http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Seychelles/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Africa , Seychelles en-us Sat, 26 Jul 2008 21:00:37 BST Sat, 26 Jul 2008 21:00:37 BST 8th June 20th JuneOh dear the quick trip to the Pirates Arms for a couple of drinks turned into to an all dayer with all of us downing jugs of the local Seychellois beer. It was a pretty lively evening and in the end most of our group were there. We also met up with our park ranger Phillipe and his two lovely daughters while we were there. After a day of continual eating and drinking we finall http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Seychelles/Mah-/blog-289568.html 8th June Well where to start on what I've been up to A couple of weeks a go I went over to curiese island which is off of Praslin four of us and a few staff went and it has a high population of indigenous giant turtles about 150 apparently although I didn't count them personally the humans on the island number roughly 10 though so they are pretty outnumbered.We stayed in a lovely little cott http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Seychelles/Mah-/blog-285073.html 21st May Hi all a pretty quiet two weeks thankfully. We've been carrying on with some of the fish spots for the last couple of weeks and have also moved onto some of the scientific surveying which we are out here for. Basically involves recording all fish that pass by in a 7 metre sphere around the diver. Wednesday night last week we had a farewell meal for all of the five weekers who were leav http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Seychelles/Mah-/blog-278567.html 9th May Hello managed to get back on a computer again today and a pretty eventful week it has been too. Firstly as previously mentioned there is a bit of a rat problem in our dorms and in light of this our health and safety director on base has setup Rat Extermination Team Alpha to try and combat the problem. This team of brave men and women were charged with dealing with the conquest of our b http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Seychelles/Mah-/blog-274766.html I arrived on the 8th Apr and the first few days were very relaxing and had a great time chilling on the beach and doing a little swimming. We moved onto base on Fri 11th Apr and thats when the work started. There ae about 28 of us on camp and we've been doing a dive a day this week while also also studying the 150 different fish species that we have to learning in order to do the surveys. We've be http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Seychelles/Mah-/blog-271422.html Seychelles has always been on my list of places to go since I did a report on the smallest member of the United Nations in 10th grade. These amazing islands were uninhabited until British ships began blockading slave ships from Eastern Africa and dropping the freed slaves on the islands that they call the Garden of Eden. There are also stories truth and legend that pirates left numerous burie http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Seychelles/blog-271155.html Victoria Mahe Seychelles We arrived at this much anticipated stop on Friday the 25th of April. Our 9.5 hour excursion was right up there as one of my top picks since we were to board a small boat and head over to Praslin Island a World Heritage Site and often called the Garden of Eden. The first bit of bad news was that for the first time in the trip we ran into rain. The second shocker we http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Seychelles/Mah-/blog-270211.html On Macht 31st we started our journey to main Island Mah where we stopped over in Paris and took the connection flight to Mah International Airport with an Air Seychelles Boeing 767. We stayed overnight at the very common Beau Vallon Beach Bay on the main Island Mah. Among other things we made several trips to some of the most beautiful reefs of Mah for snorkelling. We were able to spot seatur http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Seychelles/blog-257999.html It's been long since I have been able to update this. Much has happened. We arrived in Thailand and for the first 3 days I spent them in Bangkok which was about an hour from our port. We were at a shippingcontainer port. It was quite vacant. Many of my academic field programs were held in Bangkok or at Chulalongkorn University. It was quite an experience. I visited a television productio http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Seychelles/Mah-/blog-247631.html Well we are in the beautiful Seychelles We arrived yesterday at 8 am and I was on the beach by 10 I had planned to do research all day but there was not a single internet cafe open on a Sunday I swam and enjoyed the sunshine for a couple of hours and then it was back to the boat to study for midtermsThe island is really beautiful. The water is crystal clear and we're surrounded by mountains. http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Seychelles/Praslin/blog-247445.html Hello all sorry to say its been a long time since Irsquove updated. But here goes. Irsquove got back from India about 5 days ago en route to the small island chain of the Seychelles. India was indescribable on many levels. It was not what I expected. Perhaps I had some utopian notion of what it would be like but they were quickly dashed up arriving in Chennai. It is literally the mo http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Seychelles/Mah-/blog-246929.html Itrsquos hard to believe that Irsquom in the final month of my three month placement here in the Seychelles. Time has passed quickly especially since my family Guylaine Jonathan and Michelle joined me here one month ago. My time off is time on for them as we tour the beautiful beaches forests and waters of these wonderful islands together. We are now living on the island of Praslin 40 k http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Seychelles/Praslin/blog-186022.html Today's Blog is from Michelle Summer 2007 A Journal of My Trip Mon June 27 2007 One thing I donrsquot like about traveling is the transportation to get to the place. First we had to take a 2 hour bus to Montreal then we took a 6 hour plane to France. I barely slept on the plane itrsquos too uncomfy. We got a day room at a hotel and we slept for four hours then we took a plane from Pari http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Seychelles/Mah-/blog-183009.html How things have changed over the last ten days The big event of course was the arrival of Guylaine Jonathan and Michelle on June 25. They showed up at the airport early on Monday morning. As soon as Jonathan and Michelle saw me on the other side of customs they ran out to see me not realizing that they had left Guylaine to clear all their bags through customs for them. Peter had