Today was our first no-fly-day meaning we didn’t do any flights today. Instead we had a couple of ground based activities planed. The first one was visiting a sapphire mine in the close by city of Ilakaka.
On the way to the mines we were walking through the streets
where you could buy lots of stuff.
including coal.
This is one of the mines we were visiting. They are not yet on the level where the sapphire stones are.
Their action looked like a centipede walking as they were fully synchronized moving up the sand. We were jugging the efficiency less than 50% as most of the sand was just falling down again.
Now it was time for a pause.
Heating up the metal
so it can be forged.
This is a test hole of like 20 metres depth just to check if there is any sapphires further down.
Looking down the hole you can see … nothing.
One guy is going down with headlights.
And of course we went to a shop after visiting the mines.
Meanwhile all the kids around were eager to pose for photos.
Photos which were immediately reviewed and commented.
Funny curtain in one of the windows.
Zooming out you see the whole house.
Back in the hotel we decided to take a hike in the rocky area just behind our accommodation.
The path was well marked. Nevertheless some of us got lost … aeh … were exploring different options of how to get back to the hotel … 
Little arch
and the kind of the rocks. 
And then there was even more activity for today: horse riding. The initial plan had to be changed numerous times as they didn’t have enough horse for all of us. 8 it was, this number got changed once again as the guides also needed horses. So we were down at 6. And guess what? When we arrived at the stables another horse had disappeared. Eventually 5 of us departed for a ride which was shortened by the fact that there was a potential thunderstorm coming which turn out to be just a few drops of rain.
That was quite a bit of activity today, wasn’t it? So we were deserving an extensive dinner and some drinks.
