ntpvolunteer

[ntpvolunteer]

January 19

Today is my birthday! And it also marks a week since I returned to Perth from Exmouth. I miss it so much already. I crave the beach every day, and the free lifestyle with little to no responsibility.

I’m feeling pretty sentimental today, so here is a list of some of the things I miss (some are surprising to me too):

- seeing my first turtle

- walking on the beach every day (I covered an approximate 68km over my 4 weeks of monitoring)

- swimming with turtles and sharks

- billions of flies

- water volley ball days

- 40+ degree heat

- emus walking around town (even though I’m still so scared of the damn things)

- slippery rocks - fish, just all of the fish

- 5am wake ups (who would of thought I could become a morning person)

- my NTP family

- the beaches

- the DPaW staff (shout out to Matt and Derek)

- seeing a manta ray

- helping rescue my first turtle

- feeling totally isolated while camping at Bungelup

- Bungelup in general

- Rock Wallabies

- snorkelling

- feeling exhausted every moment of every day, but the 'I’ve-done-something-amazing' exhausted

- feeling like I’ve contributed to something so incredible

This trip ignited a passion and love for the ocean that I didn’t even know I possessed. I am looking forward to where it will take me!

Thank you to everyone who followed me and supported me through out this incredible, inspiring, emotional, journey! 

NTPV OUT!

[ntpvolunteer]

January 11

Our last official day as turtle volunteers! 

The morning started off a bit rough, as we drove to the first section, there was a kangaroo on the other side of the road that must have just been hit by a car. I won't go into too much detail but you could see it was injured and unfortunately, there is not much you can do about it because there is no where up here to rehab them. Hamish had the unfortunate task of putting it out of it's misery, I'm glad he offered and also proud that he had the courage to do it, I know I wouldn't have been able to as I couldn't even look. But he was so compassionate about it and apologised to everyone even though it was something that had to be done. 

After that everyone tried to put it to the back of their mind and focus on the last session of monitoring! It was over too quickly for me, my section was the last one and I didn't have a lot of action. So I sat on the beach, had a swim, and thought about the amazing time I've had and all the great memories and experiences.  I can't believe today is the last day, it's gone by so quickly and I feel like only yesterday I was sitting in my villa room, nervously waiting to meet everyone else. I couldn't have asked for a better experience, or a better time to have been able to get out of reality for a little while. 

The people here are amazing and I can definitely see myself back here soon, who knows, maybe I'll even end up studying marine biology and getting a job up here one day! 

All I know is that this is something I will remember for the rest of my life, and I'm so glad I got to be a part of it.  

Now it's time for the end of season bbq before hopping on a plane tomorrow and heading back to Perth. I can't wait to see all my friends and family, but I am really going to miss it up here. 

NTPV over. 

[ntpvolunteer]

January 10

I had the day off so I got a bit of a sleep in today! I got up about 7.30, and made pancakes for everyone. They were all pretty stoked when they came back from monitoring to find a massive stack of them! 

Maddey and I walked to the soap/gift shop and then back to the villas, and it was so damn hot we almost passed out. The others wanted to go fishing but I gave it a miss and had the villa to myself for a while so I just chilled out and had a nap. 

We had a family dinner, and I have never laughed so hard in my life! I think we're all totally exhausted and delirious that everything was so much funnier than it should have been. I took myself off to bed after dessert (store bought mud cake and cheesecake courtesy of myself and Maddey) with a full belly and aching ribs from laughing. 

NTPV over. 

[ntpvolunteer]

Fishy

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Snorkelling at Oyster Stacks 

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Oyster Stack 

[ntpvolunteer]

January 9

Monitoring was pretty quiet again, but the wind was so strong last night that the tracks had either been blown away completely or were just so hard to see/identify. I did have a turtle on my beach, and she was making her way back to the water.

We packed our stuff and hopped on the bus to go down to Oyster Stacks. It's amazing down there, but it was a little choppy and the swell was decent so we got pushed around a bit, which was a little dangerous next to the massive stacks! 

Next stop was South Mandu. I am so bummed that we waited until the very end to go here, it was absolutely beautiful. You have to snorkel at high tide because the coral comes right up, and we had about 1m between the coral and the top of the water so you had to be careful where you swam. I saw a back tipped reef shark swim right past me and actually caught it on camera! I thought I'd be scared of sharks but they're actually incredible to see in the water. I'd love to see more of them and I'm definitely coming back to swim with whale sharks. 

Everyone was pretty buggered by then but we moved on to Lakeside and a few people went in for a swim but I stayed near the Estuary and chilled out in the shade, after realising how burnt I was… Almost made it the full five weeks, but no, had to get burnt on the third last day! 

We got home about 5.30pm and had dinner, and a few of the girls, TL Connor, and I went to the Potshot for a few drinks. I lasted until about 10pm when I hit a wall and decided to go home. I have the day off tomorrow but I just couldn't hack it unfortunately, too much fun in the sun! 

NTPV out. 

[ntpvolunteer]

January 8

Today was pretty quiet, I only had one nest and a false crawl on my section and then the rest of the day was spent relaxing and chilling out. We were supposed to go snorkelling but because of the wind it has been postponed until tomorrow. NTPV out.

[ntpvolunteer]

My poor stranded turtle 

[ntpvolunteer]

Standing on top of the range, with Sandy Bay in the distance behind 

[ntpvolunteer]

[ntpvolunteer]

January 7

It’s been a very busy couple of days so I’ll have to play a bit of catch up! 

