01/12/10 Another great week's diving

The routine weekday begins with an exhuberant rooster crowing at the top of its lungs around half five in the morning, at which point you’re generally too tired to drag yourself out of bed and thus subconsciously convince yourself you can sleep through it. When your alarm finally wakes up you too do so along with it and another day on paradise begins.

Chores are divided into two distinct catagories whereby one house will be on kitchen and the other inevitably on grounds and tanks.

Tanks must be filled regularly or dives cannot take place. It is the responsibility of a grounds and tanks team member to show initiative and fill tanks with the camp compressor. The task is effortless for the most part but strict rules, such as no smoking or leaving the machine running unattended, apply and must be followed religiously for health and safety purposes. The changeover of tanks is the only effort but becomes second nature before you know it. As the tank fills you must stay vigilent but can take this opportunity to read, listen to music or in fact write a blog for GVI, as I’m doing now.

The learning aspect of the project is interesting and structured exceptionally well. The phase I landed in is a coral phase. Forty nine different corals to learn may sound horrible, but with a little effort and willpower you’ll find yourself passing the exam in no time at all. If your passion exceeds that of the average Joe then I’d suggest to learn all corals (or fish if that is your assigned phase) before coming to the project. If you don’t then you will take an absolute minimum of a week out of coral surveying in order to learn the coral names. I was on the five week project but the ten-weekers only started surveying on their fifth week! Independent study of the corals before the project start is not an easy task but if you have the time and inclination I’d advise to do it.

The diving this week is continuing well and we have nearly finished all our 12 sites with the exciting prospect of opening up brand new sites which we have never dived before. At the moment we have finished 11 oif our sites with our most famous site “Booby” being completed tomorrow. We have a list of possible new dive sites the staff are sifting through and talking to our partners to see which are best. We are all excited to continue seeing all the megafauna like the sharks, rays, bumphead parrotfish and turtles we have been sing an increasing amount of recently.

The flora and fauna that encompass the Seychelles is breathtaking. If I could describe the experience on the island in one word I would use inspiring. You learn life experiences that no other place in the world can offer. The standard of living on Curieuse island is extremely basic but it just does not matter in the slightest. The dormitory style accommodation, water shortage and pests simply DO NOT make a palpable dent in the immaculate paintwork that is the beautiful island life. Things once considered necessities reveal themselves as life distractions and simply make you lose focus on what should be your only concern here: to absorb the euphoria of living on what’s considered paradise on earth. Many of my friends back home simply refuse to believe that the actual environment here is as beautiful as the postcards and Google images boast. They’re right. It’s infinitely better. The Seychelles will enrich you and the GVI experience as a whole will leave you with memories that’ll last you a lifetime.

01/12/10 Another great week's diving