Phase 2 - News from the Groups

After the first week in their new Alpha groups, everyone is settling into their projects and thoroughly enjoying themselves!

In the community - Alpha 1 have finally managed to get work started up at the water source, after a rather frustrating week of lots of rain! They are currently damming the water source, and moving lots of stones and netting. Alpha 2 are continuing their work on the reed beds and internal structure of the eco-camp, and are still spotting lots of wildlife and birds along the river on their boat journey to the work site every morning.

On the environmental Sites - Alpha 3 have reached the BBC camp up at Imbak and settled in nicely – rather worryingly though their first big group conversation was a 1 hour debate on what the hose in the toilet was used for – thanks for that Ishen, and I’m not sure we want to know what the outcome was! Jo expertly created a pumpkin from a petrol – newshound, artiste, is there no end to this girls talents! They are having a brilliant time, and working hard moving and stripping the tar off the steel cable for the bridge. Alpha 4 are continuing their trail maintenance this week, and making repairs to the boardwalk at Mengaris Camp. They have also been out and about and have tracked red leaf monkeys, gibbons and orang-utans – we did check and they were tracking Danum primates and not just following their PM’s! They are in full preparation for the arrival of the loop next week and have a big party organised – the loop are now very excited about travelling the width of Sabah to see them!

Out on the Adventure Phase - The news from Long Pa Sia and Alpha 5 is that they are sweating, walking, complaining about sweating and complaining about walking – trekkers!! There have been reports coming back to field base of a rather nasty smell coming from the jungle – but Alpha 5 have confirmed that it is nothing to worry about and it is just their socks! Alpha 6 are thoroughly enjoying life on the island despite all the rain they have had this week, and Veronica reports that they have fixed the communal basher and are now enjoying a good nights sleep. They have all passed their Open Water or Advanced dicing exams and despite being separated into the 2 groups managed to communicate with a special underwater hand signal that brings the group back together – aww, bless! They are enjoying their last couple of days on the island before moving onto trekking on Monday.