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Published: June 26th 2006
Our first blog and still in the UK, but with just over 3 weeks to go before we leave, thought it would be helpful to give you a quick introduction to the first part of our trip, namely 3 months in Madagascar and in particular 6 weeks with the Blue Ventures Dive Conservation project near Toliara. Another good reason for telling you what we're doing now is that once at the dive project the communication will stop because there is only a satellite phone for emergencies only! Just before we go any further, we’d just like to say a big ‘THANKYOU’ to everyone that has supported us in getting this far and helped raise some of the money towards joining the project, particularly those who bought Lexa’s cakes…and survived!
We leave the UK on 20th July flying via Paris to Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar. We then have three weeks travelling around the country, (camping and hostelling) before joining the dive project in the south west on the 10th August. After 6 weeks of diving twice a day 6 days a week, we leave the project and have just over 2 weeks to see a bit more of the island before returning to the UK. Back in the UK we have a couple of weeks to recover before we start on the next part of our Big Trip, based around a 12 month round the world flight - but more of that later.
As far as Madagascar is concerned we don’t exactly know what we’re letting ourselves in for, but by all accounts the wildlife sounds amazing with some of the highest biodiversity on the planet. Of roughly 200,000 known species found on Madagascar, about 150,000 are endemic - meaning they exist nowhere else on the planet. (see http://www.wildmadagascar.org/wildlife/ for more info.) Unfortunately like everywhere else, this wildlife is under a lot of pressure from people - check out this link to see the huge affect that deforestation has had over just the last 100 years on the island (http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=4731). Anyway without getting gloomy, it is just this kind of human impact that projects like Blue Ventures (BV) are trying to study and hopefully address with sustainable solutions that the locals can live with. BV are an award winning not-for-profit organisation that focuses primarily on marine conservation, co-ordinating expeditions consisting of dynamic, enthusiastic and committed volunteers, coming from a wide range of backgrounds and cultures, both beginner or environmental expert. These volunteers work hand in hand with local biologists, governmental departments, NGOs and local communities, to carry out research, environmental awareness and conservation programmes and that’s where we come in…. Every 6 weeks a new team of volunteers arrives at the field site, ensuring year-round sustainability of the project and as of August, Lexa and I will be one of up to 16 volunteers working at the camp, together with Malagasy and international research scientists, as well as local and international Blue Ventures staff.
(By the way if you're looking for 'cheap' flights to Madagascar and this is a very relative term… then try Corsair and you might be looking at about £800 rtn pp including flight to Paris, rather than around £1100. We had to buy the tickets by calling their Paris offices, but it’s worth it for the saving.)
If you’d like more details of the organisation here’s the website, http://www.blueventures.org , they are always looking for volunteers…
More news when we're on the road.
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John Wokersien
non-member comment
Bon Voyage
Yes it had to be! - Dad and Mum wish you well on your adventure and hope you find excitement, fulfillment, wonder and wisdom.