4th:  Monitoring was pretty quiet today, there was another rescue but I was too far up so I didn’t get to help out unfortunately!  After monitoring, James and Leslie decided they wanted to take their cars out for a bit of four-wheel driving. So I jumped in Leslie’s car, and Marigula and Hamish went with James. We hit a rough patch when we realised one of James’ tyres was flat, so we had a quick change in the petrol station before heading off at midday. We spent the rest of the arvo driving over the range and coming out in the national park near Sandy Bay.  The others went to the lighthouse and turtle watching, but I was feeling pretty dehydrated and had a killer headache so I was in bed and passed out by 9pm. 

5th: Monitoring was intense, I had a turtle stuck behind some dunes, so when I got picked up we had to drive about halfway up my section, and then walk 400m to get to her. She had walked back and forth behind the dunes, so we tried to coax her up a dune. Then James started calling on the radio that he had a really distressed turtle on his beach, also behind some dunes. So we chucked on some gloves and gave the turtle a massive push and she made it over the dunes and started gunning it towards the water.  We finally got to James’ beach, absolutely drenched in sweat because it was so hot already (approx 8am), and six of us, including myself, had to put on gloves and get the turtle onto a sling and carry her over a dune and into the water. Once she hit the water she was out of there, I’ve never seen something swim so fast! 10 seconds later we saw a manta ray in the water as well! So all in all it was a really successful morning with two happy turtles.  Apparently it hit 44 degrees in Perth, while we sat on a (kind of) comfortable 38!  That evening we went down to Town Beach and got some fish and chips and had a bit of a family picnic. 

6th:  I had a local vollie, Joss, walk with me this morning. We didn’t have too much action but there was a turtle digging still.  We had finished by 6.47am, so she offered to drop me back at the villas, so when I got home I made pancakes for the rest of my house, before heading off to data entry.  The rest of the day was spent chilling out in the aircon until we drove down to Bundegi for a swim. 

Today, 7th:  Monitoring was great! We saw an echidna crossing the road so we stopped to take some photos and Hamish picked it up and it rolled into a ball and he put it behind a bush away from the road. Then we had a turtle rescue on a section before I had even started monitoring mine! She was stuck in some rocks and really wedged in so a few of the boys had to pull her out backwards so she could clamber over the rest of the rocks, face planting occasionally.  I had data entry again and then had a nap before we played some more water volleyball. But it was so damn hot, it got to 46 degrees today, finally the hottest day so far this summer!  At 3.50pm we got a message saying that if we wanted to help with a release of a turtle that had been flown up from Perth, we had to walk to DPaW immediately. We basically ran (in 45 degree heat) and then had to wait at DPaW for almost half an hour. The poor turtle, I’m surprised she got through it ok! Finally we got up to Mildura Wreck and she got released into the ocean. Her name was Nuggets!  It’s been an amazing couple of days and I can’t believe it’s almost coming to an end. I’m going to miss it so much up here, but I do believe I’ll be back very soon ;) 

NTPV out.

[ntpvolunteer]

Charles Knife Gorge

[ntpvolunteer]

January 3

Yesterday arvo actually ended up being quite busy! James and Pia offered to drive us down to Bundegi for a swim, and we stopped off at a supposed shark nursey but it was pretty low tide so we couldn't see any sharks. We swam for a while at Bundegi but it's exhausting to swim all the way out to the reef when there's a strong current so we didn't stay out too long. 

At about 4.30 we all met at the TLs villa. Leslie had organised to drive us to see the Learmonth jetty, and then up to the Charles Knife gorge. It was about a half an hour to 45 minute drive, but the view was totally worth it. By the time we had a bit of a walk around, it was already starting to get dark, so the drive home took even longer because you have to drive slowly due to numerous kangaroos and other animals. 

I had the longest section of beach today, and the least action. In total, one green nest, and a hawksbill false crawl. It was a bit disappointing, especially when I found out the others further down the beach had a Loggerhead rescue! It sounded awful though, apparently she was incredibly distressed and it was difficult to get her back to the water. 

Today after monitoring the TLs were planning a snorkelling trip, but Maddey and I decided to stick around at the villas instead. It was a good decision because I didn't realise how exhausted I was until I passed out for a long nap. 

Today has been one of those 'eat-a-whole-block-of-chocolate-and-not-even-care' days. I realised that we only have eight days left, and I only have seven monitoring sessions left.  I was too excited and happy to be here, that the time has just flown past, and I am definitely not ready to go home and face reality. This trip has been the escape that I needed, and the experience that I wanted. It's made me think about everything I deserve and what I need to be happy and make the most out of my life. When I come home a lot of things are going to change, and 2015 is going to be my best year yet. 

NTPV out. 

[ntpvolunteer]

Turtle butt

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One of our totems that mark the beginning or end of a section 

[ntpvolunteer]

January 2

Finally into 2015! It feels good. 

New Years Eve was a blur, we had pre drinks at the TLs villa before heading to potshot in all our pirate costumes. Some of the DPaW staff joined us there, and they were quite generous with handing out some drinks, and so was one of the bartenders. By midnight I was well and truly sloshed, so about 15 minutes after the year ticked over to 2015, I had to bail before I ended up on the floor! 

A few of us decided it would be a great time for a swim in the pool, but by the time we'd made it back to the villas to change, we were too wrecked and decided to eat half a lasagne instead.. needles to say it was a such a good night and definitely up there as one of the best NYE I've had! 

Yesterday was a recovery day, everyone was a little under the weather so we just chilled out and went for a swim in the pool. We all had the morning off monitoring so got a pretty decent sleep in as well! 

Today we were back out on the beaches bright and early, and I had one of the long beaches but there wasn't much action so I managed to do it pretty quickly and got to watch some of the surf action at the end of my section. No plans as of yet for the rest of the day, tomorrow we've got some snorkelling planned so taking it easy before then. 

NTPV out.