Scheme One - The First Half

Week One
The scheme started on the 5th July, the same day as the leaving party for Jo and Forrest. The volunteers were held up in Tana airport for ages. The arrived 10 hours late, by which time I was at the party... The party was awesome. A massive dinner at Jo and Forrest's house, then on to the bar for loads of music and dancing (until 3am - a good 6 hours of dancing!). A rather slow Saturday was followed by an action packed Sunday as we met all the volunteers properly and all piled into the camion to go back up to Sainte Luce. There were 11 volunteers to start off with. It was a busy week, with me trying to learn as much as possible. On Saturday we had a bush party. The band from Manafiafy comes down to camp and sets up outside the research centre. We start off by sitting and watching the performance (the band has dancers). The play Mangaliba and the girls dance, moving their feet so quickly they become a blur. Then the volunteers got dragged onto the dance floor and pretty quickly everyone is dancing. Loads of people from the village come too so it becomes a massive party. There was a little rain, but not enough to deter anyone. Once again, I was one of the last on the dancefloor when the music stopped.
The following morning we headed over to S17, the forest fragment that runs right up to the sea. It is privately owned and is absolutely stunning. A pirogue ride over the river, a short trek through the forest and a long walk up a windswept beach with epic scenerey, to a swimming bay. A great way to spend Johanna's birthday (one of the volunteers).

Week Two
Back to work on the Monday with a full day. Phelsuma plots in S8 (Phelsuma are a genus of day gecko, Phelsuma antanosy is critically endangered) and an afternoon and evening of herp searches! This week brought the arrival of Nessa, another Research Assistant. She is Irish and came here a couple of years ago as a volunteer. She is really lovely and studied art, then conservation. The car that brought her up took away lots of the volunteers - 7 of them! - and brought us one more, Claudia. It certainly felt quieter at camp but it was great fun. Sunday was Melissa's birthday (another volunteer). We went up to the beach nearer camp and had a very relaxing day, with cake in the evening.

Week Three

Monday morning was spent packing up ready to go to S7, yet another forest fragment in Sainte Luce. We walked for about half an hour then took a short pirogue ride over the river to S7, where we set up camp. It isn't very far away from the, main camp in Sainte Luce, but we stay there for a few days at a time because from there we need to walk up to an hour to get to some of the transects. I love S7. It was raining, which let it down a bit, but the forest is beautiful. The camp is on the edge of the forest and faces south east. You can't quite see the sea from there, as S17 gets in the way (it's a long thin hill).
In S7 we do the same sort of work; herp searches, lemur transects and habitat surveys. It's sad, as S7 is one of the fragments that has been designated to be mined in the future. Mining it will involve cutting down all the trees and then flooding it and dredging up the desired mineral (ilminite).Nice.

On one of the mornings we were walking back to camp from the forest and were near the edge when Solo, one of the local guides suddenly stopped. So suddenly that I walked into the back of him. He gestured ahead and it took me a couple of seconds to spot the snake. A Malagasy giant hognose. It had finally stopped raining and the sun came out. The snake was taking advantage of the warmth and basking in a patch of sunshine next to the path. Despite none of the snakes in Madagascar being venomous (or at least, in a way that would affect us) the Malagasy people are very cautious around snakes. The hognose is believed to be able to attack people by thrusting its head at the chest and piercing the heart with its pointed snout. The one we saw just crossed the path and disappeared. On passing we saw another one lying where the first had been.
On an afternoon off Hoby taught me a song from the spiny forest. It's about someone who wants to go home but has had a fight with their parents and so is worried about going back. But then he buys them a zebu and it's all OK. It's a good song!
We headed back to the main campsite on Friday and I had the afternoon off so went for a swim. I went to the local beach. it is so beautiful. I was there totally alone. Sometimes I have to pinch myself to realise that I am awake and I do actually live here!

Week Four

After a couple of days of work we went back to Fort Dauphin on the Wednesday. Two days to go through emails, wash clothes, catch up with everyone and eat as much bread and cheese as possible! It was a bit manic, but good. It was good to hear from everyone back home. It went so quickly! We said goodbye to yet another volunteer (Claudia) and then headed back up to Sainte Luce on Saturday. Unfortunately Ali had some bad news and didn't come back up. Over the weekend she decided to go back home to the UK. I miss her lots.

Week Five
Back in Sainte Luce we had a very soggy few days where it refused to stop raining. We spent some time setting up the replanting plots for the Beccariophoenix seedlings. Beccariophoenix madagascarensis is a palm species that Azafady are trying to build up numbers of. In S9 there are only 2 mature individuals left. It is here that we are replanting. On Thursday the Pioneers arrived, here to do the planting. There were 5 of them, plus Sarah plus three guides and their cooks, so camp suddenly felt very busy indeed!