After a great dinner at the reserve, we headed out to our evening tour. There were about 100 people there, divided into 4 groups. We walked in the dark--the moon wasn't out yet--for about 10 minutes and then stopped for a little talk by the guide. As he was telling us about how the mama turtles come ashore, dig a hole, lay their eggs, then cover up their hole, as well as how the babies dig their way out of the hole when they are ready, Amelia felt a little something crawl across her foot. Then we all saw what it was--a baby turtle. The guide knew that that meant there were others somewhere, so he had us stay put and he went to look for their next. When he found it, he brought us all around to watch the little babies stick their heads out of the sand and climb out of the nest. It was an amazing sight! We were all just awestruck as one after one climbed out--about 40 in all. The guide was collecting them in his shirt and, when he thought they were all out, he took them to the water. He scared off a couple of eager, hungry crabs and then let them all loose into the ocean.
As if that wasn't amazing enough, we then walked over to a nest where a mama turtle was laying her eggs. There were 3 of the 4 groups in that area at that point, so we were getting shuffled through. But, we actually got to see the golf-ball sized eggs being laid by the mama. Another amazing sight.
We headed back to the reserve, then, where we set our alarms for 3:45 am and went right to bed. While we were extremely tired when that alarm went off, we were excited to go out again and see some more turtles. This group was much smaller--only about 10 people in all. Our first turtle sighting was a mama covering up her newly laid nest. She used her side and back fins to dig sand and cover up the hole. The amazing thing about the covering-up process is that she creates another hole that acts as a decoy for predators. When you see all the nests on the beach after the sunrise, you can definitely see two side-by-side nests. Nature certainly is amazing.
After the mama covered her eggs, she made her way out of the hole and travelled back to the ocean. She uses her side flippers to push her way back, which makes a really neat patterned track--almost like a giant tractor tire. That whole process takes about 30-45 minutes, so we just sat on the beach watching the turtle and listening to the waves crash on the shore. It was really very peaceful.
We walked a bit further to watch another turtle make her way back to the water. As we were watching, though, two little babies make their way to the ocean. Behind us, I noticed something moving towards us and when I looked closer, I realized it was a fox, out looking for baby turtles. Once he saw our group, he made his way over to the rocks and out of sight. Pretty cool.
We stayed on the beach until the sunrise, which was not as magnificent as I thought it would be, but peaceful and beautiful just the same. We then went back to the reserve to eat breakfast and sleep for about 2 1/2 hours. EVERYONE was beat!
On our way home from the turtle reserve, we stopped at the dhow boat yard in Sur and then decided the Sinkhole. Again, directions and road signs were definitely lacking, but we persevered and found it. Some of our last pictures are of the kids swimming in the hole. All in all, the drop is about 75 feet, which is a pretty magnificent sight. The kids assured us they would not jump and that was okay with us :-). They enjoyed swimming as the temperature was heating up. Danny enjoyed standing in the water and having little fish come up and nibble on his calloused feet. Yes, believe it or not, the "exotic" fish pedicures that are all the rage in the States and cost quite a bit of money, can be yours for free in Oman!
Our visit with Liz was great. She actually took a lot more pictures than we did and we'll have to share more later.
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