Nicholas Laughlin's blog etc.

A reality TV show is being filmed in Tobago. The shapely cast of MTV's Real World/Road Rules Challenge series has flown in to compete in over 16 mind and muscle-wrenching survivor-type episodes, called "Gauntlet 2", being shot at various picturesque locations over the next three to four weeks.

For a reality show, the main venue is, for some critics anyway, quite unreal.

Less than two months after Tobago hosted the "7th Annual Conference on Sustainable Tourism Development", permission has been granted to the American cable network to film part of their series upon the sands of Tobago's most famous, and important, nesting site for globally-endangered Leatherback turtles--Turtle Beach.

The location along Greater Courland Bay that MTV have chosen for their "beached" galleon structure and shoot happens to be right on top of one of the turtles' favourite egg-laying spots, during the most important breeding month of the year.

--From Mark Meredith's report in today's Express.