Grande Rivière

Grande Rivière is a small village at the end of a long road on Trinidad's remote northeast coast, and each year between March and August its short dark-sand beach receives one of the greatest concentrations of nesting leatherback turtles anywhere on earth. On a peak night, hundreds of these enormous animals, some well over a metre and a half long, haul out of the surf to dig and lay, and later in the season the hatchlings emerge and scramble to the sea. Watching is strictly managed: you go with a licensed guide, under red light or none, keeping back while a female lays. The village runs on this season and on the forest behind it, where the rare pawi bird lives, and it is deliberately low-key, with a handful of small lodges and no crowds.

The landscape

• Nesting leatherbacks - hundreds of turtles on peak nights, watched with a guide.
• Hatchling emergence - young turtles making for the sea later in the season.
• The rainforest behind - home of the rare pawi and other birds.
• The river mouth - where the Grande Rivière meets the sea beside the beach.

When to go

March to August is the nesting season, with the peak around May and June when many turtles come ashore on a single night. Outside the season the village is very quiet. Turtle watching is only permitted with a licensed guide.

Things to know

It is a long, slow drive to a genuinely remote village, and that isolation is the point. Turtle watching is wild and managed: no flash, no touching, no getting between a turtle and the sea, and large numbers only on peak nights rather than every night. Accommodation is limited to a few small lodges that book out in season. Sandflies and mosquitoes are a fact of the coast.

Nearby

Toco and the northeastern tip are along the coast; Matelot lies further west.

Key facts