Mayotte: Swimming with green turtles

The Ngouja beach in the south of Mayotte is a preserve with about 200 green see turtles grazing on the sea grass within just 100m (300 feet) off the shore. It’s unlike anywhere else on earth – you snorkel in shallow calm clear waters of the lagoon inside the reef with turtles everywhere – left, right, front, back. Some even bump into you. You can spend hours in the water observing them swim, graze, come up for air, and dive down again. Many have sucker fish traveling along. At high tide at night, the turtles haul out to lay eggs on the wide beach.