At the beginning of the summer holidays, we had the amazing opportunity to go to Greece as part of a Global Action trip. We landed in Athens and explored the city on the first day, including a visit to the ancient Acropolis – a long, hot walk to get there!. On the second day, we went on the Invisible tour by Shedia, which exposed us to another side of Athens. The tour showed us how homeless people were treated in Athens and the measures Shedia took to improve their situation. After the tour, we were invited into a restaurant run by Shedia where we ate a delicious meal. We also visited a turtle hospital run by the charity Archelon, which helps injured turtles from all over Greece before releasing them back into the sea when fully recovered.
After exploring Athens, we headed down to the Peloponnese and stayed in a gorgeous hotel overlooking the beautiful beach. Over the next few days, we took part in various activities ranging from visiting wildlife hospitals to cave visits. It was an action-packed week, but the highlight was definitely saving and relocating multiple turtle nests, which involved early mornings and beautiful walks along many different beaches. We teamed up with Tulipa Goulimin NGO, which taught us how to dig up the nests as if we had flippers to ensure we didn’t damage the eggs. This is a really small charity that helps conserve turtles along a massive coastline in the Peloponnese. They taught us lots about turtles….Did you know that….
Only female turtles ever leave the sea, and that is only to lay their eggs. Male turtles spend their whole lives in the sea after hatching
Turtles return to the same beach where they hatched to lay their eggs – this is a problem if the beach is now busier with tourists.
Turtle conservation is really important to help increase the number of turtles that survive to adulthood – it’s estimated that less than 1% of the eggs that hatch survive to adulthood.
We were given the opportunity to experience the trip with our trip leader, David, who taught us a lot about Greek culture, nature, as well as the turtle conservation schemes.
Overall, this trip was a memorable experience for us all, and it will definitely stick with us for life.
Isabel P, Rika H and Leilla I
Upper Sixth
