"Mada-who-haa?"

I made it to Madagascar. Finally. After 2 delayed flights meant an 11 hour wait in Kenya, a 10 hour wait in 'Tana, the capital of Madagascar and an overnight stay in Fort Dauphin, the nearest local town, I eventually arrived in at the bush camp in Sainte Luce. Although it's only about 50km from Fort Dauphin the roads are so bad that even in the 4x4 kacak it took almost 3 hours. The 'roads' here are just sandy tracks with huge pot holes filled with muddy water that the driver has to manoeuvre around and through at tortoise speed. The water often came up over the bonnet, and that's not to mention the river we drove through! Lots of people around, herding zebu cattle, carrying fruits and fish into town or making the long walk back home.

Our camp is amazing. We have a wooden long house where we eat and hang out - it's the coolest place to be (temperature wise, not like hip and fashionable)! There's a smoke hut where there's a fire going all day and lovely Vaija cooks all our meals - 'mufu' deep fried rice balls, sweet rice and banana bread for breakfast; rice and a different type of bean for lunch, broad beans, lentils, black eyed beans, mung beans etc; and for dinner there's more rice with either a vegetable stew, spinach, pumpkin, a delish eggy omelette and sometimes we even have spaghetti. I am very quickly going off rice! Breakfast is the worst as it is always the same - and between you and me, I'm not the biggest fan of the sweet rice. There's lots of veggies out here, 3 of us at the moment (think it's something to do with the kind of people you get running off to Madagascar to do environmental research!). The meaties sometimes get freshly caught fish or chicken. I witnessed 4 chickens being taken behind the smoke house to end their days when we had a big group of visiting staff arriving. Not my favourite moment!

There's 4 vazaha's (foreigners) in the bush at the moment, Lauren and Callum the research assistants, Ben an Australian volunteer and me. Half of the time there's Jamie too, the research coordinater, but he spends half of his time in Fort Dauphin at the head office. Then there's Josh another volunteer working on another project at the moment who'll be back soon. There's also our guides Tsaraiki, Hoby, Raziva, Babaly and Solo, and a bunch of people who turn up from time to time from other projects or headquarters.

Back to the camp. As well as the long house and smoke hut there's a store hut, a research centre, shower cubicles and long drop toilets, thankfully positioned a decent walk away! The research centre is more of a store room for valuables as it's the only lockable place, so laptops and passports are tucked in there with our projector, reams and reams of research files and books and stacks of random stuff we've got no idea what it's for. We have solar panels in camp so if the sun is shining, and it always is, we can charge phones, ipods and laptops.

There's space for all our tents hidden within the trees - still not enough shade though. (Quick note; don't ever try to go into your tent in the day #sauna #hell). The shower block is out beyond the tents, though I say 'shower' I actually mean bucket. You pull water up from the well, tuck into a corrugated tin cubicle and use half of a 2l coke bottle to pour cold water over yourself. I never thought I'd be a fan of the ol' cold shower but with the temperatures here it is heavenly!! It's a base 33 degrees and it's often very still and humid.

Out beyond the well is the nursery where we're growing trees for Project Ala. We're working with them to help build forest corridors over deforested land. Then there's the bee hives. I've no idea what's going on with them, it's some other SEED project I guess.

Oh and there's a gym too. An actual Jungle Gym. There are rings hung from a tree, parallel bars for pull ups, stumps for dips, and even barbels made from two jerry cans full of water. It's pretty impressive.

We live on the edge of a village called Ambandrika which is made of worn wooden huts with thatched palm leaf huts. It's one of the 3 hamlets that make up Sainte Luce, along with Ampanasatomboky and Maniafiafy. It's full of people who smile and say 'Salama' when you pass, children desperate for a fist bump and a call of 'Duma' ('boom'), and chickens and pigs who roam wild. We lead Club A each Wednesday (Club Azafady 'gecko') at the school where we teach them about the environment, either a specific creature, the food chain or trees etc. Mostly they love the song at the beginning and the game at the end - I've never seen such a big circle for Duck Duck Goose, (though they say Duck Duck Crocodile) or kids run so fast!! Maniafiafy is a 40 minute walk away on the coast and we go there each Saturday morning for Club A too.

