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Last Day

Posted By John Murray on 24 Nov 2011
Well, today is the last day of my time at Croc Bank. Looking back over the past 9 weeks it is impossible to pick out a favourite moment. So I've picked out a few to reminisce over.The only venomous snake kept in Croc Bank is the Albino Cobra. Due to his weak immune system he is kept off-exhibit in a (sterile as possible) box. He also has a variety of lights above the box which are turned on and off, as normal sunlight would burn him.

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Rock Pythons & Croc Emergencies

Posted By John Murray on 15 Nov 2011
The rainy spell we have been having at Croc Bank has stopped... for now. The weather is back to the usual sweltering midday sun with the evenings and mornings being bearable. Most of my time at the moment seems to have been spent baking sand. Now that all the wood is dry once again all the old sand from the nursery bath tubs and terrariums has to be removed and heated over a fire to sterilize it.One such terrarium is used to house a young Indian Rock Python in the Young Reptiles Exhibit everyday.

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Mt. Meru, Kilimanjaro & The Serengeti

Posted By Ishan Hill on 14 Nov 2011
So the last couple of weeks have been pretty incredible. First, during the week of the 10th, I climbed Mt. Meru. Not only did I climb the mountain, I climbed the whole mountain totally barefoot. The first two days, we had absolutely amazing weather. Then we awoke at 2 in the morning to summit, it was raining. We waited a couple hours in case the rain decided to let up. It didn’t. For the 20 minutes I wore my hiking boots, but then I decided that I really, really wanted to be the first person to climb Mt.

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On to Chennai

Posted By Izsy Cameron on 04 Nov 2011
We arrived in Chennai late at night and we were taken to our lovely home stay; the home of Tilaka. After catching up on some much needed sleep we met with Maria; the principal of the school we were volunteering at. She explained that the government had decided to not open schools in Tamil Nadu until the 15th June. However this meant that we got two weeks of working in two different children's hostels.Our first day of volunteering was spent in a hostel close to our home stay.

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Catching Crocs

Posted By John Murray on 31 Oct 2011
The major highlight of this week was on Friday, when Croc Bank caught and crated some crocodilians to be sent to a zoo in the Czech Republic. The crocodilians in question were juvenile gharials, juvenile morelet's, muggers and two full grown gharials. I got up early at six o'clock but even then the young gharials and the muggers had already been caught. I was able to help pin down the morelet's whilst they were tagged however.

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Rainy Season

Posted By John Murray on 27 Oct 2011
Well, the rainy season has arrived in Tamil Nadu. I had always thought that the whole of India had the monsoon earlier in the year but I should have delved into the matter a little deeper. I was told by a resident that it tends to be rainy from now until the middle of December. The upside of this is that the temperature has dropped from a sweltering 32C during the day to a balmy 26C. However it does mean that I have to sprint from building to building to try and get wet as little as possible.

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Three Weeks In, Happy Diwali!

Posted By Pontus Bergmark on 26 Oct 2011
My third week here in India, and I’m starting to get used to things not being quite as they are at home. The sometimes crazy traffic, the cows in the middle of the road and the stray-dogs barking at night are now feel as commonplace as snow in Sweden, so to speak. This weekend I went with Will and his dad who was visiting (and was not used to the constant traffic-horns at night) to the Lalbagh botanical gardens. It was really a nice change from the hustle bustle of Bangalore - a quiet sanctuary surrounded by the fast-growing city.

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My First Week in India

Posted By Pontus Bergmark on 19 Oct 2011
My first week in India! What can I say? It’s definitely a big change from Sweden, but I guess that’s the point of my coming here – to experience something completely different! My host-family, consisting of Ammini (wife) and Ram (husband) is really great, and provided me with a very warm welcome. Ammini makes great, delicious food and she never let’s me go hungry, while Ram is a big talker that can entertain you with stories (about the most varied subjects) for hours on end…!On Monday the local GapGuru-coordinator Hema and her husband took me to meet the editor of the newspaper I’d be interning at.

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The Last Two Weeks

Posted By John Murray on 14 Oct 2011
I am now well settled into my daily routine here. Before breakfast I help to clean out the baby reptiles. After breakfast there are usually some general tasks to be carried out. Examples include, baking sand for the terrariums, cleaning out some of the larger enclosures and cleaning algae off the turtles. I then take a quick lunch before patrolling the park for an hour whilst the regular staff have lunch. Recently I have started to help with the educational snake talks on the young rock pythons.

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Leaving for India

Posted By Pontus Bergmark on 06 Oct 2011
My time for departure to Bangalore, India is drawing closer and closer. (Too) Early tomorrow morning I fly from Stockholm to Brussels, and onwards to Mumbai and finally to Bangalore to start my journalism internship. I'm slightly terrified and really excited at the same time! While studying up all I can on India and Bangalore to arrive as prepared and ready as I can, I'm starting to realize the best thing to do is to just go with the flow.

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