Category: Madagascar

Okay, so when will this ever end or maybe, how will this end?

The road to Manja takes anywhere from 7 to 10 hours depending on, well, the road and a small ferry crossing across the Mangoky river.

We were expecting much longer travel times but the Chinese have come in and “fixed” some of the bad parts of the road, (we were told there are precious stones in the area, hmmm and surprise surprise!) so there was a few times where you could actually travel at about 40-50 km/hr.

When we got to the river Joyce decided to get out of the vehicle before I attempted the ferry loading which we were told could be fun.

The reasons for her abandonment was first, she was afraid she would go down with the truck, and second, we needed to have this on video to show how adept I am navigating the most challenging situations presented to me or, totally blowing it! LOL!

It was a blast and I probably gave the truck a little too much oomph as I became slightly airborne after hitting the ramps a little too fast.

I was quite proud of myself. I can’t say I’ve met many people who have done this and I didn’t go flying off of the other side of the barge so, success.

The barge is moved completely by manpower. There were several men in the river, ropes in hand who pulled the barge to the other side where we made a smooth exit onto dry land.

We continued on for another 80 kms negotiating the ever changing road conditions through bush, mud, shallow creeks and rocks until we finally arrived in Manja, our pit stop for the evening before continuing on to Belo-sur-Mer in the morning.

Manja is a small dusty town with one hotel and a new hotel annex where we stayed for the night. It was very basic accommodation. We had skinny barbecue chicken with pomme frites and a few cold beers before calling it an evening.

After a fitful nights sleep we proceeded onward for the 5 hour, 90 km journey to Belo-sur-Mer.

The timing of our arrival was important because the lodge is surrounded by tidal flats so the only times you can access the lodge is during low tide. The sand was quite deep as we neared the lodge so our anxiety level rose but we made it without incident.

 

It couldn’t get any worse could it?

Antonio, the pisteur of few words except “okay” implied no, just some rocks and sand, not too bad. The last leg was really quite bad and we started to lack confidence in his words. Maybe this is part of the psychology they use to ensure you don’t just throw up your arms, say “screw it” and call in the rescue team.

We departed Tsiandamba on the 28th where we had a one night pit stop at Five Senses Lodge, another french run lodge where no one spoke english. It was like pulling teeth to get any information on what the english translation was for the menu offerings, what came with what and I could go on and on but I’m sure you are sensing the frustration that has been building so far with our experiences that, although I haven’t really touched upon yet has become a very  big sore point for us to date. In most counties we have travelled, the hosts go out of their way to accomodate you, the french don’t seem to share that sense of hospitality. If you don’t speak french you are ignored most of the time and you wait forever for service. We’re from Canada, an english/french speaking country. We don’t speak french but everywhere else in the world, english is usually on the menu. Not Madagascar. They are influenced by the french and I’m sorry, but it really pisses us off.  Anyway, we continued on to Andavodok where we could hopefully unwind with a two night stay at Laguna Blu, what a lovely sounding name and it was a lovely setting but again, french run, for french speaking people with a scatter brained french owner. She did however speak italian, we don’t so c’est la vie! What a mess!

The drive was treacherous to say the least. I don’t have words to describe the condition of the pathways that lead through no-mans land, through small, dirt poor villages, the people probably having lived this way since day one, sustenance farming, raising Zebu (our equivalent of cattle) and getting by. The children and adults were always smiling and we would wave as they would as we passed slowly through the sandy pathways winding through wooden and thatched huts in a dusty sand landscape surrounded by brush or sea side with the sounds of “bon bon” (candy) shouted by the children as we passed.

We estimated our travel time to be about 5 hours and were thrown off track by taking a wrong turn through a very sandy track to eventually be met by a fallen tree blocking our way. I was able to do the turn around dance once more and we headed back to the village where we took the wrong turn and then proceeded in the correct direction.

The road wasn’t too bad and we estimated about 45 minutes until we would make our destination. The land was barren and the surface of much of the area looked white and hard. The gravel road seemed to come to and end. Antonio looked forward towards a far sand dune and said the “lodge is right over there, probably about a 15 minute drive”. I asked if I should go straight, it looked like a decent hard surfaced dried salt pan and he agreed so off we went, for about 3 minutes, maybe 500 metres and then bam, deep mud hidden under the innocent white surface and we were stuck. Really, really stuck. OMG!! So close and yet so far, the last thing you want to happen and the one thing that is always in the back of your mind just before you reach your final stopping point. The time now was about 1:00 pm and in the distance we could see two people. Antonio proceeded towards them and they came to assist. Let’s push us out. Bad idea. We sunk even deeper. Now what? On the horizon, somehow through telepathy a few more men from the nearby village heard the distress call and came to assist. Then several more, then a few women, then some children with their chickens.