My day is very busy and also very relaxed at the same time. Breakfast is at 6:30 each morning, then we'll go out on a transect for a few hours. Lunch at 12, another session of something before dinner at 6:30 and an evening transect. There are 5 sections of forest we work within (S7, S8 North, S8 Remnants, S8 South and S9) and transects (routes) through each area. To get to the forests we have to cross different bridges of varying stability levels. A lot of the time there isn't a bridge and we just forge through the water. Always a much needed refreshing dip, but slightly scary because there's a crocodile in the area...

Generally the transects are barely there trails through dense forest, but they also pass through plains and my (NOT) favourite, swamps. I'm constantly surprised that our guides can even find the right trail let alone keep us on it. While we walk the transect we look out for either lemurs or herps - frogs, chameleons, geckos and snakes, and record who we find, where we found them, their life stage and other data. Sometimes there's loads of creatures around, other times not so much.

There are 4 species of lemur in this area. The Red Collared Brown Lemur which is the only diurnal species. I had an amazing surprise on my second day here when I looked up while taking a shower to see a female Brown just cruising over the tree above me. Seriously cool. Then there's the Southern Woolly Lemur, the Fat Tailed Dwarf (or Tomasi's) Lemur and the Mouse Lemur. We wander through the transects looking everywhere hoping to spot the reflection of our head torches in their eyes. We saw a Mouse Lemur only a couple of meters away one night when we were out on the road watching a lightening storm light up the sky. He was up in a nearby tree and kinda froze when he realised he'd been spotted and waited us out while we stood staring.

When we're not out on transects there's other data to collect, for example bird watching, shark counting, collecting caterpillars, spiders and fungi, Malagash lessons and we've even been able to make mahampy bracelets. 3 women from Ambandrika came and taught us how to weave the mahampy reeds into patterns. They also make baskets and mats they sell in the markets. Shark counting is a fun one. We sit outside on the road under a tree and play Bananagrams (world's best game by the way) until the fishermen start returning with their catch. Then we try and photograph them and collect information about the species they have caught. My personal favourite activity is when we go out in pirogues, basic dug out canoes. The other day we paddled along the river mouth past the mangroves and down to the sea looking for signs of mosquito net fishing. It was only when we got back a couple of hours later that Hoby said 'you do realise they do the fishing at night..?' Stellar. But it was just incredible paddling in such a stunning place where the water is so still and the mangroves give way to the mountains in the distance.

When we're not scurrying around somewhere there's time to relax. In the middle of the day it's too hot to do anything much so we laze around in the long house talking, playing Bananagrams, attempting to solve crosswords, listening to music and dozing. It's not so comfortable to lie on the long wooden benches for long so I like to retreat to one of the hammocks hidden under leafy trees and palms where there's always a cool breeze.

I'm back in Fort Dauphin for the next few days which means I can connect to civilisation once more. Though I have enjoyed being off grid it is nice to connect to home, and you don't realise how much you depend on google until it's not there. Though saying I'm reconnected, it's a 40 minute walk and the power in the whole town has been out all day so I ended up sitting in an empty cafe a few hours before I was meeting people for lunch, completely unprepared. But now I can finally upload this - I've been writing it in instalments for the last week.

Fort Dauphin life is very different from the bush. I can finally buy food that is not rice and drink things that aren't water. There's even, get ready for this, a real toilet, with a flush! The town itself is mad. Tiny ramshackle shelters on the side of the road act as stalls with fruits and beans and clothes, interspersed with houses and wobbly alleyways. The markets are busy and bustling selling absolutely everything, and there's lots of nice places to eat. Last night we went to Menuire, a tiki bar type place for incredible vegetable wraps and cocktails. The centre is paved and tuk tuks zip around there, while retro taxis can take you further onto the sandy roads. You do not want to be on the streets at night so we'll get a bumpy old car back after dinner and hope they've understood enough to get us to the right place.

I've got one more day here before we head back to the bush for another 2 weeks. Halfway through my stay already!

On The Road Again

I'm in Madagascar now, and though I left the UK at 5:25pm on Sunday and have been travelling for the last 39 hours I'm still not at my final destination!

Bunny has come with me of course! 

