Hoga- 10th July

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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 notice a gigantic moth flittering around our shack. I quickly pointed out that rather than we worried about the large flying insect; the ‘forearm’ sized gecko following the moth was more of a spectacle. Needless to say I felt the need to call him George and now he is our resident pet.

Today was pretty amazing diving-wise. I have to admit I was pretty nervous about diving again having been 2 years without it! We settled about 8m down and went through the standard drills, I still don’t like having my mask filled with water underwater! But I’m getting used to it again. The lectures are pretty horrific. I hadn’t thought I’d have to revise again so soon after our exams!!

I’ve uploaded some photos for you all to see, most are of the trip, but the last few are of our shack, and our ‘mandi’ (our delightful wet room).

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