For the next 5 hours they walked several hundred metres back and forth to collect rocks, carrying them on their shoulders, the women carrying them on their heads and we dug, and dug, and placed the rocks and tried to get out but there was no way in hell we could get out of the quagmire. The original 7 men and 3 women were eventually joined by what seemed to be the whole village. They argued amongst themselves on the best way to handle this. The hours passed and I kept telling Antonio to call the lodge and have them send a 4×4 to maybe assist. I finally called the truck rental company and they seemed rather nonchalant. Finally, 25 people and chickens and a zebu cart  joined in. I pulled out the heavy duty jack and I jacked up each corner of the vehicle about 4 times (12 times total I think but it seemed like 112), each time placing flat rocks under the wheels until the truck was finally level with the original track. The sun was beating down, we didn’t have anything to eat since breakfast, Joyce was feeling faint, I was feeling a little pissed off because after 12 times of jacking up the truck I was sweating and shall we say a little tired and the men and boys were laughing at me because of my sweat and red white face I imagine and my white hair was not so neatly in it’s oh so white man ponytail. I wasn’t too pleased with the situation but we were ready to give it another try. It was now 6:05 pm and the sun was just below the horizon. One of the men who joined the party late and suggested the jacking up solution was a driver/guide who works in the tourist industry. He asked me if I wanted to back the truck up or should he? I said go for it, I didn’t need any more of this. He did and the final solution worked! We were out, but not quite out of the woods. We of course realized that this would cost us, not a problem but with the original 7 turning into probably 27 people this was really going to add up. It added up to probably $250.00 and it was impossible to please everyone with the payment we gave them, 40,000 Ariary each, about $14.00 CAD or the equivalent of about 7 days of income for the average Malagasy. If we had to wait until the next day who knows what the outcome would be. We figured the truck would have been swallowed up by the mud/quicksand and we would be facing a very large bill and a big change of plans but, it worked out. Hallelujah!

We finally arrived at our lodge, 5 1/2 hours later than planned. It was, take a guess, french run with another scattered brained owner (seems to be the norm here because WTF would want to run a lodge in the middle of nowhere). We had a small dinner and went to bed early looking forward to a relaxing next day. Our morning breakfast was typical, bread, jam, bread, sweet bread, fruit, juice, coffee, bread and an egg fried and rolled so it could be called an omelette. Very typical and we are getting really sick and tired of bread and jam for breakfast! Speaking of sick, after breakfast we went for a walk along the beach. Very remote and pristine and my stomach was becoming very bloated and not so pristine. I was sick for the rest of the day and Joyce also had to visit the upchuck hotel as something she ate hit her also. We had a small pasta dish the night before for dinner and bread and jam and bread and coffee (and some very thin yogurt) for breakfast so I don’t know what hit me but my gut ached to the point that moaning made it feel a little better. Just like a little kid. Fortunately the next morning I felt better because there was no way in hell that we would attempt the 9 hour drive that would follow. Joyce did feel better in the evening and took a few good pics of the area and sunset while I lied in bed moaning and groaning.

Well that was quite the experience and not one we will soon forget. Next stop, Manja.

 

After spending the 26th and 27th at the Residence Eden Lodge in Tulear we met our Pisteur.

A Pisteur is a guide who “intimately” knows roads and the changing conditions of the terrain that would we would drive for the next 6 days.

His name was Antonio and he spoke english, sort of, however without his help navigating the myriad of trails, paths, villages (do we turn right, left or go straight?) that we encountered on our first day we probably would have had a problem driving the route by ourselves.

Our route took us through deep sandy tracks, rocky paths and beautiful seaside vistas. There were a couple of dicey situations but our Nissan 4×4 with locked hubs pulled us through to our final destination.

We drove the “notorious RN5” a little while back and if you recall my first sentence to describe it, it was “Holy Crap! Well, let me tell you here and now the RN5 was a walk in the park, a piece of cake, a sunday afternoon drive compared to what was in store for us over the next few days.

