Great 10 week adventure to an end on Curieuse

4 degrees south of the equator. 1200 miles off the east coast of Africa. 2 boat rides away from Mahe and in the middle of a marine park lies a beautiful island that we’ve all learned to call home; Curieuse Island. When we were first told that we were coming to this new base camp, we were all a little wary as to what we might find. Knowing very little about the island or what we would be doing, we boarded a little boat named Dexter and our Curieuse expedition began.


Five or 10 weeks later as we leave on the same, now much beloved, boat, I know we are all thinking the same thing. How lucky we were to have gotten to spend the time, experience the adventures, and make the memories we did. For some people this GVI program was an escape from the daily grind. For others a chance to rethink their priorities and jumpstart further travels. For all of us, though, it was in the hope of making an impact on the world, however small.


There are a special few who have managed to make this expedition part of their daily life. The staff on Curieuse has spent the past 3 months working nonstop to provide for us volunteers an official base on the island and to make it the best that it could be. What started as just an idea, has turned into a true reality. I think we can all safely, and happily, say that all their efforts have been a complete success. To Rach, Ben, Colin, Carl, and even to Tom and Mario, a big thanks for making our time here unforgettable. There have been so many great moments over the past 5/10 weeks that it’s hard to narrow them all down. A very first night dive. Getting to see turtles nest during the day after years of seeing it only in the dark. Learning about Coco de Mers and 49 families of coral. Seeing countless sharks, turtles, rays, dolphins, and of course Trevor the nudibranch. Island life. Celebrating old traditions (birthdays, the 5th of November, Thanksgiving) with new friends. Witnessing snails fly through the air and, coincidentally, into trees. Spending the weekends exploring the nearby islands of La Digue, Praslin, Aride, and Mahe. Raising our chickens, Razzle Dazzle and The Brain. Fun diving off Booby.


Waking up to the sound of the ocean every morning. Seeing the veggie patch finally produce something edible (and delicious). Blowing out the candles on your breakfast birthday cookies, going on a dive, and then back for more birthday cake after dinner. Commando crawling up to a nesting turtle. Spending two weeks dutifully studying and then finally getting to do your first unsupervised quad. Swimming into a cave and sneaking up on a 3.5 meter lemon shark…or nurse shark. Experiencing the pleasures of daily diving. Learning to make 30 different recipes out of lentils, potatoes, and onions. All of us packing into Midgey trying to get the mooring buoy in place. Dancing in the kitchen on Friday nights. Rat and giant centipede pest control. Watching the tourists leave and realizing that we really are living on our very own private island.


But first and foremost, having Curieuse base camp up and running and getting to be a part of it. It’s been a great adventure and we’re all sad to see it come to an end. From all of us here on Curieuse: Rach, Ben, Colin, Carl, Neil, Diana, Seth, Steph, Lyns, Lars, Anita, and Dickon. We wish you goodbye and happy travels.

Great 10 week adventure to an end on Curieuse

10 survey sites complete and new mooring buoy on Curieuse!

With a night dive, a weekend in Mahe, some good food, and a hot shower under our belts, we returned for our last full week of work on Curieuse. It’s hard to imagine that this is almost the end already. Our last week was full of surveying (on land and on sea), megafauna, cakes and even murder!


On the surveying front, Phase 1 Curieuse has been extremely successful. With 10 sites completed and a few others still in progress, we’ve all become experts on coral recruitment quads and invertebrate belts. The Coco De Mer walks continue with us contributing over 100 new trees to this year’s census. This Friday we had Chris Kaiser, who works at Zurich University, come for the day and give us a little bit more information on what all the data will be used for and better surveying techniques. He’s on loan to the Vallee de Mai and is in charge of all the data that’s collected. Daily turtle walks have allowed us to document 160 nest/tracks and everybody has seen at least one nesting turtle. We even had one come up right in front of the house. Seth currently holds the record of the most turtle sightings with 15! As nesting season draws to a close, hatching season begins. We went on a hatchling hunt on Thursday night in the hopes that we might get to see some baby turtles making their way from the nests to the sea. The full moon provided the perfect backdrop for it but we didn’t manage to catch any. In the end we did happen to see a laying female which made the whole walk worth it.


