184 DAHLAK 



actually caught on Dur Ghella during our first exploration 

 of the island, had his nest in a large box full of straw (this 

 he soon got himself out of, and ran around squawking under 

 our feet) . 



Now our new residence was established. The immense, 

 virgin sea lay in front of us and spring was on the way. 



We were on the open sea at Dur Ghella, so we could dig out 

 all our fishing tackle and exercise our fishing skill. There was 

 no dangerous current here, as in the channels of Nocra, to 

 rob us of our nets, and no difiiculties about returning to base. 

 The sea was calm and wide even though infested by sharks. 

 A methodical routine was followed every morning. Reveille 

 at dawn, then Cecco and I took it in turns to search the 

 island for the daily meal for our three birds. Meanwhile at 

 the camp half a can of tinned milk was on the boil. We had 

 a quick bite and while Giorgio, Priscilla and Tesfankièl put 

 the site in order and got ready the various items needed for 

 underwater work, Cecco and I went down to the sea with 

 the boat and threw the nets. Quite often I had to dive under 

 and work patiently at arranging the nets in the sandy corri- 

 dors between the corals (how I loathed having to go in at 

 six in the morning) in order to save them from further 

 tears, the fish and the low tides having wrought havoc with 

 them. With the nets down, we returned to get Giorgio, and 

 then the three of us anchored on the reef and fished with the 

 line for half an hour. An honest catch in that half hour was 

 an average of thirty fish weighing from a quarter to three- 

 quarters of a pound (the most common were small groupers 

 and diagrams). Then we took Giorgio back to land and 

 Cecco and I used all the fish so far caught to bait the 'coffe' 



