Week 7 - A long journey home

Sunday
Taxi brousse at 5am
Delphine and I, Nadine and Ella. Cale
Arrived in Tulear, straight to Manatan.
Met Jaani, went to breakfast, had sorbet then shopping
Manatan until 12, lunch at Le Jardin
Goodbye to Nadine, Ella and Delphine
Goodbye to Cale
Walk with Jaani back to hotel

Took over Jaani's room with Ed.
Sat with the boya until they leave at 4pm.
James gave me photos
Gave Jaani a hug, no longer roomate, no burning hut down fear
George and his tintin chair
They got on 4x4, gave Jamie, James and ciaren
Julian a hug, Ed, arjen
They left.
Stayed in my room until jivan texted.
Met him, went for a walk, talk, laugh. He kept finding way to touch my arm, wrap his hand around me. Talk about reefdoctor, he wanted to wait for me to come back. I said Idont know when Iwill. I make no promise.
Back at hotel, talked for a while and then we parted. I gave him a hug, he whispered in my ear 'i love you'. I said thank you

Monday
Walk all around town, bought new pant, a camellion
Met the Honku's girls who just came.back from weekend in Anakao.
Le jardin/gelateria closed.
Went to la colombe instead, ate sambosa and had grilled vegetables with shrimps
Back to hotel
Packed, pay for room, try to sort out
1.30 Jivan came to pick me up.
Puss puss to station

Tuesday
Cold, freezing as we get into the highland area
11 am arrived at Tana
Taxi to moonlight hotel
Walking and exploring Tana
Got room
Went out again

Wednesday
Walk around, all the way to isokara
Bought stuff
Went back, sleep, check out
Wait on the terrace

Taxi to airport at 10.00 pm
Check in
Flying with Kenya airway.

First stop Nairobi. Then Nairobi to Amsterdam. Amsterdam - London

Thursday
Arrived late 5pm, got out 6.30pm.
Went on Northern Line

Week 6 - Last week at Reef Doctor

Monday
Fisheries with peppin
walk to berevy with ella and ed
Learnt fishes flashcarda, im.quite good now
Waited a long time due to voat coming back near 1 or 2
We had nothing until 2pm I started recording tons of fishes
Didnt have lunch
Ella and ed left to go back for 3pm dive
Peppan, 2 guys, we walked along to beach back and then we got on a piroge, sailing back to ifaty
Late lunch back at reefdoctor
New guy, Jamie arrived

Kate's last night, jose
She is loved by everyone bc they all came.
Played werewolves
Jivan really likes me. He came over and sat next to me. He had like 4 beers or sth. Held my hands and say he will.miss me when im gone. Will i come back? I dont know how I feel. I do, really like him but im leaving and Idont know when Iwill be back. He had to work at night for sea cucumbers. I told him to go.
Manjo came

Tuesday
6.30 dives ppl left, I talk to beth about tanks problem, she has ear infection
I said will help her with anything she needs
Found lauren to fill our tanks
8.30 dive became 9 due to lack of tanks
Good dive, id fishes myself now bc everyone has a point out, i didnt need one.
Came back, low tide, boat left outside
Sea cucumbers being weighted.
Jivan and leva are exhausted.
I helped them to build the sea cucumber fences.
Jivan took off his shirt and started digging. He was singing some french song to me.
Came back at 2. Dog ate our food. They cooked noodles for us, tiny portions...
Swam with Nadine
Shower, walked to jose with her, bought chocolate and 10 samosa
Pineapple time
Rina, looi, nadine and I all together
Tried to talk to jivan but i think he is way too exhausted or not happy with me last nite... idk. I feel bad. They have to finish the fences tonight. Wth! Its night time
They cant do that... :(

Wednesday
Mimics with George and James
Tank leaking, george switched with me
Helped Liva with sea cucumber fence
Jaani special dinner for bday
Zebu feast for everyone
I got lots of poached egg, cheese on top. Plain and rather bad... chips was good. Cake too big
Rhum after
Talk with george, nadinr, ella, rob, looi

