A trip to Nosy Sakatia was promoted in the tourist blurb as a, ‘chance to swim with giant sea turtles’. Okay, and maybe my last chance. After coming all this way, one more shot at the dream.

I recruited my new Mr Fix It, Ricardo , to organise a bespoke trip. I wanted simple ( no fancy V8 jet engines), low key ( no overpromising this the world’s hotspot for turtles) and cheap ( no need for 5 star gourmet fish dinner, although still craving that crisp Sancerre).

Zico, “I only speak French or Malagasy” picked me up, Kate “ I only speak English” at 8 o’clock sharp on the beach right in front of my hotel room, in his simple, no life jacket, fibreglass boat.

Nosy Sokata is an island a hop skip and jump,15 minute boat ride from Nosy Be. The island is 6 km long and 2 km wide and a mixture of beautiful rainforest enveloping small rich sandy coloured beaches with the occasional beach hut, but then some swathes of cut forest and you wonder why they would …?

This was one of those embarrassing trips. Zico speaking in French guiding on each island location and expecting me to say, “ yes, let’s stop here” but with me bottling it each time as : maybe the sand here is too pristine, the sea too blue, people in wooden dug out progues too smiley. I didn’t know what I wanted nor what I was looking for, but then what I wanted soon became clear.

Just past a headland at the southern side of the island we saw three snorkelers, nudging heads and fanning outwards from each other in a star formation. Clearly they were hovering above something with calm focus.

At the same time a little head popped out of the water close to our boat. A head that has probably popped out of these waters for 230 million years.

Zico cut the engine the minute we saw the large green male turtle dropping 4/5 metres to the bottom of the sea bed.

Minutes later, but hardly with silth like moves, I was in the water directly above its position. Yes it was aware of me but, feeling unthreatened, it continued to nuzzle its was through the grassy sand, as I swam above and around, taking shots with the Go pro camera.

Whilst he was feeding in serene silence I was screaming with joy through my snorkel and mask.

In the next hour I saw 8 turtles, either coming up for air, swimming near to the boat, or feeding on sea grass. Such joy!

Prehistoric they are. Rare they are ( estimates in 2004 that there were 85,000 remaining in the wild). Male turtles even rarer and maybe soon, un unthinkably, obsolete.

I read a research paper from the Florida Research University Jan 24 (so published yesterday!) revealing that 88% of hatchlings in 2021 were female, 12% male. Sex is determined by environmental factors. Hotter sand gives more females. Hotter sand gives fewer successful hatchlings. They are unable to ‘right’ themselves and develop shorter flippers so ever more difficult to get out of the sand. There are real concerns about gene diversity in these cases.

So it takes 30 to 40 years for a turtle to get to sexual maturity. We won’t know the impact for some time of this warming climate, but maybe I have seen, on this trip, some of the last males in turtle world. All I can say was how handsome they were.