India Expedition

Download the Reef Check Reports

Young Explorers Team

• Reuben Foster, 18 yrs, South Africa
• Paridhi Rustogi, 14 yrs, India
• Mark Thompson, 16 yrs, Australia
• Lucie Knor, 16 yrs, Germany
• Manuel Löffler, 19 yrs, Germany
• Valentina Marzola, 15 yrs, Italy
• Florence Beffa, 17 yrs, Switzerland
• Catherine Meyer, 20 yrs, USA
• Elena Kiseleva, 19 yrs, Russia

YEP 4 INDIA Expedition Video Gallery

YEP 4 INDIA EXPEDITION 1

1st of February, Day 1

At 6:50 am the Kingfisher flight with the Young Explorers touched down on the Andaman Islands. The contrast must have been a shock for them, as they had left their daily routine from all corners of the world and entered into the bustling, crowded city of Port Blair. Excitment was in the air as the Young Explorers were transferred by dingy one nautical mile offshore to where Mike Horn and Pangaea awaited them. Wide eyed with incessant chatter, the Young Explorers discovered their new home for the next 17 days.

Cathy finished the fresh produce shopping and Pangaea and her crew lifted anchor. Before midday, with the Indian bureaucracy done, Pangaea was able to hoist her sails and leave the hustle and bustle of Port Blair . They could now head out and experience the beauties of India - an experience that would most certainly be a life changing one!

Soon we were cruising south at 11-12 knots towards the Loha Barrack Crocodile Sanctuary, 40 NM from Port Blair. Coming around the southern corner of the Andaman Islands we sailed into a channel with very strong currents that pushed us along at 14 knots. Up-swelling currents created spectacular glassy circles on the surface of the ocean and wanting to take command. The wind became stronger with gusts of up to 30 knots. Waves splashed over Pangaea’s bow. Our Young Explorers got the first taste of this most amazing sailboat.

Finally Pangaea was alive again and doing what she was built for. At 3pm, Pangaea arrived in a calm bay surrounded by mangrove forest. On the beach stood a man and he was waving to get our attention. Humeed was from ANET (Andaman and Nicobar Environmental Team) and it would be with him that we would spend the rest of the day. The Young Explorers took their first stroll onto the white sand beaches as Humeed explained to them the flora and fauna of the Mangrove ecosystem and the effects of the tsunami which rocked this part of the world in 2004.

It was low tide in the forest so Humeed could identify various plant, insect and crustations that thrive in the region.  Unbeknown to us before but the forest was alive with creepy critters.  As sunset came the youths were able to appreciate the magnificent beauty and colours of the forest – an ideal time for a photo shot.

Along with the sunset, the tiredness crept in. It had been a long day for the Young Explorers who were already exhausted with the jetlag. Nothing could be better than the inflatable mattress laid out on Pangaea’s bow. What a perfect spot for the youths to experience their first night sleeping under the stars!
 

YEP 4 INDIA EXPEDITION 2

2nd of February, Day 2

The Young Explorer’s first evening in the Andaman Islands was spent under the stars on Pangaea’s deck. They all woke up at 8am and what an amazing sight to wake up to! The first thing they saw when they opened their eyes was the mangrove forest, an amazing lush, dense, forest with white sand beaches and clear ocean water. A self help breakfast was on the menu today, with yoghurt, muesli, fresh baked bread and butter, honey, jam, tea and coffee.

At 9:30 am the Young Explorers were taken ashore for a 5 hour trek through the mangrove forest. Umeed our guide, encouraged the group to speak in soft whispers while he pointed out the local residents of spiders, snakes, frogs and lizards. Progress was very slow as our inquisitive explorers stopped to take photos and images during this spectacular tour.

Several hours later the group ended up on the beach. As the path was blocked by the high tide it was decided to stop for a cup of tea and a biscuit.. Later the YEP’s back-tracked and accelerated their pace like a hungry horse returning to its stable, because they knew that lunch would be waiting on their return to the ANET base.

After a ‘full on’ Indian meal Pangaea lifted anchor yet again and sailed for two hours down south.  It was at 4pm when she arrived at the Twin Islands. There was still just enough time go snorkeling and to discover the amazing under water world of the Andaman Islands.