Now to be honest we only drove the RN5 to Mohambo and our understanding is it get seriously worse north of there but oh my god, this, the beginning of our off-road adventure was definitely an eye opener and we really can’t imagine how the RN5 could be worse. Maybe you need winches and stuff to get you through, I don’t know but this was a challenge.

Our destination was Five Senses Lodge, another beautiful wild beach location.

We arrived at about 1:00 pm and had time to relax, had a very nice cheese sandwich for lunch and a delicious meal in the evening. Good preparation for the next day of travel.

The 26th was another sunny warm day and this was the day we would finally hit the south west coast of Madagascar.

We were staying at a french run Resort, The Residence Eden Lodge which was supposed to be about 45 minutes south of Tulear and it was another “here we go again” with our Google Maps and Maps.me navigation systems not necessarily being accurate.

From Isalo NP the road was very good and we made good time. As we approached Tulear our navigation buddies suggested we hang a left off of the RN7 and take the gravel road which would lead almost directly to our accommodation. The road junction had a few signs, none of which mentioned our lodge so we stopped off of the side of the road and contemplated our next move.

Right near the junction there just happened to be a police road stop, which are many when travelling through the country, so we figured we would ask one of the policemen.

None of them spoke english.

Not surprised we showed them our destination on our maps and we showed them the actual village name and address from an email from our iPad. They commiserated and came back to tell us that no, this road you want to take is tres mal! You must go an additional 500 metres down the road and then turn left.

Okay, glad we asked and then proceeded to travel 500 metres, 1 km, 1.5 kms, curse and swear and then turn around and go back to the police stop!

This time there is another fellow who pokes his head into our open window. Maybe he’s undercover because he didn’t have the police issue gendarmerie uniform on but he insisted that we do not take the route our maps suggest. He said drive 5 kms, not 500 metres and then turn left and you will eventually find your hotel and he was absolutely correct!

Our Maps.me did eventually display this new road leading to our lodge and we did verify by stopping several times to ask if we were indeed on the right path and indeed we were.

The last stretch of the road to our lodge was a little sketchy and at one point we drove probably about 1 km along a very narrow road with a cliff on one side and a “you are dead if you go off the edge” drop off on the other side. It kind of reminded us of the Facebook videos that have circulated of some of the mountain side “roads” in the Himalayas but not quite as harrowing fortunately becaused Joyce would have walked right there and then. Most of the road was okay in relative terms so aside for the direction mess up we made it to the lodge in probably 1 hour to cover 30 kms.

The lodge was really quite nice and we had a very large bungalow with living area, outdoor tanning beds and a view of the turquoise waters of the Mozambique channel.

The owners also had a penchant for pets, probably 8 cats and several dogs who acted as if they had never eaten a meal in their life when we would try to enjoy our dinner, breakfast or lunch. They were a big pain in the ass and to top it off, the morning of our departure while eating the standard bread, butter and jam breakfast with a cold “omelette” thrown in to justify the cost, the local pet lemur decided to stop by and steal our banana bread.

We were supposed to meet our Pisteur at the lodge at 9:00 am and finally at 10:00 we received a phone call to inform us his taxi broke down on the way to meet us. Surprise surprise! A little ticked because every hour of travel time is very valuable, we departed the lodge with a 10% discount due to no hot water, hey, it’s an ecolodge afterall excuse, and made our way back along the gravel and rocks to meet up with Antonio, our guide for the next 6 days of off road 4×4 adventure.

 

 

 

Departing September 24th knowing we will miss the extraordinary scenery of Andringitra we hit the road to make our way to Isalo National Park, about 220 kms south west and about 230 kms from the west coast of Madagascar.

The RN7 on this portion of our journey was excellent and we cruised at an average of 80 km/ hr. There were still the occasional surprise potholes but the going was generally smooth and uneventful. Traffic was very light as we passed through wide open vistas of endless uninhabited grassland and distant rocky crags.

The land so far in our travels has primarily been composed of red clay with limited farming potential. The area here seemed unsupportive of agriculture as it was flat and not conducive to building and cultivating rice terraces so villages and people were few and far between, just wide open infertile land.

We reached our destination, Isalo Ranch, in 4 hours. It is such a luxury to be able to travel 200+ kms in 4 hours!

