Ros in Madagascar

Baobabs and the Spiny Forest

Since I last wrote we went Baobab mapping in the spiny forest. This consists in measuring and writing down characteristics of the baobas to record human and animal damage then we also record their position on the GPS. The trip there was quite an adventure! We went by Zebu cart. This means we sat for about 1 and 1/2 hours on a little cart pulled by two Zebus whipped and 'tortured' by the zebu driver to make them go faster. He even bit their tails! Not the most comfortable of journeys but it was an experience :) . Really really bumpy, it was OK on the way out there but coming back I was starting to feel Zebu-cart sick (if there is such a thing :) I really enjoyed the trip though and we picked the best day since it was cloudy and it spitted a bit from the sky so not so great for diving and not too hot to go to the spiny forest. Once there I also took a chance to climb a Baobab. It was a bit tricky to climb it but well worth it. Once on the top the view was great!! I also saw a couple of really huge and colourful spiders (which are great photo subjects), photographed a couple of butterflies and saw lots of birds (including parrots) although I could not get very good pictures with the compact digital (you really need a good zoom for those).

We also had another party night and day off since I list wrote (we have one every 5 days' diving). This one was particularly good because it coincided with the leaving do of the last Project Manager who had been here for about a year. We partied all night and popped down to the bar in the village called EPI bar (from Epicerie bar: since it sells spices as well as functioning as a bar). Got to bed at 4:30 am so I was a bit useless on my day off (slept all morning on my cabin's patio and listened to the Ipod).

Yesterday I was supposed to go on a double dive to a new site and start the very first fish belts on that new site (basically ID'ing and counting fish over a 20m-long measuring tape) but it didn't happen because the viz was reported as very bad by the people on the 6.00am dive (2mts viz). Most of the volunteers went Octopus gleaning (or something like that) but I opted out as I have already seen how octopuses are caught and killed and it is not a show that I enjoy. So I did a few little jobs around camp (put up a shelf and cleared the reptile traps). Found a Hermit Crab wihout its shell (always wanted to see one!) and looked for a few empty shells for him and then watched him pick one and climbing into it! It was great :)

Got up in the middle the night (2.30 am) last night) for the night dive.. yet we didn't get into the water until 4:30 because the boat driver didn't get up so someone had to go to the village to get him out of bed. Apparently there were a load of people sleeping in front of his hut so it was a chain reaction of children crying and a portion of the village being woken up :) . Unfortunately the night dive wasn't anything to rave about as we missed the reef or we were not on the best part however I was very intrigued by a jelly fish that looked like had come out from the abyss series of the blue planet. It had four faces and corners with light running up and down and no tentacles. Truly amazing. I also managed to find a mask during the dive which turned out to be one Ashley, the field scientist had dropped from the boat some time ago. She was very pleased to see it. I also saw a sleeping octopus and some random fish. Safety stop at the end of the dive was great with glowing light on the surface from sun rise. Got to bed for a couple of hours after night dive, then breakfast and then another dive at 9.00am for science purposes (3 fish belts). I am really enjoying the fish belts. I get to notice so many fish. I think from now on I will make a point of carrying a slate with me on recreational dives to try to write down everything I see. It really makes a big difference and you tend to pay lots of attention. A bit like when you are photographing.

Cooked fish on the fire with coconut and mango last night. It was quite nice. Back for 9.00am and 11.00am dive today but missed the first dive because the first stage of my reg failed while I was doing my pre-dive safety check on the boat and could not even take it off to use the spare one. I had to snorkle it. What a shame the site was really good. But I had a good snorkle and saw 8 big blue spine unicorn fishes. Shame though because my second dive tody would have been my 100th dive. Tomorrow then, we are having recreational dives tomorrow! :)

posted by Simon @ Monday, December 11, 2006