Tana back to London – 7 Nov 2010

We had our wake up call at 4.45am, a quick breakfast with disgusting zebu milk. Roberto had had a very agitated sleep due to the side effects of Malarone but I was ok on my Doxycycline.

There was no traffic on the road at 5.30am so we got to the airport pretty quickly but there were lots of people on the streets already – many going to church for the 6am service !!! It was already very sunny though. The drive to the airport was lovely, with lots of very green paddy fields all along the way...

We then had to wait patiently at the airport, trying to avoid all the people who wanted to change euro coins for bank-notes. I made the ‘mistake’ of helping one guy out and then 10 wanted my bank-notes. I had to say I needed to draw a line... butI felt so bad about it.

The Corsairfly flight was fully booked and the meals were very boring (all vegan). The films weren’t great either and my seat didn’t have any sound ! I managed to swap with Roberto as the sound track for the movies was in French so he preferred to listen to his iPod.

We got back to Paris on time and got the RER pretty quickly. As a result, we managed to get an earlier EuroStar. They kindly let us swap our ticket though we had paid for ‘non exchangeable’ in view of the fact that we had travelled from so far and had our flight ticket to prove it.

It meant I was back home for 11pm and in bed by midnight... Thankfully, there wasn’t a lot of time difference between Mada & the UK. I was dreading the cold weather but as I was well wrapped, it was ok. I queued for a cab home as I couldn’t face busing it so late.

We came back with over 3,000 pictures between us and Roberto felt it was the most interesting trip he’d ever been on as it was the first time he’d encountered poverty on such a scale. He found it quite an eye opener.

We would really like to go back one day and explore the East (though it’s very wet) or West. We were actually originally booked to spend 2 days in Morondova on this trip but Air Madagascar cancelled our internal flight 3 weeks before departure so we had to cancel.... we were gutted. Morondova is the main reason I wanted to visit the country in the first place (+ the lemurs) so I will have to keep trying... wealth & health permitting !

I realise that this is not my most interesting blog by far but I’m relying on it to become my memory later since I don’t tend to remember much unless I photograph it or write it down. I’d say it’s ‘old age creeping in’, but, in truth I’ve always been like that.... so.... !!!

The next trip will be India from 24 Feb to 5 March....

Tulear to Tana – 6 Nov

We had to be picked up at 5.45am to get to the airport on time but it didn’t feel too painful as it was warm and sunny already. It only took us 35mins to reach Tulear with a jeep as we could then do 60km/hour average. What a breeze.

Our flight was on time and only 45mins later than the original scheduled departure time. Sometimes it can be up to 10 hours behind ! Air Madagascar have limited the number of planes they have so if one doesn’t get back on time from Tana, everything gets affected.
We heard that last year the US gave $100 million to help the poorest in the country but the President kept 80 million for himself, gave his next-in-command 13 million and so only 7 million went to the poorest. There’s no follow-up though. And knowing how much corruption there is in Africa, it’s hard to understand why the USA would even DO that. Coup d’Etats are frequent so when people make it to the top they know they only have a short window of opportunity to stuff their pockets.

We arrived in Tana at 10am and as we still had our driver with us the whole day we decided to go and explore the Lemurs’ Park. It had a beautiful open terrace overlooking a valley and it was a little oasis 22kms away from the capital’s hustle & bustle. However, we were not allowed to touch or feed the 6 species of lemurs that they have there.

We had a nice lunch and then went onto the Botanical gardens and the zoo. I really wanted to see a fossa but we only saw 2 sleeping, sadly. Some makis were on an island but most were in cages that were filthy (lemurs don’t have much of a digestive system, so they process food pretty fast :). It was also difficult to take decent pix of them behind bars. We really wanted to see the aye-aye enclosure as there are so few left in the wild but it was being refurbished so we never got the chance. SO frustrating as this was our main goal.

The best part for me was to be taken “backstage” and have some lemurs lick my fingers (dipped into honey for an extra treat). We saw one species with amazing blue/green eyes and also some pretty crowned lemurs with orange fur on top of their head. They have very delicate fingers (no claws) and unlike monkeys they will eat bananas with the skin – they don’t peel. They are very very gentle but don’t like being stroked (you can’t have it all – sigh).

We then went onto the flower market and were hoping for panaromic view of the city but there was too much smog caused by fires.

We had dinner back at the pizza place behind Le Chalet des Roses and were a bit sad to see so many white men eating out with black prostitutes. Some of these girls looked so terribly bored. They guys hardly talked to them. We later saw some of these men on the plane back to Paris the next day and it was odd to see them with their (much older) wives and knowing what they’d been up to.

