Tahira the Turtle

One winter morning, on a quiet beach of Ras al Hadd on the Eastern shores of Oman, Tahira, a baby greenback turtle, broke free from her eggshell. 

She looked around and saw other baby turtles struggling to get out of their shells too. Tahira loved the feel of the sand on her tender flippers.

Suddenly she looked up and saw a bright light in the darkness and started walking slowly towards it.

Tahira looked up again.

Oh... oh... 

The light became dimmer and then completely vanished. It was the light from the headlights of a car that was leaving.  Tahira was confused and didn’t know what to do. 

When she turned around, she saw the most wonderful sight. In the East, a gentle pink glow was lighting up the sky! Tahira felt pulled towards it. At the same she saw the wet, gurgling waves of the sea, and heard them singing to her and calling her to come closer and closer.

Tahira knew she had to get to the warm salty water which would be her home. The beach at Ras al Hadd was just a nesting place where her mother had laid over a hundred eggs in the sand. 

Her father never came out of the sea and onto the beach, he just swam in the sea all of his life. Her parents were good swimmers and she longed to meet them and learn their ways. Perhaps they waited along the Omani coastline for their eggs to hatch and their baby turtles to join them. 

Tahira’s mother had been born on this same beach more than thirty years ago and like all female turtles she came back to her place of birth to lay her eggs.
Tahira looked at the blue sky and the coarse sandy beach. She could smell the salty sea. It seemed to call to her. 

Just across the beach, beyond the frothy waves was her home. Once she reached her home, she would be safe. Slowly, clumsily, she began her journey. But she was afraid of the birds and the animals who were powerful enemies in her little world. There were big holes around her on the beach. The mother turtles had dug them to fool the foxes who came to hunt for eggs.
As she rushed towards the sea, she suddenly fell down.

Oh...oh... 

Tahira fell into one of the holes and turned upside down. She struggled and struggled to turn over but she could not. Just then another little turtle tumbled down into the same hole and landed right on top of Tahira.

 And what luck! 
Both of them turned onto their bellies again. Then they slowly and carefully crawled out of the hole. Tahira was full of energy as she waddled along the sand to reach the splashing waves. She noticed that she was learning to walk faster but the sea was still very far away. The big golden sun rose in the sky beyond the crashing waves. Tahira ran towards it. 

But oh...oh...
Just then she saw a sea gull dive towards her. Tahira quickly jumped into another big hole. This time she was careful and did not turn over on her back. The sand covered her shell and the sea gull could not spot her. The sea gull was disappointed. After a while, Tahira moved some sand and peeped out. The sea gull had flown away. Tahira quickly climbed out of the hole and ran towards the light of the sun and the music of the sea. 

She was almost there. She felt the sand under her flippers getting softer and wetter. She ran faster as she felt the first spray of the sea water on her face. She loved the tingling sensation of the salty sea water on her skin. It made her heart jump.  She was very close to the edge of the first sea wave which crashed on the shore. Tahira dreamed of swimming away to far-off places and riding high on the waves with her friends. She looked at the sea and waited on the shore for the next big wave to lift her up in its foamy arms.

But oh...oh...
A great ghost-like creature stood before her blocking her way. It was very scary. It had several arms and a flat ugly body. Two beady eyes stuck out of its head. It was a ghost crab and it lay in wait for Tahira . It greedily held out its front claws to grab Tahira.   Tahira was scared and didn’t know how to save herself. Just then a great big wave came crashing down on the beach and wiped them both off the sand and carried them into the sea. The ghost crab was flung in another direction and Tahira never saw it again.

Tahira was delighted to get into the warm water and swam away as fast as she could. She loved coming to her home, she felt safe here, as her friends and family welcomed her. Tahira looked back at the beach once again. Just like her mother, she would come back to this same beach at Ras Al Hadd in thirty years’ time to lay her own eggs but right now she going to enjoying being young and free. 

Tahira swam along the shore into the warm blue water dreaming of the adventures she would have in the great blue sea of Oman.



(An original story. Protected by Copyright. Previously published in 2014 by Al Roya Publications, Oman, with an Arabic translation.)