I flew into Kenya at 5am on Monday morning expecting a 7 hour layover, only my flight was delayed by 4 hours. With a very small and unexciting departure 'lounge' it was a struggle, but I finally boarded flight number 2 into Madagascar at 4pm. Arriving in Antananarivo was hectic! Everyone wants to help you and will try to carry your bags for you and give you information - all at a cost of course!

Transferring money, which can only be done once in the country, is very easy; you give the money and they'll give you a wedge of notes that you assume is the correct amount before you get barrelled off with someone leading you towards your prebooked transfer, they then demand payment for leading you there even though you carried your own bags and the transfer driver was walking with you.

I stayed in a nice little hotel nearby before getting a transfer back to the airport at 5am this morning (Tuesday) for a flight at 7:40. Only it's been cancelled. The next flight is at 3pm, so there's another 8 hours to wait.

Thankfully Tsaradia, the airline, booked me into a hotel with breakfast and lunch for the day. I got to experience my first taste of Madagascar as we drove through the bustling streets, already busy at 6am. The ladies are carrying big bundles on their heads while the men and children push big homemade carts piled with vegetables and wares that they set up on sheets to sell. Stray dogs roam the cobbled and cracked streets as busses, bikes and taxis weave in and out of each other. The local minibusses travel with the back door open so people can run up and jump on as they're moving. The buildings are all painted bright colours and covered in old posters and advertising.

It's a sensual overload! Especially on virtually no sleep. I got to the hotel and slept until breakfast, then slept again until now. Lunch is in 15 minutes (rice, vegetables and fries) and then I'm heading back to the airport for flight number 3.

I'm with two German girls, Ella and Mali who are dentistry students travelling down to Taolanaro to volunteer with a dentistry program for a month, travelling rural areas and looking after people's teeth. It was really nice to meet them and travel and eat together, to spend time with similar people. They are the only white faces I've seen and I'm definitely feeling a long way from home. Though everyone has been lovely and helpful and we can get over the language difficulty with my awkward bit of French.

The view from the hotel restaurant. It looks like a jungle out there. And yes, that is a random goat is someone's yard.

The view from my room.

A Lot Has Happened!

It's been a long time since my last post!

I finished the season in the Alps, drove home through Italy, France and Spain, and returned to normal life. I got a job in a cafe, and that was that, back to the grind of making coffees and clearing tables. I got promoted, became a supervisor again, and worked long hours to get the pennies in. I kept myself busy when I wasn't working, running, rowing, becoming a yogi and I even started hula hoop classes. And when I wasn't doing any of that I was volunteering with the National Trust helping with ecological surveys, bat studies and countryside management - pulling out/erecting fencing and clearing invasive plants. Phew.

That handsome massage therapist man has stayed by my side, despite living several hours away, and we have now been A Thing for almost a year. A few weeks ago he and his dad took me to Andorra for a week of snowboarding and it was amazing to get back on the slopes! The Pyrenees are very different to the Alps. There you are too high for trees and the snow turns everything into a blanket, while in Andorra being lower down means the pistes are beautiful tree lined runs and rocks arch up out of the ground. It's incredibly spectacular. Plans are already in the pipeline for next year!!

Working in the cafe was fun. I met a lot of great people, gained some serious confidence and collected a decent stash ready for the next adventure, which is coming around pretty quick... Tomorrow in fact!

First stop is Madagascar where I'm joining an ongoing conversation project run by an organisation called SEED - Sustainable Environment, Education and Development. I'm going to be working with the local community collecting data on the forest and the creatures within in. And that means lemurs. I'm going to be spending my time with those gorgeous little wide eyed primates who like to move it move it.

And now I'll keep it brief;

From Madagascar I'll fly to Bangkok, Thailand, before travelling north through Chiang Mai and crossing the border into Laos. I'll travel down the Mekong river in a traditional slowboat to Luang Prabang before flying to Siem Reap, Cambodia. First stop in Cambodia is the ancient temples of Angkor before heading to Phnom Penh. I'll cross the border into Vietnam and explore Ho Chi Minh City before flying to Bali and spending a month at surf camp. After some island hopping I'll fly to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, then Singapore, and back to England via Budapest where I meet my brother and his fiancee and friends for their stag/hen do.

Phew.

Watch this space. I'll update when I'm not lost to the jungle!

