Some places have deer, but not here...

Now this is a road sign you don't see every day!  How many places can claim to have a turtle crossing?

Tybee Island is just a short distance from Savannah, Georgia, and it's known as "Savannah's beach".  There's a long sandy beach, a picturesque lighthouse, and...  turtles!

Every year, endangered loggerhead sea turtles return to this area to nest on the beaches of Tybee Island, between May and August.

The turtle population declined over the years enough that the loggerheads were listed as endangered.  Though human activity, lights, and pollution are all still problems for the turtles, there's now a monitoring and nest protection plan in place. Volunteers check every day for new nests, and protect them from harm.  Sometimes they need to carefuly relocate a nest to a safer spot, to give the youngsters a better chance for survival.  Their odds are tough enough - only about one in a thousand reaches adulthood.

But wait, there's more!  It's not the sea turtles that cross the road, it's their cousin, the diamondback terrapin.  Listed as a "species of concern" in Georgia, the diamondback is the only turtle in North America that lives exclusively in brackish salt-marsh water.  The females seek higher ground to lay their eggs, and that's when they crawl out of the marsh and onto the road.

In 2005, over 250 diamondbacks died on this stretch of highway -- mostly females heavy with eggs.  Volunteers now try to help them across the road, or scoop up turtles killed by vehicles, and try to save the eggs and raise the young turtles.

Video of students releasing baby turtles (Cuteness warning!)

In Arizona, this sign probably would have had more bullet holes in it than the few you see here.  Let's just hope that the yahoos who shoot up the signs do this instead of killing the real thing.

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I'm in Savannah, Georgia now - putting the finishing touches on our new women's tour to Savannah. I can tell you now that it's looking like a fabulous fun time! Details will be ready for publication soon!
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Related posts:

1. Costa Rica - Turtle eggs and Viagra
2. Anegada - The drowned island
3. So there we were... in the garden of good and evil

Here's a video I put together of my visit to Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah, the site of the Garden of Good and Evil. It's certainly an eerie place!

If the video above doesn't show for you, here's a link: Savannah video on Blip.tv

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I thought Savannah looked like a marvelous place for a future women's tour. Anybody out there know Savannah? What do you think?
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Related posts:

1. So there we were... in the garden of good and evil
2. Video: Skellig Michael, ancient monastery in ruins
3. Toothbrush nightmares (video)

We arrived in historic Savannah, Georgia, last night. What a change from Atlanta! Savannah is a charming city with a lively and lovely historic downtown. It felt good to walk around, with lots of people out and about enjoying a pleasant evening. Atlanta is... totally different.

Today we went to Bonaventure cemetery. Why? The place is famous from the book and movie Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Midnight, voodoo and cemeteries... The "garden" was here in Bonaventure.

It was a spooky sort of day for it, with a bit of overcast adding atmosphere, and the wind blowing the moss that hangs heavily from the trees. Unlike many manicured cemeteries, this former plantation is a wild and beautiful place, with beautiful statuary scattered among large trees draped with moss.

John Muir (famed naturalist and founder of the Sierra Club) was taken with Bonaventure, spending 5 days and nights here. 5 nights in a cemetery? He said

The grand old forest graveyard, so impressive that almost any sensible person would choose to dwell here with the dead rather than with the lazy, disorderly living."

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No matter what John Muir said, I'm thinking that for our women's trip we'll pass on the graveyard, and stay in a hotel instead.
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Related posts:

1. Savannah - Garden of Good and Evil video
2. Season finished - forest and trees