TRAVEL / The green troops of Lake Naivasha: Collecting mud, dissecting fish and mending nets are all in a day's work for Earthwatch volunteers in Kenya. Gillian Cribbs joins the eco-tourists

'LOU JUST adores sorting out the mud buckets. We can't keep her away from them. Her mother would never let her get dirty as a kid, so I guess she's making up for it now,' chuckles Ruth Ganter, a feisty charity worker from Florida, as she takes a plate of freshly made scones and tea over to her mud-spattered friend. 'I kinda like electric fishing and dissecting crayfish - it's more exciting.'

We were settling down for high-tea on the manicured lawns of Elsamere, former home of naturalist Joy Adamson and now base camp for Earthwatch's Lake Naivasha project. Ruth and Lou were two of 10 volunteers who had paid for the privilege of assisting four British scientists from Leicester University in a study of the eco-system of this freshwater lake in Kenya.

Earthwatch is a Boston-based charity which aims to support scientific research by recruiting paying volunteers. It opened its European headquarters in Oxford in 1990. 'All we require is that you are reasonably fit and have two weeks to spare,' says deputy director Andrew Mitchell. 'Of course, extra skills such as photography, languages or drawing can be put to great use.'

Since 1971, 30,000 volunteers have contributed pounds 9m to 795 projects in 87 countries. These range from studying the mating habits of moths in Ecuador, the rainforest canopy in Queensland or health care in Indonesia, to radio-tracking dolphins in Florida or tracing the archaeological origins of Buenos Aires. On the Naivasha project, volunteers rotate between four teams (Fish, Bugs-and-Weeds, Birds, and Invertebrates), performing routine chores such as setting fishing nets, collecting water and mud samples, and recording birds. The study, now in its 10th year, will eventually be submitted to Kenya's fisheries department and used as the basis for a management plan for the lake. None of the volunteers had been put off by warnings of the sheer drudgery of the tasks, or the pounds 1,200 cost (excluding airfare) of joining the project.

Lou Harrell, a veteran of 17 projects, is hooked. 'Last year I was studying orang-utans in Borneo. It was fun but the accommodation and food were a bit spartan.' Looking around our headquarters, she added: 'This is much more comfortable.'

Housed in colonial-style bungalows and fed on hearty meals not unlike the more palatable school dinner, volunteers at Naivasha are cocooned in an environment suffused with nostalgia for Kenya's Happy Valley days. Contemporary Africa, its culture and its problems, exist well beyond the camp's confines.

'We're not interested in slumming it,' says Dr Phil Hickley, Fish team-leader and Principal Investigator. An important part of his job is to keep volunteers happy. 'We want to make things as varied as possible. Everyone has a chance to join all four teams. And there's plenty of time after hours for extra-curricular activities, such as trips to national parks or lectures.'

A typical day on the project began at 7am. After a hearty English breakfast, volunteers eagerly got down to work (the working day is from 9am to 4.30pm). We set out fishing nets and crayfish traps, collected mud and weed samples, and recorded light and oxygen levels in the lake. On land we analysed samples and dissected fish in the lab. Few of us had time for the splendour of the lake, surrounded by live volcanoes and vast grasslands, or the play of light in the acacia trees, as we grappled with scientific instruments and improbably large buckets of mud and water. It reminded me of Girl Guide camps, geography field trips and university archaeological digs - except most volunteers were over 60, and everyone was enjoying themselves.

'This kind of work can be enormously therapeutic, especially for the highly stressed,' said Dr Hickley, recalling a senior Pan- Am executive who was happy simply to unravel yards of fishing nets for two weeks at Naivasha. 'It's strangely absorbing when you get into it.'

Faith Mageoch, a round and jolly Florida businesswoman, was enjoying a good chat with her friend Ruth as they cut fish from the nets. In between informative snippets about science and the environment, she spoke of the relief of taking a break from caring for a husband with Alzheimer's disease. Meanwhile, Ruth criticised her daughter's former husband and discussed domestic problems back home. Neither had a word to say against the project. 'It's great fun. I may even be back next year,' said Faith.

It's fun for the scientists, too. Unlike their undergraduates back home, their volunteer workers here are highly motivated and genuinely interested in what can amount to a lifetime's work. The mutual appreciation was, at times, overwhelming. Over dinner I asked the newly married Dr Andy Smartt and Steph Coley, team leaders of Bugs-and-Weeds and Invertebrates respectively, whether the Earthwatch concept worked and - more controversially - what could go wrong.

'It works because our volunteers are responsible, professional people united by a spirit of adventure,' said Dr Smartt. 'They don't treat this as a holiday and know their own limits,' added his wife, who is completing a PhD on crayfish. However, after a few whiskies I did manage to elicit some Naivasha legends, such as the one about the 20-stone hydrophobic New York psychiatrist who hated the sun, and the over-enthusiastic volunteer who disappeared down an aardvark hole and broke his ankle. But such events were rare, I was assured.

My suspicion that disaster could not be far away was vindicated over the next two days. After much negotiation, I was allowed to join the extra-curricular hippo survey, fulfilling a lifetime's ambition to study hippos (surprisingly deemed less worthy of study than fish, birds and weeds), and found myself face to face with real danger. The plan was to sail right into the midst of two large families of hippos, forcing them to show their heads so we could count them. At the critical moment - when the bull was ready to charge - we would race away. Surrounded by 18 angry hippos on one side and 35 on the other, our outboard motor failed. I was impressed by my colleagues' sang-froid as they calmly picked up a paddle and steered us to safety. My instinct was to jump overboard.

The kudos of taking part in such an environmentally sound - and occasionally exciting - project is not lost on the volunteers, although most say their concern for the environment and their desire to do something are the real motivating factors. All planned to keep in touch with the scientists for news and updates on the research and, perhaps more importantly, each other. For Mike Powell, a health service researcher from Northampton, it was the team spirit that made the holiday. 'I've always shied away from group holidays and the tourist culture, but there's no room for that here. You can't help but make friends when you see each other doing such ridiculous things.'

For more information on projects, membership and grants, write to: Earthwatch Europe, Belsyre Court, 57 Woodstock Road, Oxford OX2 6HU. Tel 0865 311600.

(Photographs omitted)