Joined
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103 Posts
Hey All,
Hope this qualifies as a trip report.
I Think I need to introduce myself again. I joined YD back in March 02, made some good friends and got some great advise. I think there was around 40 or so members back then - Well what a success story this site has become and long may it grow.
I left the UK around 3 yrs ago as a relatively newbie instructor to become the expedition leader on Andros island for a conservation group called Greenforce. So I rented out my apartment in York signed a 1yr contract and off I went on the adventure (others called it a mid-life crisis)of a lifetime. On arrival at the camp I was horrified by how I was going to live for a year - in a tent on a beach! me!. After a few weeks I had adapted to my new surroundings and realized how nice it was to be out of the rat race, being back to basic wasn't that bad and the view was amazing! the diving wasn't bad either. The only thing I missed was an Internet connection - how sad?.
I left Greenforce after my year contract was up - I learnt so much about marine life and conservation from the various scientists I worked with in that year and also a lot about myself, met my beautiful fiance Jade, it was definitely life changing for me. I didn't turn into a tree hugger, but have a lot more respect for our planet.
Jade and I then went to work on a private island resort just a few miles away called Kamalame Cay to set up a dive facility for them. This meant we could actually earn some badly needed cash. Kamalame is a beautiful island and very expensive. We went from living in a tent to a $1000 per night suite and couldn't believe our luck. We set up the dive facility and stayed for a year. Although the place was paradise the fact that we were isolated on a island where everything was cosmetically pleasing became too much - we needed a reality check.
Last November we secured a deal to set up another facility about 40 miles south called Coral Caverns dive resort. We are still here and love it to bits. The diving is awesome and we have found 20+ sites that are world class. Being the first year it has been a little quiet, but has given us chance to get out and explore the reef. We are lucky as this area of Andros hasn't been dived so it is really exciting stuff. We also had Mark Davies and Tim Ingmire pay us a visit, I learnt more in 5 min with Tim about photography than a year thinking "well how hard can it be?"
I have now started to slowly explore the blue holes here - Andros has 170 of them - I dived one last week. It is called Stalactite blue hole and requires a 2 hour trek through the bush, but its so worth it - huge stalactites drop from the ceiling from around 10mtr down to 30mtrs meeting a underwater beach with land crabs running around - totally bizarre.
If things keep getting better in Andros I can't see a return to the UK happening in the too near future.
I will post a few photos from the last 3yrs if anyone's interested. The ones after Tim's visit are a definite improvement.
So that's what Ive been up - It was a huge decision for me to leave the UK, but thankfully one of my better ones.
Cheers Paul.
Hope this qualifies as a trip report.
I Think I need to introduce myself again. I joined YD back in March 02, made some good friends and got some great advise. I think there was around 40 or so members back then - Well what a success story this site has become and long may it grow.
I left the UK around 3 yrs ago as a relatively newbie instructor to become the expedition leader on Andros island for a conservation group called Greenforce. So I rented out my apartment in York signed a 1yr contract and off I went on the adventure (others called it a mid-life crisis)of a lifetime. On arrival at the camp I was horrified by how I was going to live for a year - in a tent on a beach! me!. After a few weeks I had adapted to my new surroundings and realized how nice it was to be out of the rat race, being back to basic wasn't that bad and the view was amazing! the diving wasn't bad either. The only thing I missed was an Internet connection - how sad?.
I left Greenforce after my year contract was up - I learnt so much about marine life and conservation from the various scientists I worked with in that year and also a lot about myself, met my beautiful fiance Jade, it was definitely life changing for me. I didn't turn into a tree hugger, but have a lot more respect for our planet.
Jade and I then went to work on a private island resort just a few miles away called Kamalame Cay to set up a dive facility for them. This meant we could actually earn some badly needed cash. Kamalame is a beautiful island and very expensive. We went from living in a tent to a $1000 per night suite and couldn't believe our luck. We set up the dive facility and stayed for a year. Although the place was paradise the fact that we were isolated on a island where everything was cosmetically pleasing became too much - we needed a reality check.
Last November we secured a deal to set up another facility about 40 miles south called Coral Caverns dive resort. We are still here and love it to bits. The diving is awesome and we have found 20+ sites that are world class. Being the first year it has been a little quiet, but has given us chance to get out and explore the reef. We are lucky as this area of Andros hasn't been dived so it is really exciting stuff. We also had Mark Davies and Tim Ingmire pay us a visit, I learnt more in 5 min with Tim about photography than a year thinking "well how hard can it be?"
I have now started to slowly explore the blue holes here - Andros has 170 of them - I dived one last week. It is called Stalactite blue hole and requires a 2 hour trek through the bush, but its so worth it - huge stalactites drop from the ceiling from around 10mtr down to 30mtrs meeting a underwater beach with land crabs running around - totally bizarre.
If things keep getting better in Andros I can't see a return to the UK happening in the too near future.
I will post a few photos from the last 3yrs if anyone's interested. The ones after Tim's visit are a definite improvement.
So that's what Ive been up - It was a huge decision for me to leave the UK, but thankfully one of my better ones.
Cheers Paul.
