island 2 island - from Somerset to the Seychelles

2009-05-12T01:15:00.000-07:00

Hi Sally,
It sounds like the children had a wonderful day on the island. Wish we could join them. Our Class had a great day at Shapwick last week doing some pond dipping. We found over 20 different species.
The children are busy doing their SATs this week but I will try to get them on-line soon.
Nina

Grand Anse EcoAride Club Visit Aride

2009-04-20T01:02:00.000-07:00

On the last day of term over 30 children from the EcoAride Club at Grand Anse Primary School were given a real treat, courtesy of La Reserve Hotel. The club which meet every Tuesday during Extracurricular time have more members than ever this year and they are all keen to learn about Aride Island and its special wildlife. La Reserve kindly offered the use of their boat at a greatly reduced rate to enable the children to come out to the island and experience the wildlife first hand. So far they have only been able to hear about it from the Sally and teachers, or see and read about it from pictures and books, but last Friday they experienced it for themselves.

Close to the beginning of the breeding season, the children were greeted by flocks of sooty terns circling above the hill nosily, together with numerous pairs of fairy terns flying in formation as they dance over head, their white plumage perfectly lit up against the pure blue sky.

At this time of year especially, the island is a live with wildlife, and as young wildlife explorers the children were able to see young tropic birds at their feet, and fairy tern chicks at eye level.

Shearwater chicks snuggled into burrows and magpie robins came and fed on cleared ground in front of them, skinks and crabs played around their feet, the smell of the Wright’s Gardenia flower greeted them as they walked into the garden, geckos skulked on the trees protecting their eggs and lesser noddys croaked in unison as they walked along the paths.

They also found out about the social history of the island, about the Copra house and the Lodge and how the inhabitants used to use wooden boats to get supplies, not like the same inflatable ribs of today. They learnt about island life, with no running water and at times no electricity, about the importance of the garden and of growing food especially for the times when the sea is too rough to launch the boat to get to Praslin. There was time for relaxing too, as the children had lunch in the visitors shelter and a chance to enjoy the sand fly free beach and the waves for which Aride is known.

Projects this year for the children back at school will include writing articles and poems about their day on Aride, creating a model of the island marking on where the different species of wildlife live, and writing an information panel on the history of the copra house that can still be seen on the island today, from the times when it was a coconut plantation. To do the latter they hope to conduct interviews with people that worked on Aride at the time.
So don’t forget to keep watching...

Pupils at Grand Anse Primary School choose the Environment

2009-04-02T01:42:00.000-07:00

We had a great start to the new term here in Seychelles, it was excellent news to see that the Environmental Clubs for extracurricular studies proved to be one of the most popular with the young people of Grand Anse Primary School. In comparison to last year over double the number of children have signed up for the Eco-Aride club; totalling to an amazing 33 students.
So far I have been working with the children in the Eco-Aride club looking at some of the amazing wildlife that is on the special island, from the sooty terns to the skinks, and the fairy terns too the frigate birds. The children have been learning about who eats who, by producing food webs and chains, and playing the food web game. Then there is adaptation, how special the fairy tern is, how they don’t build a nest but have extra long claws to hold on to the branch where it chooses to lay its egg.

Last the week the group have started to build a model of the island for their school, through the model they will be able to show other pupils where the different wildlife lives. There are four main habitats on Aride; the sea, the beach, the plateau and the hill and the children will position which wildlife lives where and why.

All this work will be rewarded later this month as plans have been made for the group to come out to the island, where they will see all these things for real. This trip is being made possible by the generosity of La Reserve Hotel who is providing the use of their boat at a much subsidised rate so the children are able to benefit from their local environment and learn how special places like Aride are. With the provision of the boat it will mean that all 33 children and accompanying teachers will be able to make the trip. It will be excellent for the club to visit the island so early on in their studies as they will then be able to undertake a number of projects back at school based on what they have seen and learnt on the day.

Lots of projects are planned – so watch the bog to see how the day goes and news on what the Eco-Aride club is up to.

Meare school bird watch

2009-03-06T03:04:00.000-08:00

1 Blackbird
1 Blackheaded gull
2 Blue Tits
1 Chaffinch
2 Collared Doves
19 Crows
1 Great Tit
9 House Sparrows
1 Magpie
2 Pied Wagtails
1 Robin
100 Starlings

Great Poems

2009-02-09T21:25:00.001-08:00

Hey Children,

The poems about Ham Wall are great and really brought back memories of the Uk and the reserve.

Many thanks

Sally

Big Garden Birdwatch on Aride Island

2009-02-08T21:03:00.000-08:00

Hi Children

I hear that you recently did the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch in school, well just for fun I thought I would do the same on the Aride and then you can compare the birds that I saw in an hour looking out of my imaginary window with yours!

My list goes like this:
1. Greater Frigate bird = 58
2. Fairy tern = 46
3. Bridled tern = 6
4. Sooty tern = 2
5. Turnstone = 6
6. Lesser noddy = 19
7. Brown noddy = 16
8. White-tailed tropic bird = 6
9. Seychelles magpie robin = 2
10. Seychelles warbler = 1
11. Seychelles sunbird = 2
12.Tok tok (Seychelles fody) = 5
13. Moorhen = 2
14. Blue pigeon = 5
15.Madagascar turtle dove = 1
16.Madagascar fody = 1

I have put some pictures of the birds down on the right hand side as they will all be new to you as none of them are found in the UK, by exception of the turnstone and moorhen, but the ones in the Seychelles are slightly different.

Have fun comparing

Best wishes
Sally

Ham wall cracker

2009-02-05T04:17:00.000-08:00

hi sally this is a poem I wrote about ham wall.

Ham wall is...
The sound of rushing rivers,
a gentle breeze,
a land of ever-living.

Ham wall is...
The rythmic beating of wings,
a sky of pink cotton candy,
a magical new world.

Ham wall is...
Rain; like spiders creeping up my arms,
a blinding sunset,
the whispering wind.

By Charley Baker
from Meare school

Ham wall is

2009-02-05T04:15:00.001-08:00

Hi sally this is my poem of ham wall. Hope you like it!!!

Ham wall is
A dragonfly pit stop
A bubble bath for fish
A wild party
A big wash

Ham wall is
A disco for trees
A relaxation for clouds
An ever lasting home
A ladybird's dream

Ham wall is

by rowan

Ham Wall Magic

2009-02-05T04:15:00.000-08:00

Hi Sally this is my poem i wrote about ham wall,

Ham Wall Magic

Munching, crunching
wind whistling,
a river winding into the distance

Gushing, gurgling
insect hotel,
the Tor rising from the mist

Tweeting, twittering
bird safari,
trees coming out of your ears

Rumbling , whirring
swan pathway,
nature's best friend for life

That's Ham Wall Magic!!!!

By Josephine Billany

From Meare Village Primary School

Ham Wall is...

2009-02-05T04:11:00.000-08:00

Hi Sally, this a poem I wrote about Ham Wall.

Ham Wall is...
Trees dancing wildly at a disco,
Rain; a million drops of life,
swans as white as a blanket of snow.

Ham Wall is...
Clouds as fluffy as a giant ball of candyfloss,
A blizzard of leaves whirling in the rough wind,
A shower of nature.

Ham Wall is...
Fish swimming in the midnight moonlight,
An animals paradise,
A wildlife wonderland.

By Ellie Loxton

2009-02-04T20:38:00.000-08:00

Hi Nina,

That is great to hear, it would be lovely to know what birds the children saw, over the weekend I will do a birdwatch for an hour and then we can compare birds - so children watch the blog!!

I look forward to reading the children's poems and hearing about what you have seen.

Best wishes

Sally

2009-02-04T07:19:00.000-08:00

Sally,
We thought you would like to know that we just did the RSPB Birdwatch. We also wrote some great poems about the Reserve which we will share with you.
Nina

Water, water everywhere

2009-01-04T05:07:00.000-08:00

Hi Children,

Hope you all had a great Christmas and Happy New Year!!

