Turtle monitoring in Tassiriki

Well we have finally had our cultural – village- experience! We spent a weekend on a small island in a village called Tassiriki. The island was Moso, which is about 25Km up the west coast from Vila. AS well as it being an excuse to get out of town for the weekend, we went there to monitor turtles! Yep, to observe turtles coming up on the beach and laying eggs, by the hundreds. This village, until 12 months ago had actually been eating turtles! However, through the efforts of a couple of locals and the organisation that Jacquie works for (Wan Smol Bag) they have embarked on a conservation project instead. It’s a kind of eco-tourism deal, using tourists as monitors to count the comings and goings of turtles and gathering lots of information besides.

This was the inaugural tourist visit, so on arrival we received a lovely official welcome with lots of speeches, music and fabulous Kakai (lunch). The chief, David, welcomed us to his village and several other elders provided a few words of welcome as well. The entrance was garlanded with fresh flowers, the paths were newly sanded and swept and the huts, though rudimentary, were more than adequate for our needs.

Tassiriki is one of the nicest villages we have seen. Spacious, clean, well organised and with a really strong community spirit. Our two Ni-Van guides were obviously passionate about their work of turtle conservation.

We stayed in small huts (completed the night before) and became part of village life for the weekend - even attending church on Sunday morning. They had four pastors! One was the quiet, strong type, then there was a singing pastor, followed by a hell fire and brimstone - the devil's gonna getcha and the lord is watchin out for ya type, then we were treated to sincerity and reflection........2 hours of sitting down, standing up, singing in harmony, clapping hands, joining hands in a circle, shaking hands and shouting alleluias! Then we were invited to line up at the door shake hands with each member of the community. What struck me (Ron) was the obvious sincerity of every one. We were truly welcomed into their community –not just intrusive tourists.

On Saturday evening we did a 3.5 klm hike across a mountain to get to see the turtles - half in daylight and the rest by torch light. Ron fell over a stump and got a stick speared into his foot so we didn't actually get to see the turtles as I stayed with him on the beach and we watched in total silence the moon riding over the water on an isolated beach with not another person (apart from the turtle monitors who had trotted off 3 km up the beach) for miles around. We collected shells as big as saucers and spent about 3 hours just being quiet and together.

The others arrived back around 11:30pm and made us envious with their story of one turtle (amongst others) a metre long laying some 250 eggs and then scrambling back to the sea. They tagged the turtle and named it Tamaarana and released her to the sea. Tamaarana means Twin and is the name of the guest house we stayed in. Wherever she turns up now, we will be emailed about her. The turtles were laying well up the beach and on the dry sand in the bush. The local people say this is because there will be a cyclone this season!

At almost midnight we set off by torchlight back through the jungle and over the mountain to go home to sleep. Arriving in the village an hour later we popped a bottle of white and sat around in a circle with our other volunteer friends toasting turtles and Ron's poor speared foot!

Our truk really came to the fore as we packed in 10 people and all their gear to travel up to the boat landing and catch the boat out to the island. A lovely experience with lovely people (ni-Van and our volunteer gang). The only hard part was the drive up and back. The roads here really are something else once you get out of Vila. The 25Km journey took an hour each way!