Mangily – 5 Nov 2010

On our last full day we went back for another trip on the lagoon as the pirogue ride was really pleasant and Roberto enjoyed another swim fix. The boat couldn’t keep up with him sometimes! He tried to go and have a look at the fish in the Impasse but the waves were too strong. We went back to Ifaty for more photos and then back to our hotel after lunch. We had a pizza on the beach first and talked to the owner, an Italian man who said he will soon move up North because there is now nothing left in Tulear and Ifaty. We discussed the impact of population growth on the environment and he agreed but said the government doesn’t care enough to apply the same rules as they did in China (i.e. only one child per family). ‘They are too self-centred’. He said that to have any chance of seeing a healthy coral reef down South you need to go to Salary but it’s impossible to go there with a normal car. You need to hire a 4x4 and take a tent as there is no hotel nearby either. It’s about 80kms North of Mangily. I couldn’t even find it on the map but most locals would know how to guide people there.

We then took another zebu cart to go to the Mangrove area... it was fun though after a while it felt a bit tough on my back and neck. But we took great pix of children who were so proud to pose for our camera and then had such a giggle reviewing the pictures. We passed many taxi-brousses with people being completely cramped on these dusty hot roads and so we felt a whole cart to ourselves was quite a luxury in comparison.

Ifaty & Spiny Forest - 4 Nov

Right after breakfast we enjoyed a lovely ride in a pirogue over the shallow waters. It was very pleasant with a warm breeze and great water colour with all shades of greens. We stopped at Ifaty, a fisherman’s village, for a few photos. There were no tourists there though but, again, it felt quite safe. Kids loved having their photos taken. Some had orange hair and I was told later that it’s due to lack of vitamins in their diet.

We sailed back to the main beach for lunch and then went to our hotel for a 2H rest to escape from the unbearable heat (38C or so). It was just too hot to do anything much. We wanted to ride a bicycle to a mangrove area, about 6kms away, but (a) we couldn’t find any decent bikes to hire (no brakes) and (b) we were told that we’d find cycling in the sand very difficult if not impossible and (c) far too hot.

As a result, we booked a drive in a zebu cart to explore the boabab & spiny forest. You could tell that though it was officially protected, a lot of trees had been chopped down already and it was a sad but probably fair estimate that if you came back in 5 years' time, there might be no more forest left at all. We didn’t see many birds but they had some parrots there.

The kid who owned the zebu cart had a little dog who followed us around and the dog was quite happy to follow until we would stop and turn round to take his picture. If we did, he would then go and hide behind a tree or under the cart. I was a bit puzzled by that as most animals respond quite favourably to my attempt at talking to them but the kid explained that he wasn’t used to white people so white skin was scaring him. It actually seemed quite plausible since British guide dogs, when they are puppies, need to be introduced to black people as soon as possible so that they don’t get “spooked” later if they see one on the street when they are working :)

There wasn’t much grass either around Manily. In fact, it had only rained 24 hours all in all over 3 years. However, zebus need grass to feed on and people need zebus to survive too. Without them, they cannot work the soil and so zebu thefts were quite common. People going to Tulear had to travel in convoy to avoid attacks. Their zebu was their wealth. Some people had to resort to chopping down boababs (though they are protected by law) as the zebus love eating the inside of it as it has lots of minerals. There are “gardes forestiers” to keep an eye on the forest ‘but as soon as they have their backs turned, we may need to chop them’... I saw with my own eyes a whole truck load of boababs pieces and one just wanted to weep. Nature is fighting a lost battle in Madagascar it seems.

Zombitse & Mangily – 3 November

The morning after we enjoyed a spectacular drive (with more amazing rock formations along the road) for about 30 minutes but then the ‘scenic factor’ plummeted as we were back into a large area of deforestation with nothing whatsoever to look at for 2 hours. And I mean, flat, flat, flat... Totally heartbreaking. The need for charcoal is what is killing the country. People need it to cook rice (to boil water) and to keep warm at night.

The main ‘green’ bit in this vast deserted area was Zombitse National Park with a colony of Sifakas and other nocturnal lemurs. The sifakas were like white polar bears and looked ever so cute. Too cute to be true in fact. And they were so near the road side, it was really sad to realise that their lives & survival was so very fragile. We also saw some hoopoes and 2 large owls sitting on a tree branch and a cute little brown lemur hidden inside a tree trunk with a very worried look on his face... so we didn’t disturb him for very long. He looked so vulnerable.

