Life after ARCHELON...

As soon as I got home on the 5th I cried, I couldn't believe I wasn't at camp anymore. I had serious withdrawal from camp for the first week of being home before I readjusted to not being there. It was lovely to have my usual cup of tea, to see my pets, friends and family but at the very same time I left a life behind at camp. 

 Sammy and Anna had given me the cutest leaving present, when they gave it to me I cried it was so sweet of them. It was a mug with a selfie of us pulling silly faces with the caption "Take me seriously" which was an inside joke at camp that I will always love. So as soon as I had a cup of tea the next morning I sent them a picture of it in my new favourite mug!

 Since coming home I've still kept in contact with quite a few people who I met at camp. And I hope to arrange plans to see who I can soon, I am sure the friendships I made there will last for a long time. Volunteering at ARCHELON was by far the best experience of my life, and I'll forever treasure those 10 weeks. I was lucky enough to be surrounded by the most incredible people and share so many experiences with them. 

 I had 3 group photos while at camp, these don't show everyone I met there but here's some of them!

Left to right: Anna, Emily, Tania, Will, Me, Emily, Donna, Sarah, Alexus, Ruben, Rocky, Hetty, Lizzie, Sammy

Left to right: Tash, Klara, Donna, Ruben, Me, Gretta, Alexus, Rocky, Lizzie, Victor, Anna, Finn, AJ, Maria, Diana
Front row: Sammy, Iuliana, André

Left to right: Andrea, Glen, Gail, Tara, Ollie, Kieran, Kat, Iona

Front row: Anna, Sammy, Me

 If you're interested in volunteering with ARCHELON I highly recommend you do it! Go to archelon.gr for more information, or read about volunteering in the Lakonikos Bay project through GVI at www.gvi.co.uk/programs/volunteer-turtles-greece

 Also check out the Facebook pages for both ARCHELON here and the ARCHELON Lakonikos Bay page here!

To finish this blog of my experience, I want to say a huge thank you to the following people: 

Anna, Sammy, Alexus, Rocky, Donna, Emily R-B, Hetty, Will L, Lizzie, Ruben, Tania, Emily W, Sarah, Gretta, Iuliana, Diana, Victor, Tash, Klara, AJ, Farah, Jill, Will H, Finn, Marion, Jo, Charlie, Alex, Iona, Rosie, Kieran, Alana, Tara, Ollie, Kat, Gail, Glen, Viktoria, and all the family and part time volunteers, as well as the scout groups I met. You all made my experience as great as it was, you taught me so much and it was amazing to meet such great people from all over the world. I'm so happy I met each and every one of you.

Week 10 Volunteering @ ARCHELON 30/08-05/09

 Week 10!! My last week... Started off with my last shift with Anna ever, which I didn't realise at the time...

 Me and Anna had an excavation to do of V005 and there was a hatchling inside!! It was so sandy and adorable. It was right at the bottom of the egg chamber! The little hatchling stretched its flippers as it came out and was climbing all over the egg shells of its siblings before making its way to sea. It was BY FAR the cutest hatchling I ever saw!

 On the 1st August I had my only ever public excavation where I didn't have Anna and Sammy around! So I was doing the talking to the public, which before this experience I would've struggled with. I don't know whether it was because I felt I knew what I was talking about or whether it was that I really have developed my confidence but it was a breeze.

 On the 3rd August it was just one of the most perfect days. My last time on Vathi with Sammy for morning survey, only time I ever went there that early in the morning in fact! Usually when I'd go to Vathi it'd be if Sammy asked if anyone wanted to come along or she'd ask me if I'd come along because she needed help. I think that was my favourite thing to do really, just go on shift with the best person I met while I was out there, just chat, do the survey and have fun. I went on surveys to Vathi way more times when I wasn't actually down for a shift on Vathi than when I was actually put on to do it haha!

Morning sunrise on Vathi

 Earlier in the week Sammy, Anna and me spoke about how I'd never visited a different beach while there, so Sammy arranged a day trip to Skoutari, a beach we don't survey - it was gorgeous! We had lunch and so much fun. My favourite beach day by a long way!

Panoramic of Skoutari!

Me, Sammy, Kat and Kieran!

Mad-rote was my nickname from Sammy, and Sam.I.Is was hers; our rapper names she came up with!

 Finished off the day with the excavation of my first nest, S011. I saw this nest come full circle. My first nest; I saw the top egg, protected it, I shaded it, and then I got to excavate it with Sammy who was the one who was there for my first nest too. Sadly Rocky had been gone for a while since but she was there for my first nest too. Was nice closure to the volunteering experience.

Before we had dug for the eggs

Top egg in the egg chamber!

  

Me shading S011 on the 18th August!

Top hatched egg!

 

 My last morning survey was eventful, we had a found by predation nest at the end of East, similar to a found by hatching nest I mentioned earlier but it was dogs/foxes which found the nest before we saw hatchling tracks. So had to walk back to camp and get more bamboo to ensure secure nest protection. This meant that technically I had protected a nest/found a nest on every beach we monitored, which I didn't think was going to happen as hadn't found a nest on Mavrovouni at all during nesting season.

  

 For Taverna night we went to this place by the Port which did amazing Moussaka - one of my favourite meals now. My last day was pretty hard, I was dreading saying my goodbyes. I had seen so many goodbyes while I was there, but I didn't ever want it to be my turn to have to leave. We woke up, took a group photo, and then as my taxi arrived it was my time to say my goodbyes. I was sad saying goodbye to everyone but it's when it got to Anna I started to cry my eyes out, and I actually didn't manage to say anything when I was hugging her goodbye... And then as I stopped hugging Anna I looked over at Sammy, another one I knew I would never want to say goodbye to. It's hard when you spend 70 days with people, living and working together and you get so close. They truly felt like family by that point, and honestly the hardest goodbye I've ever had to say to someone. In the taxi I was just crying, the Friday before it didn't feel like I was leaving. Even the morning of me going it didn't feel like it. I said to Iona it feels like I'm just getting ready for Morning survey, and she said that's what it felt like too. It was saying goodbye to Anna and Sammy that it was at that moment it did feel like I was leaving.

 After all the crying me and Ollie made our long way back to Athens, on our 4 and a half hour bus back from Gythio. We decided to stop off at the Sea Turtle Rescue Center in Athens while we were there, which I was so excited for. I was so excited to see the turtles which were rescued by us safe and well in the center! Seeing Kyma again was great! I didn't see Sunny but one of the volunteers at the Center told me she was doing well, so I was super happy to hear that. 

Left: Kyma being rescued / Right: Kyma safe and doing good in the rescue center!

Summary:
30/08- MS V+S (EX V005) / K 12:00-14:00
31/08- MS S / EX KP
01/09- K 10:00-12:00 / ES S + EX S010
02/09- ES S
03/09- MS B / Skoutari / EX S011
04/09- MS ME / BC
05/09- left camp 

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