Best laid schemes o' mice an' men

Well the trip to Round Island didn't go to plan. A summary of that week goes as follows:

Tuesday Quarantine procedure, which mostly involves washing fruit and picking seeds out of velcro fastenings.

Wednesday Go to the north of the island, pack everything onto the Coast Guard boat and make the trip to Round Island, approximately 90 minutes in some very choppy water. On arrival, find that the swell is extremely close together and that getting onto the island is impossible. After some exciting attempts to give the people on the island already some barrels of food so they didn't have to go on rations, return back across the choppy sea to from whence you came.

Thursday Sit around the house, collect parcel (yay!), write previous blog post.

Friday Go up to the north of Mauritius again, find that the Coast Guard is taking some government officials to Flat Island before you so you all need to wait a bit while they do that. Wait 2 hours and they return to say that it's still too rough. Trip cancelled. Consilatory roti is eaten by the roadside.

"Not going to Round Island" meant that other opportunities became available.

The MWF bods had planned a trip to Ile aux Cerfs on the east coast, a beautiful sandy island, place of honeymooners and idyllic tranquility. Well, until we arrived, went around on speed boats then had a drunken BBQ. At only 4pm we were back on the minibus, singing shouty a-capella for the full hour it took to get home.

That poor taxi driver. I'm sure he lost the will to live at some point whilst we (fourteen people) were shouting "Bohemian Rhapsody" at full volume into his ear trumpets.

So instead, there was also Pigeon Wood.

I was very keen to go to Pigeon Wood instead of being left to kick around the house all week, I embarked eagerly on the early mornings and woodland walks that come with a trip to this particular field station. Now, I personally think that the name of this place is a bit misleading. It might imply that you'll see some Pink Pigeons, in a wood. I didn't see any pigeons in said wood. I did see a lot of pigeons at the feeding station, sitting around in the grass, or in a tree huddling from the rain next to the house. They are mildly stupid and for that reason, quite fun. In the sun they sit with one wing up in the air to dry it out. The week consisted of counting pigeons (important work, and no that's not sarcasm), dissecting a single mongoose, setting a lot of live traps, and stomping around in mud. Thankfully I didn't lose my welly and put a sock in the mud, as we all know how disheartening it is when that happens.

This week: I have an exam. So not too much excitement.

To quote Garreth, I'll be "turning a gallon of coffee into a gallon of piss". So more on that later, chums.