Snorkelling Delights

I just wanted to post some photos of some of the fish using the reef off Aride - they are fantastic! Threadfin butterfly fish

Picasso fish

Pallett Surgeon fish

Racoon butterflyfish

Powderblue surgeon fish

Selection

A Wildlife Treat.

It had been a scorcher of a day, with barely time for lunch, we had had a visiting cruise ship and so ended up working a 13 hour day. The guests had all been taken back to their ship and the island returned to the peace and tranquillity we know it for. Jerry, one of the volunteers thought that he may have seen a green turtle track earlier, so a few of us walked down the beach to investigate and it was only this that enabled us to experience something that I will never forget and what will probably be one of my main lasting memories from Aride.

After finding that the track was that of a Hawksbill turtle, Melv and I went in search of a coconut for tea to make a coconut Dahl, when I got back to the house the phone was ringing - I dashed to answer it - it was Regis, one of the rangers- I think you want to come quickly he said – why? I asked - just outside your house he said – what? I asked again getting little impatient - Regis has this frustrating way of not actually spitting out what he wants to say and it can get very frustrating at times. Turtles are hatching - finally he said it - WHAT I shouted and immediately called out to Melv, who was making his way to the well. I couldn't get to the beach quick enough, I ran up the path to where we sit for breakfast. I could see Ben, Jerry (the 2 volunteers) and Regis all leaning over excitedly giggling as they looked at the ground. They were chattering away to the small black objects in front of them.

It was amazing, like nothing I had ever seen ever in my life, over a hundred small hatchlings making their way out of the nest and down the beach. They looked like small black currants in the sand - dotted unevenly and moving. I ran to get the camera from the office - I ran as fast as my bare feet could carry me over the uneven terrain. There was no time to waste, it was like I wanted to freeze time, to stop the hatchlings, to hold the moment, but I couldn't. I got back to the beach as quick as possible, completely out of breath and so excited I could barely speak. The sight in front of me was indescribable, watching these small hatchlings about the size of 50p pieces making their way down the beach, coping with the dangers in front of them.

They are perfect miniatures of a turtle, but with eyes not yet open and no distinguishing markings, just uniformly brown. They kind of ‘paddle’ along the sand, using their flippers to waddle, but although clumsy they are quite swift and taking a picture of them was quite a challenge. Foot prints alone presented them with a major upheaval, they struggled to avoid crab holes, and fortunately we were there just to give them a little helping hand. The excitement amongst the group of us was infectious, whilst we wanted the small turtles to make their way and to go out to sea, we wanted to keep watching them and didn't want it to end.

We counted a total of 130, which could be a total nest or may be that some of the individuals will hatch later and follow on. It was around 7pm, the sun had only just gone down and so it was still quite light, which we never expected. I must admit I always thought that may be we would never actually see such a sight, or if we did it would be under muffled torch light (so not to distract the turtles) and never thought it would be in almost day light - what a privilege. When all the hatchlings had made their way we stood and watched out to sea, as the last of the daylight disappeared, realising that we had just experienced something very, very special and we looked back and saw all the tracks in the sand...

Day to Day

The day to day living and working life here is so different than back home, which you may well think is bloody obvious, Somerset Levels to Tropical Island, duhhhh!. Of course I knew it would be different, we researched the job in great depth for some months before our departure, but there are some things you only find out about, by actually doing and living it.

Its hot and sticky! another duhhhh moment? not really. The tropical climate is intense, it slows you and makes you tried, all stuff you could imagine sat at home in a cold grey British winter. The working week is 7am to 5pm with 2hours lunch break at 12 to 2, well, being used to 30mins, I thought I’ll show um, um being the rangers, sat on their asses half the day, so I just took my half hour break and went back to work, this lasted no more than a week, I was knackered, and I knew if I carried on I’d collapse, each person is different, but each person only has his or her energy supply for that day, if you don’t pace yourself and use it to quickly, your body says no more and stops, if you let yourself get to that state, it takes a couple of days to feel right again. Last laugh with the rangers on that one.

Washing, again I was fully aware it was going to be humid, and that my cloths and body just won’t dry out completely, but what no one tells you, no matter how much, or how often you wash your cloths, they smell like a dogs slept on them, really embarrassing, at meetings in the main office, the big boss looking around for fido then realising it’s me and Sal. I was then going to tell you about the merits of baby powder and what it prevents, but Sal vetoed that, saying “you can’t say that my parents read this” so I’ll just say, if you’re going to live anywhere with very high humidity, and you would prefer not to grow mushrooms on certain sensitive parts of your body, take lots of talcum powder.

