Leaving Madagascar & the sadder side of it

The guy who picked me up to take me to the airport was a lovely Malagasy man, very passionate about his country but very aware of its flaws as well. We had a really interesting chat about the state of the country, its past and its potential future (or lack of) and here are some ‘facts & figures’ that speak volume about how lucky we are to be born in a Western world when 98% of the local population are deprived of basic health care.

This conversation started because as I came out of the hotel a woman approached me wanting to sell me a table-cloth for 1 euro (she’s probably spent 30 hours on it). I said ‘I’m sorry, I don’t have a table to go with it but you can have 2 euros for nothing, I don’t need your table cloth, thanks anyway’. Well, no sooner had I given her the bank-notes (there are no coins in Madagascar) that my driver told me off gently saying ‘2 euros is TOO much, you’re raising expectations and now you’re going to have 20 kids running after the car while we’re stuck in traffic because they’ve all been watching you, even if you haven’t noticed them’... and sure enough they came. ‘me, me, me’... and then you feel SO bad. One little kid was real persistent though and followed us for ages and I told my driver ‘I am sorry but I have to give him something, it’s just too sad’. So he said ‘let me handle it then, I’ll give him the money, but you stay in the back and keep the windows locked and please don’t give him more 1 euro’. So I did. And I just thanked God I never had to beg so hard in my life to have anything to eat. It’s just so humiliating... though, hopefully, they don’t see it that way. But most people brush them off as if they were just annoying flies when they are people... maybe with not much dignity left, but they are people all the same and God finds them precious.

I took lots of notes as we spoke because I wanted to make sure I would remember it all as accurately as possible.

Probably one of the facts that upset me the most was to be told that only 2% of people can afford health care or dental care. This means that if you are bleeding to death and can drag yourself to a hospital, the first question they will ask before they even take a look is ‘how much can you afford ?’, if you can’t afford anything, will be asked to join the back of the queue and will be ‘seen in due course’, when they know full well that most people will die waiting.

Most women give birth at home as well and 4 in 1,000 will eventually die as friends and family cannot always help if there are complications.

Some organisations like Medecins Sans Frontieres do come over regularly to offer their skills but most volunteers only stay 3-4 weeks and then go back not to burn out because they are so overwhelmed by the need and if a ‘mobile clinic’ opens anywhere, there can be 50,000 people A DAY asking to be seen.

Even when boys are circumcised, it’s done with a sharp bamboo and no pain-killers or anything. So if the ‘doctor’ who does the procedure is experienced, it’s already quite painful but if he’s not it’s excruciating. No female circumcision.

95% of people on Nosy Be who are employed, have a job in the tourism industry. However, this still leaves 74% of people unemployed who get no dole money whatsoever. If you don’t work, you’ve had it basically.

Because of this dire situation it is quite common for parents to encourage their young daughters to have sex with ‘the white man’ (the ‘vaza’) in case a relationship develops. The ultimate goal for a black teenager is to be married off to a white man to have any hope of a future. As a result of these sexual relationships, 34% of girls aged 13+ are ‘single mothers’. They won’t use the pill because they don’t believe in medication. They only believe in plants and are told that if they drink a certain mixture of leaves, they won’t get pregnant. However, when they do get pregnant, most are not distraught as they secretly hope it will keep the white man coming back. However, as you can imagine, most guys do not have that kind of future in mind and the girls can never trace the fathers again, leaving generations of ‘cafe latte’ men (their description, not mine) with no father figure around.

I did mention that I’d seen some truly beautiful girls with some really ‘old, fat and bald’ men having dinner and he said ‘that’s normal, that’s the type they like best’... I said ‘why? Because if they are fat it means they have plenty of money to pig out on food and if they are old it means they will hopefully die soon with a big bank account?’, he laughed and said ‘yes, I think it’s a pretty accurate guess’. But it’s actually a huge ‘honour’ for the family if one of their girls marries a ‘vaza’, it’s their equivalent of ‘hitting the jackpot’.

If they get pregnant and are too young the girls are taught to drink a herbal tea that will make them abort a week later and then another tea to stop them haemorraging but it doesn’t always work.

Thankfully, because the ‘white man’ is more educated on sex matters than the ‘black man’ and because the girls are only interested in sleeping with white men, the HIV virus hasn’t really spread as much as on the mainland. Only 1.5% of people are HIV, which is way below the 30-40% that occur in most East African countries.

Women can also be bought by black men by giving her family a zebu. My guide knew a guy who had 32 wives, one in each village, that he hardly saw, but they were happy with the zebu as it was much needed.

I asked whether young boys were also in demand (as they are in Asia, by homosexual men) and my driver said that only 4 in one million Malagasy would be homosexual. It’s totally taboo over there and the ones who are never ‘come out of the closet’ for fear of being reprimanded or shaming their family. Once people know about their sexual inclination they will be whistled at or made fun of, with people pointing the finger at them, etc. They are given a really hard time, so, to avoid all this, they may exchange emails and meet in secret and usually try to hook up with French men who come over to meet them so that they can indulge behind closed doors but they can never go public. He said that though there is no law that says you can’t have sex with a minor, the underwritten rule that it would be with girls only if so. If any man was found having sex with a young boy “the people would take the law in its hands and would probably kill him on the spot” such would be the outrage – and the government would turn a blind eye in agreement.

Amazingly, the government has never enforced any strict law to say that ‘sex with minors is unlawful’ here because they know full well that it’s yet another case of ‘force majeure’ where it’s a matter of life or death.