The “Ranch” is a collection of bungalows located right off of the RN7 just outside of the town of Ranohira, the gateway to Isalo NP and the sandstone canyons and forests that dot the most visited national park in Madagascar.

There are 20 nice bungalows, a swimming pool and bar and restaurant area populated by seniors groups seeing the sights in three weeks, couples with their drivers and us, the only couple anyone had met so far who are driving independently through this country.

In our travels to date we have seen maybe 3 cars/4×4 vehicles that had a white driver and white passenger so we know there are others doing what we’re doing but they are few and far between. When the locals ask us if we are with a group or a guide and we tell them no, they seem impressed, it’s unusual, and in our opinion it’s the only way to fly!

Andringitra NP was established is 1962 and is the third largest park in Madagascar. The landscape is giant sandstone canyons, some up to 200 metres deep and lined with tropical forests, meandering creeks and shallow and deep pools among the boulder strewn landscape.

There are several species of diurnal and nocturnal lemurs as well as the elusive and rare Verreaux’s Sifika, aka the dancing sifika. Sifikas are part of the lemur genus but belong to the Indriidae family. These animals run on two feet and can jump up to 10 metres between tree branches. We were told we were very lucky to see this sifika and quite up-close as well.

We also came across Ring tailed lemurs, a large name unknown chameleon and a Madagascar Hoopoe bird.

It was another great hike, the beer was cold back at the ranch and we prepared for our next and first stop on the south western coast.

 

 

The reason Ranomafana is a rainforest is well, because of the rain and it was raining lemurs and chameleons when we departed on the 22nd at about 8:30 am.

We were expecting another 5.5-6 hour drive and this time Google Maps was fairly accurate. We did the drive in 5.5 hours.

The traffic was very light and being a Sunday it seemed there were far fewer trucks and passenger busses on the road which was surprisingly good with few pot holes and some stretches where we could hit close to 80km/hr however the last 45 minutes was gravel, rock and clay with some serious bumps along the way.

Our accommodation for two nights was at Tsara Camp nestled in the Tsaranoro Valley in the Andringitra mountains surrounded by great mastifs in the west and tall craggy peaks in the east. A very stunning location.

Andringitra National Park is a World Heritage designated site established in 1999 and is part of the Rainforests of the Antsinanan and covers 31,160 hectares.

As in most places to date the lodge offered wifi but as we have said many times before the service is actually ” why try”. First world problems but a hassle when you want to keep your blog up to date.

Our lodging was a permanent tent with an outdoor shower with very hot solar heated water, great views, good food, great staff and an a amazing location. The road to access the camp off of the RN7 was about 23 kms and was very bad. A regular car probably couldn’t make it to the lodge so a 4×4 in our opinion is a must. A great place and we highly recommend it.

Some local residents

The area was truly beautiful and we took advantage of it by doing another 4 hour hike and fortunately this time our knees stood up to the challenge.

We walked about 1 km along a dusty clay road with a panoramic view that was out of a travel Madagascar brochure, past a small village to the “Guides” office where we hooked up with Evenie, a young female guide who happened to speak very good english.

She has only been guiding for four months and has plans to continue on in university to complete her nationally recognized guiding certificate. We were told that to become a guide in Madagascar requires about four years of study and apprenticeship. Guides are required to know the latin and local names of all of the flora and fauna of the area, the medicinal properties of the flora as well as the cultural and historical facts of the area(s) they guide.

We hiked for 4 hours through mostly flat trails with some challenging vertical thrown in.

Wandering through the “Sacred Forest” we saw many stone constructed markers which identified the location of tombs. They were scattered throughout the forest, in the hundreds, and housed (is that the right term?) generations of families that have lived in the area.

While we were strolling along we came upon a small group of hikers that were staying at our lodge. Two of the people in particular seemed to have big chips on their shoulders that we had noticed/felt earlier.

As we crossed paths they commented to the effect that the hike was a waste of time, they only saw one lemur, it was hot outside, my bunions are hurting etc. etc. We don’t have time for people like that but what caught our attention was the lemur comment.

For some reason we weren’t aware there were lemurs in the area and as it turns out there are two diurnal species and three nocturnal species! Missed that in my research.

Within about twenty minutes of our meeting we encountered four Ring Tailed Lemurs and then ten minutes later another 15 Ring tails. As we weren’t expecting this it was definitely a big highlight of our hike. Fantastic!

