Things I never dreamt I would see – Part 2

The giant female turtle stayed motionless after that, and I feared that I had frightened it by coming so close, but as the minutes passed I realized what an exhausting struggle it had been for the poor beast as it dragged its great weight up that loose sand. It took more than 10 minutes or so before the exhausted female turtle began using its hind legs to slowly brush sand into the hole to bury its eggs, resting every now and then.

By my wristwatch, that poor thing spent nearly 40 minutes burying its precious eggs, and it then took close to 40 more minutes dragging itself back down to the edge of the sea. I walked down with it as it struggled its way back into its natural environment, but I very carefully stayed far enough away so as to avoid frightening it. It stopped, breathing hard every time after it used both sets of legs at the same time to move itself just a foot or so, and I at first stupidly thought it was crying from the exertion until I realized that being a sea creature it was used to having its eyes wet, and the “tears” I saw were some natural form of protection for them.

At last, the turtle reached the sea, disappearing out of sight, but not out of mind, as I drove to Mauripur Airbase, where I unloaded a cargo aircraft, too busy to give much thought to what I had seen. Later, however, on the 14-mile drive back into town, I gave the whole matter some thought.

First of all, I wanted to see more of those turtles, and to learn a lot more about them, but I also decided that I was going to keep what I had seen to myself. I had no doubt that the locals knew all about them, but I decided it would not be wise to tell other Americans about what I had seen, thereby probably causing several of them to drive out to the beach and make the poor creatures nervous.

Lolly and I were not yet married, and she agreed with me when I told her my thinking on the subject. So, I carefully studied my new turtle acquaintances, but only on foot and very quietly.

Two things about them came close to breaking my heart. One was a scene I watched during the hatching of the very same batches of eggs I had seen laid.

Tell you about it next week.