He told me that once he was taking a guest to his hotel and he happened to see an old man hold a very young girl’s hand and checking in with her. So he went to the manager of the hotel and said ‘if you give this bastard a room, I’ll report you to the police’ and the manager shrugged it off and said ‘go ahead... but we have authorisation from the girl’s parents that they are ok with this, so you don’t have a leg to stand on’. He added ‘and sure enough, in every hotel it says “sex with minor is not legal unless you have secured a written authorisation from her parents”. It’s really perverse. And to make matters worse, her parents happened to witness this scene and then came to my guide and said ‘who do you think you are to interfere? Don’t you want our daughter to have a chance at a better future ?’.

However, unlike in Gambia where I was offered sex on a plate on a regular basis, here men are a lot shyer about offering sexual favours because they don’t feel their French is good enough to chat up French women.

He explained that what is ruining his country the fastest is the population growth “A typical Malagasy couple will want to have 14 children, 7 girls and 7 boys. The idea being that the odds will then be in their favour. And sure enough, usually, out of 14, ONE will succeed and be able to provide for all the family”. And he added, if none of the 14 ever amount to much, well then there is hope that among the 14 x 14 children ONE will probably become ‘somebody’. Then the person who makes it (whether it’s the girl who married the vaza or the boy who set up a good business) will be expected to share his income with the whole family, from the great grand mother to the niece.

People who ‘make’ it abroad tend not to come back because it’s too overwhelming. However, out of loyalty and because it’s so in-bred, they will usually send most of their earnings back home. A GP in Madagascar may earn 180 euros in Tana but 3,200 euros in Paris. Needless to say, he’s not coming back ! However, “it’s the dream of every Malagasy person to be buried in the homeland.. so they do come back... eventually... but in a coffin”.

Air Madagascar is owned by the government and they want total control on the air space as of May to be able to increase air fares. They cancel the direct flights from Paris to Nosy Be with Corsairfly and the ones from Italy with Air Italia, forcing people to go via Tana and then taking an AM internal flight, to ‘back-track’ to Nosy Be. This is real inconvenient and adds £250-£350 to the cost of the trip and so most people stop coming to avoid the hassle and wait till the direct flights resume again. The local population is really angry about this because it totally cripples their income and there is no good reason for this kind of policy but the increase in the air fare goes towards stuffing the pocket of politicians a bit more.

He told me that if someone gets to the top of the scale, “within 4 months they can put enough money aside to assure a healthy lifestyle for ALL their descendants for 4 centuries”... well, considering how fast they breed, that’s a pretty staggering equation.

The sad thing is that Madagascar could be a very rich country, with plenty of money for everybody “everything grows here, from spices, to sugar canes, to bananas, we used to be the biggest exporter in the whole of Africa. We also have mines of sapphires, emeralds, silver...” but the leaders are very choosy about who they will allow to settle in Madagascar because they worry they will deplete the country of its wealth (incl. its wildlife). They even imposed a 65 euro fee for a Visa last year to stuff their pocket some more but they had to scrap it under public pressure as no one was coming anymore and people were starving (Tanzania only charges £36 as comparison).

The downside of the Malagasy people is that, if anything, they are too nice “we are so laid back, we’ve never been to war or attacked any other country, we just want a simple life, 3 bowls of rice a day to keep hunger at bay, basic health care and just get by... we don’t have high expectations’ and leaders know that and abuse it by keeping them trapped in poverty by keeping all the profits to themselves.

My driver was so interesting and so passionate about his people that it was a joy talking to him: “I keep telling them to stop having so many children. I’ve got two, I’ve given them good education, they’re doing very well as a result, and it’s a much safer bet !” but he found it was so hard to achieve any kind of ‘mentality shift’. He added that “admittedly, some people are lazy and don’t really want to work hard, they think it’s easier having children who’ll work hard for them... and I used to criticise the laziness of the African people all the time, until I spent one day in a field when it was 45C in the shade and then I realised that I felt so sleepy that my body couldn’t function properly either, so I have a bit more sympathy for some, but not for all’.

I suggested he runs for President ! He said ‘Actually, I don’t want to because I value my integrity too much and I know I’d lose it too if I made it any higher because they ALL do... eventually. They usually start off with a real desire to help the people but end up forgetting their goal so fast, it’s scary”.

He said that from 1975 onwards, it took just one president to ruin the whole country – who then he just went off to Paris to avoid living with the consequences.

In fact the only people who make it to the top in Madagascar all come from the same tribe. The ones who ‘made it’ and escaped poverty chose to invest in their community through setting a fund to educate the children, so that ‘all the kids from the village could have a future’ and ‘it works, they all make it’.

As a French person, I had to ask about colonism and how he felt about our invading his country a few decades ago (1890). Actually, the British had won Madagascar originally (1885) but had to give it up to the French. He said that actually the Malagasy people were much better off under French ruling, “education was free for all, they brought over their text-books, their savoir-faire, built infrastructure, etc, and when they left, in 1960, it all stopped”. There are almost no school books written in the Malagasy language... and besides, who is interested in Malagasy anyway? French or English is what is needed to be able to expand’. When it became independent, the first President made people pay for their education and as a consequence of this policy 58% of people are now illiterate.
Interestingly, Mayotte (a small French island West of Madagascar) has got the very same debate going on at the moment, with a few people fighting for independence but the vast majority voting against it because, having seen how fast Madagascar went downhill after we handed the keys back to the people, they actually feel much safer getting grants from France to fund various schemes.

Who can blame them?

