15/1/2011

Picked up at 8am for our day trip to Margeruque Island of the Bazaruto Archipelago. Got talking to and older Scottish couple who were working and friends with a woman from Shropshire, who it turned out had been working at Worcestershire Royal Hospital.

At the island, we got to go snorkelling using the providers crap gear, and saw a variety of fish. However, the rocks were very sharp and we ended up with dozens of cuts on our hands and feet. The rest of the day we spent chilling and walking around the small island's beach. On the way we came across cranes, crabs, even a baby goat which was odd - no idea how it got there! There was beautiful sand and just a couple of top-quality accommodation on the island and on our walk around we had a dip in some almost hot sea water. It was lovely! When the boat came around to pick us up, we all jumped back in for a swim and I disappeared off for a snorkel along the stretch of rocks out to sea. There were far more fish and I got a bit carried away as the boat and the passengers were all waiting for me! There was a variety of seabird here too including herons, cranes, a pelican and cormorants.

For our lunch we ate fish, crab stew, crab arms, potato, rice, salad, bread, banana, mango and pineapple. It was delicious and I managed to get a fair bit down me despite being ill. I was picking up but still wasn't great as I wasn't racing round the island on the walk, which normally I'd be steaming it!

The guy who we booked with said we could have as many cool drinks as possible but the guys only let us have one each on the boat. I still managed to scrape us an extra on the sly but we had a moan at 'Rodrigues' later after what he had promised and what we received. He also told us we'd be fishing - that was nonsense! And this was all for about £30! It was a nice trip but no way worth that and because we'd been promised, we paid about £4 short because in the morning I hadn't brought enough money. Good job all-in-all I think, it's just a shame I didn't forget to bring more money! Rodrigues tried to come and collect it and did have a go at his staff on the phone after they failed to give us drinks, but I kindly explained to him with Jack that that isn't how business works so we wouldn't pay him the rest of the money because he had let us down.

I absolutely hate this country for the stitching up with money and lies that come out of their mouth!

Watched some football from home whilst having a delicious chicken and chips (pretty much my stable diet in the poorer African countries), before hitting the sack.