The first group of lemurs seemed quite timid with our presence but with the second group we were able to get quite close. We were told that since so many hikers come through part of area they have become habituated to human presence.

With the sun high above us the temperature was hitting close to 35 C as we descended our final leg of the hike. On our way we passed an exposed tomb bearing skeletal remains. The remains were those of several Betsileo people who live on the other side of the Andringitra mountain range. These people had stolen the prized zebu from the local Bara people and their punishment was death. The tomb has been exposed to act as a warning.

The knees were holding up but we were getting pooped and we bid farewell to Evenie and trudged back the 1 km to our lodge for a small lunch and a well deserved siesta.

Chameleon Mountain

That evening after dinner in the restaurant we were treated to some local music and dancing.

This was not your “typical” tourist oriented crap that you might expect to find at some all-inclusive 4 star hotel. The musicians came from the local villages and the dancers were most of the staff at the lodge. It was great entertainment.

We’ve searched high and low throughout our travels through 12 countries in Africa to date and it is so difficult to find this kind of entertainment and although the show was short it was a great way to end a great day!

 

Another long drive (6 hours) to cover a relatively short distance (238 kms).

The roads aren’t too bad aside from the standard pot holes, but they are winding, very winding, through hilly and semi- mountainous terrain. The going isn’t bad until you come up behind a truck or one of the many overcrowded, smoke spewing passenger vans (taxi-brousses) that ply the entire country. Then you have to wait and wait until there is a short straight section in the road. And then you go for it!

You really do go for it because (a) there probably will be another vehicle approaching the curve ahead of you and (b) there is hopefully a patch of road that doesn’t have a tire destroying pot hole right in the passing lane.

The scenery as mentioned is hilly and mountainous with small villages scattered throughout. The mode of transportaion in many of the village is by pousse-pousse, essentialy a rickshaw with young men running barefoot up and down the pot holed streets barely breaking a sweat.

It is estimated that between 1 and 2 % of the remaining forests are destroyed each year and a staggering 80-90% of the land burns each year.  The forests are gone and the land is bare and terraced and made to support the growing of rice and other foodstuffs.

We have read that upwards to 90% of the original forests that covered Madagascar not that long ago have been destroyed and the only forest remaining are in the national parks. To add to this dilemma, one Asian country in particular are here raping, through illegal logging by the locals, the remaining Rosewood trees.

They’ve removed them all from SE Asia and now they are here doing the same. I won’t go into this but suffice it to say, as in all of the other African, South Asian and Asian countries we have visited, let’s just say there is a country involved that is not well liked, at all by many.

We stayed at Setam Lodge which is about 1 km inside of the park boundary. It is nestled on a hillside and there is a very steep stair climb from where we parked our truck. This was a good prep for our next day when we headed out on a so called “easy” trek into the rainforest in search of the Common and Golden Lemurs, both highly threatened and only found in this rainforest.

The view from our bungalow

Ranomafana National Park is 41,600 hectares of tropical rainforest and was established in 1991 after the discovery of the very rare Bamboo Lemur. It is a World Heritage Site and is part of the Rainforests of Ansinanana and is an excellent example of the cloud forests with very high diversity that once flourished in the area.

After a breakfast of bread, yogurt and bread with jam, oh and a small glass of juice and some lukewarm coffee (a very typical Malagasy breakfast), we met our guide and walked uphill along the road for 1 km to reach the entrance to the start of several hiking routes through the forest.

Exhausted after the inclined walk, just kidding but I did feel a little winded because hey, we’ve been driving and essentially sitting on our butts for the past two months, we proceeded into the entrance of the rainforest, straight up!

The sky was cloudy, heavy cloudy and after only a short heart attack inducing climb of about 10,000 feet it started to rain. It felt like 10,000 feet but was probably only about 300 feet. Our knees were feeling good, the mud and clay and tree roots were getting wet and slippery and we were on our way deep into the heart of one of the last remaining rainforests in Madagascar. We took the “easy” 4 hour trek. As I write this from my hospital recovery bed I can tell you here and now that it wasn’t that easy. Maybe for a 20 year old but…

It wasn’t really that bad and I do tend to exaggerate but it was a challenge and it was well worth the sore knees, the drenched cloths and muddy hiking boots.

