Dear Taxi Brousse Drivers...

Just a short one this week written from my porch as a huge thunderstorm rages on.

This is an open letter to the Taxi Brousse drivers who provide the transport service from Ifaty to Toliara. Here I provide some advice to improve your business, customer feedback and general quality of the journey...



- It might be an idea to provide "foot space" in which to stretch legs on a long journey instead of the "chicken or children space" which is currently provided on your Brousses. This leaves little or no space for those appendages that occur from the knee and below...

- "I aim to fill my Taxi Brousse to the point where the combined weight of the people on board is sufficient to cause the wheel to sheer from the axel mid-transit and thus I am unable to collect anyone's fare". This is not a good business plan.

- A bench made for 7 people was not made for 10 people

- As incredible as it is that Malagasy singers can harmonise perfectly out of tune, this does not mean that they are any good.

- And no. The songs do not get any better no matter how many times you play it on loop

- Before you start picking people up in the morning, it might be worth checking that the benches in the back are still fastened to the floor.

- If said benches are not attached to the floor, duck taping them to the sides of the Taxi Brousse does not count as them being fixed.

- Try to keep your information credible. For example when asked, "Does this Taxi Brousse go to Ifaty?" And you answer, "Yes". Don't then not go to Ifaty.


- I have been in the Toliara region for nearly 6 months, you have seen me numerous times at the Taxi Brousse station. I know that the price of the Taxi Brousse is 3000Ar, not 20,000Ar, and you know I know this. So why do we have to still play this game?

- As similar as they are I would much rather have my feet sitting on a rice sack on the floor compared to having a fat Malagasy woman sitting on the floor on my feet.

- I would advise creating sanitation advice suggesting that it is recommended that if a person on the Brousse has a cold and then subsequently sneezes, it is preferred that they do not then wipe their hands on the shorts of the person next to them.



- Kids are great. However I do not want the kids of fellow passengers of the Taxi Brousse to hold for the entirety of a journey. Especially if they are incontinent.

- Please ensure that the tarpaulin with which you cover the tops of your Brousses are waterproof. Especially if you are planning on putting buckets of fish on the roof that will most likely leak and then drip onto my head.

- Live animals on top of Taxi Brousses are never a good idea. Animals urinate. A lot.


So their you have it Mr. Taxi Brousse driver. The definitive guide to improving your business. Following this simple advice will ensure that I step off the Brousse at the other end with a smile instead of the grimace which I have perfected after so many tiresome journeys in the back of your truck.


Meanwhile, a new feature, here is what Scuba Smurf has been up to this week...


"No Diving this Week"






"Updating the LogBook"

Alfonso the Christmas Turkey

Calm down! I know that only takes us to mid-December!

As Christmas loomed ever closer we began preparing to finish off the expert surveys with the hope that they would be all done and dusted on the 23rd of December so we would be able to enjoy a small shin dig on Christmas Eve safe in the knowledge that nothing would be hanging over our heads. So as slates were written up, Christmas parties were organised by our new project manager, Julien.

Unfortunately things struggle to go to plan here in Madagascar and so we weren't majorly surprised when on the 20th the science team returned early from their survey having had to cancel due to terrible visibility. But we did not let that deter us and come the 24th the team returned triumphant having finished the final survey and thus the party could go ahead (a Christmas miracle I would say!). We all thoroughly enjoyed feasting on an excellent turkey dinner while washing it down with rum coco which is the closest thing to egg nog in Madagscar.



Christmas day was spent in a little hotel in Toliara and included very little activity or movement on my behalf. Just eating, drinking, sleeping and watching films. So not majorly different to Christmas back in the UK... except with a swimming pool... So probably slightly better... I was pleased to attain a box filled with gifts from my family (either that or the shoe box appeal had been inundated with donations this year so they had spares) which I spent going through in a small cafe on Boxing Day.



After Christmas things returned to normal for a few days before New Years which the Malagasy celebrate with great enthusiasm. For the few days afterward it wasn't uncommon to come across a drunk vezo asleep under the weigh station. We spent New Years Eve in Mangily, enjoying a nice meal before doing the countdown around a fire on the beach.


