I can’t account for my trepidation here, but I am two days in, and I’m nowhere near to seeing turtles. In part this is because I haven’t made it yet to the reef encircling the island and tantalisingly close to the shore.

I am reminded of a time in Switzerland when I first skied. I can be a particularly difficult student. In the end I gave up on ski school with the boot camp fraulein to simply go to the top of the mountain and kamikaze down the slope.

I’m not comfortable swimming, snorkelling or diving in moving water. For two days now I have been hyperventilating and with little confidence in the slight 16 year old local girl, who’s only communication seems to be, “ are you okay “ and “ good” – not using even the rudimentary dive signs – I know that if I got in to trouble she would not be the life saver.

Tomorrow I am going to step back from the conservation work and spend a couple of days snorkelling, alone, along the shoreline to build my confidence and learn how to breath. This is the sensible thing to do. I don’t always have to be the ridiculously competitive Kate, who needs to show she can do anything and everything.

Still there is other fun to be had : Malagasy language lessons, Malagasy dancing ( more on this later), and a beach clean followed by making eco bricks. Eco bricks (main picture) are large water bottles filled with the collected beach rubbish and used as a building material on the camp.

Early days, but I will see turtles!