The guides were great and much needed as they know where to find all these animals. I can assure you that you’d never find them on your own. They also have, inside Zombitse, a special type of bulbul that is found no where else in Madagascar.

Then we went back into the car for yet more boredom until we got to Tulear when we started to see some palm-trees. It felt like ages since I’d seen a tree and it was good to stop there for lunch.

The drive onto Mangily took a good hour as we couldn’t travel at more than 25kms/hour since the whole track was pure sand. Our hotel was about 15mins walk from the beach too which was hugely disappointing. But the owner, Eduard, was a lovely French man who had married a local woman and was telling us about her family’s expectations to pay for all their medical bills, etc. He also explained that there is no hospital in Mangily so if anyone has a serious problem (a stroke for instance), they won’t survive it.

The food was very good and the hotel was part of the Bel Avenir community project to raise funds for destitute children. All the profits from the hotel went into funding this projecct. They give the kids a 3 day break and take them to the sea (as some had never seen the sea) or whatever they would enjoy.

The bedroom was lovely (there were only 3 of us on site out of 22 bedrooms available) but it had no A/C, nor a fan (everything was operated by solar panels) so it was quite hot at night. It had a nice pool but it was a bit small.

We waved our driver good-bye and then stayed on for 2 days to relax by the sea.

Roberto went to the beach for a swim but I preferred to stay in the safety of the hotel as I was worried that someone would steal our belongings. However, there was no internet after 5pm so the evenings did drag a bit. Thank God Roberto had his laptop so that we could browse through some of our pictures to kill time.

I had time to have a good chat with the waiters there and was just appalled to see how little responsibility they felt towards children and women. Some orphanages had children in there who still had their parents, but they already had 15 kids and could not handle any more. I questioned why as it seemed madness to me to keep on having children when there is obviously not enough food for them all but he said that ‘children are a gift from God and the only treasures we have’ so they don’t care if they can feed them or not. It doesn’t seem to be an issue. ‘If we can, we do, if we can’t, we don’t’. He said that it’s quite common for a man to marry a girl, have 4 kids with her, then move on to marry a 2nd one, have 4 kids with her, then move onto a 3rd one, etc. I asked if they felt any responsibility for financially supporting their ex-wives raise their kids and he just shrugged his shoulders as if to say ‘why should we? No, we don’t give them any money’. Most girls have their first child at 16 as sex is free entertainment. Besides, women don’t believe in contraceptives, they prefer to take tea with properties to prevent pregnancies (you’d think that by now they would have realised that their tea doesn’t work !). There were children everywhere, playing happily on the beach, all getting along very well... and Roberto pointed out that ‘it may not be our idea of being happy, but whether we understand it or not, they are or at least look happy’... but I kept looking past the childhood years of blissful ignorance and was wondering how these kids would ever find a job or enough food to feed their own family one day. And just as importantly, how feeding their future families will damage the environment further.

It sounded like a very sad state of affairs. In the meantime, because of over-reproduction the lagoon was agonising... there was no fish and no turtle in sight for miles on end... not ONE. They had totally over-fished it and fishermen had to go out further & further beyond the barrier reef in the hope of catching anything at all. There was only a tiny bit coral reef, the Massif des Roses (80 m2) out of a 35km2 marine park that was preserved, thanks to the efforts of an English couple. A guy on a boat, with his son, would collect 2,000A, i.e. a 60p fee (equivalent) for anyone who wanted to take a dip to enjoy the corals... but they were of such poor quality, recovering so slowly, that one dip was enough. We declined going back again next day. After Mayotte, it was just too sad... though there was a great diversity of fish, strangely. But the corals looked more dead than alive and it was heart-breaking. And yet the 60p probably fed this man’s family daily and proved the point nicely that preserving the environment paid off more than destroying it.

Isalo National Park – 2 November.

We drove to Isalo from 7.30am (we couldn’t wait to get there !) and had to have a guide with us, as it was compulsory. We first thought that a guide really should be optional but it does give jobs to the local people and they do find insects for you that you would never find with your untrained eye, so they are actually quite valuable.

The first trek we did was to the Canyon des Makis. It took 45mins to walk from the car park to the entrance and it did look quite barren on the way but it was a whole different world once you stepped it. It totally blew me away. It was nothing like I had expected: pretty crystal clear streams, lots of lush aquatic plants... A true oasis.... and I was... well, spell-bound is the word. It was so, so beautifully lush and so different from any trek I’d ever done before, climbing over rocks (with steps cut into them)... No handrail anywhere though, so, not very safe for anyone with balance problems. Good shoes were needed too, with a good grip. We stayed till 11am and walked as far we could go without ropes. In fact, most people stopped half way and turned round (big groups with older people couldn’t do this for instance, or they only had half a day) but we could have gone on & on & on... Every few meters was different and spectacular. I was really sad when we had to leave. Everybody doing this canyon should allow at least 3 to 4 hours to make the most of it and take lots of pictures.

