Hi Class 4,

Well we have finally arrived in the Seychelles and have now been living on Aride Island for the last 6 weeks, it is fantastic and there is so much to share with you, I almost don’t know where to start!

So what I will do first is show where we are living on the island and then hopefully you can start to visualise what things look like when I talk about our day to day living, our work and then of course the wildlife.

As you know the Seychelles are made up of a series of islands, there are two main ones – Mahe, which has a population of 90,000 and Praslin (in the picture on the left) which has 7,000 people.

Aride Island (picture right), is north of Praslin and has a human population of 8, but a bird population of up to 1.25 million. It is only 70ha in size (1,500m x 350m) and is right in the middle of the Indian Ocean.

The island is made up of 3 main areas:

The beach, which is a mix of sand and rocks and is about 750m long, and runs along the southern edge.

The plateau, which is next to the beach, and is our only flat piece of ground approximately 750m by 70m, this is where we all live. The plateau is where all the houses are, there are a total of 7, 1 for the wardens, 1 for the volunteers, 4 for the local rangers and 1 for visiting researchers and scientists. Also on the plateau is the well for our water, the garden, where we grow our food, the boat house for the boats to be kept out of the heat and the sun, and the Conservation Centre which is where we have the office and a visitors centre and shop for the tourists.

The hill, which forms the main part of the island, it is a rocky outcrop north of the plateau and very rugged. This is where most of the birds live, although the plateau is used by a lot of wildlife, the hill apparently becomes alive later in the year as most of the birds use this area to breed. The hill is 134m high and is a very steep climb in the Seychelles climate which is very hot and humid.

So where do we live? Well we are very lucky and we live right next to the beach (see arrow) and the noise of the sea is constant. When we go to sleep we can hear the waves crashing onto the beach and sometimes they are so loud it sounds like a thunderstorm echoing through the windows and doors.

There are lots of things to tell you over the next few months about how different life is on an island in the Seychelles, but to start with the things that spring to mind are:

We go shopping in a speed boat to Praslin to small shops which very often have a poor selection of food – certainly no crisps or chocolate and most of the time no onions or potatoes. This is not just the case for food, Melv couldn’t find a mirror to have a shave for 6 weeks and the one he has now got is yellow with a big teddy bear on the back – but don’t tell anybody!

With no television or radio our entertainment in an evening is watching skinks, geckos and crabs.

Washing is great fun and all our water comes either from the well or off the roof and our shower is a bucket over our heads.

The weather is very, very hot and 30’C most days, and so we go now where without factor 50 sun cream and big floppy hats. The climate is also very humid and our clothes don’t ever really dry out.

I will finish by saying you were all right about the wildlife a night, we share our house with lots of creatures...