Backs, hats and rabbit in a hat

A surprise in the night when I woke - I had a loo rush. 2 Imodium and some diarolyte and I went back to sleep. Another occurrence when I woke so I took another Imodium and had no breakfast.

We set off at 8 to to see the marquetry workshop. He was very skilful and of course there was a shop stacked to the ceiling with a few good pieces but mainly the dark African-type carvings from China. People took ages to decide what to buy then we had the onslaught of women trying to sell scarves - Dennis and others then had to decide which was the most fetching.

After a while we arrived at a large village teeming with people. It was market day. We were given 20 minutes to have a wander. It was a typical African type - pigs, rabbits, ducks for sale in one area, medicines in another, bright material, fruit and veg, plastic bowls, aluminium pans and much more was on sale. The women wore bright clothes and interesting hats. Some were raffia and other were plastic with plastic flowers. Needless to say it was 45 minutes before we left, not 20.

We were driving up, round and over hills at around 6000ft. It was beautiful. The daub and wattle houses were tall, narrow and thatched. People in this area seemed much poorer. Previously the children had run up to smile and wave but now they had hands outstretched and their feet were bare. One stall by the roadside had moonshine for sale. At other places children would be holding out a small bowl of tomatoes or lychees to sell. The indigenous trees and vegetation had been cleared for the locals to grow geraniums for essential oils or mountain rice. But what can they do? They have to make enough to live on.

I dozed off and woke at 1.30 when it was time for a picnic lunch of bread, cheese, tomatoes and peaches. We sat under a shady tree with a lovely view. Hari said we were now almost an hour behind schedule. We’d been told it was ok to wear shorts and sandals as supposed to reach the next NP in time to get out bags and change into long sleeve’s and trousers for for an evening wildlife walk.

We had 15 minutes to get to our room and get ready for the night walk. We got the bus back up the road for 30 mins then a guide showed us a different mouse lemur, very tiny, and some chameleon and frogs. We didn’t realise it was an extra event we had to pay for so now Mr C is working out the price per frog sighting.

Dinner was a set meal. An egg wrapped in bacon and fried with cheese sauce, followed by greasy chicken leg with veg and rice. Mr C ate mine.