Week 6 - The Goodbye

The reality of the end of our adventure was slowly touching each and every one of us. It was time for our camping trip. One group had gone up North the week before and we were to go down South back to Tampolove. These camping trips were designed so that we could finish Science Dives further down along the coast, trips that were too far to do from Andava. We left early morning on one of our dive boats and stopped at our first site – Kimboro. What a beautiful dive site – shoals upon shoals of sweepers and soldierfish, a blue-spotted ray, a moray eel, a male sling-jaw wrasse and countless amounts of fish. We finished our fish belts with surprising speed and accuracy and then explored the reef and took in the beauty. I cannot begin to tell you how much I love diving. The swell was unbelievable and poor Sally was as white as a sheet from sea-sickness. We then descended for our second dive, finished our data collection, surfaced and then head back to Tampolove. We carried a portable compressor to the compound where we hung our gear to dry and filled our cylinders. We got to stay in actual cabins that night – but this small luxury in those temperatures was unbearable with the cabin reaching 38°C that evening. The next morning, we left for our final science dive of the expedition at Bic’s Cave. This was a very flat, young reef with a great variety of fish. This is where I joined the prestigious hydroid group – what an achievement! Being stung by a hydroid feels a bit like a wasp sting – sharp and itchy. After our 2 dives there, having explored the mini cave system, gone through swim-through’s and collected our data, we made our way back to Andava. Our next day we did recreational dives to Lost and Valley where all of us dived together and went where we wanted  in our buddy pairs – here we found each and every elusive PIT stake that we struggled to find on our science dives – Murphy always prevails.  Dolphins swam with the boats on the way to the dive sites, what a perfect diving day to end our expedition on.

Our final lunch was with the Women’s Association. The cooked us a wonderful meal and sang for us – wishing us success and happiness on our journey’s through life.  Needless to say, some of us – nay most of us shed a few tears knowing that this amazing experience was coming to an end. Our final part night was quiet and relaxed because nobody wanted to make the journey home with a hangover. It was a night of exchanging photo’s and contact details. The next morning, we rose early and packed our 4x4’s and head off for Toliara, back to civilisation – a freshwater swimming pool and airconditioning. It was a quiet trip, most of us reflecting on the past seven weeks. It was a two night stay in Toliara before Kim, Trevor, Steve, Charlie and I flew to Antananarivo. Leaving Toliara was filled with love and tears and promises. Kim and I buried our faces in our pillows and hugged one another as we left our memories. The flight to Tana was largely uneventful. We left Charlie, Steve and Trevor there and Kim and I made our way to Johannesburg. We left each other at customs.

I was completely overwhelmed by being back in the hustle and bustle of Johannesburg. People weren’t as friendly and the crowds were overbearing. Life in Madagascar was far simpler. I cried, a lot when I arrived home, unable to put into words what I had experienced and what I had left behind. What can I possibly say about this trip that will accurately convey what it really meant to me? The people I met and the experiences I have had have all been completely life-changing and have added a little something to the person I now know as Courtney. Thank you to the people that had made this adventure and for all the love and memories – always special and never forgotten.

Signing out – until the next big adventure!

Week 5 - Zanga's, Cockroaches and Baobabs

This week was certainly an eventful week. It was the last week to fit everything in before we were to start the long trek home. This was the week of our family stays in a rather pleasant little village –Tampolove. Here we were assigned to family homes where we could practice our extensive Malagasy vocabulary (all we had learnt up to this point was general greetings, how to count and how to order beer). The families we were to spend the evening with were families that had sea cucumber pens that we part of Zanga Matt’s project. We were to go at low tide (which was around 12 pm) to weigh the larger sea cucumbers and to count the juveniles and see which ones had survived. After a 1h30 pirogue journey to Tampolove, we were shown to Zanga Matt’s compound. Here we had some lunch and were then led to our respective families. I was to stay with a family of 6 – the mother’s name was Nathalie. After stumbling through extremely broken Malagasy and eventually resorting to sign language we had then been called to go with Zanga Matt to the mangroves.