graciously of http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Seychelles/Mah-/blog-178384.html Itrsquos been two weeks since I wrote an entry for this blog and tomorrow will be six weeks since I left Canada. I have an excuse for the absence of blogs too much nonblog writing over the past two weeks. Four sermons two lectures and a letter for the Anglican Church people back home itrsquos almost like being back at school. Irsquove moved from the mountains in La Misere back to t http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Seychelles/Mah-/blog-172938.html Hey everyonehope all is well in the states i will be joining you back there in a few weeks now. Phase 12 here in seychelles is winding down. we have spotted a few more whale sharks since i last wrote you. the biggest was just over 7 metres 25 ft. and my week on curieuse island was also a highlight although it was a bit crazy because i was in charge of a group of 4 volunteers on a remote isl http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Seychelles/Mah-/blog-170221.html Itrsquos moving week for me here. Last Sunday I preached at the main service at the Cathedral and the service was also broadcast on the radio by the Seychelles Broadcasting Corporation SBC. I happened to use a coconut as one of my illustrations during the homily. Throughout this week people who were there or who listened on the radio have been coming up to tell me that they liked the coconut http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Seychelles/Mah-/blog-167301.html Finally a full day off. I decided to take advantage of it by heading up into the mountains. Mahe Island is a granite formation unlike most oceanic islands which are coral formations. As a result there are mountains which rise up over 900 metres above sea level. Mostly they are covered by a thick mountain forest but some places reveal steep granite cliff faces. I caught a bus up the Sans Souci http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Seychelles/Mah-/blog-164792.html Revival Itrsquos been almost two weeks since I arrived in the Seychelles and Irsquom sure some of you are wondering to yourselves ldquois Mark actually doing anything while hersquos thererdquo So to reassure you that Irsquom keeping busy here are few days in my life in the Seychelles. On Friday which normally is supposed to be my day off Christine and I went to the airport to cel http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Seychelles/Mah-/blog-163445.html Hey everyone Sorry its been a while i have been keeping busy out here leading dives and hanging out with megafauna. We work 14 hour days here and don't get much of a weekend but the diving and the people make it worthwhile. last week on the safety stop of a LIT dive i was leading we spotted a 13 ft. manta ray cruising by. Other than diving me and karen the other intern have been busy prepari http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Seychelles/Mah-/blog-162338.html Jonathan my 13 year old son chose the Seychelles for his recent school project. Here's his introduction to this amazing country The Indian Ocean dominates the Seychelles whether we are talking about the immense drops in depth off the coast of the islands or merely the size of what seem to be little specks of islands compared to the big blue bed of water extending for thousands of miles. Very http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Seychelles/Mah-/blog-161019.html Yes thatrsquos me in the picture with VicePresident Belmont of the Seychelles. We were two of the guests at the inauguration of the new high speed boat the Cat Cocos II which will run twice daily between Mahe and Praslin Islands. As part of the festivities a selection of Seychellois high society was taken for a sunset cruise this evening around the north end of the island. How you might as http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Seychelles/Mah-/blog-160883.html One of the remarkable things about the Seychelles is the diversity and uniqueness of the flora and fauna. There are a huge number of plant and animal species that are found only in these islands. It is in this way a lot like the Galapagos Islands those remote islands in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Peru which were the inspiration for Charles Darwinrsquos theory of evolution. It could eas http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Seychelles/Mah-/blog-159936.html I like this place already The people Irsquove met so far have been very warm and welcoming. When I met Tiana at the airport it was like being greeted by an old friend finally meeting after two months of exchanging emails. Along with Tiana were Canon John and Rev. Christine. Christine will be my supervisor for the summer and I can tell already that shersquos well organized. One of the firs http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Seychelles/Mah-/blog-159313.html Hey everyone Hope all is well back in the states sorry i havn't written in a while but i have been quite busy with this intern position. I have been leading about 8 dives a week with the new volunteers teaching them their fish and coral and they are nearly ready to be surveying. Last week on Anzac day after a coral spot dive we got to swim with and 8 foot manta ray that wandered into the ba http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Seychelles/Mah-/blog-155636.html Hey everyone i managed to return from kenya without being mauled or mugged. The safari was amazing and we saw everything i had hoped to. my favorite was maasai mara national reserve and seeing mt. kenya and kilimanjaro. comming home to the seychelles was refreshing but there has been a lot of work to do to get ready for the next phase. There are 24 new volunteers arriving tommorow most of whic http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Seychelles/Mah-/blog-147044.html Hey everyone Hope everyone is well and enjoying the spring weather. its hot as hell here but i'm loving it. i havn't been in to town lately because i despise civilization and it is becoming a chore but hearing from all of you makes it worth while. Silhoutte was just as beautiful as the first time. we saw 3 groups of turtle hatchlings which ranks pretty high on the most amazing things i've eve http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Seychelles/Mah-/blog-141157.html hey everyonejust wanted to write a quick entry to let everyone know i'm still alive. i will be headingback to silhouette for another week to hang out with the turtles. also GVI has asked me to stay on as an intern for the next phase and i couldn't pass it up. So after a 2 week trip to Kenyai will be back in the seychelles for another 10 weeks as staff scary thought that i will be in charge ofpa http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Seychelles/Mah-/blog-136612.html