Thursday
Dive at 6.3
Coral garden
Point out with Ciaren and george
Me doing expert fishes
George got lost. We surfaced and come back to boat
Someone lost a weight, manjo freedive down 14m, picked up and swam quite a distance back to boat... amazing
Came running in from dive to look for result
Not working
Magz later lend me her computer to check the internet
Ed got into Oxford
I got into UEA, no clue about results, coulnt access it
Showed manjo my drawing of him :)
10.30 walk to mangily with cale, looi, nadine, delphine, ciaren
Lunch except me and Nadine
Got my results. Not so happy with econ and art
Both went to do data together, walking in mud, treading through seagrass, stepping on urchin
Bought 3 pineapple at Mangily
Walked back, rina

Friday
Dive at Ambifina
30m vis, pippa and arjen, point out/photohunt
Stone fish

Looi dropped out of Cale's aquaculture group to the southern villages: berevy and ambolabouy. I volunteered.

Walk to berevy, met pepin and fisheries guys who will take us for lunch. Must wait for him to count fishea. I joined to ID fishes myself.

Nice lunch with fish.
Walk to beach, start our survey, Nadine and I, ed and jaani, rob and cale
Nadine and I, knee deep higher in mud and seagrass for first half hour. Play with sea cucumber, talk random shit. 2 seacucumbers stuck on one of her foot as she lifted her leg up. Hilarious!
Heading back!
Bought 10 samosas with ella before dinner. Ate all!

Trivia night!
Team bean turd with Julien, Cale, beth.

Saturday
Kit up at 7am
Dive trip to Coral Garden
Nadine took pic of me, found stone fish, triton shell eating a star fish
Boys left the camp
Pineapple time with Looi, ella, nadine, cale
Nice lunch made by Victor the awesome cook
Packed my bag in the scorching heat, washed my clothes, stuff them in my bag

Walked with Ella to Eva's lodge to order dinner. We are the first customers at this new place.
Took dinner order for Nadine, Looi, Ella, Rob, Delphine and I.

With Ella to Jose, picked up Trouble' puppy and drop it off with some kid on the way to Jose.
Bought food, telma credit

Goodbye to Maggie and Beth :(

Walk to Eva's lodge, the owner asked for Gasy dancing/music ambelagasy - banjo, gasy guitars, girls singand dance
Awesome salad, ate so much, big gtilled fish, fruit salad
Said goodbye to Lauren on the way back. Im food drunk. Gave her a big hug, plan for future travel in Vietnam and Asia next year. Told her that I have lots of admiration for her and that she has to be amazing :)

Week 5 - Mangily

Wednesday
Diving with george and James, look for nudibranch

Thursday
Mimics with beth, didnt pass
Saw a mating nudibrach in one of our transect
Volleyball match against local, played soccer with kids, taught them english counting and they taught me to count in gasy


Friday
Redo mimics with magz and kate
Signed off, complete science trainigng
French lesson
Teach english, tried at beginning with Ed. Kate, rina came.



Saturday
Fundive with Looi, nadine, kate, george, pippa, james at new site
Looi's first leading as divemaster
Nice site with 4 corals block, saw nudibrach

Came back late, walk back due to low tide
Nadine not coming to mangily
Everyone left. Me and rob walked up at 4pm, met them at mangily hotel
Went to near sebastian hotel for a shower, bought pineapple
Ppl had snok snok drink at hotel bar, head off to dinner
Grilled fish 10,000ar, id our fishes, emperor fish. I cut pineapple and ate the whole thing myself
To blue bar, pre drinks and dancing, more rum
Sebastian, met rina and alice, lots of dancing
Rina awesome dancer
Jaani and james fucked
James spilled drink on me
Kept jaani.money for him,
Delphine, ella, me left early

Sunday
6am woke up. Wtf jaani on kates bed!!!
Ella, jaani and Iwent to breakfast at anne, not me
Went to james room, discuss story of last night
Everyone hungover

Late breakfast at rina's
Met rina at 11am, kate an I waited at blue bar
Rina walked us through mainstreet to her place inside
Big land she has, a guardian lives there to look after her house
Cute hut, her hut is simple, 2 windows, a mattress
Ate breakfast outside, rice soup with veg, zebu meat balls
Talk about how rina felt about reefdoctor, how they treat her
Emma, christina and alice kept saying she is fat, emma kept asking if she is pregnant, made fun of her and alex(potential bf, english guy)
Stayed until 2pm

