So, after much nagging to the big boss man (Austin) we got the boat to Daku, a neighbouring village which has 2 reefs of interest. The first which is a reefs which bleached in 2000 (water get to hot for corals and dies) and in 2004 there was an attempt to restore it, however, the reef bleached again in 2007/8 however some corals (7.4% coral cover to be precise) survived and in theory these should be temperature tolerant which could be really interesting and very helpful for reef that are under stress from increasing sea level temperatures! The second reef where the coral farm is really nice, so many fish! And the boys swam off into the blue hole (I was too much of a wuss) and saw 5 sharks, so I will have to force myself to have a look next time we go back! Hoping the weather holds, we have just had a big storm which meant we couldn’t do anything for a few days which was very frustrating, I did however use the time to identify all the species we have been seeing, 150ish fish at the moment though that surely has to be about 15%! We also used the time to make cookies (this word gets me to excited) unfortunately not of the edible variety but out of concrete to attach the fragmented corals of as a base for them to grow.

Also quite a surprise to all of us was finding out that the village of Daku has 4 pet hawksbill turtles that they have had for the last 3months since finding them as hatchlings! They plan to sell them to aquariums (better than eating them) though I wish they could go free, it seems wrong to keep turtles which swim across oceans in plastic tubs! When asking the locals if they would still eat turtles after having them as pets the answer was yes… just not these one’s (so I can’t really see a silver lining!)

In addition to the many creepy crawlies that the house has gained (I am starting to become immune: the other day I heard some scratching and upon investigating discovered some massive bugs in a jar rolling around on the floor. Didn’t even flinch) we have just has a pet iguana for the last few days. Named Cornelius there is much debates as to whether he is the same endemic as the mainland or as the island to the east. I am just relieves that he is a live pet and is in a tank.

This we the locals have attempted to cook British, which was such a lovely though! Breakfast, which is normally my main meal of roti turned into banana bread and cinnamon buns! AMAZING Lunch however was tuna sandwiched (its seems soooo stupid that I am in the middle of the pacific and locals think it is more post to eat tinned tuna than fresh fish!) and dinner was pizza. My face lit up! Only to crash into the woman mat to realise that the bread base was covered in noodles and tuna. Noodles, on pizza? Fijians are weird!

So, after mentioning that the locals eat EVERYTING, including turtle, guess what I saw on the reef yesterday! :D yet again I was the only person to see it (I was the only person to see the shark, people will start to think I am lying soon) and I after I had watch it glide around for a bit I though I would snorkel shout (sounds like an elephant underwater) and then actually should to get people’s attention, but by then it had swam away. In a way I was kind of relieved as we had local kids with us (who had already picked up every sea cucumber they could find which are valuable to sell to japan) and I dreading the thought of them trying to chase the turtle, though I think the turtle would win the race!

On firday (wait for it…) I LEFT THE ISLAND! Gasp, shocker I know. The local schools sport championship type thing (you can tell I was playing attention to the reason why we left the island) was being held at Levuka, once the colonial capital of Fiji (good old British we get everywhere; the queen is still smiling from the Fijian dollar bill). This was practically a city compared to Uluibau, no joke there were shops and everything!  I bought bread and ate a burger! Life was good.  Anyway I think the teams did quite well (my sports attention span lasted one netball match before I went for a wonder) and a fun day was had by all, though the highlight was a (expensive) drunk dial from bud :D.

On the boat trip back to ‘the island’ (I could get a lost type thing going here) something strange and mysterious happened…. 

We had ahem, slightly overloaded the boat with people so were going at what can only be classed a a slow pace, (mum could possibly swim faster) and the sun was setting, so all in all very scenic. However, one darkness had descended, and all you could see, hear and smell was the ocean (do I sound ominous enough yet?) lights started flashing in the water, bright blue ranging the size of a pin head to a finger nail suddenly all around us. Naturally the instinct was to GRAB THEM! But all we caught was flashing water, this when on for about 10 minutes, the boat going through a swarm of blue flashes (the vote is that they are some kind of phytoplankton/dinoflaggelate/spawn) and then stopped. After than it was just the occasional flash of glow in the dark coral, you know, the ‘usual’ (still very very exciting: not done any night snorkels yet as I am too much of a scardy cat but I will force myself, just to see the glowing coral).  just as we had calmed down (there were too many excited biologist in too small a boat) we started going over the seagrass, and all of a sudden there were small glowing shrimps! The shame was we didn’t have any of our collection stuff with us and after talking to the locals they say they have never seen such a thing which suggest a rare even that we were randomly lucky to witness. Whatever, it was really cool!

