It's Turtles All the Way Down
We’ve been obsessed with snorkeling at the local river any opportunity we get. So far this year, we have seen lots of fish, a couple of water snakes, eels, and a few turtles. I found a (destroyed) cell phone and Amber has found a few cool shells. It’s been great, so we keep going.
Today, we hit the 🐢 jackpot! We were snorkeling around near the bank and came across a fallen/submerged tree. I saw what I thought was just a bunch of pinecones attached to the tree so I didn’t bother investigating it… But Amber did. And it was turtles. A shitload of turtles.
We lost track of time while swimming around with them. They were spooked when we first approached and scattered but eventually made their way back to the tree. After a few more scares, they calmed down once they realized we weren’t a threat. We hung out with them and took tons of photos and videos of them just… Sitting in their massive pile and occasionally swimming around. Some of them even started coming up to us like they were curious about what we were doing.
We’re not sure why there were so many of them here. To our knowledge, it is not breeding season for them. The current theory is that they are concentrating in bodies of water due to drought, and we just stumbled upon one of the areas they like to hang out. It was also a little shallower there near the bank with less current and warmer water than the middle of the river. The tree was also probably offering a nice place to bask and hide. I’d love to hear if anyone has more info on this.
We also managed to see some of the largest catfish and carp (we think carp, anyway) that either of us have ever seen. Certainly the largest I have ever swam with. You can see them in all their glory in the video and image gallery below.
