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The second leg of Simon Reeve’s epic Indian Ocean Journey takes him to some of the most exotic tropical locations on earth. Off the coast of Madagascar he goes spear fishing with the Vezo people, whose lifestyle is under threat from their own population growth, and meets the British conservation group controversially educating the Vezos about birth control in an effort to preserve fish stocks and the marine environment. The poverty of Madagascar is a contrast with the wealth of tourist paradise Mauritius. But even on Mauritius there are slums – and Simon meets up with a community of displaced Chagos Islanders, who were expelled from their homes in the middle of the Indian Ocean by the British Government, when the island of Diego Garcia was leased to the Americans to build their largest overseas military base. It’s a sad story that is evidence of the strategic importance of the Indian Ocean; on Mauritius both China and India, the superpowers of the future, are investing billions in new construction projects. On the last stop on this leg of his journey Simon arrives in the Seychelles and meets an eccentric Englishman who has turned his private paradise island into the world’s smallest national park – largely populated by giant tortoises who start their life in his bedroom. But there is no escaping the problems of the world even here and Simon joins Dutch Special Forces training to board ships controlled by pirates on the high seas.