Covering the ground in Madagascar takes time. Fortunately, the ground is very interesting, and what else did we come for anyway? On the other hand, it is also extremely wet. At least it is after the soaking it has had for the last 24 hours. Only within the last hour this evening has it let up. First stop was the compulsory one at the wood carvers. As it happened, the quality of work is very good, so we made some small purchases, being somewhat tempted by the excellent prices but sensibly refraining from a marquetry briefcase or a compendium of twelve international games (including a full set of Scrabble with inlaid tiles!)

As the landscape changed, so did the people yet again, as typified in the market we attended. To it, people walk 20km to trade food, cloth, animals (we saw a large pig escape from its seller/purchaser and several youths hared off across the fields, one of them desperately clinging onto its frantic little tail), dried maize, recycled water bottles, oil lamps made from old Nestlé tins, chickens, sides of zebu, nuts, miscellaneous plastic items (combs, tablecloths, basins, hairslides, spoons, sieves) and a wide range of indeterminate metal work. The people wear light cloaks and an array of hats and found us ‘vazahy’ extremely entertaining, but a smile and a ‘Salaam’ seemed to please. We bought a treasure of roasted peanuts – for 4p and gathered a crowd. At least we repaid for our invasion, in mirth.

At Fianar, we went for a walk round Haut Ville in the downpour and were captured by nine kids. Their teacher (as explained in impressive English by a 9 year old) had told them not to beg, so they’d made postcards to sell. I capitulated to charm, but learned the power of divide-and-rule: they forgot us in their arguments about dividing the spoils. Very good meal and local rum for a nightcap. Zzz.