Raleigh International - Mauritius 93F

When I was twenty years old I was lucky enough to go on an expedition to Mauritius for three months. While there I kayaked around the island, built a bridge across the Black River Gorge in ten days, monitored and recorded the behaviours of Noddy Birds, Skinks and Rodrigian Fruit Bats. I deseeded a whole load of plants which were not indigenous to the Island and I also ringed Noddy birds by catching them in a net. It was an amazing experience but it was also traumatic. You see when a bird flies into a net as you can imagine, it would poop itself, as you do - so yes it was a very messy task & slightly dangerous. They are also very protective over their young and so we had to wear hard hats to protect us from the dive bombing birds which attacked us on a daily basis.

It was great being so close to the animals and we got the chance to go on Round Island which is one of Gerrard Darrel's project islands. However, I did make one big bad mistake while on my expedition. I was sent out at 6am and told to look for the first skink and then monitor his or her behaviour all day. So the first one I saw ran under a rock and stayed there until 6pm when my fellow team member came to relieve me and take over the task of monitoring this skinks behaviour for yet another 12 hours. I laughed and joked how this skink had just sat under the rock and even lifted the rock to show my fellow mate that it was still there. Then it happened, this rare species was squashed when in my fit of laughter over my complete waste of a day and my shocking sun burn I lost grip of the rock and dropped it on the poor unsuspecting creature ooops! I felt awful and as you can imagine a fit of crying and laughing quickly followed, we promptly set about finding another skink which is not as easy as you would think.

Karma did bite me back on the arse though! On my way to Round Island I had felt sorry for my fellow team member who was being sea sick down below deck. So to try and help her I went to hold her bucket and hair back from her face. That is probably the worst thing you could ever do - note to self look at the horizon and ignore the sicky person or suffer the same fate. I quickly followed suit and at our final destination both myself and this poor little Chinese girl needed Adrenalin shots to try and get us up and running after losing half our body weight in fluid - sorry about the detail. Anyway, while being given injections and one of those awful replacement drinks my team members were unloading my kit bag on the boat and put a water but in my bag which was strapped to my back and I instructed to make my way up the mountain in my flip flops to the campsite. Amazingly no - one thought to bring my sleeping bag, clothes or boots, all was left on the boat which had returned to the main island and when radioed the cheeky thieving Mauritian dudes said they couldn't find it. I had to sleep in a bivvy bag which is made of plastic which made we sweat, then I got cold because I was lying in wetness which then went to my kidneys and then I had to be air lifted off the island because I had a kidney infection. Bad! I don't remember it all because I was a bit delirious and woke up on the main land in the medic camp. That's what you call karma, kill a skink end up in hospital!

Apart from that had a brilliant time with a lot of bumps and bruises. Would definitely recommend!

Thanks for tuning in

Stan x