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World Tour
Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Svalbard
 For the first three months that I was in the Philippines for I joined a marine and rainforest conservation project. The first site
was on the island of Negros in a little village called Hinoba-an. Hinoba-an is a small fishing village on the southern coast
of Negros Occidental. A relaxing little place, friendly people and a great coastline. Our task here was surveying the state of the coral reefs in the region and
after an intensive week and a half of studying we joined the rest of the survey team, diving twice a day to survey the reefs.
 After five weeks of diving and surveys on the coral reefs I moved to the rainforest site on the same island. Up in the montane forests
it was much colder than the tropical heat of the coast. The research which we did here included; pitfall traps (for insects), butterfly trapping, tree
identifying, fruit and flowering, mist-netting (for birds). Apart from the usual threats of a tropical country, there were the dreaded leeches
that sucked any unsuspecting person dry, or the odd terrorist that decides to visit our village in the forest (dressed in old fatigues, semi-automatic
rifle and flip-flops!). There was much to be desired in the food, our only culinary saviour was the different sauces on offer and bread, allowing ourselves to drown the food
with a variety of flavours to make something edible.
 I was in the jungle for four weeks before I left for the third project site on the little island of Cagdanao
in Palawan. 2hr tryke journey, 1hr taxi, 2hr hovercraft, 1hr flight, 6hr bus, 3hr boat journey (over a few days) later I arrived on the desert island
of Cagdanao. Four weeks of surveying followed, including a three-day break to the little beauty of a town El Nido. Beautiful beach, beautiful sea, great diving from
our little island.
 Soon it was time to leave the Philippines and continue my journey to Austrlasia. I spent six weeks in Australia, working my way along the east coast from Sydney to Cairns
before cutting across to Alice Springs and then straight up into the tropics of the Northern Territory. Four weeks in New Zealand followed with highlights including, swimming with dolphins, diving the Rainbow Warrior and the beauty of Milford Sound.
 I arrived back in the UK after seven months, three weeks short of my departure for an Arctic Expedition to Svalbard. This left me with just enough time for some intensive training to get my body fit for the four weeks in the Arctic.
The expedition was with the youth development charity, British Schools Exploring Society and involved time spent between exploration and field research. I was involved in glacial melt-water research in the Ebdallum valley. During this expedition I had also been approached by
BBC Radio 4 to record a programme for a gap year series, broadcast on September 10th 2001. Listen here
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