Ifaty to Tulear

We could hardly be at The Great Reef of Madagascar without going snorkelling, regardless of our misgivings, so we arranged to go out to the marine reserve of Ifaty for a look see. We went by sailing pirogue, with 3 crew. The wind was very light when we left at 8 am, so the boys paddled us out, maybe 30 minutes of solid effort.

The water was a nice temperature, and the visibility OK.

There were a reasonable number of fish, but the reef didn't have much variety or colour. Mostly brown foliaceous coral (and maybe a different butterfly fish).

Spotted a nice angelfish...

..and this triggerfish...

..but otherwise nothing special.

We sailed back to the beach...

..and had a farewell photo with the crew.

We stayed for lunch at our hotel basis the promise of lobsters. They couldn't get them in the end but there were no complaints when something that looked like Moreton Bay bugs turned up.

It was only 45 minutes to Tulear. The road is described as good, but maybe that was a little while ago. There were a number of well loaded taxi brousse along the way.

Tulear is not really a tourist town, with a muddy seafront and a shabby demeanour....

..but there is an incongruous modern hotel with white sheets and towels, fresh water showers, wi-fi and Lavazza espresso..not normally what we would seek out but after the week we just had - heaven!..

..plus Tulear has a gellateria...

...an ocean liner style hotel...

...plenty of boules being played, at where else but the....

..and a small craft market.

There were also plenty of jewellery shops (watch this space) and pizza! - rarely enjoyed so much?