YEP 4 INDIA EXPEDITION 3

3rd of February, Day 3

We woke up anchored next to the south west coast of North Cinque Island. The snorkeling of the previous evening showed that not everyone was really comfortable under water, so we decided to start the day with some basics exercises.

The Young Explorers were taught how to use their flippers correctly, how to swim under water and most importantly,  the art of emptying their snorkel when arriving on the surface of the water. We continued the exercise with some duck dives... which to start off with, was not so easy for everyone. The Young Explorers learnt quickly and after a while they all seemed to be quite relaxed and comfortable in the water.

We then swam and looked at the corals and fish in a picturesque shallow bay. For some of the Young Explorers this was their first experience and discovery of the underwater world.

Back at the boat we set up sails and headed south towards Passage Island, 8Nm from North Cinque Island. We found a nice, sheltered spot to anchor which was close to the Island. The diversity and abundance of the marine life was spectacular and the Young Explorers spent one whole hour in the water, discovering the beauty of this magnificent region.

Everyone came back to the boat for lunch and we then sailed up to North Cinque Island. The north east coast of the island is surrounded with beautiful lagoon blue waters and it wasn't difficult to find a nice sheltered place to anchor. The water was calm and flat - a perfect spot to introduce the 9 Young Explorers to their next test - scuba diving! After a thorough explanation of the entire equipment and an introduction of the basics of diving, we took the excited Young Explorers to very shallow water , simulating a first dive experience in a swimming pool situation. Lesson number 2 - learning how to use the equipment in the water and initiation to breathing techniques. Once that was achieved, they learnt how to control their buoyancy.

Mission accomplished - after 45 minutes they had learnt the basics of scuba diving. They had the ability to stay under water, breath under water and move under water and all felt comfortable and relaxed in this new environment. Back on the boat for a good dinner. We stood anchored next to North Cinque Island for the night in a beautiful and quite place, far from any other civilization.

YEP 4 INDIA EXPEDITION 4

4th of February, day 4

After a good night we were ready to face our second challenge. With our BCD's (Buoyancy Control Device) inflated, we all jumped into the water from Pangaea. A short swim above water allowed us we reached the right spot to start the dive with 5 meters depth. All the Young Explorers felt very comfortable and we could reach 9 meters at the deepest point of our dive. The buddy pairs worked very well. Mike and the team were amazed to see how relaxed and solid our young divers behaved under water, getting rapidly the right attitude. A short briefing back on the boat allowed discussing the few important points on which the Young Explorers will still have to work on.

After this first dive we headed to Rutland Island and reached Portman Bay. An amazing place surrounded by dense wooded forest. Unfortunately, as so often along the shores, lots of debris and garbage were lying around, showing once again the impact of the irresponsible human being on the environment.

Time for our Young Explorers to act! They landed on shore with garbage bags and started to clean the beach full of plastic bottles and other flip-flops, lighters and ropes. Within 30 minutes, 300 meters of the beach were cleaned-up. While the dingy was carrying the trashes back to Pangaea, the Young Explorers swam to the boat. In order to keep all the trashes on the boat in a relative small volume, the Young explorers had to press them. Thanks to a compressor installed on board, three cubes of trashes came out of the 9 garbage bags filled on the shore.

We set sail late in the afternoon to finally drop the anchor next to the Macpherson Strait, just west of Chiriyatapu which is the most southern point of the South Andaman Island. We saw some huts on the shore and local fishermen around. For the dinner: sushi as a starter - thanks to Jacek who caught a beautiful Tuna in the afternoon - following with a fish pie and brownies for desert!

YEP 4 INDIA EXPEDITION 5

5th of February, day 5

Early start this morning! At 5 am the Young Explorers woke up as Pangaea's anchor was lifted up. We left our sheltered place to turn south of Chiriyatapu point before heading north for our next destination, Neill Island. A picturesque island where with stunning white sand beaches and pristine forest. The real work was now going to start for our Young Explorers - their first reef check.

Our YEP's  divided themselves into four teams and studied the fish and coral in the educative booklets onboard Pangaea.  Mark, Manu and Elena decided to count different types of corals, Lucie and Paridhi the sea cucumbers while Florence, Valentina, Catherine and Reuben concentrated on different types of fish.

The spot chosen for this first reef check was around 10 meters deep. The Young Explorers had to concentrate their observation on an area of 30 meters by 4 meters. It was quite quickly done. Unfortunately not many fish were observed and the coral cover was estimated to be 50%. Even if the results were not as impressive as expected, this first reef check became a good underwater exercise for our 9 Young Explorers.

