It occurs to me I have not created a dire ditty. Nor have we sent a single postcard. Why is this? We seem to have been constantly travelling, covering the kilometres, cracking on, catching various forms of transport and generally being thoroughly hectic. When we have tried to buy stamps (only two or three post offices on the island) they have been closed. We constantly run out of money because even the banks look askance at anything other than French francs. At least they didn’t subject our pounds to the indignity of the lie-detector, as they did the Lira in front of us. Instant millionaires, we are equally rapidly ruined after paying a three-night hotel bill. And yet, in the markets, 500 is a standard unit. The rich/poor divide is wide, fuelled by corruption and foreign money exploiting local labour, it seems to me. However, the foreign (French) owner of Les Dunes drove us to Tuléar at 6.30 this morning for the boat south. The tide being out, we decanted from the 4x4 into a zebu cart to cross the mud flats to the good ship Rififi (the whale boat yesterday was the tub ‘Peanut’!) which whisked us off fast and very efficiently – and in a very clean boat, wearing life vests, for about an hour and a half of chilly wind. Yesterday, I kept on a T-shirt, shirt, fleecy and waterproof until 11.50. It’s cold in the southern winter, but the S.W coast is very varied, and here we are in a long sandy bay at Safari Vezo. The bungalows have no running water – two buckets are delivered each morning to warm in the sun – and shared loos. There is no alternative but to Mora Mora.

We’ve sorted the diving, walked the entire bay, investigated one of the village bars and checked out some pirogue prices. These are very attractive compared to the hire of quad bikes. Why, in heaven’s name, did anyone continue to bring these beasts to a village in an inaccessible corner of Madagascar to which there is not even a road? There may be a freight train- a line is marked on the maps, but could mean nothing whatever.
There are about twenty bungalows here, and around 30+ guests, plus a group of staff sufficiently exalted to eat in the main restaurant. The menu looks heavy on seafood, though it’s a set meal on every occasion. Lunch is significant, but we may not participate. Not quite sure what everyone’s doing all day, because the Dive Master says Adrian will be his only client tomorrow.