December was very wet for us, in fact the wettest since 1991, thought you might like to see the rainfall figures and compare them to the UK.

I have also put some pictures below to show you what the island looked like after heavy rain.

We had to rescue the poor little white-tailed tropic bird chick as its nest got water logged

The one really good thing is that all our water barrels are now full to the brim, so there is no shortage of drinking water!

Happy New Year to all at Meare School

2008-12-31T22:47:00.000-08:00

Hi Children the Aride Fairy would like to say...

2008-12-23T20:19:00.000-08:00

Hi Children please find the answers below, Sally

2008-12-11T01:43:00.000-08:00

Hi Alayna and EllaMay,
The island is very beautiful, it is the most amazing place I have ever been. The colours are fantastic, and the clear light really makes the whole place 3 dimensional. When we came back from the UK in October and walked on to the island it felt like someone was shinning a big spotlight on it, after very Britain to come here and was such a contrast. The island itself is very rugged and has lots of trees, when it rains at this time of year all the trees start to grow new leaves and so from the sea the island looks very green, with lots of different shades – lime, fresh new green, deep leathery bottle green, pale yellowy new green and lots and lots more. Then by contrast there is the beach and the sea, the beach is made up of silver sand so soft it feels like talcum powder between your toes and the sea is so blue it hurts your eyes – yes it certainly is beautiful.
Yep our buckets often get holes in, the bright sun and UV makes them very brittle.

Hi Danny and Byron
It really depend on the months as to how much rain we get, have a look at the graph below and you can see that our months of most rain are between November and March.
Comparison of the 2007 monthly rainfall figures from Aride with the averages for the previous 12 years.

Hi Gabby and Noy
Compared to the UK, it is very hot, we are very close to the Equator and at our hottest time in October, November it can be over 31˚C. Have a look at the table below which shows you the maximum and minimum temperatures, together with the total rainfall for last year.

Hi Emily and Bethany,
Aride Island is located in the middle of the Indian Ocean, have a look on a map and see which countries are next to us. Aride is in the small group of islands called the Seychelles, which on your map will probably look tiny in the idle of a very big ocean.

Hi Children, please see the answers below - Melvyn

2008-12-04T04:22:00.000-08:00

Hello Jacob
All our washing water comes from the well, it’s not too far about 50m from the house, but the buckets are very heavy. Our drinking water is collected rain from the roof which we store in big barrels, this has to be filtered before we drink it because there are so many birds, and we all know how birds like to pooh on roofs. Think of us when you turn your tap on next.

Hello Grace and Lucy
We try not to catch really big fish like sharks because they are becoming rare and as there are only 8 of us living on the island we could never eat it all. We did catch a really big Barracuda once it was nearly 2m long but we let it go unharmed. The fish we try to catch are about 10kg and about 50cm long and called Red Snapper, great on the barbeque. Do you like fish?

Hello Mike and Sam
Floods are not at all rare in the tropics with 200mm of rain some days in the wet monsoon. We are a small island so the floods just run into the sea and cause us little problems. We rely on heavy rain to fill up the ground water for the well; light rain just evaporates because it’s so hot.

Hello Kai and Fraiser
We go to the toilet the same as you! Seriously, we have what’s called a long drop toilet, this is basically a hole in the ground with a shed built around it. It’s not smelly because we put dry leaves in it to give the correct carbon nitrogen balance (ask a teacher) .

Hello Kylan and George
We don’t have a shower because we have no running water in the houses, we are trying to get the houses plumbed with running water, but this is difficult in the Seychelles because there are no shops that sell plumbing equipment. We have to ship everything we need from the UK, may be a shower next year, we’ll be real stinky by then! Try showering like me and Sal you two, first get a bucket, fill it from the river Brue and then tip it over your head, perhaps not a good idea in the UK winter though.

Hello Byron and Danny
Very difficult to say how much water we use per day. For washing up, clothes and ourselves about 10lts each. For drinking and cooking about 5lts each, but if we are working outside because it so hot in the sun I’ll drink 5lts in a morning, it depends on what we are doing. How much do you two use in a day? I think you would find it surprising how much you use, do you think you could manage without water in your taps, could you collect your own water?

Hello Lewis and Jack
Our nearest shop for food is 10 miles across the sea, there not like the shops in the UK they are very small and quite often no food in them, we can normally buy rice, lentils, eggs, flour and sugar. We make bread, cakes and biscuits, catch fish which we eat most days and grow our own fruit and veg, some of which you’ll never of heard of. The food we eat is good, it’s fresh and very healthy but it is very samey. We miss things like a roast dinner, cheese, crisps and snacky things, I made veggie pasties yesterday as an experiment and they were great, even our Seychellois staff who never heard of pasties liked them. You have to be imaginative with food here!

Hello Grace and Niamh
Because we live in the tropics we don’t get seasons like the UK, with you, in summer, the sun is high in the sky making it nice and warm and in winter low down and cold burrr. Living on the equator the sun is high all the time and always very very hot. The weather here is governed by two monsoons (winds). The North West monsoon which we are in now brings hot humid air and lots of rain, the South East monsoon from May to Oct is cooler and less rain. So we have no winter or summer, it did seemed strange to us at first being able to grow veg like tomatoes outside all year round. Another strange thing, the sun comes up at 6am and sets at 6pm every day, so no long lazy summer’s evenings and no horrible dark winter mornings.

Hello Aaron and Aiden
We have to many fish on the reef and surrounding sea to name them all, over 400 different ones, but I’ll tell you about some of my favourites. All of the rays are fantastic and easy to watch from the beach; sometimes they leap out of the water and make such a splash it’s like a dinner table being dropped into the sea from a great height. For colour the Powdered Blue Surgeon for me is the best on the reef, look it up on the internet.

Hello Charlie and Kieran
They hold 200lts each, that’s quite a lot of water and we have six of them, but we still ran out of drinking water in the last dry season. We had to fill up the barrels from the nearest bigger island 10 miles across the sea all in our little boat.

Hello Bethany and Lucy
We do catch some big fish, me and Sal use rods but our rangers use hand lines, you can’t buy fishing rods in the Seychelles but they wouldn’t use them if you could, they are very skilful fishermen.

Hello Niamh and Grace
We eat Bonito( like our Mackerel) Job Fish, Red Snapper, Grouper, Emperors and many others.
All the creatures that live here come into the house, all the birds all the insects and mice. Our favourite is our tame Skink, Hector (lizard) we feed him cockroaches which we collect in old peanut tins, when we rattle the tin Hector comes running for his lunch, he is very tame. Aride has the highest density of lizards anywhere in the world, one per square meter, how many would that be in your classroom? Our unwanted guests are mosquitoes, the nasty and painful if it bites you Giant Centipede, they grow to 150mm long and like to hide under bed sheets, mice because they eat and spoil our food and crabs only because you tend to step on them in the dark and without shoes they squidge between your toes.

Hello Erica and Heidi
Only Sally’s snoring, not really. Aride is a very noisy island with all the nesting birds and the waves crashing on the reef, at first yes, it did keep us awake, but you soon get use to it. We came home for a holiday in Sept and couldn’t sleep at first because it was too quite!

Hello George and Charlie
If our water supplies are low we would try and fill up all our barrels, 600lts. As I said to Byron and Danny what we use does vary so much, we never waste water because we sometimes we run out. We are hoping to get a filter so we can clean the well water for drinking, then we wouldn’t have to rely on the rain.

2008-12-04T01:22:00.000-08:00

Sally,
How beautiful is the island?
Are there ever any leaks in the buckets?
Alayna and EllaMay

2008-12-04T01:21:00.002-08:00

Sally,
How much rain water do you get in a month?
Danny and Byron

2008-12-04T01:21:00.001-08:00

Sally,
How hot is it in the summer?
Gabby and Noy

2008-12-04T01:20:00.000-08:00

Sally,
What is the ocean where you live called?
Emily and Bethany

2008-12-02T04:40:00.001-08:00

Sally,
Today Kingfisher Class (Year 3/4/5) started looking at the Blog. We have been studying water and the children have sent some questions to you. We hope you will have time to answer our questions.
Nina and Kingfisher Class

Hi Children

2008-12-02T03:19:00.000-08:00

Thanks so much for all your questions - keep watching the blog and I will get the answers on as soon as I can.