While the Young Explorers were busy diving,  Pangaea's crew decided to throw in a line and lure and see if they could catch some fish for dinner. After a few days with only small catches (or even nothing), Simon got lucky. A huge barracuda caught his line. After a 10 minute fight and realizing the size and strength of this fish the crew decided to go out onto the dingy and haul it in from the sea rather than from the boat.

Simon finally managed to bring it on board the dingy. Nature had been kind. The fish was massive - 120cm long and three very tasty meals. As soon as everyone was back on the boat, we set sail to reach Havelock Island and stopped midway  at "Golug Ma". A very nice, sheltered place with a view on amazing beaches.

Our nine Young Explorers got some free time to relax, play and swim around the boat while Jacek got his flying machine ready to bring on shore. This paramotor will allow the camera crew to take great shots from the air. With daylight quickly diminishing it was decided that the landing would have become hazardous so  Jacek contented himself by doing  a few tests of the motor and the buggy. He inflated the glider two times and all seemed to be working perfectly.

We all went back to the boat for some grilled barracuda cooked on the barbeque by Mike along with some fresh salads prepared by Cathy. The day was not  yet finished - a night dive was still on the program! Once all the underwater torches were distributed, a dive plan and buddy pair confirmed, everyone got into the water and the battle of the fins began! The visibility was quite poor and as the goal was not to spread up the group, everyone was diving one on top of the other. The dive lasted only 20 minutes. We went back to the boat hysterical, the group bursting out on laughter with each new story that was told about who kicked who and where!

After such a long and full day, the Young Explorers quickly got their mattresses ready and fell asleep once again on Pangaea's deck - once again under a beautiful starry sky.

YEP 4 INDIA EXPEDITION 6

6th of February, day 6

We woke up as usual around 7 am! The weather was still very calm in Golug Ma and we saw two local fishing boats passing along side Pangaea. After a hearty breakfast we lifted up the anchor and starting to head on to Laccam Harbour, around 8Nm from our anchorage. Laccam Harbour is the village of entry for Havelock Island and for our Young Explorers it was the opportunity to meet with local people and experience the vegetable market. A great opportunity to restock the fresh produce on the boat.

The first thing we could notice on our arrival at shore were the plastic bottles, plastic bags and other garbage lying and floating around the beach. It seems that everyone dumps his trashes on the shore which results in a disgusting amount of garbage. We couldn’t figure out exactly whether this garbage is removed regularly and shipped to Port Blair or burnt on site but there certainly was no signs of any recycling campaign! What’s more, the local people were not at all concerned about this eyesore on their beautiful beaches and clearly any sustainable development of this village did not seem apparent in the near future!

As usual in Indian villages, we saw lots of dogs and goats walking around. But Havelock Island is also famous for other animals, elephants! Two were standing just in front of the police station, waiting for their masters to go to work. After a few minutes, two guys jumped on the necks of the elephants and left across the village to go into the forest.

A few hundred meters from the police station we saw a primary school. Paridhi, our local interpret, went to speak with the teachers and learnt that three kilometers down the only road going out of the village we could find a bigger college for elder students. We quickly jumped into a bus and grab the opportunity to try and speak with the students and professors about the Pangaea expedition. We were warmly welcomed and within 10 minutes, chairs and tables were ready for us on an improvised stage. Paridhi took the microphone and started to speak in front of 500 curious students. Each of our Young Explorers had to shortly present himself and show on a map where he came from. Paridhi gave them a further introduction about the Pangaea expedition and we tried also to sensitize them to the importance of respecting the environment and tried to introduce the concept of protecting the amazing nature they have around Havelock Island.
Before we left, the younger students were happy to pose for some photos with our Young Explorers. We walked down the road back to the village where we finally found a vegetable shop and where we also tried some local take away food and drink of refreshing coconut milk.

Back on the boat we lifted anchor and set sails to Inglis Island. The wind was blowing a bit stronger than in the morning. We stopped before sunset and just had the time to go on shore by day light.