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Useful local contacts:

Evasions Sans Frontieres,
will charge £240 for a “car + driver” for a week.
Esf.nosybe@moov.mg for Nosy Be in particular

http://www.kikoohotel.com/
Tel. 00 261 32 04 185 83
Email: acceuil@kikoootel.com
For excursions near Diego Suarez, to go and see the Red Tsingy, Amber Mountain, the 3 bays, etc.

http://www.mada-evasion.com/boutique/liste_rayons.cfm
(in French & Italian only though) for excursions all over the country.

For excursions near Tana, found great literature and ideas for ‘day trip’ advertised in the Tana Plaza hall:

SICEH Voyages, 36 Ave de l’Independance.
Tel. 22 603 70 / 22 288 91.
Fax. 22 201 08
Email: contact@siceh-voyages.com

The Tana Plaza is based at 02 Avenue de l’Independance.
Tel. 22 218 65 / fax 22 642 19
Email: contact@siceh-hotels.com

Website: http://www.siceh.com/

Guides have French as their 2nd official language and some speak fluent English.


Best time to go:

May was beautifully green with all the paddy fields. Lemurs are mating.

Sept-Oct is when you can go whale watching off Ile Ste Marie (N. East Coast). There will be plenty of flowers.

Oct – Nov Baby lemurs are born in Oct and will be on their mother’s back. +1H of daylight in Nov (it gets dark at 17H40 all other months – too early !). Early Nov is also the best time to see the elusive fossa when he doesn’t mind coming out by daylight to impress the females (the ‘fossa’ is very strange big cat that has some dog-like features and is totally endemic to Madagascar). Check it out !

The rainy season lasts from late November to late March.

MISC:

It rains more often on the East coast. You will only see the indri-indri lemur there though, in one small park (and nowhere else). They are totally white lemurs and can also look quite cute.

I also wanted to see the one that ‘dances’ but these ones are very difficult to see as they only ‘dance’ at 6am to celebrate daylight, then they go into the forest.

To go to Berenty Reserve (where they have ring-tailed lemurs that are quite tame) would mean an extra 3 full days on rough roads and 2 nights in a ‘bivouac’ or in a tent with a portable WC. I wasn’t sure I’d be that brave myself...

The biggest chameleon can be found in the South too, 40 cms long and some of the oldest baobabs too (3,000 – 5,000 years old).

Once you have passed security at Tana airport, you will not be able to change your Aviary notes nor even spend them on anything (all duty-free is euro or dollars only !). I had to ask a lady from security if she could go to the exchange desk on the other side and change my notes for me – which she did. No UK banks will touch Aviarys so it’s ‘dead’ money if you can’t change it – though they do have a ‘charity’ box for disavantaged children (as they always do in airports around the world).

In case of emergency:
Assistance Plus is excellent, even if you have only just called to join them after an emergency has arisen. I met a guy at the airport who contracted a serious infection in his leg after some bacteria got in his skin (through a small, insignicant cut !) and he was getting no joy with the insurance from Nouvelles Frontieres (they hardly picked up the phone) but he joined this local one after the incident happened and within 24H they flew him over to St Denis on Reunion to be hospitalised for a week.

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I came back to a grim Paris at 11.45pm and was lucky that I had been allowed to fly back at all as, unknown to me, the air traffic controllers were on strike at Orly (over retirement age being extended by 2 years) and as it was already +1H in my head, I would not have been too thrilled being delayed much longer (in fact, most planed were “at least 4 hours late” I was told). Thank you Lord !

The last full day in Northern Madagascar

The next day was (already !) my last ‘full’ day in Madagascar. I felt I’d done so much and yet there was so so much more to see.

Our itinerary said we should go to Hellville and see the market (but having passed it the day before, it totally stank of fish and once was enough !) and then go to distillery to see how they manufacture perfume from the local gylan-gylan flower... but I’ve never enjoyed trips to factories and I know we would have been pressured into buying bottles for souvenirs and so I asked if, instead of wasting 2 hours doing this, I could go back to the Nosy Be Lodge to see Pepette once more.

No problem for Atou (this is when small tours are so much better too - not sure it’d have been as easy to be in agreement with 17 people instead of just 2 others).

So, we went there and I bought drinks for everybody as I felt they’d let me choose plus I didn’t want the owner of Pepette to think I was just taking advantage when I wasn’t even staying there. But he was a real nice chap (Eric, a Belgian guy) and had no problem. We were supposed to be there for 15mins but we ended staying for 1h15 and I was blissfully happy. Pepette was so lovely, very affectionate once more, half purring as a way of trying to communicate with me (it seemed). She jumped on my shoulder as soon as I walked past her pole. She was just the cutest little thing.

Eric told me that he tries to let her loose sometimes but she jumps all over the bar in excitement and “breaks like 20 glasses within 20 minutes as she’s SO fast that no one has got time to grab them before she goes flying from one table to another”. So I don’t know how he will ever overcome that. I guess these animals are not meant to be kept as pet, period, no matter how cute they are. Some of the guests I talked to later had a real problem with that. Saying that his wife had her on her shoulder quite a lot “as if Pepette was an accessory when she was real and not a toy”.

Lemurs are such sociable creatures too, I really worried that she’d miss her peers and the inter-action she should be having with them and with her mother in particular. Every time I stroked her she had her eyes half shut with delight as if it reminded her of her mother’s licking or something. Maybe I’m all wrong as she looked quite settled but as much as she was the highlight of my week, I did feel she’d paid a very high price to give me such joy. However, I could not make it better for her except by giving her plenty of attention. Her real family was so far South. There were no other ring-tailed lemurs on Nosy Be (none in the wild anyway).

