returned to the sea without laying their eggs. The discovery of these three false crawls inspired our leader, Manuel, to schedule for night beach patrols to begin that very night. He asked for volunteers and several of the group were motivated to get started. Since Aaron and I had not had a particularly strenuous day we were well rested and were fortunate to be selected to be one of the two pairs patrolling the beach that night. Just before 10pm we walked down to the hotel on Mounda beach with Marcus and Ueil. The hotel marks where the beach is divided, with Potomakia on the East and Kaminia on the West. Tonight Aaron and I were patrolling Kaminia and Marcus and Ueil, Potomakia. This is w...

Thursday, June 17, 2010 Summer is upon Kefalonia. High temperatures have leaped into the low 30°s C (High 80°s F). Days are sunny and sticky while breezy nights offer cool respite. The mosquitoes show no mercy however. Before bed at the villa Jean and I have fallen into the habit of giving ourselves a good dousing of deet. We had a few departures at the the middle of the month. Helen flew to Amsterdam to meet up with her parents on holiday. Elina left for Finland with Sala, her adopted stray pup that a Dutch couple brought into the Environmental Center. Markus went back to Berlin to continue work of thesis. We also gained several new volunteers including Ellie from Cornwall who volunnteered for seven weeks last year, Jon from Oregon, Rhiannon from the UK, Sarah from Wisconsin and Vanessa, an Italian from Ireland with an American accent. Wrap your mind around that one. With the influx of volunteers Jean and I are looking forward to a slightly lighter schedule load. Since night pat...

KaMarkus is a recurrent volunteer at the Katelios Group and friend of Manu and Fiona's. For some time he and Manu have been talking about kayaking to Zakynthos, the island 14 miles or so to the south of Kefalonia. They were talking about it yesterday at the the potluck and I mentioned that I'd be keen on tagging along if they were okay with it. They were so just after six this morning we were on the beach. The day had broken calm and partly cloudy. Ripples of waves lapped lazily against the shore. It was a perfect day for taking a low profile open top kayak onto the open sea. As perfect as you could hope for anyway. Manu estimated that at 5 kilometers/hour we would make the cape 20 kilometers away in 4 hours. We paddled steadily cutting through the placid blue surface with occasional short breaks to bail out our foot wells. At the hour mark Manu informed us that according to his GPS unit we were averaging 4.6 kilometers/hour. Markus and I countered that we were...