We did “see” the highly endangered Golden Bamboo Lemur but unfortunately high in the forest canopy. We also caught site of the Greater Bamboo Lemur, the Paradise flycatcher and then were treated to about six or seven Common Brown Lemurs just outside our lodge after the hike. A nice finish to a good day.

After a hot shower dinner time. Zebu and beans with watercress. Yummy!

Our route for the next three + weeks.

We set out on the 19th for an overnight pit stop in Antsirabe, about 180 kms and a 4 1/2 hour drive from Tana .

Having to partly drive through Tana with the congestion and pedestrians and oxcarts and vendors and chaos, we departed our B&B slightly anxious and we had no choice but to trust our Google Maps advisor. The coffee served in Madagascar is very strong so this didn’t help with the butterflies we were feeling when we set out on what we knew would be a challenging venture to just get out of the city but we made it out without a hitch. It took about 45 minutes to reach the RN7, the main road we’ll be driving until we hit Tolaria on the west coast in about a weeks time.

When we finally got close to our lodge, very close in fact, there was a fork in the gravel road. The road to the right looked like nice gravel and the road to left looked like a 4×4 only road. You can probably guess which road Google Maps told us to follow so we did, we took the left turn. I didn’t really think a nice lodge would have such a dodgy road but up on the hills in the distance looked like, possibly, a lodge. We slowly proceeded, got held up by an oxcart with only inches of clearance on a steep embankment and continued on at about 2 km/ hr. This couldn’t be the right road and fortunately ahead we saw a women walking and asked if she knew Residence Madalief Lodge. Yes she did and she pointed up in the hills behind us. I knew it! Now the trick was how to turn around. There was steep hillside on the right and a steep embankment on the left. Hmmm. A little further ahead after a very narrow approach there was room to do a little truck dance. Turn, move a little forward, back up and turn, move a little forward and turn and repeat. We discussed in hindsight that we need to take more pictures of these kinds of situations. A story is one thing, a picture tells, well, you know.

Some road pics to Antsirabe

Residence Madalief is a nice lodge perched on the hillside away from the hustle and bustle of Antsirabe. The air was fresh and cool and full of a beautiful fragrance from the many flowers that were blooming throughout the grounds. To top it off we had one of the best dinners so far in Madagascar.

Most tourists travel through the country with a driver/guide and a nice 4×4 vehicle and at Madalief, we met a guide named Frank who turned out to be a small saviour.

When we arrived we parked our truck and then noticed that our rear driver side tire was looking a little low on air. We just had new tires put on so figured we must have a small puncture wound. Damn! I hummed and hawed and figured I’d probably have to change the tire in the morning, went to our room and then basically realized that changing the tire the next morning would be a very big pain in the ass so decided to ask the lodge manager if one of his staff could possibly join me and go into town to find a garage and be my interpreter. No problem. Two new guests arrived when I went back to the truck and that’s where we met Frank. I told him about our tire problem, that one of the lodge staff would go to town with me etc. etc. and without hesitation he offered to look after it for us. He is from Madagascar he proclaimed and besides, he needed to go into town for something to eat so he would be happy to take the truck, have it repaired, eat and then return. And that he did and that lifted a potentially huge burden off of our shoulders. I wish now we had asked him for the name of the company he works for because we would definitely give him/them a big thumbs up and we know by talking to the couple from Belgium that he was driving that he is a great driver and a great guy!

Our tire repaired, a great meal, a couple of beers and off to bed to get set for our next 6 hour drive to Ranomafana National Park the next morning.

After a short 3 night stay on Ile Sainte Marie we hopped a short flight back to Antananarivo. The flight took just over 45 minutes. When we added up the time it took to ultimately drive to Mahambo where we caught the ferry to Ile Sainte Marie plus only the ferry crossing time it was well over 20 hours of travel time. Maybe next time we just fly there and back!

We spent 2 nights at a very nice little hotel, K’meleon, about a 5 minute drive from the airport. The staff were excellent with one of the owners speaking very good English and the prices were very reasonable. The hotel and our room were immaculate and the toilet flushed! Our room cost per night was just under $25 CAD, a large  650 ml Three Horses Beer was $1.80 CAD and the restaurant served excellent quality meals for excellent prices. Our total bill was $123 CAD for 2 nights and included 2 very nice dinners, 2 breakfasts and shall we say “several beers” and some good South African White wine. To put this in perspective, our room tonight (which we had booked and put a down payment on many moons ago), Susie’s Place, cost just under $90 CAD per night, a 650 ml THB is twice as much at $3.60 CAD and the breakfast, although included is barely enough to feed a starving pidgeon. A very big difference and on a value-for-money basis K’meleon wins hands down. And yes, the toilet flushed at Susie’s as well.

