- slatey sweet lips at Tanikelly
This week started off very busy, after the quad biking all last weekend I had offered to cook Chinese for the whole camp, I have cooked for a lot of people before but doing that on and open fire with one pan makes life a bit difficult, but with a few sous chef volunteers the night was a great success especially my beef satay skewers which were a favourite of my housemates at uni. Sadly Sunday was another goodbye day with lots of great people leaving to get back to the real world but it was lovely to spend the last weekend with them in town.
- The August deployment
On Monday we had a new deployment of volunteers which is so strange after seeing so many of the original lot leaving, there are only 4 of us left from the August flight !!! I had been warned that its a bit uneasy when the new people arrive as I guess it would have been when we burst onto camp, the people that have settled there don't like change. It was a bit different but it's great to have new people on camp, lots of different characters and plenty of new friendly faces.
Monday was also another day of tinkering, this time it was our Big Daddy compressor which we use to fill our dive tanks so kind of essential for us mariners!! On Sunday Tom reported peculiar noises which we decided to investigate, after taking the whole thing apart and trying to contact Bauer (manufacturer) we were told the nearest engineer was in Dubai so if we could just pack it up and ship it to them they would have it back to us soon, which would be fine if we didn't need it or have it now concreted into the ground for protection :-/ but after another friendly email to a friend of a friend we got some clear instructions and got underway problem solving. After a full day she was running sweet and sounding fine !
- Health and Safety first !!!
- Very technical analysis
With our new group of volunteers we also received a present in the form of a new Dive Officer to replace Katie that sadly had to leave us, so Tuesday was a fun dive for me, Tom and the new DO, a great dive with lots to see including TURTLE! even though you see loads out here you still get so excited when you see one.
As well as the very important science that we do out here there are a number of fun projects, this week I was lucky enough to be asked to help Tom film his job application video which was a work of art by the time he was finished with it, any job out here is just made fun because of where we are!
- Tom being acrobatic
Thursday was town duty again on the search for boat parts, anchor parts, equipment and a reasonably priced printing shop. I love going into Hellville it's such an amazing town, every time I go I see another part that's hidden away and it's great fun trying to barter with the locals when you know hardly any French, a lot of hand signs and gesturing usually gets you there though. However attempting to source a specific engine part has to be impossible when they try and sell you a wheel bearing when you are asking for a fan belt. Being out here has definitely made me want to push my languages and make more of an effort.
- Oasis Cafe for breakfast
Saturday was another treat, after a 1 1/2 hour boat race between me and Victor (I won) we arrived at the Tanikelly nature reserve for a great day of diving. Tan makes a change to our normal diving which rarely exceeds 7 meters, we even had to do a safety stop this time! But as normal I was amazed by the marine life, with a massive school of ruddies surrounding us, 5 turtles, scribble file fish, a massive black marble grouper and lots more it was probably my best dive since I got here. After the dive it was time to chill on the beach, I thought it would be a great idea to try and buy a few bananas from one of the locals, but when I tried to give him 200 Ar (6 pence) for 4 he would not take any money until I forced him to, then as I was walking away he called me back and thrusted a large black bag in my hands which I then found out was full of fresh pineapple, so in the end for 6p I bought a bunch of bananas and about 5 pineapples, not bad really !
For my treat to camp this week I decided to cook beef casserole with mash potatoes and crepes for desert, a Sunday trip to the market in town saw me come away with 8kg of potato, 5kg of zebu rump steak and a load of other veg/ingredients which was to feed 30 people for £30!!! Again with help from a number of sous chefs we pulled off what can only be described as Michelin star quality food, better than anything I have made at home, maybe I should start cooking on open fires when I get out on the boats for work ? As the meal was such a success I have already been assigned the duty for next week as well which I have decided will be hand made burger, chips, salad, onion rings and crepe night, everyone is so excited already so you can tell how boring rice and beans gets out here.
I'm starting to get worried about leaving this amazing place, I have had such an experience in such a short amount of time I almost don't want to come home but I know I am looking forward to meeting up with everyone when I get back and most of all starting work in 5 weeks !!
So once again goodbye from Madagascar I hope you are enjoying reading this blog, I am having a great time writing it and trying to think of more adventurous things to do to write about so hopefully the next few weeks will be action packed.
Goodbye from me and baby chien my new best friend here at Phillipes !