After a good dinner on the boat, the real adventure would start!! At 8pm our Young Explorers were loaded back onto the dingys and dropped off at the opposite side of the island. From here they would walk across the island and make a night camp somewhere amongst nature at its purest. Mike gave the Young Explorers a thorough briefing about survival in the forest and a crash course on navigation. They left with GPS, a radio and a satellite phone and let the excited youths go. They thought they were alone… but Mike was discretely following them!

After one hour, the Young Explorers hadn’t reached the other side of the island and were moving so slowly that Mike finally decided to show himself and lead the group. A few minutes later, Mike found a nice place to set up camp for the evening. He helped our Young Explorers to set their hammocks and get ready for the night. A gentle wind and the sound of the sea gave a perfect ambiance to the camp.

Mike left the Young Explorers and gave them a meeting point for the following morning for a pick up on the beach. Our Young Explorers will have to wake up and find their way back. Let’s hope they all return unscathed by their jungle experience.

YEP 4 INDIA EXPEDITION 7

7th of February, day 7

Our nine Young Explorers woke up at 6 am after a good and comfortable night in their hammocks. It was time now for our adventurers to trek back through the forest and get back to the meeting point. During day time it was of course much easier to follow the right direction and after two hours walking they reached the beach. Before getting back to Pangaea, they still had to accomplish an important ACT project, a clean-up of the beach! Unfortunately all the beaches we have visited in India are covered in garbage. Trash can be found on the water level along the most deserted islands, clearly showing a sign of disrespect that people  have on the environment..

Once the beach was clean, our Young Explorers came back to Pangaea for a nice breakfast with pancakes, cereals, bread and fruits. We left Inglis Island to head up north following the east coast of the Island. At the northern tip of Inglis Island we had a brief stop on an amazing beach with white sand, clear water and palm trees. Dmitry, our photographer, could take some amazing photos of the nine Young Explorers with Pangaea in the background. We sailed further north to reach Outram Island and entered in the narrow strait in between Outram and Henry Lawrence Island. We anchored just west of the southern tip of Outram in a sheltered spot. Our plan was to go for a beautiful dive and discover some more corals and marine life. Martin went for a short scouting but quickly realized that lots of small jellyfish would make our dive very unpleasant!

As we were already anchored, we decided to take the most of this time to give a quick clean-up on the stern of Pangaea. Some Young Explorers joined the team with brushes and started to scrub the deck and remove the sand. As we wanted to give the opportunity to our Young Explorers to dive once again before the sunset, we lifted anchor and sailed another 4 Nm to reach South Button Island. It's a tiny island surrounded by amazing corals and an impressive variety of fish. We anchored before sunset and could enjoy a 45 minute dive in 5 to 10 meters deep water. Back on the boat for a fish soup prepared by Dmitry and Elena, followed by sushi prepared by Cathy. What a treat!

YEP 4 INDIA EXPEDITION 8

8th of February, day 8

This morning our Young Explorers were on cleaning duty. After one week of activities and living on the boat, it was now in need of a good scrub and tidy up. Pangaea is a big sailing vessel  so when 19 people live on board 24 hours a day, everything gets used intensively! Our Young Explorers had to sort out their bunks in the cabins, clean the inside of the boat and rinse the outside and the deck. At 9:30 we were ready to lift anchor and sail towards the direction of Barren Island, 50 Nm from South Button Island. This meant another four and a half hours on the open ocean. That would give us enough time to hoist the sails and show the basics of sailing to our Young Explorers.

Barren Island is a big volcano in the middle of the ocean. Around the island, the depth reaches 1000 meters!  In 2004, due to the earthquake that produced the tsunami, the volcano woke up and had its last massive eruption. Approaching the volcano, we could distinguish some smoke on the top of the mountain, but everything was still a bit foggy. As soon as we could distinguish the entire island, we observed our first eruption of smoke and ashes. A few minutes later, we could feel the sand on our faces and the deck was covered with a thin layer of black dust.

As we approached the volcano we could distinguish the huge lava field that was created in 2004. Pangaea's anchorage was not easy to find as the water was too deep and the island is surrounded by steep cliffs. After a few minutes, we finally found a small kind of plateau 20 meters deep were we could drop the anchor. As we were quite close from the shore, we decided to run a mooring line at the stern of the boat to a big rock on the shore.This would assure that we would not be blown against the island. As soon as the engines stopped everyone jumped into the water with their snorkels to go and explore the marine life around the volcanic rock island.