Best wishes

Sally

2008-12-02T01:50:00.000-08:00

Sally,
Do you have a long way to get to water?
Jacob

2008-12-02T01:49:00.003-08:00

Sally,
How big are the fish you catch?
Grace D and LucyC

2008-12-02T01:49:00.001-08:00

Sally,
How rare are your floods?
Michael and Sam

2008-12-02T01:48:00.004-08:00

Sally,
How do you go to the toilet?
Kai and Fraiser

2008-12-02T01:48:00.003-08:00

Sally,
Why don't you have a shower?
Kylan and George H

2008-12-02T01:48:00.001-08:00

Sally,
How much water do you use in a day?
Byron and Danny

2008-12-02T01:47:00.002-08:00

Sally,
Where do you get your food from?
Lewis and Jack

2008-12-02T01:47:00.001-08:00

Sally,
How cold is it in the winter?
Grace W and Niamh

2008-12-02T01:46:00.000-08:00

Sally,
What type of fish do you have?
Aaron and Aiden

2008-12-02T01:45:00.000-08:00

Sally,
How much water do the big blue buckets hold?
Charlie F and Kieran

2008-12-02T01:44:00.001-08:00

Sally,
How do you catch such big fish?
Bethany and Lucy

2008-12-02T01:43:00.001-08:00

Sally,
What kind of fish do you eat? What different kinds of animals come into your house?
Niamh and Grace W

2008-12-02T01:42:00.000-08:00

Sally,
Does noise keep you awake at night?
Erica and Heidi

2008-12-02T01:35:00.000-08:00

Sally,
How much water do you collect when it rains and how much water do you use every day?
GeorgeW and Charlie C

Aride Corner at Grand Anse is nearly complete

2008-11-04T03:49:00.000-08:00

When I returned off leave from the UK, I found that the children of Grand Anse School had been working very hard and they had nearly completed the Aride Corner. All the painting was finished, from the fish to the frigate birds. The end wall included painted pictures of fairy terns, turtles, sooty terns and turnstones together with the impressive frigate birds.

To cover the floor the children have brought in sand and that has provided the foundation for some of the vegetation we find on Aride, such as coconut palms and Scaevola; a beach crest plant which has fleshy leaves and is salt tolerant.

All that was left to do was the creation of a few 3 dimensional papier mâché models to compliment the painting. The children had already made a start, and so far these include a Wright’s skink (type of lizard), and a turtle to sit on the sand, together with a bird which is going to soar through the air below the’ Welcome to Aride’ greeting.

There are just the last few finishing touches to do, and one is the painting of a Wright’s Gardinier on the side wall above the area that they are going to keep as a notice board for environmental issues. The Wright’s Gardinier is a very special plant and Aride is the only place in the whole world where it can be found growing naturally and the EcoAride club felt that the corner wouldn’t be complete without one.

Before

After

The corner looks great and the other children in the school really like it, it brightens up what was originally a very dark stair well into something that is now not only very creative, but informative and educational too.

The Southeast monsoon – how Aride got its name.

2008-10-21T21:48:00.000-07:00

We are now at the end of the southeast monsoon which falls between the end of May to the beginning of October. This monsoon brings very strong winds from the south east and is very dry, with hardly any rain over the 5 months. This type of weather makes living on an island a real challenge for many reasons and as a result we look forward to the arrival of the northwest monsoon again so life becomes a little easier.

The island changes in the southeast monsoon as the vegetation starts to struggle from a lack of water, the trees go brown and their leaves start to fall, it reminded me of autumn back in the UK, but it was still 30’C! Eventually only the bare branches of the trees are left and looking at the island from the sea it looks sad and dry, scorched by both the sun and the salt spray.

However Aride comes alive at this time of year with wildlife, it is the main breeding time for the seabirds that nest on the island. We have the world’s largest colony of lesser noddys and over 100,000 pairs of sooty terns, not to mention the brown noddys, fairy terns and bridled terns. So Aride becomes both a very busy, noisy and smelly place between May to October.

With the strong winds it means that the large expanse of sea becomes very rough and it is difficult to both launch and land the boat off and on to the island. With no jetty we have to launch the boat by hand, holding it still in the waves until the engine is deep enough in the water to run. It is a difficult task when there are waves taller than you trying to knock you off your feet, but it is the only way we can leave to go shopping and get supplies. Some years the sea is so rough at this time of year we don’t manage to leave the island for two weeks or more and so we have to make our food last. At this time the vegetables we grow in the garden are very important as a fresh food supply.

With the strong winds and the rough sea there is a lot of salt spray that gets blown on to the island, this puts a greasy, salty film over everything, from the vegetables in the garden, which we have to protect, to our clothes. The spray is driven by the wind into the houses and the office and can be very damaging, by causing everything to rust and go mouldy.

The southeast monsoon can be a very difficult time to live on the island, the wind and salt spray are constant and we know that we will not be able to go over to the mainland very frequently. That is when the telephone and electronic communication become very important as we are unable to receive letters via the post office.

It is often the case that because the sea is rough we rarely get visitors to the island and so it can feel quiet remote, even though we can see Praslin the island 6 miles away, we know the sea is to difficult to cross. Our work at this time of year is spent undertaking survey and monitoring work, mainly of the seabird colony, counting 1.25 million seabirds is quiet a difficult task and protecting them from poachers. We also spend time designing new displays and preparing the island for visitors, who will start to come once more in October.

However having said all this, the most significant thing for everyone living on the island in the southeast monsoon is whether we have collected enough water to see us through this dry season. For 5 months we will not have any rain and so we will not have any new drinking water and we rely on the water that we have collected through the rainy season of the northwest monsoon. If we do have rain we are often unable to harvest it because the roof is too dirty from all the seabirds that roost there and it would be unsuitable to drink. This year we have been struggling for drinking water and we now have to boil the water and pass it through two filters, before we can drink it. This is quite a time consuming job as working in 32°C means we have to drink regularly to prevent us from becoming too dehydrated. Think now we are finding out how Aride got its’ name!

2008-07-23T22:21:00.000-07:00

Hi,
It was great to catch up with the blog. We have just started our summer holiday but we are looking forward to getting on-line when we get back.
Class 4 will be doing a project on 'Water'. It was interesting to read about water on the island. We would like to know all about how the children in the two schools get their water, what they use it for, how much they use, if they have any problems related to water.

We look forward to learning lots from them.
Nina Bernstein

The Seasons of Seychelles

2008-07-19T00:37:00.000-07:00

Here in the Seychelles the changing of the seasons is very different to back in the UK and life on Aride island changes with them. There are basically two seasons here and these are in the form of monsoons: the northwest and southeast and they are both dramatically different and hugely influence the way we live.

The Northwest Monsoon
When we first came to the island in December we arrived in the middle of the northwest monsoon, which is basically from October to April. This monsoon is stereotypically tropical and has high rainfall and high temperatures which the combination of the two bring with it high humidity. The high rainfall is a very important part of this time of year; it provides water for both the island and its occupants. The vegetation turns green and starts to look very lush and the ground water builds up as the water collects from the rain that falls on the hill and rushes down to the lower ground below.

This water is very important as it fills up the marsh and the well, which both the wildlife and us rely on in the drier months. The northwest monsoon is also the time when we harvest the rainwater for drinking. We do this by collecting all the water that falls on the roof of our house and put it in large barrels that we can then filter and drink. To make sure that the water is as clean as possible, it is very important to ensure that the roof is regularly washed off and that all the bird pooh, leaves and pine needles have been removed.

