• I
don't flinch much when woken at night to rats scurrying around
• I'm starting to take the beauty of the sea and
idyllic surroundings for granted
• I've
learned how to cook and bake pretty much anything from scratch
So I've made
it to Curieuse Island. GVI has a satellite camp here but wants to make it into
a second base for Seychelles, meaning there can be two projects running in this
country and what we're doing is making that happen. Currently there's a single
house. This phase our job is to clear out some of the abandoned buildings,
reinforce them to make them livable for things like a kitchen and common area
etc... Since there's only a single house, small groups of five people are all
that's manageable. Once it's all set up, it will be able to accommodate about
fifteen.
The house
itself is really basic with a generator that's run a few hours a night and
running water. We have to shower outside and this week the staff decided to
open the septic tank and clean it out – right beside the shower area. Lovely.
The house is
actually really quaint and the porch has a couple of wooden chairs with some
manky foam on them, which after five weeks sat at only a picnic table can be
called luxury. The beach is about twenty feet from the end of the porch and the
water is so clear we can see sharks and rays swimming around in the morning
while we have our tea.
However at
night, this picturesque cottage turns into a house of horrors. No joke. First
of all (and I'll start with the relatively tame one) there's a golden apple
tree behind the house and there is constantly fruit falling off it. With a tin
roof, at night, this is a very loud bang. The first night there one of the guys
thought someone was throwing rocks at the house and went out with a machetee!
Second of all there are huge spiders the size of my hand that live in the
corners and dark spots of the house. At night they come crawling out and
they're so big and so hairy and so squishily thick bodied, ugh. And lastly
there are rats. Not just rats in the kitchen, but rats crawling on the bed. Up
your back, over your legs. I had a mosquito net around my bed that I tucked in
really tightly every night to keep them off of me but some people get too hot
and just deal with the rats and spiders – which do literally crawl on them.
Needless to say, I didn't get much sleep while there.
During my
week there when I wasn't on septic duty (which I won't go into) I had time to
explore the island – which is entirely protected with no one living there (save
us and the park rangers).
On the
island there are about 150 giant tortoises that are free to roam around. They
mostly hang out by the ranger station though because that's where they're fed –
however you will occasionally come across a lone tortoise doing its own things.
These creatures are massive, I mean – huge. And they love to be pet. If you
scratch them under their chin they extend their neck and stretch up on their
legs coming all the way out of their shell – it's adorable. Their skin is so
rough and so loose it's really strange to touch. The babies are really tiny and
people can easily steal them, so the rangers keep them in a pen until they're
bigger. There are local people who have giant tortoises in small concrete pens
around Mahe and it's absolutely devastating to see these creatures all cooped
up.
Curieuse is
also home to the unique Coco-de-mer tree. It's one of two places where the tree
grows naturally (the other place being Praslin island right beside Curieuse).
Before the Seychelles was discovered, these giant nuts (the largest in the
world) were washing up on the shores of Mauritius and India. The tree had never
been seen before and it was thought that they came from an underwater tree
(hence the name coco-de-mer). Because of the double lobe that looks like a
female buttocks the nuts were sought after by royalty etc... Now you need a
permit to buy one of the nuts and take it off the island. I haven't inquired as
to the price, but I expect it's really high. I settled for taking some funny
photos with the nuts lying on the ground around our house.
Since there
are these amazing trees on this island, some naturalist (whose name I can't
remember) proposed to the government that they make the island a protected park
to prevent people from cutting down the trees or digging them up for export. At
the same time there was a leprosy epidemic in Seychelles. The naturalist proposed
that in order to keep people away from the island, and isolate the lepers, the
government set up a leper colony there. Actually, those aforementioned
abandoned buildings GVI will be using are the leper houses. We were told not to
lick the walls.
One morning
we got up before sunrise and went for an early snorkel. On base our first dives
go out at 6:45am, but we were in the water at 6am this day. It was such a
fantastic experience, to see all the sharks and fish tucked up in the sand and
rocks still dreaming their fishy dreams. Then the sun peaked over the mountain
and the fish, the coral, the seagrass, the inverts, the sharks and rays, even
the sand looked different in the early morning rays of sun slicing through the
water. Everything started to wake up and swim around. It felt so alive.
I celebrated
my birthday on Curieuse and had a fantastic day. Fortunately, we were relieved
of septic cleaning duty and allowed to go a beach. We were told that this was
one of the most beautiful beaches in Seychelles, and despite a hike over a
“tiny” hill (cough mountain cough) it would be worth it. And actually,
once we got there and rehydrated our thirsty throats, I had to agree, it was
stunning. It's called Badamir beach and there are huge granitic boulders dotted
along the shore (which is of course powder white sand with rolling waves of turquoise
waters). I spent my birthday paddling around and really happy to be in the
Seychelles. A friend even baked me a cake (of sorts) which we had to mix with
custard because it... well, it was lovely and a very memorable day.
All in all, Curieuse was a great time!
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