I spent six weeks on the southwest coast of Madagascar volunteering with an NGO called Blue Ventures (BV).

Before the expedition started, I joined two others for the ‘overland’ tour, organised by BV, from the capital via national parks to see lemurs and other wildlife.

• Antananarivo to Isalo National Park
• Tulear
• Tulear to Andavadoake

Six weeks on expedition in the idyllic village of Andavadoaka was pretty sweet…

• Trying to learn the language and our formal introduction to the elders in the village
• Day-to-day life on expedition in Andavadoake
• Introducing the team of volunteers and BV staff
• Weekend staying with a family in the village: a ‘day in the life’
• Scuba diving!
• Being ‘expedition medic’
• Trips and activities in free time on weekends: pirogues, baobabs and zebu carts
• Second time staying with a (different) family in the village
• Things we do when we cannot dive: carve boats and baobabs, and bake boko boko
• Undertaking diving surveys (finally!)
• Weekend camping trip to Ambolimoke to celebrate the opening of a new sea cucumber farm

And finally our overland journey back from the expedition site back to the capital:

• End of expedition celebrations (veloma party)
• Overland tour from Tulear to Antananarivo via Ranomafana National Park