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...

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...

The numbers at the volunteer villa have swelled from five to eleven adding another Canadian, a Brit, a Scot, a Greek, a Swiss and a German to the ranks. On Friday morning Bree and Peter (the second Canadian) came across three different sets of tracks on Mounda beach. None appeared to be nests. From the tracks the turtles appeared to have just come up on the beach and promptly headed back to sea in what is referred to as a “false crawl.” Manu called for a meeting that afternoon at the villa. We all gathered around two at the table under the the trellis. Manu explained that since we had the numbers and there was obvious turtle activity it would we wise to start night patrols of the beach as soon as possible. He wanted to know if there were any volunteers for shift tonight. Jean and I of across raised our hands as did Markus (German), Bree and Helen. Ueli rolled in a little late and said he would be in as well. As Bree and Helen had already had strenuous shifts that morning Jean, Marku...

Helen and Elina found the first tracks of the season whilst on beach patrol this morning. They called Manu and swung by the villa and woke the rest of us up and drove us down the to beach. Turns out it was a false crawl. The turtle came up on the beach but didn't lay any eggs. Perhaps she didn't like the sand consistency or thought she was in danger. The chances are highly likely that we'll find a nest in the next few days as once the eggs are fertilized the female only has a limited time to lay them.

Rain fell throughout the night but cleared in the early morning. I woke just after six to soft blue sky. It was probably the clearest it's been since we've been here as I could distinctly discern the undulating shape and mottled green and brown landscape of the island of Zakynthos south across the sea. Bree and I had morning patrol. Jean and Helen left with Manu to check out another nest beach west of Katelios called Korione. As we were still without rubbish back we would just do a patrol of the beach to look for turtle tracks. The Mounda Beach as it is called is 2.8 kilometer stretch of sandy beach. It's gentle slope, sand consistency make it ideal for loggerhead nesting as does the shallow shelf structure off shore. It is also not overly developed or traveled. On the morning patrol we're looking for any sign of nesting as the season usually begins in late May or early June. We didn't find any turtle tracks but we did manage to drag a very heavy, half buried ...

Yesterday, we met up with Bree a little after 4pm to walk over to the center. The volunteer villa as I think I'm going to start calling it is not actually in Katelios. It's in another little village that I can't remember the name of, separated from Katelios by a good sized hill. We hiked up and over via a relatively wide two lane road overlooking the bay. The sun had come out but a steady breeze kept it cool. We arrived in the environmental center a quarter of an hour before five. It's a one room affair with a play scape out front. Inside there are various displays concerning the flora and fauna of the area. A preserved male and female loggerhead are the highlight of the displays. There was also a lot of good information. However, the majority of the pictures were faded and washed out. A British couple came in just after we opened. Manu arrived towards six and gave us a rundown and some history. The center had been an abandoned school house that the founders of the...

We arrived in Katelios yesterday evening after a 7 hour bus trip combined with a ferry across the Ionian Sea. The ferry arrived in the port of Poros on the island of Kefalonia at half past six. Steep green mountains rose dramatically up around the small town. After a few minutes our bus rolled out from the bowels of the immense white ferry. The driver got out started directing unloading for the passengers departing in Poros. During a lull I approached the gray haired gentleman, begged his pardon and in Greek, I said that we would like to go to Markopoulo. I had rehearsed the phrase for the better part of three quarters of an hour on the ferry, however his brow furrowed mystified and he hailed a bald, bearded man who spoke English. He relayed to the driver our intended destination and we were off. The road from Poros was steep and winding with many a blind turn. The hills were lush and green and dare I say again, dramatic. The bus trolled up the switch backs and through sleepy t...