John Gale Profile

Travel has always been one of my passions. During my gap year in 2004 I conducted six months of research diving: three months for the Capricorn Coast alliance in Madagascar and three months for GVI (Global Vision International), Mexico. The research focused on fish and coral distributions, looking at the sustainability of village fisheries in Madagascar and the fluctuations in populations of certain fish and coral species on the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef. During the summer of 2003 I worked for a university lecturer researching bat populations in a country house in Wiltshire; tagging lesser horseshoe bats to measure the feeding range.

Other travel has included trips to five continents. All jungle experience comes from a five day trip in the Brazilian Amazon, a four day trek in Laos and a four day summit ascent of Mt Mulu in Sarawak, Borneo. I’ve trained as a PADI Divemaster and logged over 140 dives. In 2002 I travelled in a camper van for three weeks in the Australian outback, and also spent one week being taught the habits and names of reef-fish on the Ningaloo reef, NW Australia. More recently this summer a schoolmate and I travelled by bus to Vietnam through Thailand and Laos. I feel these accumulated experiences have given me a superb grounding in basic survival skills, an ability to understand foreign cultures and a solid grasp of relevant field research techniques all of which gives me confidence that I will be a useful member of the expedition team.