English Corner  Capt. Lawrence.  Today: From the top of the mountains to the bottom of the sea!

Escolta-ho mentre navegues

The day starts off with squid pa amb oli and a strong cafe con leche. On any other day this combo would be vile especially for breakfast, but here at this truck stop

where I´m sure the devil left his poncho, it was delicious. Welcome to the sticks, somewhere between a giant water tower and Can Picaford. I´m familiar with this area only because we blow by it on route to Pollensa. It never accrued to us to stop and nosey around. Why today? The Coast Busters and two exceptional expats Brad and Bea.

My wife and I recently started a youth based Eco initiative called The Coast Busters. Simply put, we strive to encourage as many youngsters as possible to get out into the fresh air and take a vested interest in conservation. So taking a leaf out of the youngsters book we decided our first mission should be the creation of a ubiquitous Facebook page. No sooner had The Coast Buster´s page gone live, ZAAAP! there was Brad.

“WOW, babe, come take a look, somebody already likes our page.”

“It´s not one of your silly friends is it?”

“NO, this guy´s for real and eager to lend a hand.”

“That was fast! Strike while the iron’s hot!”

“No $%&#! Batten the hatches I´m calling him”

So I did!

Flash forward, wife, child, dear friend Sandra and yours truly, packed like sweaty sardines inside a busted up Berlingo rattling up the Manacor highway. If that’s not enough, wait, step inside. Apart from a tornado of dog hair, sand up the wazoo and enough mutilated kids books to arouse suspicion, the WTF prise goes to none other than our bright yellow plastic potty! Cirque du Soleil eat your heart out, you should see our little missy´s balancing act at 110km. Wait until Brad and wife Bea get a load of this act.

” Girls, we’re nearly there, clean this bloody car up it’s a disgrace!”

” Relax, there’s nothing wrong, it’s kinda hippie.”

“Hippie my foot, it’s gypsy! There´s a #&%ing potty on the back seat! Make it disappear FAST!

Before long we were all siting around a large wooden table at our hoast’s (and new friend’s) residence, chatting away like old pals. Brad and Bea aren’t the usual suspects. In less than two years they have set up ONDINE, what’s sure to become the best travel and leisure company in the Med, if not the World! Not satisfied with that, they have developed a specialised shark diving course at the Palma Aquarium, come out with a movie “Behind blue glass” with director David Diley and found time to offer The Coast Busters a helping hand. Give it up for these go getters!

Brad is a Scuba expert and the water side of ONDINE, Bea is the mountain mama. They met in Queensland Australia where Brad was coordinator and instructor on liveaboard dive vessels along the great barrier reef. Falling in love and realising their shared passion for education and conservation they teamed up. Bea is also a qualified psycho-pedagogist helping children and families with difficult backgrounds. I told you these two weren´t your run of the mill expats. I must admit sitting alongside these two dynamos made we question what on earth I´d been doing these last two years?

So, to The Coast Busters, the reason I drug my family out into “the sticks mate” as Brad put it. I should think it´s glaringly obvious why my wife and I drove out here. Who better for The Coast Busters to team up with than Brad, a pro diver/teacher and Bea, a psychologist/wilderness expert.

“Guys we love the idea of The Coast Busters. Anything we can do to help, count us in.” And with that begun a wild brainstorming session that lasted a good few hours. We came away from this meeting feeling pumped up and thoroughly invigorated. The Coast Busters had made a good contact, a BIG fish, and we some new friends.

ONDINE is currently developing a conservation and education department with the support of local and international biologists, organisations and government departments. With the view of supporting local conservation projects and creating new ones, Brad and Bea are involving local children from organisations such as The Coast Busters and other local groups.

Did I mention they were also on TV´s popular show Destino España promoting Shark conservation? Check em out ( http://www.rtve.es/alacarta/videos/destino-espana/destino-espana-baleares-iii-bradley/1203170/) or (http://ondineescape.com/).

From all of us at The Coast Busters, we look forward to much collaboration and thank you for your passionate energy, kind hospitably and infectious drive. I´m sure I speak for everyone when I say you both are an asset to Mallorca´s Ecological well being. I know I speak for us when I call you our friends!