On a collection note, what is not really call is the amount of gecko tails (they drop of stupidly easily when you try to catch them)/insects(just this morning I got the “alice, look what was eating me in the night, I put it in ethanol”/general dead things the boys seem to be collecting.

I don’t know if it is Fiji male attitude or just nature but the boys are becoming more and more boyish by the day, for example yesterday I when to the toilet only to see a dead Fijian endemic (but common) blue gos hawk  on a cardboard box next to the sink. I didn’t dare look to see what was starting to feast on it. I can safely say I have never had that experience before, nor want to again.

Work wise, the transplantation (I am calling it re-coralation) is mostly done at this site, and so are my coral covers. The fish species list is nearly done so then I can do some abundances and there are some massive porites corals (big round balls a few metres high) which I am going to try and work out the age of, I am thinking at least  few hundred years ole and they grow less than a cm a year!

Also going to go diving soon which will be very exciting and I want to see some big fish! (there aren’t any here which I think Is a combination of it being an enclosed reef and overfishing, just need to work out an experiment to prove it), I think the locals are being a bit selective with the truth about the no fishing area which in one way messing up my work but is interesting in itself!

So todays fishy fact is that sharks have two penis’s (peni?) so that when the made want to rape the lady shark, he has ease of access because he has to peni to choose from.  isnt nature lovely somtimes!  On a slightly similar note, the locals keep feeding us the (not very pleasant: I like mine form a cheap Chinese takeaway and deep fried thank you very much) seaweed called loomi and after feeding the boys buckets full told them in was an aphrodisiac! (i made sure my knees were not showing). the boys are all really nice and friendly, missing all my MEMs and langwithians though!

On a work related not after being shown how to ‘garden’ coral I am now let loose on the reef and have started collecting my data, coral cover is stupidly high and the water so perfectly warm I haven’t needed a wet suit yet (the back tan is a stunner if I don’t say so myself). The teaching at the school has also began: we are making ‘fish houses’ that the kids will be able to easily swim to (Fijians have wide feet: I think it is because they are trying to evolve finns) and see coral and fish colonise the houses over time which will be really fun and interesting for them. The general here in Fiji seems to be, if it moves, eat it. I was informed that turtle is on that list ‘when they can get their hand on it’. Safe to say that dampened my appetite. 

The women are defiantly trying to domesticate me. I can now also make jam yum yum, though my favourite new party trick is being able to get hermit crab to come out of their shells my whistling at them. Okay its not a very practical party trick unless it’s a beach partly but still. I do feel a bit mean though as the purpose of getting them out of the shell is to use them as bait…

Moutoriki Island

I have made it to the island! a 3 hour drive and an hour boat ride down the river and out to sea. The tide was out so getting the bag to shore was a bit of a trial! We are staying in a house at the top of the hill upon which the village is built (good for tsunami’s, there are about 20 earthquakes a day around Fiji apparently). Everyone at the village is so friendly! All the children came running out to meet up, immediately wanting to play games. My name in Fijian is ‘alicie’ and according to the little girls I am ‘fatty fatty’ which the adults say is a compliment. I am not so sure!

In the evening we were welcomed with a traditional cava drinking ceremony and a lovo. Yuck to the former and yum to the latter. All of our meals so far have been cooked in the chiefs house (which by law has to be the best in the village) and then I think we will rotate around different families/clans. Also, noone is allowed to be taller than the chief  (when walking of sitting down) which makes things quite awkward and amusing when he is not a very tall man! I have also discovered that showing your knees when at a “hop “hop” in the evening means you want to have sex with the man sitting opposite you…. It was a few days before I discovered this. Needless to say, My knees are now constantly covered.

Im not sure what to say about the house, compared to what many live in it is a palace, but compared to home, it is not, though I think just a good clean, lick of paint is all it needs really. We don’t have electricity or a flushing toilet (at the moment, hopefully to come) but the windows have mosquito screens (a true blessing) and we have running water, though we have to boil it before we can drink it.