I heard that they are planning to open a Lemuria Land reserve where they’d exhibit all the species of lemurs that can be found on Madagascar. That would be wonderful as some will always be very hard to see.

Of the 3 species we saw, they were completely different. Lemurs are very much like dogs in that sense where a Dalmatian is nothing like a German sherpard or a poodle.

Patrick’s back was really hurting him by our 6th day so he wanted to play it safe and avoid bumpy roads in case it got worse. Atou dropped him off at a lovely restaurant where we later went for lunch and he took the other Sylvie & I to the top of the island for a panaromic view. It was nice, but again, very Lake District like. Pepette was positively better – good choice on my part.

After our very leisurely lunch (I had a fantastic red carp – my first one but it won’t be my last !) we took Sylvie & Patrick to the Vanilla Hotel as they were going to spend an extra 3 nights there and then fly back to France via La Reunion. I had been very tempted to do that too, but I’m not a beach person and spending 3 days on my own, talking to no one was not going to make me very happy – only more lonely. And of course, I had no idea we’d be getting on so well. Patrick was so funny, he cracked me up most days. He had this very nonchalant way of saying things that were really hilarious. Men definitely have a more wicked sense of humour. I’ve never been that witty – not one of my gifts.

I had a quick shower in their room as it was so hot that we were sweating all day, even when doing very little. And then we said our good-byes, swapped email addresses and all, and maybe one day we’ll meet again, who knows... they’re keen travellers and easy-going travelling companions so I’m keeping the door open.

Atou then dropped me off at Nosy Be airport and the flight back to Tana was only 10mins late and only took 1H 20 I seem to recall.

2 nice guys from EST were waiting for me and took me to my hotel, the Plaza Tana, it was obviously for tourists only. In a nice part of town but I’ve been told that it had started to become difficult to go out due to so many people begging outside. There was even an armed guard at the gate, to protect our valuables, but it also seemed to say ‘you common people don’t belong here’ which made me slightly uneasy but I know that people can do all sorts of things out of desperation and I did feel safer knowing that someone was looking after our interests.

The staff at the Plaza Tana were all so courteous, one could see that they really want you to come back, because, well, their livehood depends on tourism really. Once more, there was only ONE computer for free internet access so when I checked-in, there were already 7 people queuing for it. So I gave up, went to my room, gave a tip to the guy who helped me bring my luggage and he was so grateful that as soon as the computer was free he came back to knock on my door, quite excitingly, as he’d seen my disappointment at not being able to log on. By then I was almost ready for bed but he had been so happy for me and so kind that I went anyway, just to make him feel valued as he so wanted to help.

Nosy Komba, Madagascar

The next stop was Nosy Komba. This was going to be a treat as well as I’d heard that lemurs are so tame that you can feed them bananas. However, bananas had to be ‘rationed’ so that they’d still be hungry for when the next set of tourists would come ashore. Drat... but fair enough. Lemurs are actually really crazy for bananas (very much like monkey – shows it’s in their genes !).

Nosy Komba was a very interesting island. The main trade is to sell you table cloth with beautiful patterns of fish, turtles, shells.... but not having any decent table, this was wasted on me. They also sold lots of little packs of vanilla pods (well, not so little, about 30 pods) for just 10,000 MA = £3.50 equivalent, when I’m sure it’s pretty much £2 per pod in a good supermarket here. Madagascar is one of the biggest exporters of vanilla so you could find it everywhere.

The first stop though was in a restaurant overlooking the beach. It was nothing spectacular but the food was good. I never once got sick. Sylvie did have a dodgy stomach once but that was it. I reckon my malaria tablets (doxycycline) do the trick because it has some properties in there to stop such nuisance as well.

We then went for a walk through the village and headed for the spot where the lemurs tend to come down from the trees and wait for the tourists. The guys in charge of the ‘semi-tame’ lemur split the tourists in two, take them down different paths and then they give you bananas and instruct you to really hold onto them tight because they are very fast and will grab them and take them back to their tree. So, if you want your photo taken you need to hold onto them and then they’ll eat them there & then, from your hand. OK, I can do that. Sounded easy in therory.

So, the guy calls them, with what sounded like a ‘mackee, mackee, mackee’ sound (I didn’t even ask if it meant anything in Malagasy since I figured the lemur wouldn’t know the meaning either !). But they obviously learn to associate the sound with ‘bananas to go’ and do come down. So, as soon as you have one in hand, they come and jump on your shoulders or on your head... Sylvie had one on each shoulder AND one on her head. The most I ever managed was two ! So I lost at that game. The lemurs were very beautiful but completely different from Pepette. The female were light brown with white fluffy ears and the males had a very black and shiny coat. Beautiful creatures really. Lovely yellow eyes. Unusual for the females to be prettier, usually the blokes get the nicest colours to ‘seduce’ as they tend to beg whilst the girls get to ‘pick & choose’. In the lemur world, the females rule anyway (for once !). The only thing they really don’t like is for anyone to touch their long tail. I suspect that some kids some day really gave them a hard time and so it stayed in their memory bank and was passed from generation to generation. But if you don’t go near their tail, they are really tame and ever so soft.

It’s a good thing they are protected by law because I can quite imagine that some women with bad tastes would love fur coats made of lemurs. One is not allowed to eat their meat either, though the same rule supersedes all rules: “sauf en cas de force majeure”... ‘except in a critical situation... where it’s then permitted’. Since 98% of people live under the bread-line, it means that 98% could be exempt from abiding to this law... but from what my guide said, people seem to be sensible enough to realise that the lemurs are a huge attraction for tourists and that they are, therefore, worth a lot more alive than dead.

