Where am I?

Things are still busy, busy, busy here and set to get busier with four new arrivals today. But I thought I’d tell you a bit about the place that I’m calling home for this next 5 months.


The CCC base is called Napantao Dive Resort and is unsurprisingly found next to the village of Napantao. We’re in the big bay at the bottom of Leyte (called Sogod bay) and are actually situated on the large island at the bottom of the eastern peninsular.

Our base is pretty much self contained with the village and one tiny shop at the top of a very steep hill. We are by no means in the middle of nowhere like on Hoga but it does feel a bit like that some times; especially because volunteers aren’t allowed off site unless on an organised trip. Although I haven’t been anywhere much yet staff like the Bridget the Education Officer, Rachel the Project Scientist and Holly the Expedition Leader are always off seeing people and doing things in the area and even further afield.


We have one main building which is basically a large dining hall with bedrooms coming off it. I am sharing my room with Bridget who is a high school teacher from Canada. Although the room is pretty basic with only a little bit of furniture we have made it feel quite homely. (Although any pictures, photos, drawings etc that you can send to brighten the place up would be most welcome.) Each room also has an ensuite toilet and shower. The only problem is that they are not plumbed in! However, there is a well where you can go and have a shower or pick up fresh water to take back to your room.


One of the perks of being staff or a long term volunteer is having a front room. These are on the front and I get to wake up to the view of the sea every morning. The base also has a terrace out front with bamboo benches to sit on. The best bit is that the building is only about 10m from the water. The shore is rocky and so there is a wall in front with the water below. When we go diving just outside the base we just go down some steps and there we are!

The actual view from my bedroom window

There is also a Science Room; where I am sat right now, which has two computers, a blackboard and lots of bits of equipment etc. This is the classroom where are the dive and science teaching takes place and I will spending a lot of my time in here. There’s also a kitchen where Tata, the cook, makes his yummy dinners for us. Everyone takes it in turns to do chores (although the staff less so) like cleaning, washing up and making breakfast. Making breakfast is the least favourite chore because it involves getting up at 5:30am so that the meal is ready for 6:00am. But you get the fun of waking everyone up with the lunch bell and your favourite tune blasted out loud. Breakfast is at 6am most days with lunch at 12noon and dinner at 6pm. In between times is science and diving but more about that another time.


In the main room there is also the ‘Whale Shark Bar’ which is a bar with a big whale shark painted on it. There are fishy things painted on all the walls. The cool thing is you get to sign your name on the bar if you see one :)


I hope everyone at home isn’t too cold. Summer is starting here and it’s just getting hotter and hotter. To make you feel better there has been some rain today and a heavy downpour last night. Also, it isn’t sunny everyday with some clouds in the sky.


It’s been lovely too read all of your e-mails and comments. I’m doing my best to reply but be assured that I am reading them!


Love


Abi
xxx

WHALE SHARK!

Hi everyone!
Things have been really busy here and the internet, although existant, is really slow but I promise that I will post soon about CCC life here at Napanto Dive Resort.

However, I had to tell you right away about the coolest day I had yesterday. As the title suggests I went on a Whale Shark spotting trip. Whale Sharks are the biggest fish in world and are massive. Although they mainly live in the open ocean they do come and feed closer to shore every so often and it just so happens that my part of the Philippines is one of the places where they do this! So we all got on the boat yesterday morning and went off to a neighbouring island called Limasawa. Before we had even got to where we were picking up a couple of other people (some scientists working on Thresher Sharks) we saw one! (Well Jessie, one of the boat boys did.) Everyone lept in with their fins, mask and snorkel and swam toward it. I managed to catch up with the Shark's tail for a while but it was just a bit too fast and I couldn't keep up. It was prety amazing all the same.

