Volun­teering Seychelles North Island – Tanja

Profile

Name: Tanja

Age: 46

Project: Species conservation in the Seychelles

Location: North Island/Seychelles

Duration: End of August until end of September 2019 – 4 Weeks

Rating

Support from the Natucate-Team:

Arrival:

Project patner:

Accommodation:

Volunteering in the Seychelles – Feedback: Seven questions for Tanja

1) Could you give us a brief overview of your activities in the project?
Every day we collected garbage and data about the Green Sea Turtle on the beaches (are there any traces? How wide were they? Did the turtle lay eggs? etc.).
If the turtle nests were endangered, we relocated them together with an employee of the island.
Depending on the weather, we removed young coconut trees (as the island is being renatured), re-potted or planted young trees in the nursery, tracked the behaviour of tortoises or photographed fish while snorkelling.
In addition, the garbage data were entered into a worldwide database each day and the fish found were catalogued once a week.

2) What were the biggest challenges for you during the project?
For me, there were actually no challenges because I had no concrete expectations.

3) Was there something you liked most? Or something you remember particularly negatively?
The landscape on the island is simply fantastic and watching the sunrise and sunset was one of my favourite things to do. If you are lucky, you might witness the hatching of baby turtles – this is very touching.
The only negative thing was that mosquito repellent needed to be used permanently and that it is very warm in the house at night because there is no air conditioning in the rooms and the fans are too loud to sleep. But you get used to both.

4) Did you have certain expectations before you travelled to the project?
Before departing to the Seychelles I didn’t have concrete expectations.

5) Have you done anything in your free time that you can recommend to future participants?
I often read in my hammock or just looked at the sea at Staff Beach. We went to the West Beach for dinner because there you can see the sunset. We also hiked in the "mountains" and enjoyed the view of the island and the sea. You can also play billiards in the bistro; there is also a beach volleyball court.

6) What recommendations would you give to other participants?
I was very happy that I had packed my hammock. You really need much less clothes than you think, because even in the evening it is not cold. We would have liked to have played cards in the evening, but unfortunately we didn't have any.

7) Can you estimate how many additional costs you had on site?
I only spent 40€ in 4 weeks.