We walked some more through the village, admiring their beautiful art and paintings. If I had had the space, I’d have bought plenty because I really loved the colours, but I had to make do with taking photos just to remember them. Thankfully, the artists didn’t object.

It then took us about 35 mins to get back to Nosy Be (another bumpy boat ride) and we got to our hotel pretty early, at around 5pm. I thought ‘great, now I can get on the internet and email some more’ but Tuesday was the ONLY day when the internet cafe was closed all day.

We went back to Chez Teresa for dinner (they have the most beautiful rhum made with fresh lemon, or chocolate). They are so friendly in there that we talked with owners till 10.30pm (in between their serving other customers as it was always packed with their regular customers).

Nosy Tanikely, Madagascar

At 8am our driver came to pick us up and boy, was I ready to go. This particular day in our itinerary was the one I was most looking forward to doing (with Montagne d’Ambre – but Montagne d’Ambre had turned out to be a slight disappointment, visually... I expected its lakes and waterfalls to be so much better). Our morning was going to be spent on Nosy Tanikely, a neighbouring island about 20mins away by boat, famous for its crystal clear waters and good snorkelling spots, with plenty of turtles. It did not disappoint. The corals were of pretty good quality, even right off the shore (you didn’t have to venture out very far at all to see lots of formations). It didn’t have the huge variety of fish that you’d find in Australasia (say) but for Africa, it was pretty high standards. I did see about 7 different turtles in 40 mins, which is fairly good ! Once I even swam right on top of one and didn’t even realise until she started moving... and there’s always something pretty neat about swimming near a turtle ! I made sure I gave them plenty of space though because if they feel harrassed they won’t come nesting here again and at least on Tanikely, they are protected. In some other island, the eggs or turtles are taken for the Chinese market where their meat is still highly valued. I once read ‘The Chinese will eat anything that moves’ and it seems, sadly, to be true :(

There was a small light-house that we walked to, to see the view from the top, but it was nothing special. We saw a few wild lemurs but not many. I’d actually brought bananas for them but forgot we’d be in a national park so I was not allowed to give it to them (I should have known better – slapped my wrist !). Good to know they are ‘on the ball’ about these things anyway.
I didn’t venture toooo far out in the open waters though because I’d be warned that there were some strong currents and I did quite tired at some point. It’s so easy to get carried away when the corals look great and you wonder what the next square meter will look like but you must always remember you have to swim back and having no safety jacket I was starting to wonder if I’d make it. I had to aim for the nearest shore and walk on the beach back to my starting point. It was too exhausting to swim all the way back. And yet there were very few waves.

When I got back to the shore and swapped tales of ‘so, what did you see?’, Sylvie and Patrick had not seen any turtle. I was surprised. Sylvie was really tame not to miss out though (not being called Sylvie for nothing !) so I agreed to go back with her after I’d had a 20 mins rest on solid ground.

Strangely, I didn’t see as many second time round, only 1 in 20mins, but we were careful not to exert ourselves. Especially after she’d just told me that she almost drowned once in the Seychelles as she felt she was being carried away by under water currents – and no one saw her struggle or heard her cry for help and so she had to hang onto rocks for dear life and ‘never mind the corals’ when it’s a life & death situation. I can quite imagine I wouldn’t really worry either if my life depended on it.

I’d brought my mask and snorkel (better for hygiene reasons) but fins can take quite a bit of room in a suitcase so I always rent those. I was pleasantly surprised to see that a guy on the island, in his little ‘rental hut’, only rented them for £2 equivalent (5,000 M. Aviary). I’d seen a LOT worse in other parts of the world. In fact Patrick liked his fins so much that he bought them off the guy. I think he got them for £40. When we questioned why they were so expensive in a country where most people £30 a month, we were told that whatever is ‘mainly for tourists’ is ‘tourist price’ even for the local people. So, the guy would not have made a huge profit margin – not like he bought them for £4 or something. Petrol is the other thing that is as expensive here as it’d be in Europe... and one of the reasons why you hardly see any cars on the road. It’s only for the very very very very rich here.

In fact, they have many 4L cars here (taxis mainly, as the suspension is quite good and the roads are quite bad !) and our guide told us that they can usually fit 13 people in one. Thirteen ?? In a 4L ?? HOW SO ??? He said that 5 could squeeze on the front seat. FIVE ??? 13 just defies belief... I dare not imagine the mess if there was a car crash. It’s so hot as well that even with the A/C on and lots of space we could barely breathe, so to be totally squashed in a vehicle with little air sounded lethal ... but I guess it’s quicker than walking the 20-30 miles a day that the average person walks over there. No wonder no-one ever looks fat in Africa. 100% muscle on 95% of people.

We also went for a little walk on a beach to try and see some fruit bats but I’d seen some before and was more interested in taking pix of the stunning beaches.

Introducing Pepette

However, when we got there, the guy who runs the hotel was not expecting us. He said he did have availability for the first night, but not for the second. It was such a shame as his hotel looked brand new, it was small and intimate (8 rooms only), had a very clear swimming pool and ... a mini zoo with a pair of adult lemurs (on an island, in the middle of a small pool – they are afraid of water and cannot jump more than 3 meters so will not risk getting wet to ‘escape’) and, far more precious, a young ring-tailed female from the South. She was only a few months old and looked just adorable. She was so soft (as soft as alpaca fur really) and tried to pur and talk like a kitten. She was very affectionate too and I fell in love with her there and then.

