Glorious St George's

I had so enjoyed our trip to St George's at the weekend that I persuaded John we should return today because the weather is forecast to change and cool by the end of the week and I wanted to swim in the sea (hopefully with the turtles!!).

John was more than happy to do that so we packed up a bag of swimmers and headed off down to the coast.  We stopped before the harbour and parked up on the left hand side to investigate that bit of coastline which is rugged and beautiful.  Just a stone's throw up the coast there is a massive and sprawling new development Cap St George which might be new and shiny but has detracted from the beautiful coastline that used to be there.

We then moved down to the bay and took ourselves for a walk along the harbour.  There didn't appear to be any sign of the turtles so we were grateful that we had seen them at the weekend.  We were just about to walk back to the beach when a guy stopped and struck up conversation with John just asking about whether we lived on the island and how long.  As we were chatting John suddenly became aware that in the water in front of us there was movement.

We were stood by a Cypriot fishing boat on which there was a man and woman sorting out their fishing nets and chucking bits of fish over the side.  They also had a small black dog on the boat.  The man talking to John explained that they threw the fish over the side to encourage the turtles and that there were three large resident ones and that the little dog would bark when it was aware that the turtles were approaching.

The woman realised that we were hoping to see the magnificent beasts and so obliged by chucking some fish in front of us and then one of the turtles put in an appearance.  These beasts are absolutely amazing - they are so quiet in their approach and glide through the water and then with one big sweep move away much quicker than  you would think given their size.

We had an amazing view of at least two of the turtles - it is quite hard to tell them apart but we know from the weekend that there is more than one.

We stayed watching for quiet a while before heading back to the car and changing so that we could go for a swim - we had our snorkeling gear with us and were hopeful that we might get a sighting of the turtles underwater.

As we swam out towards the fishing boat there were a couple of people on canoes that were spotting where they were and so they were able to direct us to a brilliant spot where the turtles were swimming around in front of us.  Periodically one or other of them would rear up and poke their massive head above the water before diving down again.  It was magical and we felt privileged to have been able to witness them in their natural habitat.

Almost reluctantly we made our way back to the shore and went and got ourselves a drink at the beach cafe.  The food there looked amazing and we were toying with the idea of having some lunch when I reminded John we had some date-night fillet steak from Shuks earmarked for supper.  We will definitely go back though and not leave it too long as the weather is cooling quite quickly.