Welcome to My Office

My Walk to Work

I have been on site for a few weeks now and am getting settled into life with Blue Ventures Expeditions. Here is a virtual tour of my new office (and home!).

The expedition camp is based within a hotel in Andavadoaka called Coco Beach. The hotel is set upon a sort of headland to the south of the village. To get there you walk along the beach or across the football pitch. It isn’t a hotel in the traditional sense of the word but instead rooms (for volunteers, BV staff and paying guests) are actually individual bungalows or huts.

The camp is split nicely into two areas which are separated by sand dunes – although everything has a sea view! The first area contains reception, our dining area and the bar and restaurant. Next to this are some of the guest bungalows and the BV staff huts. Currently my hut is the green one – but more about that another day.

Welcome to Coco Beach

Across the dunes and around the corner is my “office”. Here you can find Nosy Cao aka the classroom and Bat Cave aka the dive shed. This area is also where the volunteer huts are (which they share with about 4 people in each) so there is no excuse for them to be late!

I predict I will be spending a lot of time in Nosy Cao in the next year. It’s here that all the presentations and “dry” teaching happens. This includes lessons for SCUBA courses, information on the work BV does and, my area, marine science training. It’s a well-stocked room with a projector and screen, computers for the volunteers to use (when the electricity is on) and lots of other books and resources. This classroom also comes with a pretty inspiring view.

Nosy Cao - our classroom

The Bat Cave is where to go for all things SCUBA. It houses the equipment lockers where we keep all out kit safely tucked away as well as Bic (the dive manager’s) workshop and various other bits and pieces required for underwater living. Next door is a kitting up area as well as a place to rinse out the kit after diving and hang it up to dry.

Bat Cave - the diving zone

The headland its self has a statue of Mary atop it and is a great place to get a good view of the beaches, rock and sea around site. And there are usually some friendly local boys that love having their photo taken hanging around here too. There’s also a bench which I think I will spend time chilling out on whenever I get the chance. It’s dedicated to some field scientists that passed away while on expedition so is a really nice place to stop for a minute and think.

Views of the village, dive boats and the volunteer huts from Mary

But right now I am in working away in Nosy Cao and think it’s time to get one with learning some more coral names!

National Parks

During our overland tour we visited two National Parks. Madagascar has lots of these parks and reserves and they provided us with a chance to see some of Madagascar’s amazing wildlife and spectacular scenery.

The first we visited is called Réserve d’Anja and is small (only 37 ha). Here we got our first sight of a lemur. This park only has one species of lemur, the ring tail, but it is the one most people will imagine. They are black, white and grey with a stripy tail (hence the name). The guide explained that the lemurs have a strict daily routine which involved waking up and emerging from the caves where they sleep to sunbathe on the rocks before going down to the forest to eat fruits, leaves and flowers. They then have an afternoon siesta, eat some more and then return to the caves at night. Lemurs are predated on by hawks and snakes and so sleeping in the caves keeps them safe. These lemurs live in family groups and the women are in charge – so King Julien from the film isn’t quite right. We got some good photos of the lemurs and they really weren’t bothered by our presence in their forest.

It was here that we also got to first see something that I was excited about – chameleons. We had literally taken about 10 steps when the guide pointed out a small one sat in a tree. It has changed its colouration so it was the same grey as the branches and so was well camouflaged.

The second park we visited is called Parc National de l’Isalo and is probably the most popular park to visit. It’s also is much bigger and older than the first. We stayed in a hotel in the park and spent the whole day hiking in the area. The landscape is sandstone and so where the river runs is a massive gorge. In the morning we walked across the plain and through the forest to our picnic spot. Here there were lots of very tame lemurs. We saw ringtails again but also brown lemurs. These lemurs were used to humans and would try and steal our food. We also saw a Verreaux’s Sifaka lemur that was a little shyer. However, when we were eating lunch we watched it hop across the ground on its two hind legs.

After lunch we hiked further along the bottom of the gorge, where the greenery was lusher. It felt a little bit like a film set and I was expecting a dinosaur to jump out at me at any moment. It is dry season at the moment so the river was very low. Despite this there were several waterfalls and beautifully clear pools on the way. At the largest one we stopped for a swim. It was nice and refreshing but REALLY cold. I tested out my camera on the big tadpoles that were sat underwater on the rocks. After our long hike we were all worn out on our return to the hotel!