Last fall I saw a photo contest offering the winner a trip of a lifetime to Australia. Now, Australia is a lovely and photogenic place. How many people, asked to think up their own personal trip of a lifetime, would choose Australia? Maybe not many, but some for sure, and that’s the thing. There are as many trips of a lifetime as there are lifetimes. Google “trip of a lifetime” and you’ll get 4,600,000 hits.
Emily and Jonathan’s trip of a lifetime happened in 2007. Kyla and Nick's happened in 2008 & 2009. Islands magazine/Orion Expedition Cruises "Trip of a Lifetime" contest winner was Justin Lechwar of Missouri, who will be enjoying a "dream cruise this March through the islands of Melanesia." Meanwhile Dallas-area teen amputees enjoy the trip of a lifetime skiing in Colorado.
Advertising aside, there's no such thing as a single "trip of a lifetime." Everybody gets to decide on their own.
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There are two basic types of traveler: Those who find their place in the sun and return there again and again, and those who try someplace new just about every time. We're type #2. For type #2's, every successful trip tries to get close to an "of a lifetime" element - that is, a bit you're likely as not never to do again - that you're only doing once in a lifetime.
Our most recent trip had one specific "of a lifetime" element.
On Ascension island we walked down to the tiny conservation office at 8:00 one night and joined up with three conservation officers and a handful of other interested people for a walk down Long Beach.
In ten minutes we walked from the middle of "town" into an all-enveloping darkness that had the stars shining brighter than I believe I'd ever seen. The lead conservation person slipped away and in ten more minutes had found and summoned us to a massive green turtle nesting on the beach. It's a rare and fascinating thing - and something we're likely only to see once in a lifetime.
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From Ascension Conservation's own brochure (download the pdf):
"Green Turtles are thought to be between 20-40 years old when they reach maturity and make the journey to their nesting grounds for the first time... Shortly after arrival, mating occurs and then the females undertake the nesting process as many as ten times at intervals of 10-17 days.
Once the turtle has dug a large pit with all of her flippers she digs a chamber with her hind flippers into which she lays approximately 120 ping-pong sized eggs. When she reaches this stage she sits virtually motionless."
From the Ascension Heritage Society:
"The green turtles that nest on Ascension Island are the largest of this species in the world, being approximately 1.5 metres in length and 150 - 300 kg in weight.They are also unique in that males and females migrate from Brazil where they feed, to Ascension Island in order to breed and in the case of females lay their eggs.They then return to Brazil and repeat their migration every 3 - 4 years. The method by which they find this small and remote island is not fully understood, and is considered one of the most amazing navigational feats of all species in the animal kingdom."
Here are a few photos. First, these are tracks made by the turtles between the ocean and their nesting places:
These depressions are the holes dug, probably the previous night, in which turtles have laid their eggs:
Here's the nesting turtle we saw on our walk with the Ascension island conservation staff, "virtually motionless," as their literature (above) says:
And The Moment:
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As we've said, "Maybe we ought to try to let every trip be, one way or another, "of a lifetime" - at least until the next one - and if somebody thinks they can sell it to us with those words, we probably ought to book it elsewhere."
(See more photos from Ascension Island in the Ascension Island Gallery, and more animals in the Animals and Wildlife Gallery at EarthPhotos.com.)
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