Matt had the idea of rehabilitating the mangroves in that area and so we set out in search of seeds to plant. We walked through the mangroves, collecting as many seeds as possible and then made our way to the site for planting. We then just shoved the seeds into the mud in rows. Zanga Matt has since left there and we have yet to find out whether it was even minimally successful. We returned from the mangroves and then made our way to our houses for the evening. Nathalie had started preparing supper while we had been out and lo-and-behold rice and fish for supper! We sat awkwardly and smiled at one another and I then handed over my Malagasy notes to Nathalie who had been trying to learn English and so used my notes to supplement hers.

The kids and I counted in English and when it was bed time, they showed me to my room. I was fortunate – I had a proper bed and mattress, this room however was a home for a horde of cockroaches...needless to say, I decided that I would not be sleeping there. Having heard that Lauren’s host had taken a rather strong liking to her (an an inappropriate fashion) we decided that we would visit the local bar with our families. Here we ordered coke and rum and danced while we waited for the tide to move out. 

Midnight came and we made our way out to the cucumber pens. In the pens not only did we find zanga’s (which was a given) but an unlucky seahorse, a box fish and a squid (which unfortunately became supper). Nick and I were sent to count the juvenile pens and I will honestly say that this gave me the heeby-jeebies. They feel funny in your hands and even more revolting under your feet. We were sticking our hands deep into the mud and did not know what we were going to be picking up. Now I am not a squeamish person but I was unsettled beyond words – so once that pen was done, I watched with great interest.

Once this whole project had been finished we headed back to the compound and the general consensus was that none of us would be sleeping at our designated houses – me with my cockroach infestation; Nick with his crazy-eyed mass murderer (-looking) house father and Lauren with her overtly friendly host – we thought that it would be safer on the floor of the compound. We then decided that perhaps it was best not to sleep and sat and stayed awake until 4am, knowing that we would be leaving at first light. This was our only hope. I vigil ended when we started falling asleep and a drunk Malagasy gentleman decided that he preferred Justin Bieber blaring from his cellphone over our music that we had running through a stereo system. We woke up 4 hours later when the tide had come in and get set to go on our way. The pirogue trip back was trying to say the least. The wind was blowing in the wrong direction to get us back to Andava at any great rate of knots. Luckily we were equipped with a rowing machine (known as Patrick) and made it back...in 5 hours. We then arrived back to the knowledge that we would be setting up traps for reptile monitoring.

Now this reptile monitoring was commissioned by a chap in the UK – I use chap in place of idiot because this study was useless. He wanted to determine the presence of reptiles in a degraded area compared to one that was untouched – in theory this is a great study, provided you’re willing to work for the results and have enough comparable data for it to be of any relevance. Setting up one reptile monitoring point in a degraded area and one in a non-degraded area does not count as sufficient data for any study. Let me explain the traps to you – they consisted of 20 buckets buried placed in a hole so that the lip of the bucket was indistinguishable from the ground. The buckets were placed 1m apparent following a random path. Now between buckets there were sticks which we then thread a plastic sheet (20m in length) through from one end to the other. The theory is – is that reptiles would hit the plastic sheet and then turn left or right and ultimately end up in a bucket. This method worked extremely well for spiders and scorpions and other insects, not so much for reptiles. The traps were checked twice a day –first thing in the morning to get anything out that had fallen in overnight. We would then leave long sticks in so that specimens that had fallen in during the day could get out without baking in the sun. We ran this study for 10 days and as far as I remember found 2 reptiles.

So now – back to the water, where we out to be! We did a Science Dive at Mah. As far as I remember it took my breath away but I will absolutely have to get back to you on this one. Party night this night was a Pirate / Superheroes theme. Nick fashioned cutlasses and swords out of sticks, coconuts and a machete. We also carried a plank around for people that committed party fails.

On our day off, we headed off to the Baobabs which took an hour by Zebu Cart. 4 of us squeezed into a 1 x 1m box cart and where taken to the baobabs. We plodded past the Italian Hospital and past the airstrip. Well...was I rendered speechless when we arrived? What magnificent beings. Looking up at this beast was so humbling and I genuinely felt at peace. They blew my mind. It has always been a dream to see Baobabs and here they were. We walked through all of them, each having a story or a name and we left at sunset. What an image and what an astounding memory. My love for these trees has only grown.