Today we went for a swim on the reef, the tombu area which is a temporary no take zone as ruled by the chief, it is also where one of the coral farms is located. The corals are amazing, and those on the farm have grown so well! One batch is really to be sold to England now (aquarium trade) with the money going back into the local community for running water and school . (for every coral sole at least one gets transplanted back onto the reef). There are loads of staghorn collar, which have bring purple tips (and are becoming very rare  especially in the Caribbean) and lots of gigantic massive morphologies, big round corals a metre plus in diameter!  All of the fish are very skittles of people, likely due to the amount of spear fishing that generally goes on (though of course not in the tombu) and I saw a barracuda! I thought it was massive but apparently it is small!

We had a good kill of crown of thorn starfish (pest which kills corals and has few predators due to overfishing) 32 in 1.5 hours! Ironically you kill them with dead coral.

Tonight there is going to be a crab curry (I have eaten rabbit fish and sting ray so far) and some traditional dancing, so very excited.

I can now add parrotfish to my list! We have started the crown of thorn removal and the transplantation out on the reef. We are also trying to build up a (breeding) stock of giant clams and pearl oyster, I found I rare one and it has now been names alicies vassuva (alices clam) it is big enough for me to hug and bright green with black stripes. Just after I found it I saw a shark, so apparently the shark god has given his blessing to my find (as I was the only one to find a clam and the only one to see a shark) so all in all a good day! Austin also saved a boa constrictor from the being killed by the locals, who since being converted to Christianity changes from worshiping the snake to killing it because it is the devil. Unfortunately killing the snakes mean that the rats boom in numbers and these eat the crops and also sandlewood tree samplings, which are the most valuable trees of the island! So we are trying to ‘re-brand’ the snakes as farmers friends through education and experience that they are not dangerous (though to me you say boa constrictor, I think man crusher) but apparently it is OK for us to have one in a box just outside the house…. Not a pet I ever imagined having!

Only one week in and I am already fed up of the local base vegetable casava which in some form creates at least 70% of each meal (their version of the potato I suppose... god i miss potato). Whilst I either love of hate the food (lots of nice coconut curry’s, but also some weirdo textures, Peanut butter of crackers in my saving grace. If I do not come back to England thinner and more tonesd it will be because it is not possible to do! (but then again, 90% of the food i am eating is carb so who the hell knows!)

There are a number of interesting archaeological sites around the islands, ruins of old villages, pottery and stone carving which will be great for developing the tourism guide plan. The oldest skeleton ever found in the south pacific, known as the lady or the grandmother (she is 4000 years old and I worked it out, lived 160 generations ago) was found on the beach between my town and the next!

This weekend some of the local women are going to take me fishing which will be very interesting!

Bula Bula Fiji!

Bula: hello, is about the only work I have learnt (and with my linguistic abilities,  that will most likely be it!) everyone is so friendly! Apparently it is the ‘island way’ and it really reminds me of Belize, which makes me optimistic because I loved Belize!

I left Oz very early in the morning to fly to New Zealand where I would get my connecting fligh, landing in Nadi Fiji in the evening. New Zealand look beautiful form the air, lots of green hills and water ways. It was very strange when I realised that the sunset that I saw when flying was the sun setting in the north….

The next morning I met up with Owen, another student from England who in volunteering for Coral for Conservation and we made our way to meet Austin: the guy who runs the organisation/research, and since then two Brazilians have arrive who are really nice.

I have been at the farm in Sigatoka since thursday until Sunday morning when we are going to Moutoriki Island to start research on Monday. Really really excited for that! Me and Austin have been chatting through the logistics, and its getting me very excited to start collecting data. The farm is amazing, 20km up the river valley from Sigatoka it is green mountains and pastures. The farms grown cassava, starfruit, paw paw, lemons, limes, guava, coconut, grapefruit, pineapples, corn, beans and a few other local root vegetables! All of the food, including jam is homemade and the meals, cooked by an lovely Indian woman is stuff I have never tried before! Me and Owen went for a trek up the stream to some waterfalls yesterday and have been helping out on the farm today, grinding coconut is great fun (and yummy).

Saturday we are having a “Lovo”, which is a traditional celebration using a ground oven. it smells amazing at the moment! I have to say I am not a fan of the traditional “Cava” drink, made out of a root, it looks like puddle water and tastes like soil eugh, I am soooo not a fan! Unfortunately you have to drink (down) at least one bowl for each welcome or traditional ceremony.  