Alpine Days

It’s been a really long time since I wrote anything. Mainly because time is scarce in mountain life. When I am not working I am either up the mountain or sleeping; there’s not a lot of time left over. We get paid very little for the amount we work so I’ve decided to take my payment in snowboarding time. I weave my day around the best mountain time, and try and get out as much as possible, no matter how knackered I am. As they say, I can sleep when I’m dead – or in my case when the season is over..! Which is exactly one month today.

I still can't get over how stunning it is here. This is looking down at the cloud sitting in the valley below.

I’ve managed to explore the 3 Valleys a bit recently. I spent a day in Val Thorens, carving up the park slope which has boxes, kickers, bridges and giant hands that you can high 5 along the route, ending in a giant igloo. And we went across to Meribel on the most beautiful sunny day after a heavy snowfall. It was incredible, full of long runs through forests and along stunning cliff edges. There’s a giant airbag in Meribel that I’m gunning for so hopefully I’ll get the chance to go across there again!

It's great going boarding with a big group - although you always end up waiting on half the group or chasing down people that have gone the wrong way. This was the greatest day out, on Clare my roomie from training's last day.

I really don't know where to begin, there's been so much going on.

From building snowmen…

 meeting snow dogs…

and snow gods…

 to squeezing through super tiny snow holes in a snow labyrinth

and finding ancient igloo carvings of Pacman!

I also got to meet an elephant - not who you'd expect to see in the Alps.

And I'm having A LOT of fun dressing up as our mascot, Monty the marmot

And even more fun when someone else does it and I'm just 'Monty's Handler'. Trying to get him in the car was an experience I'll never forget..! The you-can-never-let-Monty-be-seen-without-his-head rule made things a little bit more challenging!

Bunny has been having more fun too.

From hot chocolate at the top of the mountain to making new friends =]

There has been so much snow lately that there is fresh powder every day and I’ve been having the best snowboarding I’ve ever known. I love riding off piste more than anything because there’s nothing better than carving fresh lines in untouched snow!! It feels like gliding through the sky. Taking on the side of the mountain and forging my own path – it’s like nothing else.

And of course with lots of snow come lots of moguls – lumps of snow that gets pushed together with paths carved around them – and so the chance to get some air *jump*. Sometimes completely unintentionally because you don’t spot the bulge in front of you – it’s a huge adrenaline rush when you land an unexpected jump! And a literal kick in the butt when you stack it; which happens fairly regularly. I couldn’t sit down for a week after one session when I went down hard twice on the same spot!!!

I’ve been having a lot of fun in the BK Park too. [Don’t ask me what the BK stands for, I have no idea.] Started out with the rollers, rolling bumps kinda like giant speed bumps where you pick up speed going up and down. Then I moved on to the jumps. There’s a row of 4 and by the third you’ve picked up so much speed that you shoot over with a good couple of feet of air underneath you. It is utterly terrifying, I honestly don’t breathe for the whole time and I constantly think I’m about to die, but MY GOD is it a rush!!! I will have to try and get photos/videos.

I’m also practicing 180 jumps and turning 360 as I go downhill. That’s really fun. Though my current favourite thing is ‘buttering’ which I tried for the first time the other day. You put all your weight on your back leg and lean as far back as possible, lifting the front of your board in the air.

So I’m really enjoying learning new tricks and just being out on the mountain. It’s mostly to do with the guy that I’ve been boarding so much with. He’s really good and inspires me to try harder and push myself. His name’s Tom and he works for Massage Me, a company who come to our chalets and give massages to our guests.

The season has been long and hard, with far too little rest, and a lot of pushing my body to the limits. So I guess it’s good my friend is a massage therapist!!

In fact, said massage therapist might be a little bit more than just a friend. And in fact instead of flying home a month today I might be wending my way back through Europe in said massage therapist’s car… 
Watch this space…

January in Rebbers

This is Reberty.

And that is the piste. 100m from my front door.

We’re the highest village on the mountain and have to ski/board down to get to a chairlift to take us further up. Please appreciate this shot – I nearly dropped my phone from the chair lift trying to get it! =]

And here's a shot of the village from the other side of the valley. Reberty is the top little triangle of buildings.

This is Chalet Eva, our biggest chalet. I used to live just behind the car underneath the balcony but Murren and I moved this week into the staff accom further down the road. A lot of nannies are leaving and we’ve got new staff coming in so to deal with the whole male/female sharing ratio thing we’ve all shuffled around. It’s nice to not have to walk down the street to use the kettle, though we still have to go down the stairs which are outside.

