Meeting the locals

Island Conservation Society is now a growing organisation here in the Seychelles and the amount of work they are doing here for the benefit of nature conservation has really increased over the last year or so. One big aspect of the work now is to work with local people to try increase their awareness and understanding about the very important natural history asset they have on their doorstep.

This is particularly the case with the people from Praslin, who are our immediate neighbours, even if there is 6 nautical miles of Indian Ocean between us. Melv and I are very keen in our two years here to try and build up good relations with groups of people and organisations over there to help ease the way with future projects and the protection of Aride.

There is no getting away from it, although the conservation of the wildlife and habitats here in the Seychelles has moved forward in leaps and bounds, like everywhere it still has its’ problems. One of these is the poaching of seabirds and their eggs. This still goes on in many places and is very lucrative, and because of Aride's richness it is one of the target areas.

The breeding season will soon be upon us and we have already started poaching patrols. Our intention is to try and deter as many as possible, rather than get face-to-face, and we are working with the local police and other islands in an attempt to take a coordinated approach. Although taking eggs and birds is bad enough, the additional problem is that the poachers can have a devastating effect on whole colonies of birds, by crushing and trashing all in other wildlife in their way.

Currently one of the missing links with this issue which I am particularly interested to try and improve, is work with the local schools. Much like in Somerset where we wanted to work with the children over peat extraction and nature reserve creation; here we want to work with them over poaching issues and reserve protection. I s’pose I shouldn’t be surprised that the children here are not aware of what is on their doorstep. At the moment the only children who know how special Aride is are the children of the rangers who are lucky enough to stay on the island during school holidays.

So we have already started the ball rolling and we have started to go into schools. I will be visiting two next week – the local primaries in Praslin and it would be excellent if by the time we leave we are able to get both Somerset and the Seychelles children talking to each other and exchanging tales from their very different life styles.

Cyclone

I’m not sure of the difference between a cyclone and a hurricane, is it something to do with the way the water goes down the plughole? Anyway we were told we were to cop the ass end of one that had given Mauritius grief, and would be up with us on Monday. Sure enough Monday morning strong winds, a few trees down and roughish seas, the wind kept the temperature down and it was really quite pleasant, we were also told it would last for four days.

(Tuesday) Tue is a special day for the inhabitants of Aride, it’s shopping day, by Mon evening or before, rangers, volunteers and wardens are out of nice food, beer and fags, so everyone looks forward to Tue. Tue morning we looked at the sea at 5.30am and 7.30 and we all decided it was too rough to make the crossing, deciding that we’d check again at 12 noon.

At 12 the most experienced boatman Gianni said “it’s fine man we go” I did think at the time, how much of this is bravado and cold turkey talking, but he’s the expert, so we got ready. Four of us were to make the trip on our 4m RIB on the 11k crossing to Praslin, myself, Gianni, Regis, (rangers) and the young volunteer Ben. We made the crossing in reasonable time, and Regis did really well negotiating at least 10ft waves with next to no boat slapping,(Regis is the least experienced boatman) we got our shopping, which took less than an hour, and set off back to Aride, Regis driving again.
Grand Anse Bay on Praslin is very sheltered, but we knew as soon as we got around the headland we would again be into the 10ft waves, but this time going into the wind and we all joked about getting soaked. We turned the headland and within minutes the 10ft waves, had grown to 30ft and breaking on the crests. I looked at Regis, who had driven so well on way to the shops, and he nodded confidently, I looked at Gianni, the same confidence, I looked a Ben, not quite the same confidence, so I smiled and shouted at him “hold on tight,” a stupid thing to say, the lad already had white knuckles - I just felt I had to say something.

