Coronavirus: Volunteer stranded on remote island for two months
- Published
Natalie Poole was only supposed to be on the island for one month
A British voluntary worker has been left stranded on a remote island in Myanmar for two months by coronavirus.
Natalie Poole, 35, is living out her near-castaway experience on Kyun Pila island with four other people, after their only boat out was cancelled.
The group, who were working to help protect a local coral reef, have used washed up plastic waste cleaned from the beach to set up a rainforest camp.
Ms Poole, from Ashburton, Devon, said they were taking things "day by day".
The group collected waste plastic from beaches to set up a makeshift rainforest camp
The Ocean Quest volunteers were supposed to be on the island for a month but have been trapped, a six-hour boat ride from the mainland, by lockdowns in Myanmar and nearby Thailand.
Ms Poole, who also works as a scuba diving instructor in Thailand, should now be back in Devon, where she would have been working as a summer school teacher.
Her Myanmar visa has expired, no new ones are being issued and an evacuation boat to Thailand was cancelled because the country has closed its borders.
The camp is about a 15-minute dinghy ride away from Awei Pila, the only resort on the island, which has closed because of the coronavirus outbreak.
Ms Poole is more than six hours away from the mainland, which is currently in lockdown
She said: "The hardest thing for me has been not knowing how long we're going to be here.
"It's kind of up and down, we're a very small group of people and we're living in a very confined, close situation.
She described the situation as "up and down"
"In the back of our minds is obviously families back home and stuff, which adds to the tension a little bit.
"We're just trying to take things day by day."
Ms Poole said they were trying to take the "confined" living situation "day by day"
They have been receiving food parcels to keep them going but these have been sporadic and limited, Ms Poole said.
"We have to be very aware of how much we consume, we are eating very basic food and really having to make it last."
She added they were using their work documenting the largely unexplored island to forage for supplementary supplies, including jackfruit and yams.
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