The ring tailed lemurs are my favourite and the main reason why I originally wanted to include the Berenty Private Reserve (way South - as they are quite tame there) but doing such a ‘detour’ on this massive island would have cost an extra £700 and an extra 4 days (which I didn’t have). So, to be able to not just ‘see’ but actually hold a baby ring-tailed lemur at no extra cost was amazing for me. Truly the highlight of my trip. I live across the road from London Zoo and they charge £100 or so to be ‘zoo keeper’ for a day and for the chance to feed and pat the ring tailed lemur !!! I just refuse to give out that kind of money for one day.

Needless to say, I was absolutely heart-broken when I realised that we had to go to another hotel due to lack of availability for the 2nd night. I could have spent all evening with Pepette on my lap and I’d have been the one purring... she was just TOO cute to be true.

Les Boucaniers, the next hotel, was definitely past its peak. High up on a hill = no beach nearby. The pool was very small and a bit cold. There were huge gaps in the windows (perfect entrance for mosquitoes) and it smelt of damp. We were so disappointed. We felt that one night at the Nosy Lodge would have been better than none, if it wasn’t for all the extra packing & unpacking involved and the fact that it was too short notice to cancel Les Boucaniers. You live & learn. The crazy thing is that there are far more mosquitoes on Nosy Be than on the mainland and that they have dengue, chikungugnya (still) and malaria. In fact, biggest killer in Madagascar today is still malaria as people can’t afford the medication, only herbal remedies. So, to put us in a room with easy mossie access seemed seriously mad by my books. Needless to say, I wrote a note to NF on my return to ask why !

On a sadder note, Nosy Be is the capital for ‘sexual tourism’ and everywhere we went, when we tried to find a nice place to eat, we’d find couples made of white men (30-60) with young black women (16-28 at a guess). Some of these ‘women’ looked very young. Some of the blokes definitely looked 60+. We tried not to be ‘too’ cynical and hoped that some couples were ‘genuine’ but the girls did look pretty bored and there was no obvious tenderness between them. The girls actually looked very elegant, with sexy (but not trashy) dresses that showed off their stunning figures. In French we have an expression that would have suited this situation perfeclty: “it was like giving chocolate to a pig”... total mismatch as some of the guys were fat & bald. The white guys were also smoking quite a bit in the restaurant – something you no longer see in Europe.

We had been warned not to take any purse with us, just a few bank notes in our pocket not to attract unwanted attention. We ended up Chez Teresa, run by an Italian couple. It took a while to be served as it was so popular but they were very friendly and it was good for me to actually stay up till 10.30pm instead of hitting the sack at 9pm as I usually do when I travel alone ! (but when travelling alone eating out is never fun - if you can get past that, you’re all right).

The Red Tsingy, Madagascar

Over the past few days Sylvie had mentioned to the driver that she was interested in seeing the Red Tsingy area. He said that it would mean a 2-4 hour detour in our itinerary on the way back to Nosy Be and that we could only do this if we got up really early AND skipped lunch (i.e. we needed to order sandwiches from the hotel). He’d also have to negotiate this with ESF (Evasions Sans Frontieres, the local agency that NF had given the job of looking after us to). As we had missed one day and they felt they owed us a favour in return, it was agreed that we could go and visit. But our driver was adamant that we had to be in the car at 6.30am, no later. The pressure was that we had to be on the boat for Nosy Be at 3pm latest. We had also wanted to explore The Sacred Lake area, something that our driver had mentioned as a ‘must see’ as there were beautiful walks and views over paddy fields. We were torn. They both sounded appealing. Having seen the grey tsingy though and not being overwhelmed by them, I thought the Sacred Lake sounded a bit more interesting. Patrick also felt that, due to his back pain, he would not be able to walk in steep areas.

However, that morning Sylvie was quite sick and was unable to get to the car until 6.50pm. Because of this, our driver felt we would not be able to do both and suggested we only do the Red Tsingy. However, we felt that the Sacred Lake may have been better and easier so we told him we’d rather do that instead.

He didn’t say much but seemed to disagree. The journey back was as beautiful again and it was nice to re-visit my favourite areas and after a good 2 hours we reached the turning point for the Red Tsingy. Our driver said we could make it if we rushed it. We agreed. He said it’d be a shame not to see them. We assumed it’d be like 10 mins down the turning point but it was a good 40 mins on bumpy roads until we reached the first viewpoint. We had to look down from a cliff top to see them and it looked quite nice but the formations looked quite small.

We all thought that ‘that was it’ but no, there was another view-point further on... an even better.... and then a last one, further on, that was the icing on the cake. We climbed a small hill and then before our eyes was the most majestic canyon. Palm trees, little stream at the bottom, tsingy formations all over the ground, and the earth colour was so red. It was just exquisite. A true jaw dropping moment. Our driver asked if we wanted to go all the way down to see the tsingy up close, but, bearing in mind we had set off late, that we also wanted to see the Sacred Lake and that Patrick had back problems and did not enjoy bumpy roads, we said we’d rather press on not to get our driver in trouble.

We therefore drove back down the bumpy road and 4 miles later were on another bumpy road through a village and 4 miles to the Sacred Lake. When we got there, I was actually quite disappointed because it was nothing like I/we expected. I assumed it’d look like Bali or something majestic but it was so like the Lake District that I thought ‘bummer, this is not exotic in the least’. The only touch of ‘exotism’ was to hear the kids sing by the lake shore to ‘make the crocs come out of the water’. I didn’t really think it would work, but it did !!! to my utter amazement, eventually the crocs surfaced and came to rest on the shore to the delight of fellow tourists.