I seem to have already have a reputation of clumsy, don’t know how THAT happened…

Australia

Sydney

My flight arrived in Sydney at some stupid hour in the morning but by 9am I found myself in a café eating breakfast on the docks at darling harbour. It was then that it hit me that I was in Australia, and that I had finally made it to the other side of the world! I couldn’t help but grin (and giggle to myself a little bit). There is no doubt in my mind that the couple on the table next to me questioned my sanity. I spent the morning pottering (one of my favourite words, thank mum) around darling harbour. It’s a really nice area, lots of waterfront shops and cafes, a park and a number of tourist places such as the aquarium.  I then spent the afternoon on a tourist bus! How exciting is THAT lol the open top ones that you get in york and London: they are actually quite good as you can hop on and off as you want! It was this way that I got to the rocks, where at the weekends they have a really nice market quite like Covent garden and to the bridge and opera house, which for who knows what reason made me think of an armadillo trying to curl into a ball! Struggling to stay awake I managed to see the fireworks being held before I collapsed back at my youth hostel. (when I first arrives at the hostel in the morning, I looked at the notice board and every other post said “contact bruce” at the bottom, I found this very amusing at 6am after only 2 hours of sleep).

The next day I met up with a friend from school charlotte, and after a fail running embrace (we decided that a busy city road was not the safest of places) we decided to get one of the ferries and visit some of Sydney’s beautiful beaches. I have to say that commuting to work via ferry sounds a lot more tempting that the train! (and their underground trains haw 2 stories). We had a lovely trip around the harbour on the way to Wentworth bay, were there was a yummy fish restaurant which you can take away and sit on the beach, I have to give tit to the Aussies that they have modified British fish and chips damn well! We spend the day catching up on the beach and walking up to “the gap” which is a big cliff with some great views.

The Blue Mountains

The blue mountains national park is only a hour or so out of Sydney, with the protected area being about the size of wales! A VERY early start meant they we got to see some grey kangaroos (and a joeies :D) hopping around and foraging in the bush. Then spent the day on a trek around to see many waterfalls in the park including Wentworth waterfalls and the 3 sisters rock formation. The aboriginal stories for the creation of the 2 sisters are really interesting, but all involve them being turned to rock by their father either to protect them, or because he is angry with them.

The end of the trek involved going down the 1000 steps carved into a rock face that miners uses to travel up and down daily. I have decided that the British health and safety standards regarding steps is a necessity for me! Luckily, instead of climbing them back up we took “the world steepest train” (aka the old mining cart) back up the mountain. It was definatly an experience going up, backwards at 52 degrees, kind of the opposite of the pepsi max big one (and obviously not quite as fast!

On the drive back to Sydney and radio was on and to my surprise Alice Cooper is a local radio DJ (I still find it strange that a man is called alice)! He seemed a quite a fan of the rolling stones and had a good little chat about mic taylor (I guess this demonstrates that I am my father’s daughter).

So I am off now to try and find a boomerang for jobo with my remaining dollar (he has to be awkward and ask for the odd shaped large present) and tomorrow is the flight to Fiji! And I am getting impatient to start now. My first few days will be spent in one of the town arranging the logistics and plan for data collection before I get out to the “field” which is actually the Pacific ocean at the weekend! Eeeeeeeee :D

Bangkok

Well, the wine on the flight was a little too tasty… it meant i had a very good sleep though, for the sake of people sitting around me, i hope I didn’t snore or talk in my sleep! Of course, my bag decided that is hadn’t wanted to travel with me and I was informed that it was left in England… (silver lining: excuse to shop straight away) but luckily it arrive in one piece the next day!

The temples and grad palace are beautiful, the palace is especially extravagant. I have also managed a few boat trips :D the rive stinks in some places! But it is also full of catfish which the monks feed.

The tour guide I had yesterday was trying to marry me off to her son! (I think under the assumption that because I am English I am going to become either a doctor or a lawyer) but apart from that she was great. Ven: remember those steps that we climbed to get to the top of a temple at tikel? Well the temple of dawn (its beautiful, 33 levles to represent the 33 heavens all covered in ceramic) was also like that! Lol. At Wat Pho the reclining buddha is the biggest in the world, its 46m long and 15m high, I never expected to see a gold Buddha bigger than my york house!

Decided to have a Thai fully body massage as well, which was a combination of lovely, relaxing, ticklish (I must of seamed crazy giggling in the little head hole) and painful at time, I was quite shocked when the small masseuse actually got onto the massage table with me, and I swear she stood on my back at one point!   

Todays traveling tip, brought to you from personal experience is it is impossible to do anything whilst riding a tuk tuk (especially, French plat your hair, eat a cereal bar or drink water).