15/10/2013 - Dig for Digby and the Vallée

As we woke on Friday 4^th October you could sense the anticipation in the air; even Digby felt the excitement as he knew it was the day of the Dig for Digby’s Doubloons challenge. We had been working in our teams for over a week formulating pirate names and putting together our pirate costumes. Vlad had woken up the entire camp the previous Sunday at 8am making the final adjustments to his wooden leg! Thursday had rained heavily all day and had been a complete right off, so there was much apprehension as we woke early on Friday morning hoping that the day would not be ruined by the rain. An early morning shower nearly put a dampener on things, but it brightened up and the Seychelles sun didn’t let us down and shone all day. We had a hearty breakfast of scrambled eggs, baked beans, mushrooms and toast and at 8:30 the first team, The Curieuse Cutthroats, were off…

Numerous challenges took place throughout the day, a scavenger hunt across the island that saw us searching for tortoises, having pictures taken with the rangers and Mama, wading into mud in the mangroves and digging up maps on the beach. The Blue Nosed Buccaneers looked terrifying covered in blue paint and Uwe spent the whole morning accosting at the tourists who visit Curieuse Island! The afternoon saw us in our teams passing coconuts under our chins and swimming out to the boat, Dexter, to receive a clue from Pascal the pirate. Carolin from The Curieuse Cutthroats felt that Ella, also from the CC’s, was walking backwards too slowly in her flippers so very ‘kindly’ decided to give her a helping push into the sea! Mascots were made, both the CC’s and The Blue Nosed Buccaneers decided to make a turtle out of the bits and bobs that were around the camp, while The Bloody Turnstones turned their artistic hand to making a bird. We spent the late afternoon getting ready for the Friday evening BBQ, which was followed by a fiercely competitive quiz. Pascal seemed to take great pleasure in the fact that we all found his questions exceedingly tough. Once the quiz was over the final scores were counted from the challenges throughout the day and the winners were…The Bloody Turnstones, who accepted their coconut trophies amid much pirate cheering.

To all those who donated to the Dig for Digby’s Doubloons, thank you very much. If you would still like to donate please click on this link www.justgiving.com/GVI-curieuse-dig-for-digby. The SSPCA (The Seychelles Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) is a fantastic charity, which aims to provide care and treatment to the population of stray, neglected and mistreated animals in the Seychelles. The money donated through Dig for Digby’s Doubloons is to help build a shelter for these unwanted animals.



Giant Bronze Gecko

As a thank you from Reggie, Patrick, Kate and Pascal for our involvement with the Dig for Digby’s Doubloons we were taken on an outing to the Vallée De Mai on Praslin to see the Coco de Mers. It felt just like a school trip as we all piled onto the local bus and paid our 5 rupees. Everywhere we looked vast Coco de Mers rose up and towered over us and their huge leaves gave us a welcoming reprieve from the scorching sun. We saw male trees with flowering catkins and female trees with huge nuts. We met up with Tom, who had popped over to Curieuse Island the previous week to look for Giant Bronze Geckos and to give us a talk on his research. He very kindly gave us a guided tour around the Coco de Mers and he even managed to find us a Giant Bronze Gecko. Wow! It was huge! He then took us to find some Black Parrots, but only those with beady eyes managed to see them in the trees. Our morning was rounded off with lunch in Praslin and a boat ride back to Curieuse. It was a busy couple of days, but a lot of fun was had by all.

15/10/2013 - Dig for Digby and the Vallée