Grande Anse St Lucia Turtle Watching And Beach Vacation
Every time I visit Grande Anse St Lucia, I think of the movie castaway. It is the most secluded beach in St Lucia and loved by nesting sea turtles. It is toward the north east of St Lucia, approximately 10 km north of Dennery if you’re going by boat but about an hour and half drive away if you’re in Gros Islet.
This part of St Lucia has never been developed and does not show any signs of being inhabited by humans except for a few lights from the village of Desbarras sported from afar at nights. The only thing that seem to inhabit there are a few wild cows.
This beach is normally rough and is not suitable for bathing for most people. Although there are people who bath there, because of the large waves, I only go there for turtle watching.
Around the month of March to August, there are frequent visits to Grande Anse St Lucia by both tourist and locals as this is normally the time of the year that turtles come there to lay their eggs.
Please note that it is an offense and there is a fine for anyone seen destroying or taking turtle eggs.
From around 4:00 pm to 6:30am campers wait in their tent until the time that they come out on shore to lay their eggs. Turtle watching normally takes place on Saturday nights and cost a fee of EC $50 per person which does not include snacks or food.
There are three species of turtles that nest in St Lucia, they are the green turtle, hawks-bill turtle and leather-back turtle. Those turtles are threatened with extinction due to bad fishing practices, ingesting plastic bags mistaking them for jellyfish and being caught in the propellers of ships.
The leather back is the largest reptile in the world measuring 4 to 8 feet long and cannot be mistaken with the others due to its size. They feed on jelly fish. Most huge adults weigh about 700 to 2000 pounds.
The females normally come to shore to lay 60 to 100 eggs in a hole that they dug up in the sand. The leather back turtle is said to have the highest chance of survival among all the other species of turtles.
If you are here around that time of the year be sure to visit Grande Anse St Lucia for a wonderful evening of turtle watching.
The only problem that you may find, is getting there but when you get there, you will immediately notice that it is well worth the trouble.
I personally don't recommend that anyone go there alone for several safety reasons because there is little to no cell phone coverage there and it takes about an hours drive to the nearest community which is Des Barras.
