Already been here 3 weeks!

Wow can't believe we have already been here 3 weeks. Time is starting to fly past!

This week we had our coral and fish exams. The pass mark is 95%. On my first go I passed my coral exam with exactly 95%. Geoff got through on his fish exam (harder i think) second go with 99%. The reason the pass mark is so high is so that the data we collect for GVI is 'good' enough. This classes it as scientific level data.

Life on base is the same as ever. The food is getting more monotonous - lentils, rice, pasta, lentil ,rice, pasta etc. It is mostly carbs which is not good for you. At this rate I will come home fat.

The trips to Curiese Island start up tomorrow, don't know when we're going yet could be any time in the next 8 weeks. This is the GVI satellite camp on a little island just off of Praslin. It is totally uninhabited except GVI and a couple of rangers. We will be doing turtle monitoring and beach walking. We will have to try to spot tracks from turtles coming up to lay their eggs. We will also be working on the veggie garden and banana tree plantation over there!

We decided to leave base on Friday afternoon before the weekly party started. Good choice as the drunken antics lasted until 6am. We were staying in a little guest house in (you guessed it) Beau Vallon. We went down to the big hotel on the seafront to pig out on the breakfast buffet! It was SO yummy. We have done 3 dives this weekend and saw 2 white tip reef sharks and 3 big rays.

Hope you like the photos! Will try to get some of the actual base for next week. Kei

---

---