Turtley tropical
THOMPSON
David Attenborough gh eat your heart out. I am standing on the edge of the beach of the Dune of Sal in Santa Maria in the he Cape Verde islands. And we are all cooing as if the cutest ever newborn is being paraded.
Eight tiny loggerhead turtles, barely a day old, are taking their first steps since being rescued by the Project Biodiversity team.
The group, supported by TUI’s Turtle Aid Programme, has set up a flat sandy area with hundreds of nests
filled with turtle eggs eggs. Each one is numbered. To ensure they hatch and can make it down to the sea, they have been moved away from areas of the beach that suffer from light pollution or where eggs would have been damaged.
Even the little ones that are not strong enough are placed into buckets and released into the water at night to give e them the best chance of survival.
You can also do some good here by sponsoring a turtle or a nest for as little as 10 euros. You get a certificate and an email with photos of your turtle after it hatches. As souvenirs go, it certainly beats a key ring.
This stunning volcanic island chain is made up of 10 islands and five islets, 310 miles off the coast of West
Africa.
They could be likened to the Caribbean thanks to the year-round sunshine and golden sands.
But they also offer visitors the rare chance to get up close to these rare turtles. The archipelago is home to the third thir largest loggerhead turtle nesting nes population in the world wor and second in the Atlantic Atla Ocean.
Cape Ca Verde has often been referred refer to as the African Caribbean Carib but in reality, it is only really now that it has the q quality of hotel, activities and restaurants re to rival Barbados and Jamaica. Ja
And as I sat in the Ola Brazil beach cafe, sand at my feet, sipping on a caipirinha cocktail that tasted tas as good as ones I’ve drunk o on the shores in Rio, I felt certain I had discovered a new holiday destination d that is going to become massively popular in the coming years.
With a six-hour flight and two-hour time difference, there is no jet lag. Although there are palm trees and pastel-coloured homes, what you’ll