There was a beautiful stream with a large area in the middle where people would go in knee deep to refresh their feet but we were asked not to swim in it as the local people depended on the water for their drinking needs. A bit frustrating but then, it looked much prettier for pictures with no one in it.

We then headed towards the Canyon des Rats (though, I haste to add, they are long gone) but we couldn’t go very far in that one and not reach its famous waterfall with seemingly black waters because a fire had burned ¾ of the path to access it and it was sealed off for safety reason. We found a cool natural pool where we could go for a refreshing dip but we couldn’t really venture out much further, sadly. We did have our picnic there though as it was so quiet with no one else around – except for a few local kids who knew our guide and had followed us. Nice kids though. Didn’t beg for money or anything, just happy to ‘tag along’. They all had ’10 brothers & sisters’ which never ceased to amaze me. We saw some beautiful insects there. We didn’t, however, see any of the famous lemurs that are usually found at the entrance of the canyons... We were told that it’s because they couldn’t get used to the sound of the helicopters and were scared off.

It was a 45mins drive to the car park and it was very scenic all the way. A truly gorgeous morning, very rewarding visually.

However, the afternoon was also pretty amazing, in a competely different way. We had to drive an hour to get to the beginning of the trek for the Piscine Naturelle (3kms long to get there). But the journey was as beautiful as the destination as we hiked through weird rock formations that looked a bit like the ones found in NW Australia – with distinctive stripes on the rocks to denote the different sedaments and geological eras. It wasn’t as spectacular as the Grand Canyon but it was pretty neat for Madagascar’s scale.

The pool was another little oasis with a lot of ferns and palms but as it was very popular there were about 25 people sitting by the edge of it and having enjoyed peace & quiet most of the morning, it suddenly felt very over-crowded. However, I just had to go in! The water was fairly warm because it is fed by some hot springs nearby. It would have been crystal clear too except for the fact that as soon as someone goes in they will stir up the white sand with their feet. It’s not a very big pool but I found it quite pleasant. However, not as special as the hike in the Canyon des Makis (that hike was top of my list for the whole trip).

The recommended circuit is normally Namaza (it has several cascading pools) but as I said earlier, access had been closed due to the fire just last month. SO frustrating.

Isalo was probably our favourite day in the whole trip, Roberto was gutted to have to move on so soon and would have loved to hike for 5 days but we were told that the longer hikes are quite difficult and people have to set up tents for you, etc. it’s not always easy to find a guide for 5 days either.

Anja Reserve – 1st Nov

Before we left Ambalavao we asked if we could walk around the town for a good 30mins to take some pictures. It was a very pleasant way to discover this very colourful little town with its many wooden balconies and it looked extra nice against blue skies.

We then had a long boring drive ahead of us, taking us through the Plateau d’Horombe, very high up, with no vegetation.

We then eventually reached an area of stunning landscape with large granite rocks dotted around the land and stopped at La Reserve d’Anja. It is famous for its scenery and its 3 colonies of ring-tailed lemurs. We loved every minute we spent there and is an absolute ‘must’ along the N7... there were babies everywhere (we must have seen about 40) and the rock climbing was fun and helped us get a bird’s eye view of this majestic area. It really is a must-see and one should never head for Isalo without a long stop at Anja.

We even visited a kind of small cave that was the ‘lemurs’ meeting room’. Our guide explained that lemurs do tend to hold meetings, pretty much as featured in the Madagascar Disney movie. Such large caves are where they socialise, play and sleep at night, away from eagles.

Anja also has some famous tombs high up in the cliffs. Bodies are left there to decompose and when the flesh is gone, the bones are taken down again for a proper burial. The art of buryinge people is quite significant in Madagascar and every Malgasy’s dearest wish is to be buried back in their native land.

We found out that some lemur species, such as the Sifaka, never drink, they get enough moisture from the leaves they eat.

We had a nice lunch there (climbing down from the rock with ropes as it was too steep) and then had to tear ourselves away, rather painfully, from this beautiful place.

We had to get to Ranohira by 4.30pm. However, once again, it was way too soon as there was nothing to do once we were in town. We had asked if we could stay in Anja some more but our driver had said it was best to go on... we were therefore not too happy to be back in our hotel far too early – with no internet connection either.