An adventurous spirit.
The month of October was incredibly adventurous! It all started with camping on Tordigliano beach. You can find it on Amalfi coast next to Positano. We got to the beach by kayak, spent the night and enjoyed some light fire and wine. We stayed there the next whole day just bathing and sunbathing. At the end of the day we returned to Nerano by kayak. Together it was 20 km forward and back! As the end of the project approaches, we decided to have a team building day. We went on a diving adventure! We dived in our favorite place, the place where we spent the whole summer, Ieranto bay. Discovering the undersea and biodiversity of this amazing marine protected area. After Ieranto we headed towards Vervece, a small rock located in the red zone of MPA Punta campanella where only exploration and research is allowed with a permit. There we saw various marine species! Since we worked very hard for a couple of months, our dear project coordinator, Mimi, gave us 10 days of vacation that we could use as we wanted! Of course I didn’t want to go home. I wanted to see more and take more advantage of what the south of Italy has to offer. After long thinking about where to go and what to see, I decided to go on another two-day kayaking trip! We started from marina del cantone in Nerano towards Ieranto bay. It was my big wish to sleep there, so I did! Enjoying the view of the endless sky full of stars and bathing in the dark water. But by moving and swimming, we managed to see the Bioluminescence! An incredible experience. Bioluminescence is a glow in living organisms that, through the process of changing matter, produce energy, which is almost completely converted into light. The single-celled luminous flagella Noctiluca scintillans is responsible for this shimmering in warm seas, including in our Adriatic. A couple of us enjoyed the beach with a glass of wine and the sounds of mermaids (according to legend they can be heard at night😁). We woke up at 6 o’clock in the morning, and by 7:30 we were already in the water heading towards Capri. Around 10 o’clock we stopped at the sandy beach and had lunch. At 12 we were ready to enter every cave of this famous island! Late at night we returned home and slept all day the next day, but there was not much time to rest! The next morning we were on the ferry to the island of Ischia. The four of us spent 3 days and three nights in Ischia. The island is beautiful. The first day we visited baia di Sorgeto, a small beach with a natural spring of hot water, even up to 90 degrees! The second day was a day to rest and we visited the famous spa center and simply enjoyed ourselves! The third day we reserved for small excursions, and we visited the Aragonese castle and the highest peak of Ischia, Monte Epomeo. It’s an understatement to say that we returned home happy and satisfied.
In addition to the adventures themselves, we did various workshops and presentations, of which my favorite were the one for UniMare, an organization that cooperates with high schools in Germany, with students from 16 to 18 years old. The main goal is to introduce the basics of marine biology and snorkeling. My second favorite workshop was the presentation of our project for ESC organizations and young people from Balkan! This time I could speak in Croatian! We had two hours to present ourselves, in the first hour we presented our work throughout the summer, and we used the second hour to demonstrate in practice the games we played with the children. We even set up a table with food from each country we come from! I made bread with truffles, which are the most famous mushrooms in Istria. It was great and everyone had fun!
Currently, we are waiting for the dolphin watching course to start. This week we should learn to identify the most famous species in the Mediterranean and then we are ready to go on a boat and do monitoring! I’m excited. See you in a month with a dolphin story!