What a superb sight! The colors of the fish were highlighted against the black lava background. We could see lots of new young corals growing everywhere. We could also clearly see some very big fish including sharks. Pangaea's crew decided fish would be on the menu for dinner. A competition was open between the fishermen on the dingy with their line and the fishermen in the water. Unfortunately, the nature didn't seem to be ready to give us more than we already had on the boat and our two teams came back with empty hands.

Even without a catch of the day we still ate fish for dinner. It was caught by Simon. We filleted it and cooked it on the barbecue! Tomorrow, we plan to dive with the Young Explorers so they can have a closer look at the coral and enjoy this amazing marine life.

YEP 4 INDIA EXPEDITION 9

9th of February, day 9

As usual, the nine Young Explorers slept on the deck as it is the coolest place for the night on the boat! But tonight surprise! A rain of black sand was awaiting our adventurers. At around 2am in the morning, the volcano had a new eruption. The small light thin ash fell directly onto the boat, covering Pangaea with a black sandy dust. It didn't stop our Young Explorers from sleeping on deck, but a new clean-up was going to be necessary!

At 7 am everyone was on the deck with water pipes and brushes, trying to remove this thin light black sand. It took an hour for all of us to get the boat clean. until the next eruption! After breakfast, our Young Explorers got ready for their first proper exploration dive. Each buddy pair would be accompanied by a team member, but this time, the Young Explorers could decided and manage the dive instead of being lead. Of course, a few basic rules were set up for everyone. Maximum depth, maximum dive time and dive distances from the boat were decided by Mike.

At 9 am everyone was ready to go down and explore the fascinating underwater world next to a live volcano. What impressed us the most was the huge contrast between the colorful fish and corals with the black lava background. As Barren Island is a single mountain in the middle of the Andaman Sea, it was also very impressive to look at the cliffs and to watch this huge long wall disappearing in the darkness of the ocean. This dive was surely the most impressive and most beautiful dive for our Young Explorers!

After 45 minutes being under the water, we came back to the boat and lifted anchor. We set sail to circumnavigate the island and nature offered us a new impressive eruption as a good bye present. With a gentle wind, we sailed back in the direction of Middle Andaman to reach the entrance of Homefray Strait. This strait cuts basically Middle Andaman from South Andaman Island. It is described as navigable in some pilot books but there are no precise and reliable charts. Hence Mike decided to use our two dingys to go and explore this strait. The program was the following: Pangaea would leave us at the entrance of Homefray strait. With one compass, GPS positions and one dingy, our Young Explorers would have to leave Pangaea, find the entrance of Homefray Strait, navigate through it, turn down south to follow the Andaman Strait and finally meet with Pangaea 20 Nm south from the starting point of the adventure. The overall distance of this route was estimated to be 25Nm. A second dingy with Mike and some of the team members would follow and advise the Young Explorers in case of any difficulties.

After a short briefing about equipment and navigation at night, Mike set the departure time of the adventure for 9:30 pm. Most of the navigation was going to be at night, which made the exercise just a bit more interesting! At 10 pm the two dingys left Pangaea and headed to the strait. After a bit of confusion, our nine Young Explorers found the entrance of Homefry Strait. As this area is quite well know to be populated by big saltwater crocodiles, the two dingys spent a bit of time following different channels through the mangroves, hoping to see some of these impressive crocodiles.

We spent about one hour going up and down different channels, through narrow passages in between the mangroves. Looking at these channels in the brightness of our headlamps was amazing. But unfortunately, after one hour without finding any crocodiles, we had to decide to move ahead as the route was still long! Following Homefray Strait was a piece of cake for our Young Explorers, but it was going to be a different story at the end of the strait, when it came to finding the Andaman Strait to continue our journey to the south. Lots of different small islands created confusion amongst our Young Explorers. The night and lack of sleep was only making things more difficult.

All tired, our Young Explorers decided they wanted to stop for a couple of hours sleep before finding the right direction and going further. But a new  problem was soon going to come to light. When our Young Explorers tried to approach the shore, they quickly realized that mangroves are only a big net of roots coming directly out of the water. There is no land available and it's absolutely impossible to walk and find a place in between the trees to set up a camp. After a short discussion, it became clear that they would have to navigate all the night through without stopping at all! It was now primordial to find the right route and the entrance of the Andaman Strait for our Young Explorers....