It was a great way to spend the holiday period and different to anything I had done before. Christmas Day also marked (rather conveniently) the half way point for my time with ReefDoctor. It's very odd to think that four and a half months have already passed. On one hand the time has gone by incredibly quickly with months flicking by in no time and people who have just arrived already waving farewell (17 people have left ReefDoctor since I arrived in August) and then on the other hand, I have done so much and learnt so much that I can't imagine that it would all fit into only that length of time. It only leaves me to wonder what will happen in the next four and a half months with talk of the UNDP returning for more science training and new volunteers coming soon, it's already shaping up to be a busy month. Yep it's true what they say here. Scuba Diving on coral reefs on a daily basis really does take it out of you...

Things to Do Before You Die: #1...

It's been well over a month since my last post here. Not that I had forgotten about it, it's been lingering over me like a homework assignment I have kept putting off over and over again to the point where I thought I was going to have to post a poorly prepared excuse as to why it has yet to appear...
So now, after my first draft was eaten by the dog and I left the second draft on a Taxi Brousse, I have finally sat down, ordered a sandwich and beer, plugged my headphones in and have began the task of updating you on the past month. And what a month it has been.
We shall begin in the late November which saw the arrival of a group from the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) marine training course. This annual programme is aimed at capacity building for Malagasy environmental agency employees. Over a period of ten days we provided intensive dive and science training to evaluate coral reef systems with the hope that these techniques would be implemented into marine management program's throughout Madagascar. It was a long but enjoyable ten days which finally gave me a chance to practice my very limited French.

The end of the ten days also coincided with the arrival of Roderick, the founder and director of ReefDoctor which gave us an excellent excuse to have a party including a whole roasted goat, Malagasy music and, of course, booty shaking by those who were that way inclined.

Things quietened down after the UNDP left and so it was decided that this would be the ideal time for me to start my Dive Master. I began to help out the dive officers on a lot of the dives and with the dive training. It also meant that I was diving more regularly. Due to the tides at this time we had been having to get up at 04:30 each morning to ensure we got back before the tides were too low. I can't deny that by the end of the week I was struggling to get out of bed, so when Saturday came I was looking forward to a bit of a lie in. This however was not the case. It was decided that we would be taking one of the volunteers out on a fun dive to the exterior at a site called Dippy and I would be leading. When my alarm when off at 04:15 I was really not motivated to get the kit organised and onto the boat and sat bleary eyed at breakfast lacking the energy to even make conversation with my fellow early risers.
So as the light of the sun began to glow over the spiny forest we headed out and set course for the exterior. It wasn't long before we had made it throuh the pass and as I sat there, still half asleep just thinking about getting back to my lovely thin mattressed, sand covered, sweat saturated bed as soon as possible I spotted something quite large, grey and dolphin shaped rise above the waves in the distance and then sink below. I excitedly shouted to Laura, the volunteer who was with us, and pointed into the distance to which she just looked at me and smirked unamused by this obvious "boy who cried wolf-esque" joke. Frustrated, and now fully awake I continued to point in their direction and repeat the word dolphin over and over hoping it would bring credibility to my statement. Eventually Manjo also spotted them and began to enthusiastically point and shout and then finally Laura also could not resist glancing and began to join our shouts of exuberance. We continued to drive to the dive site as the dolphins meandered around in the distance, donned our kit and headed down to explore Dippy.

When returning to the surface we could still see the pod who unfortunately had chosen not to come and join us on our dive. We stowed our kit away and pointed the boat back in the direction of ReefDoctor and headed home and incredibly the pod followed and were soon riding the waves the boat made. We couldn't resist stopping the boat and getting into the water. Luckily the dolphins remained, circling around giving us curious glances as they went. Eventually they became bored of this human exhibit and swam off into the blue. Needless to say the return journey was full of a lot of excited chatter and I was happy to tick of the second of the Big Five marine animals I hoped to see while at ReefDoctor. Only Turtles, Manta Rays and Sharks to go now so here's hoping by the end of my time here I only have to lie about seeing one of them...