Day 2 – First Day in the field

Before starting are earthworm search we had to drop into the local supermarket and pick up a few essentials…..first aid kits, lunch, sunblock and swimming trunks for Mike – yes they do stock these in Azorian supermarkets !! We then set off in bright sunshine to the north of the island. After stopping at the rim of the extinct volcano and taking the first group photo and picking up a straw hat for me (Pete), personal protective equipment always being the first step in fulfilling health and safety

We proceeded into the crater of the volcano and took a non-tarmac road (more like a farm track) between the two crater lakes. All was quite beautiful with people fishing and the sun shining then we took a turning that lead up a slight incline but the track was cut with large ruts from the heavy rains. Luis navigated it but the Micra just slid into the right hand rut and stopped. We were trapped with the car’s passenger wheel in a huge rut and the bottom of the car totally grounded. Reversing, pushing and even packing under the wheels with sticks availed us nothing except making a smell as if the engine was on fire. We had got the rental car stuck and probably caused significant damage to the passenger side and we were not even at the first sampling site. After about 30 minutes panic was starting to set in when a local turned up who was acting as a driver for a guided tour

(they were in proper 4 wheels drives landcruisers) and he step straight into the car and drove in out in two minutes flat….speaks volume for local knowledge. Even better the car was not damaged…phew how lucky can you get.

We drove on to our first sampling site which was idyllic in so many ways….see the full panoramic photo posted on photosynth (link). So after a quick stop for lunch we tackled our first site. Very quickly we realized that finding worms was not going to be easy. Also we started identifying new parameters that need to be captured, but amazingly in the middle of an extinct Azorian volcano using my laptop tethered to Luis Galaxy using his 3G connection I was able to refine our data collection forms and refresh the data collection tablets….could tech in the field doesn’t get better than this….almost calmed my driving nerves.

And to cap it all we started to harvest worms….not fast at first but enough and even some Amynthas species. We did another three sites in the afternoon each one at a higher altitude and each one with the whether getting worse. The vegetation as we went higher and the rain made it look like a Welsh hill side and believe or not the worms were also the species, lumbricus, that we find at home. Whether as fishermen’s bate or some other means the Islands earthworm ecology was more diverse than any of us had predicted. Tired but excited we drove back through a torrential down pour. We then sat around and pickle our worms…..oh what fun!!

We did take a break to taste some wonderful seafood and thank our gracious hosts and collaborators from the University Azores both biologists and volcanologists and I was so grateful to know that tomorrow we will have a jeep not the micra to navigate the mountain roads !!