Coming with little experience of the sea I had, until then, quite surprised myself at the lack of fear of the ocean, on many occasions we’ve made crossings where you have to hold on for dear life, it just seemed good fun, but not this one. Because of the shallow sea around the islands, the sea behaves in a strange ways, the waves come at you from different angles and are not regular. Regis was, as far as I could tell doing fine, powering the little boat up the steep waves which without exaggeration, was like going up the side of my house in Godney, and all the time not just getting showered by sea water, but being battered, and of course the noise. At the top of some the waves, the sea opens up into a giant hole big enough to put a football pitch in, by this time I’m not enjoying the trip at all. On the way up a wave, Regis slows the revs as we get to the top to slow down for the decent, (it’s almost impossible to hear the engine now because of the sea and wind) we go over the top and head down the wave, just as we expect to feel the power to come in and drive us up, nothing, we all turn and look at Regis who’s franticly trying to change the fuel can. I look back to Gianni at the front of the boat, who is by this point screaming at Regis, directly in front of Gianni is a bastard wall of water that even with my limited knowledge, I know if we don’t hit it with the front of the boat, we’re going to capsize. Gianni sees the wave and goes to jump, Regis is now screaming back at him and thank Christ he didn’t jump, we hit that one with the front. The rangers worked like crazy to start the engine, there was literally seconds between them starting the engine, and the next wave. The engine only fired up on one cylinder and just got us up the wave, I scream at Gianni to head for the nearest land, he screams back that he hasn’t got the power to turn; we can only go straight into the waves. I now think we are definitely going in the water, I shout at Ben, “don’t let go of the boat “as soon as I said it I knew it was a crap thing to say, if the boat had flipped the wave would spat it out like a cork from a bottle, I remember thinking to myself, when I go in keep hold of the life jacket, don’t let it come off what ever happens keep hold of the life jacket.

Even at times like these there’s humour, I tell Regis to phone Sal, and alert the nearest island to us, tell them of our plight, and attempt a rescue, his conversation started like this, “hello Sally this is Regis, we have a bit of a situation on the boat” I looked at Ben and said “a bit of a ------- situation!!!!” it was probably nerves but we both laughed. To cut it short, the engine stopped a few more times but they got it going, and we limped home on one cylinder. It turned out to be a faulty spark plug, it had been changed at the last service, so it was just one of those unavoidable things. I not sure how many of the 9 are left, but I know I used one on Tuesday.

Regis later admitted it was the worse seas he had ever been in...

Mum & Dad - Don't worry it is not going to happen again!! Sal xx

Food that just doesn’t have the Ronseal approach

Cheddar cheese is probably one of the foods I really miss, it used to play such a large part of our diet; - in a sandwich, on toast, with a salad or as a ploughman’s, or just as a tasty cooking ingredient. Well it was great excitement when we were given some here last week. However, with great expectations, much to our disappointment, even when put on a very attractive salad sandwich it was hard to detect its taste. Even the texture was so none descript its presence barely featured and it certainly didn’t out compete the cucumber.

What you seem find in the Seychelles is that much of the food that you get back in the UK, like tomato sauce, butter, cheese, is replaced by an equivalent, and so you meals look like they should, eg eggs, baked beans and chips look just as good, bit don't quite taste right. The baked beans are not sweet and tomatoey, the oil that the chips are cooked in has more of a plastic taste and the tomato sauce is kinda like a tomato puree, but without tomatoes in it. The breakfast cereals are another fine example, the packets all look like what you would expect to get back home, they even claim to be the same, however the contents well, they all largely taste the same or don't taste of anything! The coco pops or Temmys choco rice as they are known here, do make the milk go brown, but that is the only real similarity. All the western type foods seem to come from Malaysia, China or Egypt, however a real find recently were the Bran Flakes and 'Crunchy Nut Cornflakes', which came from Sun Oil Ltd in the UK - or so it said on the packet!

Then there are the biscuits, they are all based on a well known brand and aim to resemble them, but on the opening and tasting they fail to even get close. We don’t have fig rolls but date rolls which look identical but are rock hard and sometimes you question if they are actually made of dates. The tins of peas are quite bizarre, on the label they look like they are going to be mushy peas, which we thought would be good for a change, but on opening the can we found they had a rather fluorescent appearance and despite cooking them for over 20 minutes they still remained like bullets and retained their glowing colour – hmmm? At lean fishing times we have also found ourselves eating tinned tuna, well we should be safe on that front, as the tuna factory is actually based in Mahe, no more than 25 nautical miles away from here, but to our great disappointment, tinned tuna has got a very close similarity to dog food, both in smell and appearance.

