YOUR STORY: Janske van de Crommenacker in...
COUSIN ISLAND, A VERY SPECIAL RESERVE
Janske van de Crommenacker is a biologist from the Netherlands. She is one of the researchers within the Seychelles warbler research group; a cooperation between Nature Seychelles, the University of Groningen (The Netherlands) and the University of East Anglia (UK). Her first field visit to Cousin was in 2002, and 4 years later she started a PhD project on the Seychelles warbler. Each year she travels to Seychelles to spend some months on Cousin studying the birds. Here she tells us how Cousin became more than an excellent ecosystem for research.
I realize that I’m very lucky to work on such a beautiful island. The place has become very special to me, and Seychelles feels like a second home. Still, every time it is hard to leave my boyfriend Martijn behind in the Netherlands when I come here. We have been together for more than 7 years. A few months ago, when I boarded the plane to go back home after another field visit, I realized that I wanted to propose to him. I’ve always let myself be guided by my own feelings, so I didn’t want to wait for him to pop the question. Also, I knew instantly where I wanted to carry out my plan: on Cousin Island of course!
And so things happened. During my last visit to Cousin last January, I arranged for Martijn to come along. He’s also a biologist, so he would be a good assistant with the fieldwork.
Your Space
On a beautiful afternoon, we climbed up the hill to watch the sunset. I brought along some nice goodies and we sat down in what I call ‘the throne of Cousin’: a perfectly comfortable chair-shaped granite rock with a view over Aride, Praslin, Cousine and Mahe. I couldn’t imagine a better place to ask him this One Special Question. I was a bit nervous but… his answer was yes! The funny thing is that later during the trip, Martijn proposed to me too, with a ring! Apparently he had the same idea, but I was first! Two souls, one thought.
So this is how Cousin became even more special to us, and now we will get married in 2010. You’ll never guess where we will spend our honeymoon….
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Zwazo late 2008 - early 2009 35