Pages

Thursday 20 July 2017

Nosy Be

This week the boys have been based on Nosy Be island. The campsite has been located right on the beach front with tents overlooking the sea. Some boys have been learning to dive and have successfully completed their PADI course becoming qualified open water divers. Well done to those boys and of course Mr Cooper who also passed with flying colours.
Those boys who were already qualified and our snorklers were kept busy with 2 dives a day. They developed their skills underwater and even learnt how to conduct surveys underwater; assessing coral health, recognising different species and recording habitat diversity. The boys were excited to see turtles, puffer fish, cuttle fish and a whole host of tropical reef fish. 
Our boys also worked on group presentations which were given last night. We watched some excellent performances but were particularly impressed with a rap session based on mesotrophic coral habitats. 
Everyone is suitably exhausted after 4.30am starts every day but all are happy and well. We now start the long journey home travelling for 5 hours today for an overnight stop over in a hotel (all are excited for flushing toilets, running showers and a mattress). The boys have a long day of travel again tomorrow ready to catch our flight to Paris but the boys are all looking forward to seeing you Sunday afternoon! 

An experience of a lifetime! 









Tanakily island visit


Wednesday 19 July 2017

Staff still smiling



Lectures

Boys have 2 lectures a day on marine biology. Here, Chelsea the resident Australian marine biologist is delivering a stimulating lecture. 

Nosy Be

Boys are diving twice a day and have been enjoying the warm waters of the Mosambique Channel. The snorkellers have enjoyed some crystal clean waters. The coral reefs are abundant in fish and boys have been busy tring to identify both vertebrate and invertebrate species.

Afternoon games


Over to camp


Saturday 15 July 2017

(Backup) Journey so far...

The boys have finished a busy week in the forest site of Matsedroy and Mariarano. They were given a taste of the flora and fauna of the local area by walking up to 33 miles a day on survey routes. They have been lucky enough to see endemic species such as chameleons, geckos, lemurs, birds and giant stick insects. The boys learnt the hard way about the challenges of camp life; discovering a long drop toilet and outdoor, one bucket a day showers. Our boys were also given the opportunity to visit a local school where a game of football broke any language barriers. The local children were also amazed by 'snapchat filters' and camera phones. Merchant Taylors' should be so proud of how well our boys integrated with the local community and represented our school. 

We are now moving on to the second leg of our journey through Madagascar. An early start to catch a ferry across to Nosy Be where some of the boys will get their first taste of diving in the open water. All are very excited.

The boys have been absolutely fantastic and as staff we cannot ask any more from them. They are all in good health, happy in spirits and enjoying this once in a lifetime opportunuty. 

Journey so far...

The boys have finished a busy week in the forest site of Matsedroy and Mariarano. They were given a taste of the flora and fauna of the local area by walking up to 33 miles a day on survey routes. They have been lucky enough to see endemic species such as chameleons, geckos, lemurs, birds and giant stick insects. The boys learnt the hard way about the challenges of camp life; discovering a long drop toilet and outdoor, one bucket a day showers. Our boys were also given the opportunity to visit a local school where a game of football broke any language barriers. The local children were also amazed by 'snapchat filters' and camera phones. Merchant Taylors' should be so proud of how well our boys integrated with the local community and represented our school. 

We are now moving on to the second leg of our journey through Madagascar. An early start to catch a ferry across to Nosy Be where some of the boys will get their first taste of diving in the open water. All are very excited.

The boys have been absolutely fantastic and as staff we cannot ask any more from them. They are all in good health, happy in spirits and enjoying this once in a lifetime opportunuty. 

Matsedroy Camp visit

On our way to Matsedroy satellite camp.