Flight to Fort Dauphin

I'd arranged to go and see the baobab trees with a guy who worked behind the bar in Vovo Telo.

I met him about 6am and the two of us trudged off through the nearby villiage. Madagascar has 7 different types of baobab, Africa only 1. We saw loads of wildlife on the way, birds, lizards and a huge brown snake (about 5 feet long) which smoothly pulled itself across our path. Mustapha told me it was poisonous, but I'm not too sure (not that I was going to find out!)

We walked round for about 2 1/2 hours. Mustapha was a nice bloke.

At about 1pm I left to get my plane. I can't begin to explain how bad the road is between Ifaty and Tulear. Basically a dustrack with huge holes and occasional lakes!! Along the way were occasional police "checkpoints", all of whom required a bribe of some sort before we could pass.

The airport café in Tulear is also amuising. There is a menu, but no prices. They seem to charge you what they think you can afford. I paid the same for my sandwich and coke as the next table paid for a family to have a meal. I queried it (in broken Fench/English) to be met with further shrugs and smiles.

After an uneventful flight to Fort Dauphin, I made my way to the Mahovoky Annex. The taxi driver picked up a number of other fares along the way!

I've probably stayed in worse places, but I'm struggling to remember them. Still, the view over the bay is lovely. There are a number of wrecks out to sea and it's a very interesting vista.

At this point I discovered I'd lost/forgotten my Visa card. It wasn't complete disaster, as I had about 80quid still in cash. A few frantic calls were made to the bank (no help at all) and parents. Hopefully a bit more cash will arrive on Monday! (thanks mom and dad)

In my defence I'd not been using my wallet (where my visa card was). Essentially because it hadn't been BIG enough to store the huge wedges of cash you have to carry round here!!