Hoga Island: I thought it might be a good idea to describe the island a bit, just so you can get an idea of where we are! There is a ‘base camp’ to OpWall. To get to the lodge (where the dining hall is downstairs and library and computer room upstairs) you immediately step off the pier and walk 20m down a paved path from the beach into the jungle. To the right of the lodge there are the dive huts and the lecture theatre. On either side of the lecture theatre of diving changing rooms. The dive huts are just a little further along from the lecture theatre, and there is a hut to keep our diving belongings in permanently and stacks outside to dry our wetsuits over night. We get kitted up on ... read more

Claire: I woke up realizing that a corrugated iron roof was definitely not a good construction material for roofing on a tropical island that is witness to regular monsoon-like rain. Ellie had already been up at 6 and left for a snorkel, but with a relative lie-in of 8am I was greatly unimpressed by this type of wake-up at 7.30am. No wonder we shelter geckos, rats and bats! Today was day 1 of my project. I’m working with Michael. He has graduated from Uni California Santa Barbara with a Marine Biology degree and wants to write a dissertation before applying for his masters. We’re collecting data together, as it means we can get twice the data in half the time, also we’ve decided on 2 methods of data collection, and it helps to have another ... read more

Claire: Yesterday we experienced our first party night. The theme: Hoga togas. Sarongs were used in many interesting ways to appear toga-like. Even palm trees were plaited and used as arm bracelets, belts and hair ties. We had a big feast outside, followed by party games that the locals came up with. The guys had to climb under the table without touching the floor and pull themselves up again, (the tables are quite long and quite wide). There was also a flexibility game with a pole, and finally a best-dressed catwalk. After the feast we all walked the grueling 20m walk to the beach and played tug-of-war and other games on the beach, and ended with a beach bonfire and dancing in our lodge. Today has been very relaxing; I think most people were getting ... read more

Claire: Well the test was a success, we all topped the class! (Thank god). Only 30 coral families to recognise and name in latin tomorrow evening!). I saw a blue spotted sting ray today, and plenty of lionfish. It hasn't stopped raining since lunch, monsoon style, but we managed to catch a few rays after our first lecture this morning, I'm happy to report Ellie is slightly redder than yesterday, oh sorry, I meant brown. Ellie: I'm definitely brown, mum. Despite topping the class, whatever we wrote about sea slugs yesterday was wrong! Two people were stung by jellyfish today - Dean (marine biology student from Essex uni) was had by a Pacific Man o' War, and Tom (who is Tom? Claire knows..) got stung by a Bluebottle - in the face of all places! Lots ... read more

Claire: Having promised photos, this website is proving tricky at uploading them, so as I type I'm uploading the first 15 or so to facebook, so parents get someone to show you on facebook! We are 'frantically' revising for our first exam tonight, it's in 2 hours. We have to name all phylum, class and most genera of all invertebrates, and several common species found on Hoga, (I think it's roughly 120 names). Luckily last year we had a course on Inverts so some we can recall, but it is still challenging! I went on a dive this morning and began to spot corals and inverts that I can now name, which is impressive! With 2 dives and 2 lectures a day, the days are pretty busy. No time to sunbathe which is very upsetting!! We ... read more

Elly: This was our first full day on Hoga. We’re all taking a reef ecology course with a fearsome American woman who won’t let us loose on our research until we know roughly 40 families of invertebrate, 30 orders of fish, similar numbers of algal species etc. Myself and a couple of others aren’t certified divers yet, so had to snorkel today, but we still saw almost as much as the divers - a moray eel, an enormous plate coral, barracudas, other things… We are all resigned to the fact that we will be permanently wet! Claire: Last night was a bit of a horror movie set! I think most of you have heard now but I couldn’t help but mention George! As we were getting in to our mosquito net boudoirs Ellie happened to ... read more

Elly: We are now set up in our little shack in the middle of the rainforest. The ferries were certainly an adventure, but perhaps not one to be repeated. The second (overnight boat) was wooden, and we slept on plastic mattresses laid out on slats, with layers of people on top of layers of people. There was very little breeze and I don’t think any of us have ever felt so grimy and claustrophobic! One of the tanks in the loo was gushing water into the boat, and it took me and another girl a good while to work out whether this meant we were sinking or not. There was some lovely bioluminescence, thanks to the flying fish jumping around the boat. Claire: To say we slept well on the second boat would definitely be a ... read more

Claire: With 10mins of my laptops battery life remaining, I'll be brief! We both slept well last night, finally. I think we've almost overcome our jetlag now, it has been 5 days since we left you! (Happy Birthday Greg!). And we're setting off from the hotel in an hour. The first boat should get to BauBau at 5pm, (so roughly a 5 hour boat trip). Then the next boat leaves BauBau at 9pm. Apparently BauBau is incredibly beautiful, so we're allowed to have a wander, and get dinner and things! The overnight ferry provides plastic mattresses on the floor, there will be at least 60 of us heading to the island today, so we'll just have to grab an area and hold on to it all night! The luggage is going to be in the hold ... read more

Claire: So we've finally found out the true extent to this epic journey... We will arrive on Friday after lunch, having left Kendari tomorrow by boat to BauBau, then after a 3 hour stop off we will catch a 9pm OVERNIGHT ferry to the main Wakotobi Island, followed by a further boat to Hoga which *should* arrive at midday on Friday. Ellie: eeeeeeeeek! haha Claire: Thanks for that Ellie... Anyway, the last night in Jakarta was eventful with a movie night of Mansfield Park and Northanger Abbey followed by horror murder films on HBO. (Why read Austen when the ITV series are so good??) Our masseuses came round at 6 and it was a very oily experience, but definitely worth it! We had a relatively nice and a late meal in the hotel and saw some ... read more

We will try and add to this as much as possible - if we discover a new species, you'll be the first to know! Hi all! We arrived yesterday at Jakarta airport at around 4 o clock, but had to wait FOREVER to get our suitcases back. A "Losari Tours" rep drove us to the hotel, where we fell asleep within an hour. Claire slept for about 15 hours. Today we have....napped. Breakfast was bizarre: Prawn crackers, green jelly, egg fried rice, rice, noodles, sausage (we think), mushroom pasta, chocolate cake and sauce, watermelon. Tea. Toast. Amazing! We checked out the swimming pool and spa but got scared off by the lack of women. Instead, we've dialed up a massage each in our room for this evening's entertainment. We're not leaving the hotel today because we're ... read more