Times have been busy here in the Alps. The snow has been endless. Last week we had about 2m of snow in 3 days, on top of the meter or so that was already there. We’ve had the most snow in 21 years and the people who’ve been here for many seasons can’t believe it. I’ve been shovelling my little heart out and I’m pleased to say the muscles are coming along nicely!

The biggest challenge has been the Eva playroom balcony. Because I’ve been so busy recently and hadn’t got round to clearing it, the snow piled up around 1m deep, and the bottom couple of feet had frozen to pure ice. I’ve been slugging at it for about 3 days and I’m still nowhere near the bottom.

There’s nowhere to put the snow except on the road so it’s a case of flinging it over the balcony. In the process I built my own mountain! I guess I figured that if I didn't have time to go to the mountain I'd create my own - or whatever that old line is.

Everyone is throwing all their snow out onto the road and the snowplough is failing to clear it all quick enough, which meant the road became pretty impassable. Car after car got stuck in the snow, even when they have snow chains on they just got beached. So many people must have almost burned their engines out as their wheels just span. I’ve had to dig out at least 3 cars this week. One of our families drove to the resort and after it had been stationary for a week it took me maybe 2 hours to dig it out of the snow which had piled half way up the windows!

It’s not just car windows, this is the view from our lounge onto the road outside.

And it’s not just cars and windows that get covered either..!

(That's someone's satellite dish if you can't quite make it out!)

My biggest challenge is clearing a path from the road to the boot rooms where skis are stored. The banks are getting so high I’m now having to carry the snow from the doorway down the path and onto the road, rather than just pile it on top.

 The snowplough is both good and bad at the same time. While he clears the roads so we can all move around he pushes all the snow to the side, and covers up my freshly dug pathways! And then he piles snow up in really inconvenient places which mean I have to dig through icy boulders!

The kids have been helping me clear some of the snow though. I introduce you to Bernie, my first snowman of the season.

Bunny has been helping too, but he’s a bit small to hold a shovel!

Mostly he’s been up to his usual tricks of playing around. He’s tried bum boarding…

And he came out snowboarding with me today…

 But he wasn’t very good at it so he just decided to admire the view.

I haven’t introduced you to my babies yet. These girls are what make all the hard graft worth it. I’m working anywhere from 12 – 18 hour days so there’s no usually chance to head up the mountain, especially when it’s snowing so much. But today the sun came out and for the first time in a couple of weeks I got to really put them through their paces. As my confidence is increasing again I’m absolutely loving picking up a bit of speed, knowing I’ve got the skills to handle it.

The sun setting over La Pointe De Masse was stunningly beautiful.

Another part of my job is chopping wood for all the fires in the chalets. That’s a lot of fun. I’m getting really good at it. I think I’ve really found my niche. 'Niche', gettit? Cause you have to force the axe deeper and deeper into a niche in the log, yeah, gettit? Gettit? =] 

I know, seriously cheesy. 

On that note, cheese anyone?

Reberty 2000

I’ve been at my resort for almost a month now. It’s in a small village called Reberty in Les Menuires, part of the Savoie region. I live in a tiny ‘apartment’ with one of our chefs, Murren, from Gurnsey, and Haley, one of the childcare team. I say apartment but it’s actually just 2 bedrooms joined by a tiny bathroom. Our lounge/kitchen is 100m down the street – which is great for getting a cup of tea in the middle of a blizzard like right now…

We have 3 chalets here, Eva, Katie 1 and Katie 2 which all sleep between 11 and 17 guests. I haven't got any good photos of them but you can click on the names to see them. My job as the Resort Host is to make sure everything is running smoothly. I test and maintain the hot tubs, sort out ski hire, make sure the chalets have everything they need, help out with the kids, do any odd jobs, fill in where I’m needed and shovel A LOT of snow. I start at 7am until around 1pm and then get a few hours free before I’m back to work at 4pm where I host in chalet Katie 2. I work with the chef Joe to set up and serve kids tea and a 3 course meal for the adults with prosecco and canapés. It involves A LOT of washing up. I usually finish around 10pm.

