Another exciting episode....

Think I've managed to successfully add the link of the footage I took of the manta doing back flips.  Need my thesarus out here for more description words other than scary and awesome!

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/103349555765727784741/MeAndManta?authkey=Gv1sRgCPKgpqii6Nj83gE&feat=directlink

Week 4



Monday 30th August 9 a.m.
My it was hard to get out of bed this morning – 6am roll call, thankfully I’m not on the morning dives today but instead find myself on ‘tanks’. Yes, sat by the smelly compressor, dreading the moment when I’ve got to change over the tanks as have been shown so many different ways by others here, and still I can’t manage to do it!! I cannot believe August is nearly over – time has just flown by.

I had a fabulous weekend over on the island of Praslin which is just beautiful, picture postcard beaches everywhere, mostly deserted and lovely clear sea. 8 of us got on the early ferry Saturday morning, hired a couple of cars when we docked, and had a very chilled weekend. We’d booked a villa (47 euros each…so weren’t expecting much) only to turn up to find a palace. Three massive bedrooms, all with ensuites (with baths!), and a hot tub in the garden…overlooking the Indian Ocean…yes, paradise.

But not without it’s tensions…..so it’s me, posh Joanna, Sylvie (German and lovely), Katie (German and scratchy), Jade (South African), Andy (Brit), Tristan (South African), James (Brit). Me, Andy and James took driving licences, but James and I became drivers as Andy had already downed a few bevies before getting off the ferry. Driving was fine, cars tiny, barely making it to the top of the steep hills, but steering and driving as UK. I had the automatic, which was a bit of a worry as haven’t really driven one before, especially on pier with the car facing off the jetty…..concentrated hard as didn’t want to go the wrong way!!

Need to share with you my delicious breakfast on the beach in Praslin. Bought two croissants and some of those awful plastic cheese slices, which I would never buy when the boys begged for them when they were younger. But, have to say, having not had cheese for the entire time I’ve been away, I rammed 6 slices in each of my croissants and it was delicious…amazing what tastes good when you’ve been deprived!!

So, over the weekend, if things went as Katie wanted them to then generally it all ticked over, but we had moods and tantrums when they didn’t. The worst part however (I say worst but with a smile on my face as I did find it all very amusing) is that Katie was ‘seeing’ Andy, but now they’re not an item, Andy is now really good friends with Jade and hangs around with her most of the time…mind you Katie knew all this before she decided to join us so not sure what she expected.


We decided we weren’t going to go out to eat in the evening as our ‘home’ was so fantastic but instead eat (and drink) at the flat. It was great – everyone sorted their own food….me I had fried egg sandwiches (double round) with ketchup – delicious!! Chllled in front of tv (another luxury) and then all bundled in the hot tub for about 2 hours or so. Katie had a strop over Andy and Jade and got out….then got back in to inflict her strops on us, which we dutifully ignored. I’d had enough by about 11.30pm so went to bed, as did posh J. Woke up about 7.30am to ‘morning after the night before’ mess, which I pottered around and cleared up. And had another hot bath (yes had already had a soak on the Saturday before I got in the hot tub!), scrambled eggs and a whole packet of bacon for breakfast (with more ketchup!). Everyone else woke up a lot later, so had a good few hours on my own, sat out in the garden, reading my book, lying in the sun, and having only the wind in the trees and waves to listen to.

Then I find out that after I’d crashed out on the Saturday, the remaining 6 decided to go to a nightclub on the other side of the island. In one car, (they swore blind they didn’t take the car I was the named driver for [and who the contract was with] but I’m not sure I believe them as they were all really sheepish around me for a while). Jade drove as she was the only one not drinking, and the other five all squeezed in the tiniest car ever…..mmmmmhh….is it my age, or is it just how I am, but I cannot believe people would do that kind of thing, no insurance, full personal liability if something went wrong. Most of you know I could never play poker as instantly my thoughts are pretty obvious to everyone, and they knew damn well what I thought of their behaviour. But, kept my mouth shut! Trying hard not to be too much the matriarch of this lot.