YEP 4 INDIA EXPEDITION 10

10th of February, day 10

As the decision was taken not to stop to sleep, the Young Explorers had now to find the right channel to continue their journey down to the Andaman Strait. The Young Explorers showed some confusion as to the correct path to take and some areas of very shallow water made the progression very slow. Mike decided finally to help our Young Explorers and show them the right way to follow. The Andaman strait was very calm and a light current helped us to navigate down south.

A last section of the river also confused our Young Explorers and Mike had to show them the way once again. On the Young Explorers 'dingy everyone was very silent and one after the other, they started to nod off to sleep for short periods of time. The most constraining part for everyone was surely the couple of hours just before the sunrise. At 5am we started to distinguish the light of the sun and at 6am we could enjoy an amazing sunrise on a beautiful mangrove forest. A light fog on the river gave a mystic ambiance to the scenery.

We passed a couple of small fishing boats and saw our first village on the shore. Local people seemed to be quite curious, watching us motoring down the river with our two dingys. Just before reaching the end of the Andaman Strait, we saw on the side of the channel a small tunnel inside the mangroves. We decided to go and explore it. It was a nice path through the forest, driving us to an old jetty were we found a local fishing boat. Not a sole was around.

At 8 am we finally reached the exit of the Andaman Strait where the river extended into the ocean. Far on the horizon we could see Pangaea sailing in our direction. The timing was perfect and we met at the planned anchor spot. Our Young Explorers were more than happy to get back on Pangaea. As usual, Cathy had prepared an excellent breakfast that they quickly ate. before sleep overcame them once and for all. It was time now to head back to Port Blair.

On the way we had a quick diving and snorkelling stop. The marine life was quite dense and we saw lots of sea cucumbers. Most of the corals and fish were standing in between 3 and 5 meters which gave us the possibility to stay for 50 minutes under the water. We arrived in Port Blair just for the sunset. A final clean-up and rinsing of the diving equipment took most of our time before having dinner. At 10pm all our Young Explorers were sleeping, as usual on their mattresses on the deck of Pangaea.

YEP 4 INDIA EXPEDITION 11

11th of February, day 11

Awake at 7am this morning, our Young Explorers have had an extremely long night! The programme today was quite relaxed as we were now moored in the harbor of Port Blair. The team started the day with cleaning, not only on the deck but also in the garage, cabins and in the galley. Today was our last day on Pangaea and we had to leave it as clean as we found it!

In the afternoon we went on shore and spent a couple of hours exploring Port Blair, the port of entry for the Andaman Islands. Even If it's a relatively small town, it's very busy and crowded. As often in India, goats and cows are part of the city life and it's not unusual to cross a few of these animals on the road. The taxis and tchuk-tchuk are also part of the traditional images we have from India. The main streets were full of small shops, most of them offering the same products for sale. It's extremely difficult to find any specific articles. Our Young Explorers bought some presents for their families back home and tested the local traditional food. We arrived back on Pangaea at sunset and had a traditional India dinner brought from a local take away shop. We all sat outside to eat and Mike told some stories about his past expeditions.

Everyone listened carefully, in awe of his experiences in adventure and exploration of the world. We finished the evening with videos filmed and edited by our Young Explorers. Our cameraman Moose, had also prepared some amazing images for us, fantastic memories of everything we have done here in the Andaman Islands.

Tomorrow morning we will say 'Goodbye' to Pangaea as we fly to Calcutta. After an amazing 10 days in the prestine nature of the Andaman Islands we will encounter the huge contrast of this bustling city. It saddens us to leave the Andamans but we are also excited to carry on the adventure and discover new horizons.

YEP 4 INDIA EXPEDITION 12

12th of February, day 12

Today, the alarm clock was set up at 5.00am. Everyone was ready, everything was packed and it was time to say Good Bye to the Pangaea crew. For Paridhi, Valentina, Florence, Lucie, Catherine, Elena, Mark, Manu and Reuben, it was quite a special moment to leave Pangaea after the 12 amazing days spent onboard this great sailing vessel.

At the airport we got through all the security checks but not without some administrative challenges! During our stop over in Chennai, we tested some local take away food and enjoyed excellent sweets.

And we finally were ready to fly to our final destination : Calcutta. Everyone was very excited and curious to discover the city and no one was disappointed. What a huge contrast!!

