ARCHELON

I come from a background of holiday camping and living on the beach, so I am more or less accustomed to the way of living, however for some people it can, and as I witnessed was a shock! After a few days, however people tend to adapt and embrace waking up at ungodly hours of the morning to the most beautiful sunrises and if they're lucky, some turtle tracks! I will always remember walking up to my first set of tracks, they are so distinct. It's like finding treasure, and when your finger sinks into a hollow bit of sand and your find your first egg, it's surreal. Knowing that you are helping protect the nests to help ensure their safety and adding to a huge data base of information that can aid in the study of these animals to help further their protection and people's knowledge of them is a really satisfying feeling. The conservation and public awareness is really great and well organised, volunteers learn both about the scientific/conservation aspect and about the social side, too as they are interdependent in our day and age with tourism and costal settlements. Another fulfilling aspect will have to be all the amazing, diverse people you meet. You are guaranteed to make lasting friendships that have the same interests and will maybe even invite you to their part of the world in the future! This project is really not one to miss, there is a great balance of work and play, so you have fun and give back to nature! It was overall a positive experience and I would definitely consider doing it again!

Over the summer, I participated in this unique volunteer experience. I worked with an amazing and eccentric group of people on multiple beaches on the Peloponnesian peninsula. Though the other volunteers and I worked in shifts to help protect sea turtles, there was a lot of free time as well. The free time allowed for bonding and fun, but there was not as much volunteer work as I was anticipating. All in all, the experience was life changing and I still am in contact with some of the friends I made in Greece. However, if you are dead-set on heavy volunteer work, this may not be the ideal program.