The northwest monsoon is our busy time for visitors, the weather is a lot calmer and so the sea is calmer too, which means that it is easy for boats to reach us and for us to greet the visitors on them. The sea is also excellent for snorkelling at this time of year, which attracts many holiday makers, who come to see the tropical fish that live around the coral reefs of Aride. The weather at this time of year is largely settled and the temperatures can regularly reach over 30’C in the day and not drop to less than 28’C at night.

A large percentage of our work at this time of year is taken up with running the business of the island and increasing the money that can be raised from the tourism trade as this is the main source of income we have. We charge an entrance fee for visitors to the island and we have a small shop and information centre where we sell souvenirs and books. All the money that we can raise will then go directly back to supporting the conservation work undertaken for the wildlife of Aride.

The calmer seas mean that we are also able to do more work with the local communities at this time of year, as we can almost guarantee that the weather will enable us to make the 6 mile crossing to Praslin our neighbouring island. This means that we can reliably plan to work with the local schools and the tourist operators. Working on an island, reliant on the weather conditions, often means that it is very difficult to plan, which can result in us letting people down and not able to make appointments.
The more settled weather also means it is easier to be self sufficient for food; we are able to regularly catch our own fish as the sea conditions allow us to take the boat out for fishing. The vegetables and trees provide fruit more regularly due to the higher rain fall and crossings to the shops for supplies can be more frequent if we need them. As well as the tourists we have other important visitors during the northwest monsoon, which rely on the calmer seas and the sandy beach. These are the population of hawksbill turtles that come to lay their eggs on Aride. Hawksbill turtles are very special and we are very lucky to have them breeding here on the island, last year we had 63 nests, with some of the females laying over 3 nests each. They are very rare and still on the critically endangered list and were really threatened just a few years ago as people used to kill them to eat. Now they are protected and populations like Aride are very important for the recovery of the worlds’ population.

Baie Ste Anne EcoAride Club reuse and recycle to keep their school grounds clean

2008-06-15T05:14:00.000-07:00

The children in the EcoAride Club at Baie Ste Anne have found an excellent use for old fuel drums. They are reusing and recycling the drums as rubbish bins, which will be placed around the school grounds to discourage other children at the school from dropping litter.

In their last two extra curricular activity sessions they have been working hard to transform their new litter bins into something that will look good at their school. First of all they have covered the bins with a coat of plain paint and now they have the task of designing brightly coloured images to make them look good and to encourage people to use them.

They also have plans to use the bins to enable people to separate their rubbish, by labelling each one as to which rubbish it is specifically for. This will then enable the school to separate out plastic, paper, non recyclables, cans and glass, so in the future the materials may be recycled.

Aride Island corner at Grand Anse Primary School

2008-06-09T22:24:00.000-07:00

When I went into school this week the children of the EcoAride club in Grand Anse Primary School, had started to create their very own Aride Corner in the school. With the help of me and the teachers from the school, the children started to transform what was once a dark and dingy stair well into a colourful representation of Aride Island. Following a visit to the island made by many of the children earlier in the year, they were inspired to try and create their own miniature Aride that they could see everyday. The children have already written accounts of their visit, and now they were to use their artistic skills to visually depict what they have seen on the island.
Initially the location of the corner presented a small challenge; however it has now been used to great effect, with the dark section under the stairs perfect for the colourful underwater scene, showing marine life, including tropical fish and turtles. The underneath of the stairs leading to the first floor makes and excellent place for a ‘Welcome to Aride’, together with large images of a frigate bird and of course the special red tailed tropic bird.
After just one Extra Curricular Activity session the corner is really starting to take shape and in coming weeks we hope to be working on cliff and woodland scenes, showing wildlife such as fairy terns, white tailed tropic birds, skinks and geckos. It is an excellent way to show other children from the school, just what Aride is like and hopefully get them interested too.

Once we have finished the walls we hope that we can start to create some models on the floor, using recycled materials and papier mache. There is so much wildlife that lives on Aride to choose from, the children will have to decide which represents the island the best and what are their favourites.

This is just the start of the work that the EcoAride club are planning to do around the school to illustrate and communicate conservation messages and also to make the school grounds, colourful, interesting and a great place to learn

Baie Ste Anne EcoAride Club members

2008-05-22T00:59:00.000-07:00

Lee and Martin

Kimberly and Jean-Luc

Edward and Emelie

Chloe and Chris

Aaron and Arnaud

Benjamin and Brandon

Martina

EcoAride Club spreads to Baie Ste Anne

2008-05-18T23:41:00.000-07:00

Hi Class 4
There are two primary schools on the island of Praslin, one at Grand Anse, where most of our work so far has been focused and then one at Baie Ste Anne. Well last week I managed to visit both schools and it was excellent to meet the children from Baie Ste Anne, who have also formed an EcoAride club. I was greeted by 15 eager smiling faces as they waited to hear what I had to say about that special place, Aride Island. We talked about fairy terns and frigate birds, skinks and sooty terns, hawksbill turtles, hermit crabs and habitats. The children were very knowledgeable about the environment and they were very keen to learn more.

They would also like to learn about Somerset and how different life is there compared to the Seychelles, and hope that you will help them. Over the next few weeks like Grand Anse children, those from Baie Ste Anne will also write letters to you, so look out for the postman!

During my visit I received an invitation to a tree planting event to be held at the school later in the week. The school has only just been built and recently opened; as a result the school grounds are very bare and don’t have many plants or trees. So to try and green up their school grounds, the children were going to plant some native trees and shrubs.

So on Friday last week, I went back to the school, and had a very enjoyable time. The event started with a short speech in the school hall. The hall is an amazing building, and reminded me of an aircraft hanger, with open sides and high roof, it was a lovely and cool, with the shade it cast and the south easterly breeze blowing through. There were children present from right across the school; from the crèche to 12 year olds and they were all eager to play their part in planting trees. We set off in small groups and began to marry up trees to the holes which had been prepared earlier.

The trees and shrubs were provided by parents, teachers and the Ministry of the Environment and even Island Conservation Society, who I work for, donated a couple. Fortunately adult volunteers had dug all the holes ready during the morning, as by the time we came to plant the trees it was over 30’C! It was warm work but great fun and we ended what was a very satisfying afternoon with a welcome glass of juice.

The other excellent news is that the school has just got an internet connection, so hopefully by the time the south east monsoon sets in, when it is often too difficult for me to leave the island; we can all communicate via the blog.

Wildlife Explorers for the day

2008-04-14T00:26:00.000-07:00

Hi Class 4,

Thought you might to hear about the day children from the Eco-Aride Club and Baie Ste Anne Primary School came out to Aride. Thanks to one of the travel companies out here, Masons, for the use of their catamaran, The Indiana, 23 children and their teachers came out to spend a day on the island.

With Aride being one of the islands a little more remote and further away from Praslin, school trips can sometimes be a little harder to initiate, which makes them very special when the children do get the opportunity.

It was a busy day and great excitement for the children as they arrived on the Aride mooring after an hour and half boat trip on The Indiana. They were greeted by the Aride boat and staff and their adventure on the island began, they became wildlife explorers for the day. Full of excitement and expectation the children had a whole day to see and enjoy Aride. They were able to experience the sights and sounds and to get close to wildlife, some of which they had never seen before. Wrights skinks and ghost grabs scurried around their feet, they got eye to eye with geckos that skulked on the trees along the trails, fairy ferns flew around their heads and tropic birds patiently looked up at their eager faces as they peered down at them. All their senses came in to play, as we smelt the fruits of the Indian mulberry tree, and listened to the sounds of the sooty terns and lesser noddys. We learnt about food chains, food webs, ecosystems, seed dispersal and much, much more.

There was also time for play, the banyan tree provided a swing, the beach and the sea a chance to cool down and exhaust any spare energy. We all had a super time and learnt lots and the children are now keen to write and tell you all about it and to share with you their exciting and very different day on Aride.

