Swimming at Talpona: flags, tides and the river mouth
How to read the lifeguard flags, when the tide is kindest and why the river mouth is for kayaks, not swimming.
Turtles on our beach
Why our lights go low after 10 pm, and what to do if you see a nest.
From November to March, Olive Ridley sea turtles sometimes come ashore on the beaches of South Goa to nest. A female crawls up above the high-tide line at night, digs a hole, lays about a hundred eggs and returns to the sea.
The eggs hatch after about 50 days. The hatchlings find the sea by heading for the brightest horizon, which should be the moonlit water. Bright lights on the shore confuse them, and they crawl the wrong way. That is why we keep our beach-facing lights low and warm after 10 pm, and ask guests not to use torches on the sand at night.
If you see a turtle or tracks on the beach, keep your distance, do not use flash and tell the front desk. We inform the forest department’s turtle volunteers, who protect the nest until the eggs hatch.
If you are lucky enough to be here for a hatching, the volunteers will let you watch from a distance, quietly, in the dark.