If we could have seen photos of the Sacred Lake before agreeing to go there, we would have definitely not gone. In hindsight, it’d have made far more sense to explore the Tsingy up close as the photo ops would have been phenomenal. I didn’t realise at the time that this particular canyon would be my fav view of the 6 days. If I’d known, I would have never rushed it the way we did. Biggest mistake we did. At least I was still so grateful for the detour as it wasn’t part of our itinerary and it was SO much better than the grey tsingy. A very different world.

I was just annoyed with myself because I should have taken photos in RAW format when I was there but I could not work out how to do this, having never used that function on my camera before (since I don’t have Photoshop). I had stupidly left the instructions in my suitcase, in the boot of the car. I could have made an effort and taken them out, IF we had not been so pushed for time, but having a boat to catch at 3pm really messed up the whole day. And the ONLY reason they made us take it at 3pm was so that one of the managers could get a lift in the car when our driver drove all the way back to Diego Suarez. SO frustrating.

As it happened, he made sure we had a proper lunch (same place as where I’d had my huge avocado, as we had pre-paid for it). It was actually good to STOP because I too was starting to feel physically uncomfortable as well (motion sickness and lower back pain).

From then on we had to get to the harbour, say good-bye to our wonderful driver and spend 40mins on a bumpy boat ride. When we found Atou on the other side, (the guy who picked us up at Nosy Be airport) he said we were staying at the Nosy Lodge hotel.

The 3 bays of Diego Suarez (22 May 2010)

The next day we had the luxury of a lie-in as we didn’t have to leave till 9am. We were going to explore some secluded beaches and see some boababs too. I really love baobabs so I was as excited about them even more so than about the water colour. We passed quite a few areas with mangrove and their version of ‘sugar loaf’ and it was very pretty, with the boababs scattered around the hills to make it all look ‘extra exotic’ and more African (you don’t find them on any other continent I believe). They have 8 species of baobabs in Madagascar but one was endemic to the Diego Suarez area.

The first two beaches we went to were a bit disappointing, the sea was too rough. Quite a few people were actually doing some kind of ‘para-gliding’ where you surf with a parachute and let the wind drag you along... it was just too windy for my taste so I didn’t want to go in. My companions felt the same.

Our guide then said ‘ok, I know just the place then’ and he drove us to this totally deserted beach, with no wind (because it was on another side) and not a ripple. It was a-ma-zing. Like standing inside a blue pancake – that’s the best way I can describe its “stillness” quality -- the water hardly moved. If it had not been salty you could have thought it was a huge lake instead. And, bliss of bliss, there was absolutely no one else around. When I questioned why not, our guide said that it’s an ex-military base and they charge 70 cts to get on it and as most families earn 1 euro equivalent per day, if you have 2-4 kids, it’s just unaffordable.

But 70cts to a tourist is nothing (the price of an air-mail postage stamp !) so we were delighted. I took some fantastic shots there, with my polarizer helping cut the reflection in the water... and I realised there, more than anywhere else along the trip I guess, how very different it would have been if we had been the maximum allowed, i.e. 18 people instead of 3. My shots would have looked a lot less ‘peaceful’ with another 16 people in the water. What made this beach extra special was... its silence. Not even the sound of waves as there were none. It was so warm too, it was like stepping into bath water, about 28C water temperature. The sand was so white and fine and the water so clear that I even took my water shoes off because I wanted to feel the sand between my toes and I could clearly see there was no urchin or any pebble even.

In the afternoon we just drove around Diego Suarez, had lunch in another open-air restaurant and we went back to our hotel for 5pm as we wanted to make the most of Le Grand Hotel as it was so nice. In fact, we agreed that it was worth paying a bit more to have such a gorgeous decor, with tables set by the illuminated pool. The menu had ‘fish with vanilla sauce’ and as Madagascar is the ‘vanilla island’ I just had to try this out. It was delicious and beautifully presented, as you’d expect from a 4* hotel, but I didn’t really taste the vanilla much as such, if I’m honest. We tried ice-cream for dessert but every scoop I had (hazelnut, vanilla, pistachio) didn’t taste quite right due to being made with zebu milk. Pity to end on a ‘sour’ note. I did eat it (it was too much of an ‘ice-cream’ weather not to), but I did not enjoy it as much as I’d have done a ‘real’ ice cream – I know that much.

Montagne d’Ambre, Madagascar

The drive to Joffreville, at the foot of Amber Mountain, was lovely, very green again. I’d asked my guide whether we’d see some lemurs at Montagne d’Ambre and he’d said ‘maybe but they are a bit shy in the wild and can be quite high up’, so I’d asked if there was a reserve on the way (a bit like Berenty, the famous one South of the country) but he said not really. However, we could swing by Chez Violette as she owned a restaurant but had some lemurs in a cage in her courtyard to entertain tourists. I kind of frawned upon that as they were kept in a cage and obviously desperate to get out. 4 were in a slightly bigger cage but 2 were in a much smaller one and when one knows that these animals are monkeys that never evolved and that they have back legs design to leap from tree branches to tree branches, it seemed pretty cruel to see them and their leg muscles waste away in a small confined space. I queried this with my guide (‘how come she’s allowed to keep them then ?’ and he said ‘She’s not. It is forbidden by law, so, chances are, she just went into the mountain and took them’). I wouldn’t be surprised if a few policemen had already been in to investigate but there’s nothing a bribe won’t take care of, as we know.