On the evening of our arrival we met a very nice French Canadian Botany Professor from Montreal and spent the evening on the outside terrace discussing the Trans Canada Pipeline, federal transfer payments to Quebec and then settled down to some good old conversation about life, the universe and everything. Luc was a very nice man and it was a pleasure to meet him. Joyce and I both enjoyed his company.

That evening we arranged a 1/2 day tour of the city and at 9:00 am the next morning we headed off into the chaos of Antananarivo.

Antananarivo, or the original Tananrive means ” The city of thousand” is congested and the air very polluted.  It sits at 4,186 feet above sea level and most modes of transportation use diesel so the air is thick with particulate and hazy with the blue smoke from single and double cylinder engines. I find it intersting when you ask someone the population of their city. As was the case with Soweto, the census versus the local belief was way out of whack and so is the case in Tana. We asked our driver the population of the city and he said 7 million.  The latest census in 2012 estimated the population at 3 million. I guess it’s possible that another 4 million moved here in the past 7 years but it seems unlikely but Tana is not just Tana so the whole metropolitan area must be included. Either way, it sure seems like there are 7 million people squashed into an area that boundries 9 km north to south and and 6 km east to west.

Regardless of the traffic, smog and congestion it is always interesting to get out and see the real life day to day existance of any cities populace. There are several sites to see in Tana but with about 4 hours to spend and hoping to miss the rush hour traffic (it all seemed like rush hour!), we decided to just visit one site, Le Palais de la Reine.

Ler Palais de la Reine. or Queens Palace is located on the highest hill in Tana but due to a devasting fire in 1995 it is mostly empty but we had a guide who was able to explain to us some of the historical insights of this palace built for Queen Ranavalona in the 17th century. Photos were not allowed in the partly refurbished palace so, not much to post and to get into the history, the French colonization etc. etc. would require far more bandwidth than we have right now so I will leave it to you, our dear readers to do a little Googling on the subject matter.

We departed on the 13th by ferry from Mahambo to Ille Sainte Marie.

The ferry was supposed to leave between 10:00 and noon and departed at just past noon with the boarding process starting at 10:00.

There is no dock or pier for the ferry so a small boat makes trips back and forth carrying cargo and passengers.

We boarded the ferry at about 10:30 and sat in the inside lower section of the boat where the engine fumes started to become everwhelming after a short period of time. They left the engines running the whole two hours that the boarding process took but fortunately there was Malagasy music videos playing on the front TV screens, but even this became a little overwhelming after a while.

The crossing was supposed to take three hours but took four and at times it seemed like the boat was hardly moving. With a capacity of about 220 people, I guess they take their time so as not to induce too many vomiting episodes as the sea was quite rolling.

Fortunately there was a dock at our destination so the disembarkation process was a lot quicker and smoother. We were met by a tuc tuc and driven about 2 kms away to Libertalia, a nice French run and owned resort situated on the palm lined shores of the Canal de Sainte Marie/Indian Ocean.

The island was a popular base for pirates in the 17th and 18th centuries and a pirate cemetary relpete with skull and crossbones grave markers still exists near the main town of Analanjirofo.

The island is tropical and driving the main road was very similar to driving some of the small coastal roads in Jamaica.  

We unfortunately ended up doing very little exploration due to the fact that on the evening of our arrival I had 1 beer, a snack and then at dinner time turned white and made a mad dash back to our room where I threw up what seemed like the past 3 days of any and all liquid I had consumed, so I wasn’t really in the exploration mood. I wasn’t sick per se after this episode but just felt “off”.

If we had one more day we would have rented an ATV and gone off and checked out the island. What can you do? These things happen sometime.

Our bungalow was set just back from the seaside and beside a nice infinity pool and long pier which extended to a small rock island. Unfortunately you couldn’t swim off of the beach as there were sea urchins and coral and was grassy when the tide was out and very shallow when the tide was in. You could however swim off of the end of the pier and there were some nice coral formations but not many fish.