Nesting turtles spotted

We are now halfway through week seven; how time flies when you’re having so much fun! The ten week volunteers are settled into their coral and invertebrate survey roles, whilst the fresh five week volunteers are preparing for their first coral exam on Thursday. Survey work has now begun around numerous dive sites in the North West of Mahe, not only providing data on the population of juvenile corals, but also giving the volunteers a chance to explore different reefs and the fascinating flora and fauna that reside in them.

Monday gave two volunteers, Curtis and Richard, the opportunity to aid MCSS in their turtle research. This involved joining a member of the organisation on a patrol of the island’s Southerly beaches, noting any turtle nesting tracks found, cases of potential poaching, and tagging nesting turtles found on the beaches. It proved to be a very rewarding day, in which they were lucky enough to see two female Hawksbill turtles clambering up the same beach at the same time! One turtle returned to the water, whilst the other proceeded to find a nesting spot and lay her eggs. It was an unforgettable experience, and the volunteers were able to tag the turtle, take a DNA sample, and mark the nest.

The week also began with celebration, as our ten week volunteer Laura turned 21! We are all looking forward to this weekend, when we can buy her a drink or two and celebrate in style. The chocolate cake, baked by Adela, was AMAZING.

All the new five week volunteers have been treated to coral workshops, oceanography talks, conservation chats…the whole works. It’s a recipe for success and they are all learning fast and are already a cemented part of the camp community. It is a great advantage that the ten week volunteers can pass on what they have learnt, and aid in teaching and study. Good luck for the test on Thursday guys!

Nesting turtles spotted

Whisks vs forks in Curieuse

Picking up where we left off last time, the 5 weekers experienced their first days off. A hike to Badamier beach and Praslin’s internet café marked the end of their first long week. The new week brought with it some firsts for surveying and diving as well as two birthdays. Our new chickens have finally acquired permanent names, Razzle Dazzle and The Brain and they can often be seen wandering around camp in search of giant centipedes or just being held in the air.

The first Coco de Mer walk of the 2^nd half of the phase was a complete success with the team of Lars, Diana, Lyns, Seth, Ben, and Carl surveying, a new record, 31 trees. I’m sure the rest of the volunteers can’t wait for their chance. The first coral exam is planned for this afternoon and the 5 weekers have been dutifully studying hard. They got a slight break this week when Mario came from Cap Ternay to go through the Coral Reef Research Diver and EFR (Emergency First Responder) courses with them. They are now all certified to handle any situations in which they might find someone with a deckchair up their nose.

Electrical equipment that has been on the fritz for the past couple weeks has finally been fixed by Mr. Ben from parts that recently arrived on a jumbo jet. With the new lights we can now clearly see what Ben looks like without his beard…let’s just say he may need to bury all his clothes. Ingenuity continued with Dickon fashioning a whisk out of a small metal strainer for the purpose of speeding up the process of making Ange’s Island Mayonnaise, a Curieuse favorite. Previously made with a fork, a war wages on between him and Diana as to whose mayo, fork or whisk, reigns supreme.

Both Lyns and Steph celebrated their birthdays this week and in honor of that we ate a delicious cake made by Rach and homemade presents. Some of the volunteers misunderstood the “be creative” assignment and as a result painted their left knees green for the occasion.

Also this week we’ve started surveying two new dive sites, Coral Gardens and Northwest Rocks. Just swimming around and trying to find them without exact coordinates is almost like extracting your wisdom teeth. Found on our second try, Coral Gardens turned out to be a really cool site with lots of large, colorful colonies and tons of invertebrates. On the mega fauna front, a pod of dolphins seem to have taken up residence around Curieuse and keep being spotted by the daily turtle walkers. Some mornings you can also see them swimming around our boat, Dexter.

This weekend we’ve all planned to make a trip to La Digue. I’m sure the 5 weekers are looking forward to no coral lectures and possibly forming a string quartet. It looks to be a fun and relaxing trip. Until next time! Keith.

