Cross this one off the bucket list

If you weren't hoping to see 30 pictures of adorable baby hawksbill sea turtles hatching on Zeelandia beach, then you came to the wrong place! This happened today, and it was one of the coolest things I've ever experienced.

Video to come, eventually. I may or may not have thrown away our camera's software CD, which may or may not be essential to uploading videos to my computer. We're still looking into it :/

The nest site - lucky number 17.

Digging them out...

Wake up, little turtles. At this point we could only see a sandy mass that occasionally moved.



Gradually they became more active and others made their way to the surface...

First little guy making a break for it.







Baby turtle faces.



ur doin it wrong





Turtle sandwich













Once the first turtles had reached the water, most of the onlookers stood out where the waves wash up. Each time the water rushed in there were cries of, "Nobody move, nobody move!" because each wave deposited several turtles back on land, often right near (or on) people's feet. Seaweed bumping into your feet in the ocean is disgusting. Baby sea turtles bumping into your feet in the ocean is adorable.











Some were able to flip themselves back over, but the less-agile ones had to wait for a fresh wave.

Tiny turtle tracks


Would now be a terrible time to mention that only one in a thousand reaches adulthood?