Week 3:
Week 3! By this stage we had become accustomed to the way of life around Andavadoaka. This meant that although the fun and nonsense continued, we had a routine and we stuck to it. This week, we were blessed with a Night Dive. A night dive in Andava meant that we had to get up at stupid o’clock (3am to be precise) so that we could surface at sunrise. We prepared all our gear the night before and launched at 4am. Night diving is not one of my favourite pastimes as you cannot enjoy the whole coral reef and are limited by your torch light but it definitely gave a different perspective to something we saw every day. Small little white bait, all the urchins out from under the coral and the squid hunting by torch light was not something you see every day. It was magnificent and we were silenced as we surfaced at sunrise. We returned to half moon beach, had breakfast and prepared for out 11am dive. What a beautiful life.
This week was the final rescue scenario for those of them completing their rescue diver course. I was roped into playing a final victim and was left to float in half moon bay. I was constantly on the lookout for ninja jellyfish which stalked me while I pretended to play dead. Luckily I was rescued by Nick and dragged to the beach, sand finding its way into every possible unnatural location and was treated as an unconscious victim. I was successfully revived and watched on as they tried to revive my buddy. He did not make it. All in all, the guys passed and did a splendid job... now to tackle that sand.
This week we said goodbye to Jen and Sean. This farewell was at Bic’s where we’d put money together to buy some goat....yummy – red meat. We barbequed the goat (the word Braai didn’t quite catch on – I certainly did try) and after several bottles of rum and extremely full tummies, we stumbled our way back to our cabins. As far as I can remember, it was a rather unpleasant hangover but they all are aren’t they?
Week 4:
Now I know that it has been a while since I wrote about this particular adventure, and it almost certainly has been a long time since I last left there, so please forgive my memory loss and lack of detail.
We started official science dives this week which meant we got to dive further sites, and this data was captured for actual research purposes and thus the pressure was on. We dived Nosy Fasy which was a reef not far from Nosy Hao. Unfortunately this reef was the source of waves in the area so we were subjected to unbelievable surge. Imagine trying to red every 20cm on a tape while being dragged 10m forward and 9m backwards. It was fun and exhausting but we got the job done and all the data that we needed. The visibility this week on the dives was particularly low which was attributed to storms around the coast of Africa. Our next day of Science diving was done at Nearshore Andava and what a disaster! The stakes were so badly numbered so we all did invisible PITs and this disaster was followed by the news that Nick had lost his slate with all the data on...this meant that NS Andava had to be redone, another day.
This party night involved bed-sheets which is surprisingly convenient for those bonfires on the beach and for conveniently falling asleep on because we were “oh so tired”. Nick the ultimate costume maker in the middle of nowhere, fashioned head bands out of palm fronds and used conch shells to call the winds for improved sailing? This party night was one night to be remembered, or not, and will go down in the history books.
This day off saw Nick and I head into the village to go see Jacks. He was going to show us how he painted his pictures. He got white material which was ironed and then melted wax onto it to make a canvass. He would then get what paints he could and would copy pictures from the fish books or anything else that you wanted onto his blank canvass. It’s amazing what people can do without all this fancy stuff we take for granted.