Staff, huge culture clash, as again you would expect (have to be careful here), firstly let me say the staff are extremely talented, they are weaned on the water and as a result are fantastic boatmen, they have a natural confidence that comes across so well with people which makes them really great tour guides. But this is Africa and people and culture are different, and believe me I’m not trying to say who’s right or wrong here, but we’re paid to do a job and we try to do our best, which sometimes means we clash with the rangers. We’re brought up in the UK, with a certain work ethic, (well, some of us) that the job is all important, and we try hard to do are best, as a result, most of work longer hours than we a paid for, it’s just the done thing. Not here, no more said.

Shopping, here again we new that things would be tuff, no Tesco’s in the Seychelles.
There’s nothing, it took 5 weeks to get a shaving mirror, having not seen myself for 5 weeks it did come as quite a shock, I’d forgotten how ugly I was! No writing paper, diary(had to make one out of a calendar), cloths, sun cream, screws, in fact most things, and of course, no food!

But if it wasn’t different, would we have come?

Blue Peter Badge

Well the Blue Peter team would’ve been proud of me yesterday, even without the use of sticky backed plastic!! I thought my days of making educational resources out of cornflake packets and pieces of string were long over - but to my delight no!!

Yesterday was my first visit to a Seychelles school to meet some of the children for an hour and I had the challenge of telling them about the island with very limited resources. But no problem – I thought, the old ones are the best and so I set to preparing the food chain game. The only equipment needed were scissors, used cornflake packets, print outs from the computer, glue and string – excellent – oh and of course cellotape as we don’t have laminater.

The children I went to work with were from Grand Anse Primary, which is the main village where we moor up for our shopping on Praslin. The school has formed a group called the Eco-Aride Club and I plan to be working with them, together with other schools on and off through the year. I must admit I was a little apprehensive about going into a school unable to speak the local language, with a scorched white face, but I needn’t have been. All the schools are really keen on environmental education in all aspects of the curriculum. The children were extremely well behaved and really smiley, and the teachers that I meet again yesterday were quite amused that I arrived dry and presentable, unlike the week before when a drown rat comes to mind!

It was a great first session with the children and as well as talking about Aride and food chains we talked about linking up with Meare Village Primary School back in Somerset. The group were really excited and look forward to introducing themselves to the Somerset children. Ideally we need to get them an internet connection sorted out, but until them I hope to facilitate and bring things back to the island to go on line.

It was a really motivating and rejuvenating afternoon, I never thought in a million years that I would ever have the opportunity to work with Seychellois children talking about the food chain of a fairy tern. The next challenge is yet again down to logistics – to get the group on to the island – I need to twice the arm of a nice man with a nice boat!

Logistics

Never again will I complain about logistics, I thought it was tough running a reserve out of the back of Landrover, and having 2 workshops and an office each 2 miles apart, at different ends of the site. However, I have looked back with fondness over these last 2 weeks, of how I could walk to see the children of Meare School, or get on my bicycle to go to a meeting with partners and colleagues just 3 miles up the road. Living on a remote island with just one southerly facing beach, puts all that in to perspective.

On Aride to try and do the mainstream things that you would expect from your local nature reserve, demands engaging in a logistical challenge each time. For example, a reserve management meeting on the main island of Mahe, means using 4 modes of transport:

The reserve boat to the airport, bare feet walking from the beach to the air terminal, light aircraft from Praslin to Mahe (15minutes, with great views of the islands), finishing with a car to complete the journey to the main office.

To visit the local schools it is just 3; the reserve boat, bare foot and local bus. However it is not just the modes of transport that provide a logistical puzzle, but your appearance after using them. Never before last week, had I got off a boat and walked to the local school to speak to over 30 teachers completely drenched from sea water, and with bare sandy feet. Here it is the norm, living on one of the remote islands people kind of expect you to look a little strange, to have a wet backside and bare feet. But thank goodness they have got a shower at the airport - as I don’t think the pilot would tolerate it.

Then there is the unknown of the weather, in the UK we have had trains stop working because of the wrong type of snow. Well here on the island with the wrong type of wind we cannot launch or land the boat, which means no one leaves or arrives on the island. So best laid plans can go awry at the last possible moment or even whilst you are away the weather can change making the return trip a real challenge and sometimes impossible.

Apparently all this gets worse as the monsoon changes and the winds move round to the South East, then we need to stock up the larder and rationalise the main stream work off the island.

So if it is ever the case again that I need to undertake trips like to Exeter from Bridgwater train station or a bus journey to Wessex Water in Bath, it won’t ever be a trial – but a pleasure.