THURSDAY 11 JANUARY:

Our first proper “day off” since the Tour started on the 2nd, and, apart from catching up on diary, circling some more badge bits, trying to get on the web (completely unsuccessfully again!) and trying to sort out our transport south, it actually does manage to be a day off pretty much. Hags dives in the morning and the afternoon, and I just dive in the afternoon. Lots of moray eels,puffer fish and some beautiful corals. Not the most exciting dive ever, but good to be back in the water. Hags’ ears seem OK, which is a great relief. Just as we arrive back at the beach after our dive, and I am about to jump out of the boat, I tread on a plank that is not nailed down, and it flies up and hits me shockingly hard just under both my knees – ouch, ouch, ouch!

Planes out of service

I ring United Nations Food Programme again about our flights down to Mboloh. We knew the UN helicopter wouldn’t be working after 1st January, and were expecting to fly on one of their planes (and had indeed provisionally booked 2 seats before New Year) but apparently the planes are all out of service for maintenance for a few days, and will not start flying again till the 17th (we need to fly South on morning of 15th and fly back to Banda on morning of 17th if we are not to miss any of our shows). Steve Ray of the UN gives me a number for MAF, the Mission Aviation Fellowship - but it turns out that they are not going to fly this route till the 19th. MAF suggest Susi Air, so I try them, but again no joy.

Overland trip

Oh dear – it looks as though we may have to go overland. While this would be a huge adventure, it is at least an 8 hour drive (if the roads are open!) each way. If we left really early on Monday, I suppose we might get there about 4-6 pm if we were lucky on the 15th. I think Ronald of Ides Charity (who we are going to visit, to inspect the houses that Ides has been building with a Glastonbury Festival donation) has set us up a show for us for 15th and 16th down there. It might be dodgy to count on getting there in time for a show on the 15th – perhaps just do one on the 16th – I will try to email him as soon as we get back to Banda. So we would at least have the whole of the 16th to see the houses and go through future building plans, and would then have to leave very early on the morning of the 17th – we need to be back in Banda for a show at Yayasan Kaisavu at 4.00 pm on 17th.

Michael Eavis is paying

Well, we really do need to go south, and we have no other free dates to do it in, so overland looks like being the only way. I don’t know how to set about this – so I ring kind Ellen McConville at the Irish Red Cross, and ask her to be an angel and see if she could find out about transport we could hire. I think we will need a proper 4 x 4 jeep, as the roads may well be flooded, and we would like a fast but very safe driver! It won’t be cheap – but then the air flights were $100 each way per person – I don’t see that overland transport can cost more than that (which Michael Eavis is paying anyway, rather than CWI, as he wants me to check that the housing project is going really well – I am looking forward to taking lots of pictures of the families in their houses to send to him!)

As we fall asleep, there is a huge downpour of rain – but at least the wind doesn’t seem to be rising. Let’s hope it stays calm – we really do need the morning ferry (which has been cancelled for a couple of days due to appalling weather) to be running. (All flights have been cancelled the last couple of days too –sadly a flight was lost further south in Indonesia last week, and a ferry also went down recently, so I think they are now deciding to play things a bit more “safe than sorry”.) We fall asleep with fingers and toes crossed!