An Unforgettable Experience

I stayed on the base located at Cap Ternay, northern west of Mahe, for five weeks. I was actually supposed to stay four weeks, however I acknowledged, as I spent my time there, that I was not ready to leave this beautiful island, the precious work for conservation and friends I have made, hence I went for one week extention of my stay. The base is located in the middle of the forest with two beautiful beaches near, Bay Ternay and back beach in which we do beach cleanups around twice a week. I really loved the remoteness of the place as I came from a big, crowded and caotic city. We often go to the beach to watch sunsets on the rocks located on the rightside of the plage where once I cut my foot trying to climb one of the rocks covered with oysters. I am thankful for Rose who has trained all of us for first aid response, we managed to treat the wound properly. Similar injuries are inevitible there. After every weekend, when we returned back from Beau Vallon or other cities, something happened whether a scratch from a trekking or a foot sprain. Once, one of the volunteers ''accidentally'' got bitten by another volunteer while playing American football on the beach. So, you can imagine how the staff must be sick of our injuries, although they were really helpful with the incidents happenning currently. Let me talk about some not depressing things happening on the base other than the wounds. So, our daily routine basically is an early wake up at around 6.30 a.m., then we do the duties such as cleaning bathrooms, changing binbags, preparing dive equipments, compressor shifts...We are all responsible for the preparation of three meals. Aaand diveeess. We do two dives a day. We generally spend three or four hours on the boat. According to the tide, we may walk around two hundred meters on a very bumby, sandy road in the sea towards the boat, hence I love high tide when we do not suppose to walk with 20 kilos on your back. But either way, once you enter the water, you forget all about the struggle coming on the boat. Numerous, vividly colored reef fish, various types of nudibranchs, giant rays and so on. I have managed to see three, 2.5 meters long white tip sharks chilling under a rock. I have missed the whalesharks seen two weeks before I arrived to the base unfortunately. During the dives, I have done distinct works underwater including removing debris from the bottom, coral surveys, invertebrate, reef fish and nudibranch surveys. Everyday is an opprtunity to learn something new and the staff tryies really hard to make variations on the daily schedule. One day you go for a seagrass research in the bay, another day you find yourself snorkelling at dawn, searching for juvenile sharks. Withnessing the work I have done there is utilized for conservation purposes by local institutions makes me eager to do more, and learning from the people working there about their experiences of conservation in distinct countries gave me hope to plan my future oriented around conservation while travelling around the world. It was a once in a life time experience for sure. I am greatful for the opportunity to get to know both volunteers and staff members and to share precious moments and memories with them. I felt how much this experience contributed to my perspective of life and my personality as soon as I landed in Turkey. I will definitely continue participating in other programs with GVI.