Week 4 Volunteering @ ARCHELON 19/07-25/07

  I had my first slideshow this week! Slideshows were done all over in various campsites and hotels. The slideshows could be in Greek, English, German, French - it really depended on who the main demographic was at the slideshow venues. I had my first slideshow with Klara, our job as to run the information table. This was where we would sell our stock to those at the slideshow. 

Me and Klara at our Information Table

We were so lucky for our first slideshow together we were at this little village, and they gave all the children at the slideshow Super Juice and popcorn, and they gave me and Klara some too!! Best first slideshow ever. (It was after this night I got addicted to Super Juice... so good!!)

 For slideshow with children Anna, (The Public Awareness leader for camp) would give the kids colouring sheets from our colouring book that we sold and let them colour it in before the slideshow started. So cute!

 Naturally when you're camping and working 24/7 with people, you're going to become close. They become your family. You go through the tough times together, and you go through the most amazing times together. So every 2 weeks saying goodbye to those people was so so tough. The first person I felt close to was an American girl called Rocky, I love that girl. Saying goodbye to her that day was so hard, and after that I missed her company so much. It's so hard to live with someone, get used to seeing them around everyday and having someone to always chat to and then they leave and you notice them gone - its sad. I was also so sad to say goodbye to other amazing people I had met, like Donna, Ruben, Gretta, ... the list goes on...

Me and Rocky sleeping on a sunbed on Mavrovouni

Sharing a hammock, "sleeping"... we pretended

Summary:
19/07- Beach clean / BC / ES B / NP V
20/07-  MS V
21/07- MS MW
22/07- K 10:00-13:00 / SS village
23/07- K 13:00-15:00 / NP MW
24/07- Day Off
25/07- MS S / NP MW

Key:
MS- Morning Survey
ES- Evening Survey
LS- Light Survey
NP- Night Patrol
K- Kiosk
BC- Basecamp
IT- Information Table
SS- Slideshow
EX - Excavation
SH- Shading 

Beach Codes:

M- Mavrovouni (Whole beach)

ME- Mavrovouni East

MW- Mavrovouni West
V- Valtaki

S- Selinitsa
B- Vathi

Week 3 Volunteering @ ARCHELON 12/07-18/07

 This week started off very eventfully. The first live turtle stranding of the season was on Sunday 12th July, I just so happened to be around camp when Sammy asked me if I would like to go along with her and Anna to the rescue effort. We drove down to near the end of Mavrovouni East, where we had been informed the stranded turtle was. When we approached the water we could see the turtle and Sammy started to look at the turtle to see for any obvious injuries. The turtle was a juvenile female, about 1 years of age with an injury to its head. Every time the turtle tried to dive down into the water it's back end would bob back up like a buoy and prevent it from going down very far. Being able to be there at the stranding/rescue was very interesting, to be able to see what had to be done and to even see a live sea turtle (it was my first!). Turtles usually come up to breathe every 30-minutes, but this turtle was coming up every 30-seconds or less than that. Sammy said "the more stressed, the more breaths" when it comes to turtles.

 Once the information was recorded on stranding sheets filled in by my leaders the turtle had to be safely transported from the water, into a stranding box to be transported back to camp. Once the turtle was at camp we had to organise for it to be sent by bus to the Sea Turtle Rescue Center in Athens. As the ones who rescued the turtle we were able to suggest a name for it before the Center names it themselves, we all voted on Kyma. Kyma means Wave in Greek.

 My Monitoring Leader Sammy with Kyma

 On Wednesday I had night patrol on Valtaki. But this night patrol wasn't like the usual ones we were doing on Mavrovouni, where we would walk until 2am and then go to camp to go to sleep. On Valtaki foxes started to become a huge problem, they would predate the nests before we got to protect them in the morning. So we began night patrols on the beach, but as we had to drive there we would also sleep over on the beach to ensure no foxes predated any nests. When me Alexus, Sammy and Anna started our night patrol immediately we found a nest, it hadn't been predated but it did mean we missed the turtle coming out of the water already. We carried on walking until 3/4am, and then proceeded to make our way back to the nest. At the nest we put pepper on it as a deterrent, and then we set up our sleeping bags and slept next to the nest. In the morning we did our morning survey on Valtaki as we were already there. It was during this night that Alexus brought up to Sammy and Anna I was thinking of extending my stay, the one of many times I did! Then after me, Alexus and Sammy had continued to do the morning survey on Selinitsa I got to camp and me and Alexus went to the wifi-wagon to see my bank account if I could extend, and it turned out I could afford it - so I got back to camp and Alexus couldn't help but share the news! I am so SO glad I extended. I was not ready to leave on the 25th July, and I as waiting to feel content with leaving camp until I stopped extending..that or I ran out of money.