When we got to the bay they was more excitement and another dive boat was also there. It turned out there was a Shark in the bay. So, once again, we all got in the water. This time the Shark was swimming much slower so it was easy to keep up with it. It was so beautiful with its white spots and looked so graceful in the water even though it was so big. The Shark was only a small one at about 5 meters. We stayed snorkelling with it for what seemed like forever but was probably about half an hour before it swam away into the blue. It was all a bit chaotic because all the fishing boats came out to see too. Hopefully the pictures that some of the group took can be used by the Whale Shark Project to help identify and track these amazing creatures as they travel around the world. He also had a scar on his head that it turned out was from when the municipality boat had hit it with its propeller a few days earlier. But the shark was so tough that the propeller was bent and the wound had healed really quicky (quicker than the local embarresment I guess). Then just as we were leaving another was spotted. This time it was a bit bigger but quickly went deeper.

A Whale Shark (but not the one we saw...)

http://scienceblogs.com/deepseanews/upload/2007/04/Whale-Shark-01_about_utila.jpg

In the afternoon we had a picnic in a little cove with beach and a medow above it with plam trees all around. It just looked like the pictures you get in travel magazines!

I was so tired at the end of the day but it was such an amazing expereince. I hope that I will get to see more (bigger) Whale Sharks while I'm here although I'm not sure about when the season ends. But I am happy to know that my name is now written on the Whale Shark bar on site.

Abi

xxx

P.S. Although they are massive and they are sharks Whale Sharks aren't dangerous - in fact they eat plankton. But not many sharks are dangerous anyway and this is something that CCC is working with the community on - to try and educate people that sharks are not scary!

I've Arrived!

Just a quick note to say that I arived safe and well yesterday evening.
Have been diving today and have started on the science programme to
fast track learning what seems like all the species in the sea!
We're going on an afternoon trip tomorrow to do a reef clean up and
meet with some of the local community.
You may have guessed WE HAVE INTERNET! (Even though there is no
running water...) So you can e-mail me at my normal address and I will
get it and be able to read your lovely thoughts (and even the not so
lovely ones if you want). Also I have a new mobile number so also
e-mail me if you want that.
Abi
xxx

Today's the day!

Today is the day that I start my journey to Napanto (the name of the place I'm going - I think...) As usual things have seemed to creep up on me and there are always things that I haven't got round to doing. But the most important things are ready. I'm hoping that my luggage isn't over weight - I have so many books to take!
As I've said before please keep in touch. I have no idea what the internet situation is like but when and if I get to my e-mail it'd be lovely to see all the news from the UK.
So for now it's so long and I'll see you soon(ish)!
Abi
xxx

Three Days

This is (most of) the stuff I'm planning on taking. I think I must be mad!

 

So my departure date is getting closer and closer. I can’t believe I only have three days left! I now have all of my kit and just have the rather daunting task of packing it all and then probably leaving half of it at home. Apart from a few little bits and bobs to sort out and some frantic learning of fish species I’m all ready.

I thought I’d better let everyone know a bit more about why I’m actually going to some exotic location and how exactly I’ve got someone to pay for (some) of it. As you know I’m going to work/volunteer for an organisation called Coral Cay Conservation who are based in London. They’re working in a range of different places to help conserve coral reefs. In order to effectively implement conservation efforts you need scientific data to find out, for example, how healthy a reef is, if this is changing and what specific threats the reef is facing. You also need to find out if the things you are doing are actually working! Obviously, it would cost lots of money to employ professional scientists to do all of this work and this is where volunteers come in. Coral Cay volunteers pay to come out to the research site and are trained in SCUBA diving and coral reef surveying techniques. As Science Officer I will be helping out with this training and the management of the data we collect. Volunteers are really good for doing this type of work because the survey techniques are pretty straight forward and they are really enthusiastic.

Coral Cay is also highly involved with the local communities. They train local people to survey too so they can help look after their reefs. Volunteers are also involved in education initiatives and visit local schools. Coral Cay have set up several ‘no fishing’ zones in the area too and are working to provide alternative employment for fishermen.

But don’t just take my work for it. Checkout the Coral Cay website for loads more (and possibly more accurate) information.

CORAL CAY CONSERVATION

Abi

xxx