Work experience?… or Flooglebinder work experience!
Author: Harry, 15, work experience student
Read time: 2 minutes
Flooglebinder are travel experts and a certified B Corporation with tour experience in over 75 countries. We curate sustainable bespoke adventures that incorporate sustainability, conservation and wellness. As a BCorp organisation we use business as a force for good, meet the highest standards of verified performance, accountability and transparency, whilst tracking and monitoring our social and environmental impact.
For my work experience, I came to Greece to work on a turtle conservation project. I started in Athens and then went to Kefalonia to stay and work with the turtles.
“Patience is key because when you are looking for turtles you may not find them straight away”
One of the activities we took part in was the nesting survey. For this, I had to wake up at 4:00 am. This is because we need to be there before anyone else to be able to see the tracks clearly so we can spot nests. My group was unable to find a nest but the other group was able to find a nest with eggs in so we rushed over to find them and watched them take out the eggs from the nest to replace them in a more safe and sustainable home. They do this because when the eggs hatch we don't want them looking at lights from the city, we only want them to be looking for the moon. They use the moon to follow into the sea.
Another reason why we replace them is because when the turtles grow up and make nests themselves we want them to come back to the same beach because it would be safe for them to do so. When we find nests, we also had to measure how far they were from the sea and take GPS measurements. At the end of nesting, because the temperature makes you feel like you are going to melt, we were able to go into the sea and cool off, but as we were heading back down the beach we saw a dead turtle that had washed up on the beach. As sad as it is, we were able to see and feel the reality of working with them and what can happen. Because the turtle was washed up we gathered more info about the turtle and what they look like close up because you don’t get to see this in the water.
We also went to the town and did harbour surveys, looking for and recording turtle interactions. For this part of the project, patience is key because when you are looking for turtles you will not find them straight away. This can be annoying because you could be out looking for them for a couple of hours but not see anything but other times it is the opposite. If you are able to find a turtle in the water you must not touch it because they are wild animals and could cause danger. When you are able to see a turtle and fish up close, it is an amazing feeling because it is very different to watching them on TV. You are actually able to be in the same space as them and it’s very cool.
“Seeing a turtle up close is an amazing feeling because it is very different to watching them on TV”
The last component of the turtle project we took part in was the snorkel survey. We would go out and look for seagrass and record what we found on the GoPro that was given to us. We did this a few times during the trip. An interesting experience that happened when I was looking for turtles was when I got caught up in the current and it pushed me out into the rocks. Once up onto the rock I slipped into a hole and scratched my leg. It healed quite fast so I was ok.
When at the campsite, I had a couple of jobs. The main one was washing out the snorkels after being in the sea. The reason for washing out the snorkels after being in the sea is so the salt water doesn’t wear down the rubber inside. Another job I had every day was to chop up the watermelon for breakfast. This became quite repetitive but I also was an expert by the end.
Living in camp was an amazing experience for me because it allowed me to learn about new animals like cicadas. I learnt why they just go on making a hideous noise, it is just to impress the females and to be noticed. They also have a unique way of making this noise and their body shape is similar to that of a violin or guitar, like a resonating chamber which allows them to be so loud.
“Living in camp was an amazing experience for me because it allowed me to learn about new animals like the cicadas”
In camp, we had activities that we did quite a lot and one of them was playing the taco, cat, cheese, goat, pizza card game. Every time we had any spare time we would play and we had a lot of fun. It was nice to not have tv or many home comforts as it allowed us to get to know each other. We also got to buy delicious drinks from the campsite cafe. My favourites were the banana juice (everyone else thought this was weird) and the Oreo milkshake.
Getting to see nature, swim in the sea, drink milkshakes and look for crabs made this trip great fun and I learnt a lot about turtles, the Greek islands, and conservation.