Whisks vs forks in Curieuse

Dicken, Lynsey, Anita and Lars arrive on Curieuse

The past week has seen the sad departure from Curieuse of the first set of five weekers from Curieuse to Mahe and the arrival of a new group of five weekers.
The new group of five weekers have arrived from two sides of Europe; England and Switzerland. Dicken and Lynsey have travelled from London, whilst Anita and Lars have travelled from Switzerland.
Dicken is currently a Special Effects Engineer working on the new Sherlock Holmes film released in December 2009, and has discovered an amazing talent for baking bread and pastry making of which we are all truly thankful for, whilst Lynsey is a Valuation Surveyor for capital construction works. They both say ‘Hello’ from Curieuse! Anita and Lars are our other two new five weekers and are both Software Engineers for major banks in the finance capital of Zurich in Switzerland. They both say ‘Gruezi’ from Curieuse!
The first few days has consisted of meeting the fabulous ten weekers and staff, and adjusting to island life. To date we have had two coral workshops and are mastering cooking for eleven people of which the beautiful location has made this a lot easier. So far our coral identification skills are relatively good, of which we are fairly confident leaving only a couple of species that continue to baffle us, but perseverance is imperative to start coral quads and transects. We have so far carried out four dives in perfect conditions, and even saw a turtle on the return to the island following a dive. A short walk to the end of the island on Sunday introduced us to the giant tortoises that live on Curieuse, and we also got to see a baby tortoise which was extremely cute!


In the meantime the ten weekers (Steph, Seth and Diana) have had a couple of days off where they have been investigating the delights of Praslin and Badimir beaches, and then have been continuing with their quad dives and turtle walks. Seth has also been busy making a sun lounger out of the local wood which is still ‘under construction’, whilst Carl has successfully designed and constructed his sun lounger which is surprisingly comfortable
(Top: Carl’s sun lounger, Bottom: Seth’s sun lounger)



Yesterday we said hello to Lindsay from Cap Ternary to learn more about turtles and threats to the coral reefs. We also went over to the ranger’s station and met with Dr Jeanne Mortimer, a turtle expert of thirty years. She went on a turtle walk with us describing what to look out for in the tracks and then having seen no turtles on this occasion; she kindly joined us for lunch and presented a series of lectures in the afternoon describing her travels throughout the world as a conservationist monitoring turtles and their habitats. She has been in the Seychelles since 1981 dedicating her life to the turtles, and has witnessed the increase and decrease in turtle populations here. But since the ban in turtle hunting the data shows a vast numbers of turtles within this vicinity that do not travel beyond the Seychellois waters, as this is a unique environment where they are not under threat and they can lay a series of successful clutches per year. This talk was extremely awe inspiring and insightful from an extremely knowledgeable and experienced lady who is highly motivated. She stayed with us through the majority of the afternoon answering all our questions which was an extreme honor and privilege for us.

Dicken, Lynsey, Anita and Lars arrive on Curieuse

GVI Seychelles outdoor classroom

Week six saw the beginning of the long awaited community work! Every Monday and Tuesday a group of volunteers don the famous pale blue GVI t-shirts and head to the nearby beach of Port Launey to teach the children from a local school about the marine environment and why it is important to keep it safe and clean.

This week the volunteers taught the children about food chains, focusing specifically on producers, herbivores and carnivores within the context of the marine environment. The children presented what they learnt to the rest of the class by singing songs they learned, performing skits that depicted the food chain in action, and by reading the short stories on the threats to the food chain.

GVI Seychelles outdoor classroom

Fun times and goodbyes at Cap Ternay

Today was a mixture of emotions as the following 5 week volunteers departed: Yvonne P, Edvan, Rachel, Olivier, Drew and Emilie. Many friendships have been made in the last 5 weeks and with promises to keep in touch they were driven off to Beau Vallon and Victoria where they will spend a night or two before catching planes back to Singapore, France, The Netherlands, UK and Alaska.


During week 5 we all enjoyed fun dives at the wonderful site known as The Lighthouse. It was strange to dive again without quads, slates and pencils. Sharks were spotted but were too fast for the budding underwater photographers, the golden spade fish however seemed to enjoy the attention as much as Kevin enjoyed watching them.

Many of us staying for 10 weeks reflected upon the last 5 weeks, what we have all experienced and learnt about marine conservation and corals, which in such a short time has amounted to alot!


The new 5 week volunteers who arrived at Cap Ternay today are just starting their journey of discovery and wonder whilst we are half way through ours.

Richard, Sarah and Brigitte will be busy this weekend with orientations, base tours, presentations, refresh dives and off course the ultimate first glimpse of Bay Ternay .............

Fun times and goodbyes at Cap Ternay