Members of Eco-Aride Club

2008-04-05T05:21:00.000-07:00

Hi Class 4,
Great to hear that you got the letters from the Eco-Aride Club at Grand Anse Primary, so you can now put faces to names, these are the members of the club:

Adrian and Arianna

Arnold and Brian

Darrius and Dinan

Emmanuel B and Emmanuel M

Fabrina and Marius

Naomie and Natifah

Recca and Stephie

Vennessa

Aride Eco-Club

2008-04-03T10:05:00.000-07:00

Sally,
Your letters arrived today. It was so exciting. Our Eco-Club will write back tomorrow.
Nina

Lifecycles

2008-03-27T05:03:00.000-07:00

Thanks Sally.
We had a very interesting lesson yesterday about seed dispersal. It was great to be able to learn about the seeds on Aride. It made our lesson much more exciting.
Nina

2008-03-16T00:28:00.000-07:00

The coconuts float and can travel great distances, especially as the seed has it's own water supply.

Once the coconut has been washed up on the beach crest which is the area at the top of the beach it is ablt to sprout and grow roots.

The Pisonia seeds are really sticky, with lots of little fingers which hang onto things. You can see here it has stuck to a piece of grass and even a woodlice

Indian Mulberry Tree that produces fruits that ferment and become alcoholic.

The life cycle of some of Aride’s plants

2008-03-15T22:16:00.000-07:00

The Coconut Palm
The coconut palm produces large seeds in the form of coconuts, which drop to the ground and either grow where they fall or due to their design they are able to travel for miles. Coconuts float, which means they can travel for long distances on the sea. To feed the seed whilst on its journey it has a supply of water inside, which is very sweet and what we know as coconut water. As soon as the nut reaches land and gets washed up on the shore, the seed is ready to grow.

Many coconuts are washed up on the shores here at Aride, and they can be seen sprouting along the top of the beach – in the area known as the beach crest.

The Pisonia Tree
The pisonnia tree is the main tree on Aride Island; it grows right across the island as both trees and bushes.

It is very clever how it seeds it self, it has lovely small white flowers which produce bullet shaped seeds which have a number of small fingers. These fingers are very sticky and they stick to everything that comes into contact with them, including our feet, as a result they can get moved great distances enabling the tree to spread.

The Fruit Bat Tree
This tree produces fruits that the fruit bat finds irresistible, they are about the size of lemons and one of the main foods that the fruit bat eats. The seeds are held inside the fruit and so when the bats produce dropping the seeds get spread right across the island. The fruit bats on Aride can fly for miles, sometime over to the main island of Praslin, over 6 miles away, so they will be transporting the seeds of Aride’s fruit bat tree without even realising it!

The Indian Mulberry Tree
Like the fruits of the fruit bat tree the Indian Mulberry fruits can transported by birds eating the seeds inside the fruit and spreading them in their droppings. The Indian Mulberry fruits are very desirable and a favourite of many of the birds here on Aride. The fruits ferment and become alcoholic and actually make the birds drunk.

We often see birds, particularly pigeons, drunk on the mulberry fruits, they stagger around unable to stand up or fly, so we put them in a quite place to sober up and to recover from their hangovers!!

lifecycles of plants

2008-03-11T05:25:00.000-07:00

Sally,
Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions. It is all so interesting.
We are now studying the lifecylces of plants and I thought it might be interesting if you could show us some pictures of different plants and tell us about the seeds for each plant and how the seeds are dispersed.
Any information about the lifecycle of plants on the island would be great.
Nina

Hi Class 4

2008-03-10T01:18:00.000-07:00

Thank you so much for all your questions – we hope we have managed to answer them all:

Hi Harry D,
There are definitely times when we miss our family, but we have email, telephone and can write letters to keep in touch. I speak to my Mum and Dad about every fortnight and because it isn’t that often when we do speak it is very special. It is nice to write and receive letters too, with email and computers people don’t tend do this much anymore, but because our internet connection can be so poor it is often more reliable here.

We don’t really miss watching TV, but Melv misses hearing the news and we both do miss watching the football and other sport.

Sometimes we can get chocolate, but it is expensive because it is imported, we can get baked beans and crisps, but they are very different and don’t taste the same as from the UK. But there is plenty to eat – it is just different and we are now eating more Creole food rather than trying to buy what we would eat back in Britain. Milk and cheese are very hard to get and we miss these more than anything.

Our favourite fruit is the papaya, because it is tasty and fills you up, we get quite a few strange ones like jack fruit, sour soap and custard apple; we will try and take some photographs to show you.

Hi Alf and Joseph,
We have caught many different types of fish they are:
Edible ones:
· Groupers
o Tomato
o Honeycomb
o Lyre tail
· Emperors
o Spangled
o Blotched eyed
o Queen
o Madam red bonnet
· Snapper
o Yellow finned
· Barracuda
· Bonito
· Trevally
None edible ones to put back:
· Needle Fish
· White tipped shark
· Trigger fish
· Remora – have a flat head and live on sharks

Hi Maureen,
We have sharks living just 2 metres away from the beach, at least 3 different varieties:
Lemon shark, white tipped and reef sharks.
We have caught white tipped sharks when we have been fishing and let them go, they sometimes take the fish off our hooks and bite through our lines! We have watched sharks off the beach, especially at dusk.

Hi William & Harry
People are the largest animals on the island, there are no native mammals in the Seychelles except for bats. But discounting humans, on the island fruit bats are the largest animals, about the size of a buzzard.

Hi James & Ben,
The fruit bats mainly eat the fruit we don’t eat, like Indian Mulberry and the fruit from the fruit bat tree, but they do sometimes take our fruit out of the garden, especially the guava and the papaya. We haven’t had a close encounter with one yet, but we do see them everyday flying and hanging around in trees.

We collect our coconuts from the ground as this means that they are ready to eat. The older the nut the nicer it is, so we look for husks that are dead and dark brown rather than the young and green. However you have to shake the husk to hear if there is any milk inside. If there isn’t this means it may be rotten and not good to eat. Coconuts have adapted to spread by the nut in the husk floating in the sea and whilst it is travelling the nut carries its own water supply in the form of coconut milk. Once all the milk is used up the nut has started to grow and the coconut is no good for eating.

Hi Connor,
So far we must have caught 5 or 6 Barracuda; some of them have been over 1m long. However with all the other fish available, they are not our favourite to eat and so we don’t always try to catch them.

Hi Luke & Morgan
All the people are very friendly, there is an African influence here and the people are jolly and tend to sing when they speak. Most people only own one shop; the shops are like the small corner shops that we still get in the UK, like Happy Shopper or Londis.
8,000 people live on Praslin, so it is smaller than Glastonbury or Street, but there are 2 primary schools and 1 secondary school. Both primary schools have between 4 & 500 children and the secondary has 530 children.

Hi Gemma and Georgia
Our best fruits are the papaya and sour soap; both are very different but are really tasty. The Papaya is like a melon, but not so watery and very filling. The sour soap is like eating a sharp lemon sorbet, very refreshing but with a chewy texture.

We have liked all the fish we have tried, but our favourite so far has to be the grouper family, which are a soft fish with a subtle flavour, a little like cod, but not as flaky.
We both catch fish and go fishing 2 or 3 times a week depending on what work we have to do and how rough the sea is. We do have big tropical storms and sometimes it can rain all day and the wind can be really strong making the waves large and the sea very rough. The fish really vary in size the biggest we have caught is over ten kilos and the smallest just half a kilo.
We have banana trees on the island and the bananas are just starting to develop. We can also buy bananas from the shops and so we tend to eat them everyday for breakfast. The food is great here, Melv is the cook and he has learnt also of recipes from the local rangers on the island. We eat a lot of spicy curries, especially with fish together with rice and dhal made from lentils.

Hi Rowan and Abi
I visited Grand Anse Primary School which was over 400 children, with 15 classes and around 30 children in each class. The picture on the blog is of the Aride club from the school, which is an after school club.