However the frankfurters we bought for hotdogs have got to be the most memorable, both for their taste, together with a conversation we had about them last night at a BBQ with the one of the rangers. In an attempt to try and find variety Melv & I bought a packet of frankfurters, for hotdogs as an easy midday snack. Well yesterday we tried these and to our amazement and bewilderment they tasted of fish. On reporting this during BBQ small talk last night, one of our rangers, Regis, started to defend his local processed food and he protested, well of course they taste like fish, what do you want them to taste like – dog?

POLITENESS

BACK GROUND:
We live on a small island and rely on a generator to keep our beer and food cold. Generator breaks down every month or so, in comes small portable geny to rescue beer, small geny goes bang, two more sent for from the UK arrive at Mahe and sail through customs fine and dandy. We hire a shipping company to ship them from Mahe to Praslin, where we can pick them up in our small boat, but while in their responsibility (or as you would think) they get stolen.
















Monday morning I set off to the police station at Praslin, (Sal said she was to busy, I think too scared), to report the theft, the nice police woman was suitably disgusted, but if I may say not altogether sincere. I fill in all the relevant forms, not really 100% sure about what I’m filling in, but as she kept putting them in front of me with real conviction, I guessed she did! When all the forms were filled in a nice police man with a huge moustache said “of course this is a civil matter, so nothing to do with us”, so in short, the authorities can’t be bothered.

The following Monday I’m on my way again to Praslin, this time to see the shipping company, who lost our goods! I’ve been told to get them to fill in a form, telling of the circumstances of the theft and admit liability, which I must say I thought was a bit much seeing we were the losers here, but if that’s how its done here, lets get on with it.



In case of language difficulties I was accompanied by Regis one of our rangers. I always feel slightly inadequate when in a foreign country, because if its not English speaking, I have to rely on them to speak English, so to make up for my linguist failures, I figure the least I can do is be polite.

We find the office at the top of a small shopping complex, I knock, and the door is opened by Mrs Shipping Company Owner, (MSCO) who after introductions invites us in. We sit at a large document covered table in her air conditioned lounge come office, me and Regis (Regis is a mouthy little sod and he’s been told in no uncertain terms to keep this mouth shut at all times unless he needs to interpret) on one side, with me quite close to Regis so I can inflict physical pain if he goes off on one, MSCO on the opposite half obscured by a computer and realms of paper. I soon find out that there was no need for Regis as the MSCO at large Indian lady was fluent in English, and I bet every other language her company deals with.

The conversation went like this:
MSCO: Oh its such a bad business, we’ve never had this happen before it’s terrible for our good name.
Me: We really don’t blame you, and well these things happen to the best of us, if you could pleee.
MSCO: No this is so bad, it must have been those costumes, you know these people, no shame.
Me: No no we had someone check after customs it must have happened when they where in yourrrrrr.
MSCO: and of course you being so new how could you have known.
At this I saw Regis lean forward to give his interpretation of events and who he thought was at fault. I got my Teva sandal on top of his bare foot just in time, pressed and twisted, it worked, he sat back.
MSCO: yes you so new, they should have told you.
(Me thinking, they? told me what? she’s trying to put the bloody blame on me!)
MSCO: you should have pick them up when they arrived you know, not have left them here.
Me: But MSCO you offer a safe warehousing service, which we paid foooo
MSCO: and me being so ill, it made me so ill this bad business.
Me: I am so sorry MSCO we really don’t blame you, could you please sign this forrrr
MSCO: in all our time no such business has happened here.
really MSCO no one blames you, we just would like you to please fill in this form.(thinking: fill this bloody form in)
I had to go to the doctors you know
(good)
He gave me sleeping tablets
(take them all at once)
They make me so tired and I have so much work to do
(fall down the stairs and break your neck)
Please MSCO it’s just a form to say what happened
Its going to affect our business you know
(I’ll kill you with this tea pot if you don’t sign)
I just don’t know what to do
(I do, sign this bloody form you old cow)
After what seemed an age, she signed,
Thank you so much MSCO we really appreciate it, please there really is no hard feelings.
(we’ll never use you again you old bag)
Outside Regis asked me why I was so nice, I didn’t tell him about my language hang ups, I just said, I’m British, Regis said something in Creole which I guess meant, idiot!
We went home

Ps – The Police got them back 2 weeks later and the beer is cold.