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Published: January 2nd 2007
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So, to round 2 of my Madagascan adventure. Getting to our camp from Diego Saurez took us an hour and half by boat. The camp had 2 boats we used for getting us around, whether it be to go diving or to head back to town to pick up re-supply. The boats themselves were typical Madagascan fisherman boats and not the easiest of things to get back into after a dive. I will admit, there were occasions when my fellow divers had to unceremoniously haul me onto the boat using my boardshorts; images of a beached whale come to mind.
When we got to Manta camp, I was pleasantly surprised to find a more established and dare I say it luxurious set up than in Tanzania. I guess it is all relative, as it was still very basic, but this time we had huts made of 2x4 timber which had tin roofs, a god send when the rain decided to fall. Once again we were as remote as you could be, but to live on a beach and wake up every morning to blue sea and sunshine, made up for the lack of civilisation and niceties in life. With no
fresh water readily available on camp, life was spent in the sea. You do get use to both you and your clothes being permanently crusty with salt, and there are some great benefits to being able to have your daily wash at the same time as your swim! Of course, being environmentally friendly, soap wasn’t in evidence on these occasions.
The camp itself was located adjacent to a small headland, called Nosy Stu, which was connected to the mainland by a spit of sand that came and went with the tide. The perfect sports pitch. Here many enactments of the Ashes were undertaken and yes, true to form, the Brits managed to lose to the Australians on just about every occasion! Just inland from camp was radio hill, inventively named I think, as this was where we had to go for radio contact with the boats when they were in the Eastern part of the bay. Attached is a photo of Manta camp from the hill, I think it gives a pretty good idea of what it was like out there.
The team I was working with were brilliant, the research staff had such passion for the work
that you couldn’t help but to enjoy it, and even learning all the species was fun. There was nothing more satisfying than the first time I dived and realised that I could recognise and name all the coral and fish I saw. My fellow Research Assistants included, a Swiss schoolteacher, 3 Australians and 16 other Brits. A good fun loving mix, I can safely say party nights were never boring!
Diving in the bay was an absolute pleasure, some stunningly beautiful reefs and not another dive boat in sight! If only I could put into words how amazing it all was, even the areas that had suffered environmental damage were fascinating. I made a few new underwater friends, I will never touch the underwater wildlife, but that doesn’t stop them touching you. After one instructional deepwater dive, where I had gone along as a safety bod, a shark sucker decided to attach itself to me during our ascent. I spent the whole of my safety stop trying to persuade it to desist, eventually, as we surfaced it moved off to the bottom of our boat; I did spend some anxious minutes wondering where it’s shark was! I managed to
log my 100th dive just off the coast from camp, and though I was not 100% naked as per protocol, there is one young man who is now probably scarred for life by the view of my naked butt!
One of the highlights of my time had to be our time on satellite camp. We headed over to Ramena, on the other side of the bay, in week 8, for a week, just as the first rains of the rainy season came along! It rained solidly for the first 3 days; fortunately it was warm. But memories of trying to light our cooking fire for 3 hrs will never fade. A late night infestation of my sleeping area by land crabs rated high on my scare-o-meter. Finally, spotting myself a Lemur, and one with 2 babies attached at that, absolutely made the week.
Time for me to do my final preparation for heading back to Madagascar tomorrow, 3rd Jan. I hope you enjoy the photos, please keep watching this space, as I will update when I can, or at least when I’ve got something interesting to say. I wish you all a very prosperous New Year. X
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angie7
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www.angie7.splinder.com
I'll be there soon!