The food can be a little limited on choice and variety, we don’t get the range here, like you get back in Britain and things tend to be more seasonal. We eat a lot of fish, rice and lentils, together with fruit and vegetables. The latter two are mainly grown locally and imported, so either way there isn’t always a huge selection. Sometimes we can’t get some foods, like at the moment we can’t get milk. There hasn’t been milk in the Seychelles now for nearly 2 weeks, the shops have also run out on potatoes, onions, carrots and ginger since we have been here.
We try to use as little electricity as we can, as we currently get it from a generator which is run on diesel, and is not good for the environment. We do not use appliances with heating elements, like kettles, toasters and electric ovens as they use a lot of electricity, so we use gas instead. We plan to operate the generator only certain hours of the day, however this is not possible at the moment because when it isn’t running it gets damaged due to the build up of moisture.

We can sometimes get chocolate, but not very often, it also tends to melt in the heat here and so always needs to be kept in the fridge.

Hi Jamie & Louis
It can be quite hard sometimes, but to be able to live in such a special place as this – it is worth it. We do drink the rain water, once it has been through a filter; we keep a couple of bottles filtered in the fridge so it is always nice and cold ready for when we need a drink. Sometimes as a real treat when we fancy a sugary drink, we buy a bottle of coca cola from the shop, but quite often we have drunk it before we get back to the island! As a weekly treat we do buy bottles of the local beer, Seybrew, to drink in an evening, but drinking too much alcohol is bad for you in such a hot climate as it makes you even more dehydrated.

Hi Tom & Kieran
We have plenty of water for each day, but when it rains we must make sure that we top our water barrels up so we maintain the supply. Some days we have a lot of rain, just last week we had 93mm in 24 hours. This not only filled up our barrels but brought the level of the water in the well up too; because the island is hilly the water runs down off the hill onto the plateau where we live.

Hi Luke & Charlie,
All pineapples are red when they are young, they turn green when the fruit has grown to its full size and then as they start to ripen they turn orangey yellow.

We have 2 geckos living in our house and they feed of the insects there. There is also a family of geckos that live in the toilet hut, which we often see.

We don’t have pythons on the island but do have yellow wolf snakes, these grow to 1.5m long and are not dangerous. They are the main snake on the island, but we have only seen one once in 3 months, which is a shame because they are beautiful.

Hi Maureen and Jade
The nets above our bed are to prevent us being bitten by mosquitoes and other creepy crawlies whilst we asleep. They are excellent and it means that we can go to sleep without worrying about what might be crawling on us.

In addition to the wildlife, for entertainment we have books, musical instruments, music and activities like writing letters, fishing, cooking, snorkelling, swimming, photography, drawing and painting. We are trying to write a dairy too so that takes a bit of time. We work until late and the evenings are short, it gets dark by 6.30pm every night right through the year, – so there isn’t a lot of spare time.

We live on an island which is covered in trees, a lot of the plants that grow under them we grow back in the UK in frost free environments like your house. There are plants like Dactura, which we call Angels Trumpets at home, which have very long white flowers and fill the air with perfume in the evening; we have one growing just outside our house. We have a shrub called Wrights’ Gardenia which only grows on Aride island, and nowhere else in the world. After heavy rain, all the Wrights’ Gardenia plants on the island, 1,000’s of them, flower at the once and the smell is delicious.

Hi Class 4

2008-03-05T07:58:00.000-08:00

Thanks so much for all you questions and great to read that all is well back in Somerset. Melv and I will write some answers over the weekend and post them on - so keep watching the blog.

I went into Grand Anse Primary School yesterday and met the children there, it was my first visit to a Seychelles school to actually talk to some of the children. Grand Anse is the main village on the island of Praslin where we moor the boat up to do all our shopping. The school has formed a group called the Eco-Aride Club and I hope to work with them, together with other schools through the year.

I must admit I was a little apprehensive about going into a school unable to speak the local language, but I needn’t have been, their English was excellent. All the schools are very keen on environmental education and the children were really interested to hear about the wildlife that we have on Aride island. We talked about the food chain on the fairy tern and played the food web game. A lot of them have never been to the island so they had plenty of questions.

I also told them about you and Meare Village Primary School and they were really excited to hear that they would be able to 'talk' to children from Somerset and look forward to introducing themselves to you. Unfortunately they do not have an Internet connection, but we hope to help them get one, and until then I will bring things back to the island to put on line.

So over the next two weeks they are going to write about themselves and they are going to think of lots of questions to ask you, ready for when I go back into school - I hope that is OK? Do you think you will be able to do the same?

They would also like to see a photograph of you, this one of them is taken in their school grounds

chocolate and family

2008-03-05T06:45:00.000-08:00

Hi Sally and Melv,
Are you missing your family. HOW DO YOU COPE WITHOUT TV!! Your missing out on chocolate, crisps,sweets, and baked beans!If I were you I'd have died of hunger so far!
From
Harry Durston

fish fish and more fish

2008-03-05T06:44:00.002-08:00

Me and Joseph were just wondering how many different types of fish you have caught.

From Alf and Joe

2008-03-05T06:24:00.000-08:00

Hello Melv!

My name is Maureen and I LOVE sharks. I was wondering whether sharks live near you and have you seen how they live their life.

It would be great if you could give me some facts so I could study and find out more. (No pressure!)

From Maureen

PS: I wish that I could swim with them!

2008-03-05T06:20:00.000-08:00

To Sally & Melv

What is the largest animal on the island?

From William & Harry

2008-03-05T06:18:00.001-08:00

Fruit bats

2008-03-05T06:16:00.000-08:00

Fruit bats
We are just wondering if fruit bats have
taken any of your food or have had a close
incounter with one ?

James/Ben I

2008-03-05T06:10:00.000-08:00

Hi

We have some questions to ask.
What is your favourite animal species on the island?
How big is the house / shelter you stay in?
What other electronics do you have on the island?
Has there ever been a time where you had no light on the island?

From Alfie Crowe and Joseph Mills

2008-03-05T06:09:00.000-08:00

Hi Melv,
How many Baracuda have you caught so far?
from Connor

2008-03-05T06:06:00.000-08:00

To Sally & Melv

Are the pineapples always red?
Why do the table legs & bed legs have tubs of water under them - we can't work out why?

From Harry & William

2008-03-05T06:04:00.000-08:00

What are the people like on Praslin?

Do the people have schools?
Do the people have more than 1 shop?
Do you like it there?
Are the people friendly?

Luke M & Morgan

2008-03-05T06:03:00.000-08:00

hi Sally and Melvin,
it sounds like your having a great time. The bungalow looks cosy and i bet the sound of the sea is SO relaxing. What type of fruit do you like? Do you have any strange ones? I hope you caught lots of fish .
from
Harry Durston

fruit

2008-03-05T05:55:00.000-08:00

To SALLY & MELV,

What is your best fruit there?
Did you like the fish that night That Melv caught?

How many fish does Melv catch each day?
Does Sally catch any fish?
Doing fine at Meare. How are you doing over there?
We are wondering what the school you went to was called
Over at Meare we are learning about FAIRTRADE FORTNIGHT!!!!

How many classes are in that school you went to?
Are there any banana trees in the Seychelles ?
Does the food taste nice ?
How do you cook the food?

How heavy is the fish there?
Are there massive storms there?

from Gemma & Georgia

2008-03-05T05:54:00.000-08:00

Hi Sally,

Our names are Rowan and Abi

How big are the schools that you visited?
Do you eat any more different types of food?
Do you have a time limit for the electrisity that you use?
Do you like the fish that Melvin catches?
Does the fruit taste good and why?
Can you send us a picture of one of the classes please?
What's the biggest fish that you've ever caught at the Seychelles?
What is the heaviest fish that you have ever caught at the Seychelles?
Do you catch any of the fish?

Hope you like it there.

We don't think we could survive in the Seychelles because there is no chocolate!!

from Rowan and Abi

What do you drink ? ? ?

