CODA BAHAMAS BOUND 2024-2025 (45)

 CODA : Another day at Jekyll.

Jekyll Harbor Marina, Jekyll Island State Park, Georgia   

Baby Terrapin turtle at the turtle hospital.

Marc-  The bottom line is that we did lots and lots of biking today all over and around this island.  We actually started off this morning taking a free loaner golf cart to go get groceries at theVillage Market.  Next we blasted off on the loaner bikes to Driftwood Beach.  The driftwood is actually a forest of dead live oak trees still hanging on to the beach.  Our bike route took us around the entire North end of Jekyll Island that is a gorgeous packed sand beach at low tide.  We circled back to the Island campground by way of one of the roads and then returned to the Clubhouse Cafe for coffee and egg croissant.  We walked through the impressive old clubhouse and bought a few postcards.  

Our most impressive stop of the day was at the Turtle Hospital (located in the old historic village powerhouse).  I will let Sara Lou describe the incredible experience and will add photos.  We learned a lot from the staff and one marine biologist.

Later we sopped for ice cream to energize before the bike trip to the southern end of the Island.  The chocolate brownie ice cream was fantastic.  South Beach had a wedding going on with the view of the northern end of Cumberland Island in the background.

This must be why golfing is so popular,

New free loaner bikes.

Driftwood Beach I.

Driftwood Beach II.

Back by way of the campground road.

Turtle Hospital.

Turtles have been around for more than 200 million years.

I bet they had ice cream in this place called Jekyll Island Sweets and I was correct.

One of the new electric island touring cars (rather traditional design eh).

South Beach looking toward Cumberland Island.

I am sitting in from of an air conditioning vent!  It was 82 degrees with 80% humidity. 

 Note the new I-pad orientation.

Lou- Today was awesome!! I'm still high off all the biking!

As promised, some more about the wonderful turtle hospital: 

I didn't even want to go at first! I just wanted to keep biking. But Dad said our friend Mindy recommended it, and Mindy is very cool and wise, so I figured it must be a good place.

She was right, of course! 

Enthusiastic volunteers and employees told us all about what various kinds of turtles eat (jellyfish, seaweed, and even berries!), how they're loners (the moms lay their eggs in a hole they dig on the beach, cover it up, and then it's up to the little guys to fend for themselves! And after they hatch and crawl to the sea, if they make it without getting caught by a predator, they're apparently not super communal), and all sorts of other things! 

We were especially taken with someone working by the big circular blue turtle tanks in a semi-outdoor area. She told us about how it's normal for barnacles to attach themselves to turtles. A healthy turtle will just rub against a rock to get them off, but a sick turtle might not have the energy for that, so more and more barnacles build up until the poor turtle is heavy and exhausted. Our awesome turtle expert told us that they often find such turtles washed up on the beach, and they take them in and help them out. Once they're better, they send them back home.

There were also the cutest baby turtles! (Dad took that incredible photo on the top of today's blog of one of them.) Sadly, their mom was hit by a car, but the wonderful turtle hospital people were able to save the eggs.

We had about a million other questions-- How big do turtles get? (These days, 6 feet long, 2,000 pounds, but loooong ago turtles could be way bigger than that! The biggest turtle ever recorded, "Archelon", was 15 feet long!) 

Do the people who work here live on Jekyll Island? (Nah, they can't afford it. They live in a town across the bridge. They do have a special pass, though, so that they don't need to pay that pesky entry fee when driving into the park.) 

How often to turtles need to breathe air? (When they're active, they like to come up every 5 minutes or so, but when they're resting they can stay underwater for several hours!)

Anyway, it was fabulous! Highly recommend! 

Tomorrow, we head towards Cumberland Island, where the wild horses are!