Indeed nice the read all these adventures.

One of the great things in shell collecting IS to go to remote
places. REMOTE is also in our head. I remember great days as a young
man in the Belgian Ardennes - nothing "remote" but if you walk 10
kilometers i a forest, plant your small tent near a lake and stay
there for two days, one does feel as very remote from everywhere. And
the Clausilia rolphi I found gave me about the same emotions diving
later Conus granulatus in the Tobago Keys.

Another funny thing is that remote places from yesterday are the busy
ones of today.

An example: in 1982 I was on Boavista, Cape Verde Islands.  This was
an adventure at that time, I was the only not-African there for two
weeks, could hardly find any food except lobsters and the fish I
shot. Water was the major problem. Even being young and slender, I
lost 8 kilograms over a 25 day period in the Archipelago. (The Dutch
man visiting this Island broke his leg there and got infected - he
died in days).

All the malacological explorers visiting these Islands in the late
seventies and beginning eighties got memorable times.

But two years ago I went back to Boavista: guess what. I stayed there
in a 4 star hotel and rented a car !    (there were only 6 cars on
the Island in 1982).

It was great to visit my old diving buddies still living there today
- they didn't forget me, so seldom they got a visit from Europe in
1982.   We went diving again together in Gatas Bay. It took us one
hour to get there, instead of a whole day in 1982.

Guido

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