I've left base.....

Tuesday 7th September



Decided (at 3am this morning) that I was going to leave base a few days early, as frankly, if I’m not diving (which I can’t now do because of my ear, and also my body is still not quite recovered from Friday’s incident) then ‘base’ is a pretty bleak place. In fact, all the things I saw at the beginning which I had learned to ignore or just get on with dominated my thoughts yesterday.


So a few phone calls later, I have a hire car and am now tucked away in this gorgeous hotel in the southern part of the island overlooking the Indian Ocean – a place called Takamaka (where they make the local rum….which of course I will have to sample for the sake of keeping the local economy going).


I feel like a kid in a candy shop to be honest …..the stillness, quiet, space, privacy, hot water, air conditioning, meat on menu, clean/own toilet (and shower), fridge (which is now full of chocolate, cheese and wine), free internet access to name a few of the things that I am relishing. I’ve unpacked all my belongings for the first time since I left on the 4th august, most of my clothes have gone to the laundry as smell so damp and musty and am just going to spend my time here chilling out, seeing a few more sights around Mahe but in particular the southern part (base was in north-west).


Interestingly, I am currently thinking about what I will miss now that I have left project/base. So here goes…


I will miss:


• Diving every day


• Diving at some of the best dive sites in the world


• Diving and knowing so many of the fish, coral, invertebrates that I regularly saw


• Diving with manta ray


• Diving with turtles


• Diving with whale shark


• Diving with some great people


• Diving and being able to use my camera reasonably well


• Diving and being able to hover indefinitely (on my head mostly whilst laying out a 50 metre tape measure on the ocean floor)


• Diving after having granola for breakfast


I will not miss:


• Endless conversations (not mine I hasten to add – I just had to listen to them and offer a sympathetic ear and advice where required) about hair, diet, weight, skin, music, boys, me, me, me, me, me (that’s them talking about themselves, not me talking about me), etc, etc, etc, etc,


• Porridge for breakfast


• Pasta and red (that’s tinned tomatoes jazzed up a bit with a bit of whatever’s left in the cupboards)


• Small portions of food and nothing sweet


• Royal Italians


• Sleeping on a mouldy, smelly mattress and pillow, under a mosquito net


• Cold showers (and especially that disgusting shower curtain that would always cling to me)


• Mosquito and blister bug bites


• Climbing into a damp wet suit every morning (but that is forgiven….see ‘I will miss’ list)


• Going to sleep with the dorm lights on, with my ipod speakers jammed in my ears to try to drown out the incessant chatter that went on every night by most others in dorm.


So whilst the number of points are even, the ‘I will miss’ list is why I came to the Seychelles in the first place (apart from the granola) and I have to say it has been an amazing 5 weeks. I have learnt so many new things, I have been pushed physically (and not done too bad for the old ‘un of the group), I have kept my mouth shut so many times I have surprised myself (in fact most people described me as being quite quiet…..ha, ha…little do they know) and I have had once in a lifetime experiences with whale shark and manta ray – worth putting up with all the ‘I will not miss’ things!


I need to put a final rider here at the end of my blog on the project. I have neglected to mention many people, which doesn’t at all mean they are insignificant, and have obviously chosen to highlight a few. Needless to say, there has been no-one here who has been awful,(yes, even the Italians were lovely except for their laziness and selfishness), but obviously some are more colourful than others, and frankly if I’d included my observations of others, such as the New Yorker, ex-actress, hyper, hyper, hyper – hypercondriac, Tristan who has the biggest crush ever on Sami and follows her around like a puppy dog, then the blog would have just gone on and on forever. My observations are just that, and everything I have generally written have been my observations of some quite amusing behaviour, and certainly no malice has ever been intended (will that head off any law suits do you think?)


PS… just thought of one more ‘I will not miss’…. Crazy bus drivers and large ladies not using their own padding for cushion!


xx