Turtle Bound

It was time to complete the last leg of my journey in Sri Lanka - this involved a train journey from Galle via Aluthgama to Colombo. So early morning start to catch a tuk-tuk to the station and a brief interlude with the ticket both sees me walking to the platform with a 100r (60p) ticket to Aluthgama. The ticket itself is a card style stub about an inch in length which is snipped as you enter the platform (just like the old tickets from the UK)… Once settled comfortably into 2nd Class with its soft seats and fans we are off spot on time. The track as always is rough, bumping us up and down and from side to side! However, the views from the left windows is sublime with the train track at times running along the beach front :)
Arriving in Aluthgama you are greeted by the mob of 1 tuk-tuk touts ;) and before you know it I am whisked away to my hotel for the night ‘Longbeach’ in Induruwa. The hotel is located right on the steep sandy beach with crashing waves tearing the sand out from beneath your wriggling toes :) a wonderful location and the husband and wife team make you feel at home while their dutchund comes for some attention…
Towards the evening I booked to go and visit the turtle hatchery at Kosgoda - It was a short tuk-tuk ride to get to and turned out to be a small shack tucked away behind some homes near to the beach with several concrete water tanks and a well. The area had been devastated by the Tsunami and had been rebuilt using donations and volunteer workers - they have achieved much but it seems a little commercialised now with the entry charge rising from 200r to 500r per person (I was however impressed enough with the work they were doing to donate a little extra). They pay fishermen 10r per egg to take them to the hatchery where they are protected from predation and when they hatch the turtles are kept for 3 days before release… The females are kept for 7 years to allow better chance of survival and more breeding opportunities… The centre also runs a hospital pool for injured turtles or turtles with disabilities (blind, humpbacked etc) and another two pools for the very rare albino turtles. I was permitted to hold some eggs which were ‘dead’ and found out that they are soft skinned and then went onto the highlight which was to hold some green turtle hatchlings before their release - This is the stand out moment of the visit for me. The enchanting wriggling wet slimy hatchling gave me a paternal desire for its well being - I wish it well in its future marathon journeys… Along with all the others of course!!
Debatable point: Should fishermen be paid to provide the centre with turtle eggs or should local villages be paid to protect the beaches known to be nesting sites? Discuss. Or is their another solution?
Felt ill for the first time today - sore throat, headache, temperature… After sleeping poorly decided to seek medical advise when I got to Colombo… (Advise: Always check if your ill in tropical areas if not it could get worse!!)