 If a nest was laid too close to the sea, 10m or less, or in an unfavourable place for the nest then we would do something called a relocation. This is when we would dig a new egg chamber in a safer, more suitable location (typically close to the original location where possible) to give the nest a chance of survival. On the 17th July we did just that! So just like normal after finding the top egg, the eggs were carefully removed from the chamber and placed in a relocation bucket. Each one being counted and recorded in a tally so we knew the amount of eggs counted out of the egg chamber went into the relocated one and none went missing. A new egg chamber would be dug the same or similar depth and size to the original one. That day 73 eggs were safely and successfully relocated!

 And then after as a treat, which we sometimes did after morning surveys, is stop off for pita and cheese in Gythio!

From left to right: Me, Donna, Lizzie and Anna. Some of the greatest people I met!

Summary:

12/07- Turtle Stranding Kyma 11:00 ME / K 17:00-20:00
13/07- K 10:00-13:00
14/07- Day off
15/07- NP V
16/07- MS V+S / ES B
17/07- MS S / Relocation V
18/07- MS ME / K 17:00-20:00

Key:
MS- Morning Survey
ES- Evening Survey
LS- Light Survey
NP- Night Patrol
K- Kiosk
BC- Basecamp
IT- Information Table
SS- Slideshow
EX - Excavation
SH- Shading

Beach Codes: 
M- Mavrovouni (Whole beach)
ME- Mavrovouni East
MW- Mavrovouni West
V- Valtaki
S- Selinitsa
B- Vathi

Week 2 Volunteering @ ARCHELON 05/07-11/07

 My second week volunteering started off with seeing a dead Caretta caretta stranded on Mavrovouni West. I was able to learn what ARCHELON do when this happens. My leaders Anna (Public Awareness Leader) and Sammy (Monitoring Leader) went along to it and they had the job in determining the cause of death (if possible) and take measurements of the turtle before the coast guard/port police took over. 

  The rest of my week just consisted of more morning surveys, and a kiosk shift. Every Friday night we went out for cocktails and a dinner, called Taverna Night. This was one of the rare occasions on camp when everyone was clean, and wore clean(ish) clothes.

 

From left to right: Anna, Alexus, Emily, Lizzie, Donna, Hetty, Maddie (me). 

Back row from left to right: Sarah, Sammy, Ruben, Will, Rocky

 Every 2-weeks on the Saturday volunteers would leave and new volunteers would arrive. So that Friday we had a Toga party as a farewell party for the volunteers who were leaving us. We had so much fun!

From left to right: Hetty, Me, Rocky, Emily, Donna, Sammy

 From left to right: Hetty, Me, Donna, Emily, Rocky, SammyFront row: Will

From left to right: Donna, Lizzie, Alexus, Emily, Sarah, Hetty, Rocky

Front row from left to right: Maddie (me), Ruben, Sammy

Playing Flunky Ball, a great drinking game!

Guess which team won...

 On the Saturday morning I had morning survey on Valtaki and Selinitsa. That morning a nest had been predated in the night before we got to the nest to be able to protect it. As a predated nest we had to count each egg shell that had been predated and remove them far from the nest in order to not attract more dogs or foxes to the same location again. It's a sad sight to see...

The predated nest..

The predated shells

  On the same Saturday in the night, starting at 23:00 I had my first night patrol on Mavrovouni East. At this time this consisted of us walking the shore for the length of the beach looking out for people on the beach being disruptive. They could be disruptive in various ways, including having bright white lights on at the beach. Turtles are phototactic, meaning they follow the brightest light, which could be the white light that the person is using. Our job then is to go up to the person and inform them of this issue and kindly ask them to turn their light off, or switch it to a red light (as turtles see red less well than any other light colour on the spectrum). We also look out for bonfires on the beach, as they are illegal between May and October, and we could use this as a reason for them to put it out as for the turtles bonfires are again another source of bright light, as well as this would damage their flippers if they were to 'walk' over a hot bonfire or remains of such. During this time it was still nesting season for the turtles so keeping an eye out for any mother turtles on the beach was another part of our duty. Night patrol shift length varied depending on how busy the beach was, could've carried on as late as 2am. As with everything we did we recorded down all the events of the patrol in a separate book.

