Vanessa Griffith's Med diary: Castaway

Production team

Diary of a castaway

Sunday 11th July - 1 day before the challenge begins

Being dropped on a deserted island has been a bit of a fantasy of mine since childhood. As a kid it allowed me an escape from parents and school, as a teenager I was fleeing exams and boyfriend dramas and in adulthood avoiding the pressures and constraints of a career. However the reality is never all it's cracked up to be is it? In my fantasy I am washed up on a white sandy beach with a sexy Latin type to keep me amused. I now find myself on a rocky outcrop, it looks volcanic, no beaches in sight, with four other scientists for company. Whoopee!

Monday 12th July - Day 1

Our base is to be an abandoned prison, not exactly the set of my dreams. The place is eerie, every sound echoes through the empty rooms. You can't help but imagine the plight of the prisoners and think about the depraved minds that once occupied the buildings.

The rows of cells call to mind every prison film I've seen, the characters floating around me like holograms. There is something particularly creepy about the old shower block – it makes the place very real. So, five scientists and a prison complex – it's a little way off the island fantasy but there's no time for daydreams, we only have three days to complete our first set of challenges.

My role hasn't been too taxing today, just collecting some ingredients for an insect repellent. I've been enjoying Mike B.'s company today, he's a good laugh if not more than a little unconventional. I've always argued that scientists are given a bad press and that we can be as fun-loving and impulsive as the next guy. We are no longer white-bearded, white-coated eccentric boffins locked in laboratories working on mad-cap inventions.

No, modern scientists are an important section of today's society; creative, logical brains tackling the issues of our time.

So if that's true why does the thought of spending time with other scientists fill me with dread? The others seem friendly enough but maybe they are disguising the fact that underneath they are 'proper' scientists. They might turn out to be nerds with no sense of humour!

Production team

Tuesday 13th July - Day 2

It seems that I was worrying unnecessarily, they're all normal! Mike B. is a chemist and looks like one. He is white-haired and impish and you can just imagine test-tubes bubbling over with coloured liquids inside his head.

He will be a great bloke to have around, he seems to know loads and is full of enthusiasm and energy – he even knows how to have fun, always giggling or up to something. He has already started to discuss and plan projects with myself and Anna. He's definitely going to be one of the girls!

Anna is an ethno-botanist. I'm not entirely sure what that is but it sounds like an excellent job. She travels the world meeting with native peoples to discuss how they use plants in their everyday lives. Food, clothing, medicines, fuel, tools and even make-up; plants seem to be used for everything. I suppose I knew that but I'd never stopped to think just how important they are.

She is full of interesting facts about which plants have been used historically and the methods employed to extract and prepare useful substances. She has even written a book about plants for people and is optimistic that we can put the island's plants to good use. She is desperate to start exploring to see what's here. I picture her skipping through fields collecting leaves and flowers in a wicker basket and bringing us cups of herbal tea.

The lads on the other hand are already arguing and designing contraptions to pinpoint our position. Mike L. is a virologist and ex-mechanic. He is strong and practical….in a Rambo kind of way. He likes to chop and saw and sweat but only if he's sure we're all watching – not quite the Latino I had in mind, but damn useful.

He has done some research work in the past on ticks and is now intent on telling us gruesome stories about the diseases they can spread, how big they can swell up when feeding, and about his mate who got infested. He is always on the look out for ticks and likes to make sure we all know about it if there are some around. He manages to really get to Anna, he winds her up until she's paranoid she has ticks crawling up her legs and is near hysteria.

Jonathan is a physicist and a fantastic inventor. He has a mad inventor's air about him, always confident that his latest brain-wave will work. Kate thinks he is just like Wallace (of Wallace and Grommit fame!) He is a bit quieter than Mike but just as determined, he listens to what Mike has to say and then just carries on with his own idea!

I don't know how they will get on and whether their scribbled designs will amount to anything – they seem to spend most time talking incessantly at each other, neither listening to a word the other says. Having said that, they seem to be getting somewhere with pinpointing our longitude and latitude, they've been racing around a lot and Jonathan's radio looks very impressive, although it's not quite working yet!

Wednesday 14th July - Day 3

Success! An insect repellent and our longitude and latitude pinpointed. (well pretty close!) The repellent smells really nice, better than the stuff you get back home and Anna assures me it'll do the job.

We were all amazed when Jonathan's radio worked and Mike L. was thankfully kept quiet most of the day counting the swings of his pendulum. It took a while to do the necessary calculations without a calculator, Mike's brain was visibly smoking.

In the end all their deliberations and sketches were worth it, they deserve to be very pleased with themselves.