2008-03-05T05:53:00.000-08:00

Hey Sally nd Melv
Having fun? what do you drink rain water? hehe it must be hard being at the seychelles with not much drink.. Well hope your doin well

Keep us posted
bye
Jamie & Louis

sea crechers

2008-03-05T05:52:00.000-08:00

Have you seen a shark or a big carnivore, if you have, could you tell me.

BY CAYLEM D.H

What fish do you catch?

2008-03-05T05:51:00.000-08:00

Hi Melv

What fish do you normaly catch and what fruit do you normaly get? How much water do you get each day?

From

Tom&Kieran

pinapples,geckos and pithons

2008-03-05T05:50:00.000-08:00

Hi Sally,

I wanted to know why the pineapples are an orangy red in the Seychelles and are there geckos near where you live and pithons.

yours sincerely,

Luke.T & Charlie.O

How do you get your coconuts ?

2008-03-05T05:43:00.000-08:00

To Sally,
I was just wondering how do you get your coconuts ?
I saw this video where the locals climb the tree and shake
down the nuts.Can Melv do this? It would be funny to watch him
try or succeed. I hate coconuts but Ben likes them.

From James proud & Ben Isaacs

2008-03-05T05:35:00.000-08:00

Hello Sally
My name is Jade and I have got some questions to ask you.

Why you have got nets above your bed?
What else do you have for entertainment except from crabs and geckos to stare at?
Also, my friend Maureen would like to ask what kind of plants do you see over in the Seychelles.

I would like to hear your answers to these questions.
From Jade and Maureen
Year 5 and 6

Tropical Fruits

2008-02-28T21:53:00.000-08:00

Well Classes 1 and 2, back in the early 1900’s as well as coconuts, different fruits were planted too and although most of those have now been removed there are still a few left in the garden, which we can harvest for ourselves and which form an important part of our diet.

So what are they?

Well we have pineapples - did you know they grow on a small, bushy, creeping plant on the ground? – We didn’t until we saw them here. The climate is so warm on the island pineapples grow throughout the year and ripen almost instantly – they taste fantastic.

There are guavas, which grow on trees and look a bit like small oranges. These are particularly good to eat and have a similar taste to sweet gooseberries. They are a real favourite for some of the birds here, particularly the blue pigeon and fruit bats.

We have bananas, oranges, grapefruits and limes, which are all very similar to what you can buy back in Britain.

But our favourite must be the papaya, which grows on very tall trees in bunches, a little like coconuts. They are a soft fruit about the size of a small melon and a challenge to pick – it always takes two of us – one with a very long stick to dislodge the fruit, the other standing at the bottom of the tree ready to catch. We eat them like melons, but they have a texture of very ripe avocados, they are delicious.

So we are all really glad they didn’t remove all the fruit trees when they turned Aride into a nature reserve!

The Coconut Story

2008-02-16T02:21:00.000-08:00

Well Class 4, originally only visited by travellers, Arab traders and pirates, in 1861 Aride had a very small permanent human population of two. From this time on the number of inhabitants increased and the island was developed as a plantation, with the coconut being the most useful tree. The flat plateau and large sections of the hill were soon cultivated commercially with all the native woodland lost by 1868. All the original big trees were felled for timber and much of the island was cleared. Originally the coconuts were limited to the beach crest, where they would have established from nuts that had been washed on to the beach. In the 1920’s and ‘30’s there was an extensive planting programme and they began to cover a large percentage of the island.

But why coconuts, well the nuts were gathered and the dried flesh called copra was extracted for oils. The Copra house where this was done can still be seen on Aride today and this we plan to preserve to tell visitors about the history of the island. However whether due to the remoteness, the harsh dry conditions or difficult seas around the island we will never know, but Aride fortunately never became a full copra plantation unlike many of the other outlying islands. In 1967 it had a stroke of good fortune and a visit from Paul Chernard, a local Seychellois, decided it was too special and should be preserved as a nature reserve. From this time the removal of the coconuts began and the natural forest was allowed to regenerate and this has continued to present day.

The coconut palms are now just restricted to the beach crest where they would have occurred naturally and they are an excellent local food for the island. Coconut curry must be the staple diet of Aride Islanders, as we harvest the nuts and crack them open to obtain the coconut inside. This we shred out of the shells using a specially designed stool with a serrated blade on the end. The coconut is then combined with water to make coconut milk which is the staple ingredient for many dishes, both sweet and savoury. One of the local Seychellois rangers favourite is a pudding called ‘La Dobe’, which is coconut milk and a root from a marsh plant here on the island – coco yam – about which, together with all the other natural foods, I will tell you about next time...

Where do we get our water from?

2008-02-09T01:59:00.000-08:00

Hi Classes 1 and 2, it sometimes seems funny that we are living on an island surrounded by water but we need to think about where we get our water for living from. Of course we are surrounded by the sea which is salt water and no good for drinking or washing. Luckily living on an island in a tropical climate, means it rains a lot more than back in Britain, and this we rely on.

We collect our drinking water off the roof of our house and store it in six big barrels. Before we do this, we need to make sure the roof is clean and all the bird pooh and leaves has been washed off. We can then drink and use this water for cooking, after it has been through a simple filter.

However it doesn’t rain all the time and so we need to make sure that we have stored enough during the two rainy seasons, and that we don’t waste our drinking supplies.

For all washing; ourselves, dishes and clothes, we have a well. The water from the well is slightly salty, which is no good for drinking but ok for washing. The well is 5metres deep and we use a bucket on a piece of rope to reach the water. The rope has knots in it so that we can grip it well and pull the bucket up when it is full and heavy. This water we then carry to our house in our own buckets, where we use it, we haven’t got a shower, sink or washing machine, so everything is washed by hand.

Not having a permanent supply of water or running water out of a tap and having too carry it from a well, really makes us think about how much water we use and encourages us to economical with every drop. This is important when living on an island to ensure that we don’t run out before it rains again.

A tour round our plantation bungalow

2008-02-01T04:02:00.000-08:00

Located just off the beach crest, our plantation bungalow doesn’t have many similarities to anything we have lived in the UK, but is well suited for here and this hot climate. Originally built in the 1930’s to house people that worked on Aride when it was a coconut plantation. They are made of granite from the island, combined with cement, on top of a concrete plinth with tin roofs. The concrete plinth helps to raise the rooms up to stop some of the wildlife (and may be water) coming in. There are limited mod cons, with electric from a generator, but no running water or toilet.

The kitchen has a gas cooker and electric fridge, (the latter is essential in this hot climate), but no sink or drainer and the cupboards are basic, but built to keep the mice out. We have a few shelves for storage, but only for items that can’t be broken into by mice, birds, lizards, ants and crabs.

Off the kitchen there are two verandas, one for washing up and storing drinking water, the other is our main living space, where we eat and relax in the evenings.

Behind the kitchen there is a large room which is our personal office and storage room for tools, snorkelling kit, fishing gear and all other possessions. There are no windows in this room, so we have decorated it in bright white, to help us see with the dim lights here in the evening.

The bedroom is just big enough for a bed and one cupboard and chest of drawers. The bed has to be in the middle of the room so that we don’t get wet through the leaky roof when we have a tropical storm.

We try to keep all our clothes hung, why do you think we do that?
Please excuse the pink sheets – they were all we could find here – but they do brighten up the room!

The legs of the table we eat off and of our bed are all stood in tubs of water – why do you think this is??

Around the bed there is a large net, do you know what this is for?

In this picture, there is also a coconut shell with a coil on top which you light, what do you think this does?

Then there is the bathroom, well this is a bit of a grand name for a room with a whole in the wall to take dirty water! As we don’t have running water there isn’t a bath, shower or sink and definitely no toilet. To shower we fill a bucket from the well and pour it over or heads, often adding a kettle full of warm water first, as it can be a bit chilly.