Summary:
05/07- K ??:??-??:?? Lost the times.
06/07- MS V+S
07/07- MS M
08/07- Day off
09/07- MS M / cook
10/07- K 13:00-15:00
11/07- MS V+S / NP ME

Key:
MS- Morning Survey
ES- Evening Survey
LS- Light Survey
NP- Night Patrol
K- Kiosk
BC- Basecamp
IT- Information Table
SS- Slideshow
EX - Excavation
SH- Shading 

Beach Codes:

M- Mavrovouni (Whole beach)

ME- Mavrovouni East

MW- Mavrovouni West
V- Valtaki

S- Selinitsa
B- Vathi

Week 1 Volunteering @ ARCHELON 27/06-04/07

 From the 27th June until the 5th September I was volunteering with ARCHELON, the Sea Turtle Protection Society of Greece. I found this opportunity through GVI, Global Vision International. When applying to become a volunteer you could choose from a variety of dates throughout the summer in 2-week intervals, you could volunteer anywhere from 2-weeks to 12-weeks. ARCHELON itself was founded in 1983 and they have several conservation projects in Greece; in Zakynthos, Koroni, Crete and Kyparissia as well as Lakonikos Bay. In Lakonikos Bay, where I was, the project monitored and protected sea turtle nests on 4 beaches; Mavrovouni, Selinitsa, Valtaki and Vathi. I spent my first day getting to know the other volunteers who had both just arrived and those of who had been volunteering for 2-weeks already.

Source: http://members.seaturtle.org/totem/ARCHELON/nestingbeaches.htm

 Each Sunday our rota for the week was prepared. My first day volunteering on Sunday 28th consisted of a morning survey on Mavrovouni.

Mavrovouni

 Morning surveys began at 5:30am and were where we walked the full length of the beach at the shore looking for any mother Caretta caretta (The endangered Loggerhead Sea Turtle) tracks from during the night. The mother turtles would make any nesting attempts during the night so we walked the beach at first light so if a nest was laid we could build the protection before dogs or foxes predated the nest or people walked over the nest damaging the eggs. Also going earlier meant that the turtle tracks would be intact not faded from wind or people walking over them.

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Turtle tracks.

We recorded all the attempts in a morning survey book for each beach to keep a record of the activity. Later that day I had a beach clean on Vathi, picking up all the rubbish on the beach, especially fishing nets and plastic bags. Plastic bags can confuse turtles and they think they are jellyfish so try to eat them. This is why beach cleans were so important, they are also a great way to raise public awareness!.

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 I had my first kiosk shift the following day from 10:00-13:00, the shift consisted of counting our stock, informing the public to our volunteering efforts, about the sea turtles on the beach and how they could help. Our kiosk is stationed on Mavrovouni beach so a lot of beach goers would see the nests and became curious as to what we do. Or you'd meet locals who had no idea sea turtles even came up onto the beach to nest, which would prove how essential public awareness is..

Our kiosk on Mavrovouni Beach by Joni Stamoulis

The following day I had Morning survey again and also basecamp. Basecamp was just doing the errands around camp, help clean up the area. Every day there were 2 basecamp shifts, from 12:00-15:00 and the other at 18:00-21:00. On average there were 15 volunteers staying at camp so it could get messy if not maintained each day. Similarly each of us had alternating shifts in cooking for camp, if enough people were at camp 2 people had that shift in a day, but not always.
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 On Saturday 4th July I had my first morning surveys on Valtaki and Selinitsa. At the beginning of my volunteering morning surveys were split in doing either the whole of Mavrovouni (5km length beach) or Valtaki and Selinitsa combined as they are shorter beaches..

  Valtaki

 Selinitsa

 Those beaches we had to drive to, unlike Mavrovouni which was a 5-minute waking distance, if that. We started on Selinista, and this is the day I found my very first nest. I had seen turtle tracks before on previous surveys but this was my first nest. When the turtle nesting attempt was identified as a nest we dug for the eggs, we would dig for the top egg of the egg chamber and once found measurements would be taken..

 S011 before necessary nest protection & digging took place.

 S011's top egg in the egg chamber!

Each nest was given a unique nest code so they could be easily identified on surveys. My first nest was S011!.

Me and my first nest on Selinitsa S011.

Summary:

27/06- Arrived!

28/06- MS M / Beach Clean B

29/06- K 10:00-13:00

30/06- MS M / Induction 16:00 / BC 18:00-21:00

01/07- Day Off

02/07- MS M / cook

03/07- K 10:00-13:00

04/07- MS V+S / BC 12:00-15:00.

Key:

MS- Morning Survey

ES- Evening Survey

LS- Light Survey

NP- Night Patrol

K- Kiosk

BC- Basecamp

IT- Information Table

SS- Slideshow

EX- Excavation

SH- Shading.

Beach Codes:

M- Mavrovouni (Whole beach)

ME- Mavrovouni East

MW- Mavrovouni West

V- Valtaki

S- Selinitsa

B- Vathi.