Calcuted is a very chaotic city, dusty and polluted. The day ended with a dinner in a local restaurant where we enjoyed some very spicy Indian food! The Young Explorers went in bed quite early to get some sleep before the next adventure tomorrow.

YEP 4 INDIA EXPEDITION 13

13th of February, day 13

This morning breakfast was at 8.30am. Before heading to the Sunderbans National Park, we quickly went in the city to buy some essential insect repellent !! Once well furnished, we left Calcutta by bus. The 2 hour drive through the Indian country side was an adventure on itself ! What a good real taste of the Indian culture. Rules and regulations don't seem to be followed, our driver slalomed inbetween bicycles, cars, trucks and cows!! Despite the feeling of being in a big chaos, the Indians are finally well organised and accidents never happen.

After this epic trip, we took a boat and reached the entrance of the Sunderbans Tiger reserve to get all the necessary permissions for our visit. This Tiger reserve is the largest in India. Everyone is very excited and hope to have the chance to observe a few tigers soon!

We headed further into the labyrinth of channels and stopped next at an observation tower. We saw 2 deers and monkeys but unfortunately no tigers yet. The day ended with a beautiful sunset on the mangroves forest.

We are spending the night in a lodge and can't wait for tomorrow, hoping to be more lucky and see some tigers!

YEP 4 INDIA EXPEDITION 14

14th of February, day 14

Today we woke up at 8:00 and had a breakfast in our camp before going back on our small boat. We started to navigate down the channel at 9:00. We were all excited to find some animals. and hopefully a tiger. But realistically we all knew that we would be really lucky to see one! The first animals we saw were some monkeys. As usual they were playing around next to the water and were not afraid at all from our boat.

We went further down the channels, trying to spot anything on the shore. Suddenly, we saw a big crocodile laying next to the water. Apparently he was sleeping and we could approach relatively close from it. He finally woke up and disappeared into the water.

During the afternoon, Mike took some time to make some interviews with the Young Explorers and see what were their impressions and memories about the Indian expedition.

At the end of the day, while we were coming back to the main channel that conducted us to the camp, we saw some deers. These animals are very alert and as soon as they heard our boat they run into the mangroves.

We crossed a few local boats in an amazing sunset. We arrived back to our camp by night. Unfortunately, we didn't sea any tigers but in any case it was a great experience to navigate in the Sunderbans and realize how wide this area is, but also how fragile it is.

YEP 4 INDIA EXPEDITION 15

15th of February, day 15

Today's challenge was to return to Calcutta by our own means. Departure Point : Sunderban National Park. It took us 2 hours by bus to come here from Calcutta. How long are we going to take without organized transport?

We first took a boat along the river to reach the first village. We continued on foot to the next village. A few hours later, we rented a few bicycles to carry our heavy bags. We continued by tchuk -tchuk and then on foot again. We finally took a pirogue to cross a river and reach a train station.

People were giving us very questioning looks… they had never seen such adventurers! We reached Calcutta by train and as we were very tired, took a taxi to our hotel. It took us 9 hours to get to  Calcutta but what a great day!! After having discovered the organized chaos on the Indian roads travelling by bus, this challenge was an excellent way to visit the countryside of India.

YEP 4 INDIA EXPEDITION 16

16th of February, day 16

This morning, we visited a special school which welcomes children who have suffered from Leprosy. These children are all cured but need some rehabilitation. This privately run school is giving these underprivileged kids education and some work. Even though Leprosy can be easily cured nowadays, it still has a very bad image in India. We were all very impressed and full of respect for these children who have  suffered from and overcome this disease and now need to struggle to get back to normal life.

In the afternoon, thanks to Mike’s friends, we got tickets for the cricket game India vs South Africa at Eden Gardens, the oldest cricket ground in India! How lucky to have such an opportunity! Cricket is a national sport in India and this game against South Africa was very special for us, having Paridhi supporting her country and Reuben, Mike, Martin and our cameraman Moose supporting South Africa , excitement was very high!!!

Today was already the last day of the Expedition, time goes by so quickly… We spent this last evening having a nice dinner together and discussing with Mike our future projects. The expedition is about to end but our mission to conserve our planet is just starting now!!

Reef Check Reports:

Neill Island Substrate

Neill Island Site Form

Neill Island Transect (Fish and Inverts)