WHAT TO PACK – LUCAS – RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT INTERN

What’s your best travel experience?

A very difficult question to answer, but I think it would have to be diving just off the Kenyan coast whilst completing my marine conservation internship. I must have been very naive to think that Kenya only had vast savannahs to offer, but the coral reefs and coastal waters are thriving with life.

Having made friends with the village comedian/drunk, he told me that, to my surprise, he ran a dive centre just opposite our camp on Wasini Island. Wondering how he managed to run this sort of operation whilst nursing a hangover and without drowning, I thought I’d best do my PADI advanced open water with him.

The first dive happened to be the deepest, at a popular site known as Nuli Reef. I was surprisingly relaxed and somehow felt safe diving with such a large person, even if it was mostly his Guinness-feed beer belly. This was until we reached the seabed at just under 40 metres and he tapped my shoulder to attract my attention towards the group of White Tipped Reef Sharks that were just metres in front of our faces.

Thankfully the sharks were fairly disinterested in me and my colossal dive partner, bolting into the deep only moments after we spotted them, but it still managed to get my heart racing.

What did you take?

Far too much unnecessary kit. Knowing that I was going to be surveying forests, diving and climbing Kilimanjaro, I needed to pack clothes for all weather conditions. My essential bits of luggage were definitely my Brasher walking boots, Arcteryx Gore-tex jacket and headtorch, as Wasini Island doesn’t have any running water or electricity.

What did you wish you had taken?

I wish I packed lighter, as I found myself living in the same two pairs of boardshorts for almost the entire seven months. A mosquito net for my hammock would have also been very useful and possibly saved some embarrassment from wearing a head net that tightened around my neck.

Which frontier project would you like to visit?

The Madagascar marine conservation and diving project looks fantastic. Madagascar is somewhere I am set on travelling to, mainly because the majority of the island’s plant and animal species are endemic and it’s widely recognised as a biodiversity hotspot.

What would you take there?

Obviously my hammock would have to be packed and I think I’d probably think about buying a decent SLR camera to capture all the fun.

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