Several of the new sites we’ve started surveying have been full of megafauna. One contained 3 huge marbled rays (appox 1.5-2 meter wingspans), another provided Steph with a close encounter of the Hawksbill kind, and, while Lyns watched, a white tip swam right next to Lars. He was diligently doing a quad and didn’t even notice it.
Our resident chef, Dickon, has been in fine form this week and has been making daily baked goods. So far we have had a peach cake, mango and lemon sponge bars, an eggless chocolate cake, apple and raisin cookies, lemon bars, and Nutella cookies. Anyone who thought that coming to Curieuse would help out with their diets has definitely been mistaken. Not to be forgotten, the other boys have also been hard at work; they managed to create the heaviest mooring buoy ever made. Supposedly for our boat Dexter, they are still coming up with a plan to move it the 300 meters from outside the kit room to its final destination on the sea floor in front of the house.


Brought over from Cap Ternay, Curieuse has started its first game of murder. Similar to the American game Clue, you have to “kill” your given person by handing them a specific item in a certain place. First to die was Lyns with a weightbelt in the compressor room and then Neil with chocolate on the beach (both by Dickon). Carl followed with a pillow in the kit room by Diana and finally Rach killed Dickon with a toothbrush in the outdoor shower (with the water running). He maintains that he only took it because she asserted her authority as Expedition Manager. The game continues and everyone still alive is paranoid of anyone who tries to hand them anything. Luckily turtle and Coco De Mer walks, dives, and the mangrove clean are off limits so we can actually get some work done.

After our customary Friday night BBQ, the weekend promises to be a chilled one. A quick trip to Praslin for the internet and some ice cream and a possible boat ride to Anse Lazio beach are all that we have planned for our last weekend. I think we are all going to try and spend as much time soaking up the Seychelles’ sun before we have to leave this beautiful island and return to the cold December weather and reality.

10 survey sites complete and new mooring buoy on Curieuse!

Megafauna week

Being chauffeured around on a private boat, staying on a tropical island, eating good food, and spending time with great people is not a bad way to spend your 21st birthday and I think Steph would agree. I think we all wish we could spend our birthdays this way. A nice relaxing weekend on La Digue left us well rested and ready to came back to work on Monday for week 3/8.
After long hours studying flashcards, reviewing workshops, and going on coral spots, all the 5 weekers have passed their coral exams. Whew! They’ve now started practice quads and should be ready to survey in no time. The 10 weekers have made sure to fill them in on all the fun that’s in store for them and they can’t wait. Coral recruitment surveys and invertebrate belts have been going really well and several of the sites have already been finished but there is still plenty of work left to do.


In honor of Thanksgiving, which was this past Thursday, the Americans, Diana and Seth, cooked the rest of the camp a delicious dinner. In true American tradition they made a lot of food; mashed potatoes, corn, gravy, pumpkin soup, apple pie, and 2 kinds of stuffing. The staff even got 3 chickens for the occasion. Not to worry, Razzle Dazzle and The Brain are safe. Everyone had a great evening and it was nice to celebrate a family tradition from home with our new family here on Curieuse.


We had a new staff member, Neil, arrived on Tuesday fresh off the plane from England. He is a turtle expert heading a new GVI program that is starting soon in Greece and he’ll be spending the rest of the phase with us. He’s not a diver but we’re not holding that against him as he does make himself useful around camp and with all of our turtle work. He’s yet to cook anything for us but we’re hoping he can show us a recipe or two.
Neil’s arrival has prompted the turtles to come out in force to nest on the beaches here on Curieuse. This week staff and volunteers alike have witnessed at least 5 turtles nesting during the day, as well as numerous turtle tracks up and down the island. However, its not only the adults that have been making an appearance, this week Neil, Ben, Lars and Anita got to see the first turtle hatchlings.


This week has brought with it lots of megafauna. The 5 weekers have been seeing sharks and devil rays almost every dive while the 10 weekers can’t seem to get away from turtles and octopus. Today some of the volunteers even managed to see a 3.5 meter long lemon shark. The species is still under debate but whatever it was it was big!
Weekend plans include a much awaited trip to Mahe for a night dive. Advertised by the locals as one of the best dives to do in the Seychelles, even the staff is excited. Hopefully we’ll be able to get in a day dive as well so we can get a taste of what the Cap Ternay folk get to see. With only a couple weekends left, it’s hard to believe we’ve been here for this long already. I know everyone feels as though the weeks have just flown by and we all wish it would slow done.