Kate and I walked to Tmarind tree, ate with others
Everyone left to mangily hotel
Kate and Iwalked to buy pineappke
I bought 2
Then we bought a gasy carved box

To mangily hotel
I walked back by myself early
Nice walk alone, barefoot, in the water
Nadine, looi, magz, beth, cale all went to nautilus for dinner

Isalo NP - Daily log

Day 1:
taxibrousse to tulear late, 6.00 am yet arrived at 9.30
Hotel manatan
ATM, shopping
Taxi brousse Mafio at 2.00
2 rows on the back, sat next to George, had lots of street food,
Laughing with lauren
4.00pm driving to Momotrek
Several breaks, dinner, police checks
Met the owner, went over detail, map
Sharing a bungalow for 7 ppl
Bunk bed above, george below
Lauren above, kate below, jaani and antoine sharing bed, johny alone
Everyone had a hot shower
George made me laugh a lot

Day 2:
Woke up early, breakfast at 7.30
Small bagguettes, butter and pineapple jam. Papaya and coffee.
2 cars to start point
My car full of porters on the back, antoine and jaani
Car broke down in the middle, surrounded by beautiful canyons, savana grassland
Jacob drove back to pick us up.
Julien - 19 yrs of guiding, thin frail man, dont speak much english
Julio - son, work with dad for 3yrs, better english, tell us stuff
Start trekking from village, through grassland, climb up canyons
Blisters, moaning from Johnny
George telling me stuff about geology
White lemurs
More moaning from Johnny and he stepped on back of my leg and scratch my leg quite big
Portuguesse
Arrived at campsite, by a stream, share tents with kate and lauren
Dinner, noodle soup, rice and beans
Torch become tent light
Good talk about random stuff like family
Lauren, sydney, parents separated, was working as some sort of consultant job, quit to travel for 2yrs, want to either become a ranger or a guide for hiking, one older sister
Kate, bristol uni, parent separated, older brother, sleep talk,
Showed them my drawings and art project

Day 3
Breakfast at 7
Start walking at 7.30
Through forests, some climbing
7 dwarfs, im sneezy, lauren doc, george dopey, jaani grumpy, antoin happy, johnny sleepy, kate blush
Fruit: im a peach
Talk about food, future prospect jobs and travel with lauren.
Dinner: chicken and pasta, lauren shares her bombay snack
Tired, achy feet
We laughed i killed a chicken

Day 4
Beautiful scenery
Best Tent spot, up altitude, by mountain
Waterfall as bathing pool

Day 5
Wear sandals, no more pain, blister
Walk through dry river bed full of sand
Took pictures of ringtailed lemurs
Black pool, jaani, antoin
Jumped into freezing blue pool with lauren
Walk back to bungalow, through the scattered grassland, passing big troop of zebu
Good talk with Julian, learnt how to say animal in gasy

Bungalow, johnathan used up hot shower 50 min, not happy
Stroll, bought ice cream for lauren, me and kate.
Devour street food, fried vegetables, peanuts
Lauren want to buy baobab tree painting, 40,000ar i negotiate the 30,000 ar
Nice fish curry for dinner
Shared rum btw looi, kate, george
Paid hotel room
Weeds, george rolled it, i showered and came out, stilltook a long time, we all went outside to smoke, 2nd roll in toilet


Day 6
Woke up early
Breakfast gasy style, 100k for 1 buk buk, just bought like 7 and 2 banana to eat them. Good breakkie!
Fucked up with the taxi brousse, prob explaining to driver what we want. They played with us about our taxi brousse, many passed and we cant get on
4x4 to next town, squash in. Me and george at the front, kate johnathan 2american girls back, looi, jaani and antoin at the back outside with luggage
Taxi brousse to tulear, so many people, i sat next to george and looi, in middle, bum falling off seat a lot, numb
Got to tulear at 1.30pm, decided to stay ib tulear till 5pm to get 4x4 back to ifaty
Back to manatan, ppl use internet
ATM with Jaani and george, magic store buy granola, biscuit
Late lunch at le jardin, spainish salad

5pm walk quickly back to manatan to get on 4x4 to ifaty, beautiful scenery back
Dinner, meet ppl again at camp, apparently, ppl saw whales, had good dives, amazing vis for the last week or so
Nadine gave me a big hug straight away, a bit tipsy she was