Leatherback Turtle Nesting — Bioko Island Equatorial Guinea

About this spectacle

On Bioko Island's remote southern coast, leatherback sea turtles — the largest living reptiles on Earth — haul themselves ashore on beaches like Playa Llorona and Playa Moraka to nest under cover of darkness. From October through March, visitors joining guided night walks with the Bioko Marine Turtle Program's community rangers move quietly along the shoreline, listening for the laboured breathing and sand-scraping of nesting females before witnessing the slow, deliberate egg-laying process. The air is heavy with humidity, the beach unlit save for dim red-light torches, and the scale of each ancient animal — leatherbacks can exceed two metres — is genuinely humbling at close range. Return visits may reveal hatchling emergences, a chaotic rush of tiny bodies toward the surf. Because southern Bioko has no road access, the journey itself — a two-hour boat crossing from Malabo — heightens the sense of arriving somewhere genuinely wild and seldom visited. Fewer than 500 visitors per year share these beaches with up to 4,000 nests per season, one of the Atlantic's most significant leatherback aggregations.

When to go

Oct — Mar

Getting there

Nearest airport: SSG. Nearest city: Malabo.

Booking options

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