Megafauna week

Survey sites completed!

In a blink of an eye week nine has come and gone. Monday began with the final days of community work. The children were so grateful to have the volunteers come twice a week to teach them about the marine environment that they made cards and handmade gifts to thank the volunteers for their hard work and effort. A big thank you to Kayla, Gary, Annika, Adela, Ross C., Ross P., Brendan, Yvonne, Sarah, Brigitte, Teresa, Curtis, Richard, Sally, Andrew and Adrian for spending their mornings helping get future generations excited about the ocean. Back on base our resident future movie director, Curtis, kept everyone busy by making short movies staring the volunteers. Although the final film has yet to be released, watching Jill, Andrew, Brendan, Vince, Sam and Ross run around base with brooms and cowboy hats is a clear indicator that we have a hit movie on our hands. Under the water everyone has been busy surveying.


Thanks to all the hard work we have completed all the survey sites!!! Volunteers are now hoping they can reward themselves with some well deserved fun dives. We also celebrated a birthday; happy birthday Andrew! He almost got away without the group find out, but was discovered in the last minutes of the day. Nice try, but he had to suffer through a beautiful rendition of the birthday song.


Nine weeks in and 18 dive sites surveyed, six species of sharks spotted, countless rays encountered, and 1,056 stub toes later the volunteers at Cap Ternay prepare for their last week. But the tides are good, the sun is shining and we are looking forward to making the most of the final week.

Survey sites completed!

Wisk vs forks on Curieuse

Picking up where we left off last time, the 5 weekers experienced their first days off. A hike to Badamier beach and Praslin’s internet café marked the end of their first long week. The new week brought with it some firsts for surveying and diving as well as two birthdays. Our new chickens have finally acquired permanent names, Razzle Dazzle and The Brain and they can often be seen wandering around camp in search of giant centipedes or just being held in the air.


The first Coco de Mer walk of the 2nd half of the phase was a complete success with the team of Lars, Diana, Lyns, Seth, Ben, and Carl surveying, a new record, 31 trees. I’m sure the rest of the volunteers can’t wait for their chance. The first coral exam is planned for this afternoon and the 5 weekers have been dutifully studying hard. They got a slight break this week when Mario came from Cap Ternay to go through the Coral Reef Research Diver and EFR (Emergency First Responder) courses with them. They are now all certified to handle any situations in which they might find someone with a deckchair up their nose.

Electrical equipment that has been on the fritz for the past couple weeks has finally been fixed by Mr. Ben from parts that recently arrived on a jumbo jet. With the new lights we can now clearly see what Ben looks like without his beard…let’s just say he may need to bury all his clothes. Ingenuity continued with Dickon fashioning a whisk out of a small metal strainer for the purpose of speeding up the process of making Ange’s Island Mayonnaise, a Curieuse favorite. Previously made with a fork, a war wages on between him and Diana as to whose mayo, fork or whisk, reigns supreme.


Both Lyns and Steph celebrated their birthdays this week and in honor of that we ate a delicious cake made by Rach and homemade presents. Some of the volunteers misunderstood the “be creative” assignment and as a result painted their left knees green for the occasion.

Also this week we’ve started surveying two new dive sites, Coral Gardens and Northwest Rocks. Just swimming around and trying to find them without exact coordinates is almost like extracting your wisdom teeth. Found on our second try, Coral Gardens turned out to be a really cool site with lots of large, colorful colonies and tons of invertebrates. On the megafauna front, a pod of dolphins seem to have taken up residence around Curieuse and keep being spotted by the daily turtle walkers. Some mornings you can also see them swimming around our boat, Dexter.

This weekend we’ve all planned to make a trip to La Digue. I’m sure the 5 weekers are looking forward to no coral lectures and possibly forming a string quartet. It looks to be a fun and relaxing trip. Until next time, Keith.

Wisk vs forks on Curieuse