Had to be out of villa by 3pm, so with typical Nicky precise planning, decided about 1.30pm to go in and have yet another bath (please don’t judge me…I have gone from having at least one bath a day for the whole of my adult life, to communal facilities and a cold shower with a mouldy curtain that clings to you as you shower - yugh). Lovely bath had, dressed, and slowly packing (doesn’t take long as am now the queen of the small rucksack overnighter)…and hear Katie screaming at me to stop running the water. Pointed out (nicely) that I had finished about 10 mins previously and that it wasn’t because of me that her shower had stopped (just as she’d lathered shampoo into her hair – no I’m not laughing at this point, I promise). Yes, you’ve guessed, water turned off for whole island between 2 and 6 each day due to drought which we’d not been told. So, me, I was lovely and clean, everyone else, who were all hoping to cram a hot shower before they left (after coming in from the beach/sea at about 2.45pm) ended up staying salty. And Katie had to rinse her hair with bottled water…aaaghh.

The final strop was spectacular…. Some of us had decided to stay in Victoria for the evening when we got off ferry to celebrate Andy’s birthday, but others didn’t want to stay so taxi booked to take them back to base. Five people, but taxi only licensed for 4, and Katie was last to the taxi. Tristan was sat in the front, and she almost hauled him out of the car after shouting and slamming door on him saying she was ‘first’ not him. Very entertaining!! Tristan, bless him, eventually got out and let scratchy girl in, and came for a drink with us. Thankfully Katie does not want to go to La Digue next weekend which we are now planning, and there will be no car dilemmas as the only form of transport is walking or bikes.


Success…..just changed the tanks over without crisis!


Think I forgot to tell you last week (something to do with my very exciting encounter with the whale shark) that we had decided to properly clean and rearrange our dorm…yes female nesting urges. Well mostly it was due to the Italians not being there and realising that they had claimed more than their fair share of space and furniture (generous description) as they had got to the dorm first on arrival. So relieved them of their second bedside table so that me and Monica didn’t have to share (Monica gets the award for the messiest bed area in the dorm by the way), and put their many bags and suitcases (about 6 in total) under their beds not around the sides of the dorm as previous. So Italians returned last night, looking very tanned, rested, relaxed, more designer clothes etc etc. They’ve clearly had a lovely ‘holiday’ and have no idea of the tension that they have created as obviously duty groups numbers have been compromised, they have missed all the lectures and tests we’ve had to do before we could go out surveying, and basically everyone is slightly resentful of the fact that they have been allowed to come back and are really just going to get ‘free dives’ unlike us lot who are ‘working’. Have no idea what they thought of our dorm rearrange except to say there was a lot of loud Italian talking yesterday evening. And true to form, they had their lie-in this morning whilst the rest of us were up doing camp clean. Oh, some things will never change…but at least I have my own bedside table now!!


Sorry this has been a long ramble this morning, but you are my company whilst I wait for the tanks to fill…. 4 more to go! xx


Wednesday 1st September
Wow – another great Wednesday. Swam with manta ray today….it was enormous, about 3-4 metre wingspan, and it was doing ‘back flips’! I was out doing the ‘plankton pull’ which is done by us volunteers every Wednesday at set points outside our bay. Basically a net is thrown into the water and after a set amount of time is drawn back in, and the plankton collected in a sample pot and then sent to the Seychelles marine authority for analysis. The reason why it is done in our area is because there is a convergence of different currents from around the surrounding islands, and there is a high concentration of plankton here, hence the number of whale sharks that grace us with their presence. Anyway, we hadn’t even started our work when we say the manta tummy side up at the surface. Skipper Tom asked if anyone was going to get in, and I have to say I didn’t immediately get in as it was very, very big! True to form though, in I went, (just snorkelling this time) with camera, and again have got the most amazing footage of the manta doing it’s back flips – another scary but amazing sight….nearly as good as the whale shark! I have now had two experiences here which everyone is very envious of, (no-one has scuba’d with a whale shark, and only a couple of people have seen manta ray) with footage that everyone is taking copies of….should I charge royalties?

Need to update you on the Italians….all hell broke lose last night as they refused to stay with their duty team to help clear up the kitchen. Everyone was really cross, staff got involved in the end, and they were marched back to the kitchen to pitch in. Then, this morning, they were meant to be part of the plankton pull team, but ‘Princess Claire’ as she has now been nicknamed wanted a lie in, and they didn’t bother to tell staff they weren’t going to do it, so it left just 3 of us to pull in the nets instead of the normal 5. Mind you, they missed the manta ray so some justice was had.


And just to keep you in the picture, sat here in my dorm (it’s 8.30pm) and Prince Gio is doing excessive amounts of press ups and various other exercises to keep his six pack in place, whilst the rest of us try not to catch each other’s eyes and start laughing.