Class 4 imagined that they were Sally or Melv and wrote entries for their diaries. Here are some extracts from the diaries:

2008-01-27T21:01:00.000-08:00

Sally

This evening we went to Praslin to go shopping. There is no chocolate and no crisps. I am finding it hard to adjust, but I know the longer I stay here I will get used to it and I must because this is a once in a lifetime trip and I can’t forget a moment of this two year experience. India*

PS. Today it was a staggering 30 degrees and I couldn’t go anywhere without my giant, floppy sunhat. In my opinion, I think I don’t look stunning. Jade*

I quite miss having chocolate or a bag of crisps because the shops don’t have them either. I suppose it means I’m healthier but still, I’m a big fan of chocolate! Abigail*

We do like our home because all the animals live with us and we have company everywhere we go. Gemma*

I went to bed because I was tired but I couldn’t get to sleep because of the waves and also I think because there are tons of spiders. It’s not just me who’s sleeping in my room! Rebecca*

When we wake up in the morning, we can hear all of the different kinds of bird gently singing in the breeze but at night most of the time some of the creepy crawlies come in our room an scare me out of my pyjamas!! It’s really scary. Katie*

Melv
Today I went fishing. I caught a whopper. I can’t describe it. We fish with a cane. There are no fishing rods here. Connor*

It looks nothing like Somerset. It is very hot. You could fry an egg on the floor. Luke M*

I love it here despite the heat. I am going to take a walk in the forest son because there is plenty of shade and space. Anyway, I love this place and I’m trying to have as much fun as possible because this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. I’ve always wanted to come to an island like this and here I am now. Ben I*

Life here is a breeze. The sun heals my worries and refreshes my mind. Hayden*

Everyday I think I’m back in the rainy England but then I open the door and the sun’s rays beat against my face and then it hits me, I’m in the SUNNY SEYCHELLES.

Hi to Class 1 & 2 of Meare School from the Seychelles

2008-01-26T01:00:00.000-08:00

The Seychelles are over 7,000 miles away and it is a country made up of 115 small islands. Melvyn and I came over to work here last December swapping our nature reserves in Somerset for a nature reserve called Aride Island. Aride is an island which is smaller than the village of Meare, with only eight people living on it, Melvyn and me, two volunteers and 4 local rangers.

Our job here is to look after the island and its wildlife, the wildlife is very special and is some of the rarest in the world. There are birds, turtles, lizards, crabs, fish, snakes and spiders, all living on and around Aride.

For us, living on Aride island can be quite hard work, there is no electricity or running water and of course no shops. We carry our water from a well and have a generator for electricity. We don’t have cars or bicycles as there are no roads and we go shopping once a week in a boat, as long as the sea is not too rough.

We live in a house, which we share with some of the wildlife like lizards and crabs, it is next to the beach and we can hear the waves when we go to sleep, there is a garden where we grow our food and we catch fish from the sea.

Hi Class 4,

2008-01-16T03:50:00.000-08:00

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...

Some thoughts from Class 4 - How will life on the tropical island of Aride be different for Sally & Melvyn?

2007-11-13T12:30:00.000-08:00

It will be a lot healthier:

No junk food
No chocolate or sweets
Healthy diet, with a lot of fish and fruit to eat
To be at one with nature and see lots of wildlife
Live next to the sea and be able to go swimming

It will be more sustainable, but life will be harder:

No electric – so no television
No running water and no showers
Living in a wooden hut with no proper house
Nature coming into the hut
Not having normal luxuries, like an English cup of tea
Have to make camp fires to cook food
No shops on the island

What might the problems be?

Keeping in touch with family and friends could be difficult
Big spiders and biting insects
Poisonous plants
Hard work
Have to make your own entertainment, so might get bored
Catching enough fish and growing enough vegetables to eat
Getting sun burnt
Not having fresh, running water
No normal morning and afternoon routines
Smelly toilets

Would the children swop places – how might they feel?

Would be sad to leave family, friends and pets, may feel homesick
Lonely as not many people on the island
Excited, happy, nervous and worried
Would enjoy the warm weather
Would miss chocolate, junk food and television
Would feel out of touch, without television & news papers

So where is Aride and why is it so special?

2007-11-02T12:58:00.000-07:00

The Seychelles’ islands of which there are 115, were created many millennia ago, when India broke away from Africa somewhere close to Madagascar, and drifted across the Indian Ocean, leaving the granite fragments of the Seychelles in its wake.

Aride is the northernmost island of the granitic Seychelles, roughly 68hectares in area, approximately 1.6km long by 0.6km wide. However despite its small size, it is home to one of the most important seabirds populations in the Indian Ocean. It is the finest nature reserve of the granitic Seychelles and a conservationists’ paradise. Eighteen species of native birds (including five only found in Seychelles) breed on Aride, this is far more than on any other granitic island.

The island is leased and managed as a nature reserve by the Island conservation Society (ICS) of Seychelles, but owned by the Royal Society of wildlife Trusts, a UK based charity since 1973. The whole island is been protected by Seychelles law as a nature reserve. Nature is the top priority, and the only human inhabitants are the reserve’s staff, currently four Seychellois rangers and two island wardens.

The Wildlife
Over 1.25 million seabirds regularly breed on Aride, including the world’s largest colony of lesser noddies, the worlds only hilltop colony of sooty terns and the Indian Oceans largest colony of roseate terns. The island hosts the world’s largest colony of Audubon’s shearwaters and what is thought to be the world’s largest colony of white-tailed tropic birds. There are also very large breeding numbers of brown noddies, fairy terns, wedge-tailed shearwaters and a few pairs of red-tailed tropic birds.

There has been several successful translocations of endangered or restricted-range endemic bird species onto Aride, these include the Seychelles warbler, Seychelles fody and the Seychelles magpie robin. The Seychelles blue pigeon and the Seychelles sunbird have re-colonised Aride naturally.

Aride has the world’s highest density of lizards, with other reptiles such as skinks, geckos and harmless snakes. Two species of marine turtles regularly nest on the beaches, the green and hawksbill turtles.

The reserve boundary includes 200m of surrounding seas, including a beautiful coral reef, with over 450 species of fish, from whale sharks to flying fish!!

From Somerset to the Seychelles

2007-10-31T12:05:00.000-07:00

Two Somerset conservationists have hatched a plan to ‘twin’ a county school with one in the Seychelles.

After looking after the RSPB’s Ham Wall nature reserve, near Glastonbury, Site Manager Sally Mills and Melvyn Yeandle, who has been the Assistant Site Manager at Natural England's Shapwick Heath reserve, have decided to swap the wetlands of the Avalon Marshes for life in the Indian Ocean and want to share their experiences with schoolchildren in both locations.

Although they are moving thousands of miles, Melvyn & Sally’s new job is also managing a nature reserve but a rather different one from Ham Wall or Shapwick Heath of the Somerset Levels.

Their new home and place of work will be the island nature reserve of Aride, a 70-hectare site and one of the most important islands in the area for wildlife. Only the nature reserve staff live there, a maximum of eight people, but neighbouring Praslin – 30 minutes away by boat – is inhabited and has a population of around 6,500.

Sally said: “We are going to be experiencing a huge change in our lifestyle by moving to the Seychelles and even though we have the tropical weather to look forward to we’ll be facing challenging conditions like having no running water and little electricity.

“As well as managing the nature reserve and dealing with issues such as poaching of birds and their eggs, we’ll be working with local communities to raise awareness of conservation issues and overseeing improvements to facilities on the island.

“We thought it would be both interesting for children in both locations to learn about each others lives and also to find out about nature conservation in different settings and for very different wildlife.”

Sally has worked with Meare Village Primary School on many occasions during her time at Ham Wall and plans to keep in touch with them – and put them in touch with schoolchildren from Praslin – using the internet.

“I’ve already been to talk to the kids about my new job a couple of times to tell them about what We’ll be doing on the Seychelles and topics like needing to grow or catch our own food.

“We’ve also talked about also how they might feel if they were in my shoes, but we didn’t share the same concerns about no television or chocolate! They did identify very closely with our own feelings on the journey ahead though – very excited, a little scared, but about to undertake an opportunity of a lifetime.”