In between snow shovelling and washing up I try and get out on the mountain as much as possible. I’ll snowboard every day unless the conditions are bad like right now or I really need to sleep, or sometimes I just don’t have time to stop.

Altitude

I’m sitting at 2000m above sea level. Coming from Dorset which is at sea level is a big difference. Last week I got hit with altitude sickness. After boarding down the mountain to a small town nearby all of a sudden I just couldn’t stand up any more. I went really dizzy and weak and when I sat down with my friend to get some food I couldn’t eat anything. I went to bed and slept for the next 3 days.

Transfer Day Trauma

I didn’t get up until 5am on Saturday to take the guests back to the airport and pick up the new ones. This week’s transfer, with week 2’s guests leaving and week 3’s arriving was dramatic and stressful and at times pretty horrific…

It usually takes about 3 hours to get to Geneva airport but we left early because of a huge snowstorm on Friday night. The bus had snowchains on the tires and we travelled at about 10kmph down the mountain through heavy snow. I got a call from Josh, my manager, who told me that a guest from another company had put their bag on our bus by mistake and could I get it off and leave it somewhere nearby as they were travelling to a different airport – not possible as we were running late and I already had nervous passengers. We arrived just in time before check in closed.

But no time to breathe. Mad dash over to terminal 2 to meet the new guests and warn them that we’re looking at a double long journey because of the weather conditions and the fact that everybody in the Alps is on the move on a Saturday. 30,000 cars were expected to be on the road. With only 1 café and at least an hour long que of everyone stocking up for a long journey we decide to stop en route for supplies.

We did stop. But not for sandwiches. 

We were gridlocked on the freeway for 2 hours. I’m alone on the coach with 24 people, half of whom are bored and tired children, the other half are bored and tired adults. I got a phonecall from the director of the company to say the road between us and the mountain was closed because of an avalanche and he’d booked us all into a hotel for the night. A hotel an hour in the wrong direction. Cue very frustrated guests. Most of them were great and very understanding but there were some who would not be appeased.

Eventually we managed to get off the freeway – luckily we’d been near an off ramp – and drove to Grenoble to our hotel. Which we couldn’t find. The driver had never been to Grenoble before and inner city one way streets with a coach is never simple. When we finally found it the barrier into the car park was too low for the bus and we had to drive around the block before we could pull in beside it. And thankfully, yes they’d got a booking for Ski Famille! Relief.

Or not.

As I’m helping unpack cases from the coach I get told our booking is not right. The guy at reception says the Ski Famille booking contains 54 names which are not ours and he doesn’t have another list. I have everyone pushing up behind me trying to find out what is going on and no one who might have any idea what has happened is answering their phone.

So not a great situation…

Then Will turns up. He does the same job as me in another of our resorts, Bruyeres, just a bit down the mountain, and he’s got 52 guests plus a bus driver. The booking is his. But he’s able to tell me that my booking is under the company director’s name. How the receptionist didn’t figure out that his booking for 26 people was for the big crowd of people in his lobby is beyond me. And then the rooms we had were only 4 people rooms, not great for families with 3 kids. There was no restaurant there, only a McDonalds in the closed mall down the street, and McDonald’s in France don’t serve anything vegetarian, so it was just fries for tea.

Next morning we left at 6am. The road had been cleared and there was no traffic so we were able to race to the resort. We were too early to find anywhere open for breakfast so stomachs were growling and throats were seriously dry as we finally arrived in resort at 8:30. I was able to take everybody up to Ski Set our hire shop and get them kitted out with skis and snowboards and they got on the slopes for 11am. Success. Nailed it. Phew…

Christmas

Christmas Day was a lot of fun. We all took an hour to head up the mountain together. Bruyere staff joined us too, and we drank Prosecco from the bottle before skiing/boarding down in a group 20 strong. It was a beautiful sunny day and there was fresh powder on the slopes. It was perfect.

So life here is good. Even though the days are long and exhausting. It gets a bit monotonous and it often feels quite futile. I shovel snow and clear paths and balconies and by the time I’ve finished they’re covered again. But it’s all worth it when I get up on the mountain. It’s so stunningly beautiful sitting up above the clouds with the sun shining down on my face.

The snow is really coming in now! We’ve had about 50cm in the last couple of days and it’s only going to get deeper…