On the road again

The ride back from the Tsingys was our first true bush adventure. We had been cruising along on the "road" for about an two hours when our right back wheel fell off (I mean this litterally). The drive shaft gears had fatigued to the point it broke off and fell out. After stepping out and assessing the damage under the scorching midday sun, our driver confidently estimated he would need an hour for the repair. I know nothing about bush mechanics but this sounded rather optimistic so we looked for a contingency plan. We hitched a ride with a group of swiss people from Zurich to the next town, a crammed 1-hour drive (8 people + luggage in a mid size SUV). While we were having lunch there our guide arrived in another vehicle (a Toyota land cruiser seating 10...). He announced that the repair hadn't gone as smoothly as expected, and proposed his "solution": joining the group of 10 people in the land cruiser (between 4 and 5 westerners per row of back seats) for the second half of the trip. I gladly refused this unattractive option, and once again used my newly developed Malagasy negociation technique which consits of repeatedly stating exactly what you want (in our case our own car) with complete disregard for the other party's argument. A crucial point of this technique is to carefully listen to your opponents explanation, making it clear that you understand his argument and by facial expression giving him the impression he convinced you of his position. At that point, when his hopes are high he won the argument and stops talking, you calmly repeat what you want, making for a disarmingly absurd discussion that will quickly discourage the person you are facing. Works every time... We got our own car, the drive back to Morondava was a (bumpy) breeze, and after a night in a Bungalow on the beach we took off for Tulear en route to Anakao.