Actually, a bit of trivia: the reason lemurs are called lemurs and not monkeys is because, unlike their close counter-parts, they are unable to ‘copy-cat’. A monkey just has to watch someone draw a sketch with some pencils and if you leave the room unattended it will then grab the pencils and try to replicate what you did – whereas it will never cross a lemur’s mind to even consider doing that.

My driver said that March-April is the mating season, gestation then lasts 125 days and females give birth in October, when it’s possible to see them with their babies on their back, making October a very popular month to visit.

Madagascar has an astonishing 79 species of lemurs.. Last time I checked (probably 10 years ago) they only had like 35... but our guide said that 4 new species were discovered just last year, i.e. the nocturnal types that are very hard to see. The most ‘common’ ones were absolutely discovered first.

Lemurs, as you no doubt know, are 100% endemic to Madagascar... in fact, a staggering 80% of ALL the flora and fauna found here are not to be found anywhere else in the world... This is why it’s been dubbed ‘the African Galapagos’. Islands will always evolve at a different rate than the mainland and when Madagascar broke away a few million years ago, it was no exception to the ‘ecological’ rule.

Some lemurs are more “cuddly” than others and the aye-aye who is unique to Amber Mountain is actually so ugly that it is considered ‘bad luck’ to see one and so it has been hunted down to near extinction due to superstitious beliefs. Poor animals... they can’t win: if they are too beautiful, we want to keep them in cages to admire their beauty any time we want and if they are too ugly, we want to kill them as they insult our sense of aesthetics ! What a sad lot we are really....

We did manage to see 2 very grey lemurs, perfectly camouflaged. Our guide knew the tree trunks they lived in, otherwise you’d never see them basically. They like to stay pretty high up as they feel safer. If they find a hole in a tree that’s not high enough, they won’t make it their home.

Beside the lemurs, Madagascar has also got the highest number of chameleons, from the tiniest to the biggest. The tiniest of all lives in Amber Mountain and our guide was able to find one for us, they usually live on the ground among rotting leaves. It’s probably 1/10th of one of our small fingers in size but the most incredible feature about this little guy is that it has TWO penises. The female has 2 openings on each side of her body to match and so he can use both at the same time -- the idea being that when one penis gets tired, the other one can take over and carry on ! Needless to say that the local joke here is that “all guys who believe in reincarnation want to come back as a chameleon” !

A sadder anecdote re-these intriguing creatures is that the female (in some breeds of chameleons at least) will commit suicide upon giving birth. I’m not sure biologists can understand why yet but once the eggs are safely delivered, she will climb high up on a tree and throw herself off knowing she will die on impact. If, however, she is unable to climb a tree (maybe because she’s in captivity) she will bury its head in the ground until she suffocates. I don’t even know if the male then takes care of raising the young or whether they have to fend for themselves from day 1. Basically it’s always the same story: 99% of the times, the guys have it SO much easier, sigh.

One particular chameleon was so well camouflaged that it looked like he had become the tree branch, the colour imitation was so incredible you could barely see it. I only realised it was there by the shape of its toes. Our guide had bet $5 that we would not see it – most people just can’t though it’s right in front of their eyes. Perfect optical illusion. I put a picture on my F/Book (the brown ‘trunk’ with one large white stripe across his body).

During one of our jungle walks Sylvie tripped on a broken branch, badly injured her toe and soon after passed out (but thankfully could feel it coming so we were there to ‘catch’ her). Our guide, who had no mobile phone (no coverage inside the park) or talkie-walkies, had to run back 4 miles to send a car for her. He did it in about 20 mins when it’d have taken me 4 hours as there are so many trip hazards. We saw lots of leeches too and I was quite pleased I’d brought my wellington boots along specially for this walk. They won’t kill you but they are a nuisance if you can’t stop bleeding for ages (as they inject you with something that stops your blood coagulating so that they can feast on you better). I had brought my 100% DEET mosquitoe repellant and sprayed it all over my hands too as it’s supposed to kill them instantly if they had biten my skin (i.e., yes it was pretty toxic for my skin too). I’ve been ‘done’ in the past (in India) so wanted to avoid a repeat at any cost.

Thankfully, that evening we stayed in the best hotel of Diego Suarez, Le Grand Hotel, super comfy, great pool (no-one in it), hot water, A/C, just bliss. They even had internet access, albeit, very very slowly as they didn’t have broadband and they only had ONE so it was quite hard to actually get on it, but it allowed me to re-connect with the rest of the world and to let people know I was doing great and was loving it so far.

I made a point to go into the pool at moonlight and it was perfect... just cool enough to cool you down. It’s not often I get the chance to swim so I never miss a chance to do so if I can help it as I’m a water baby (typical Aquarian in that sense).

We went to eat outside, at the Shalimar restaurant, and though it was only 4 blocks away our driver insisted on driving us there so that we’d be safer. There were lots of street lamps but none were in working order. It sounded like the French installed the infrastructure when Madagascar belonged to France, but when they left, the new government didn’t bother repairing anything !!!

Our driver was very dedicated to us, he also made a point to take Sylvie to see a private GP to get her foot checked and investigate the cause of her fainting (she had also fainted the day before, at night, when going to the toilets). The GP had said it was nothing serious, probably just a reaction to the pain & being ‘in shock’. He only charged 8 euros for the check-up so she was quite relieved.

That night I couldn’t sleep till 12.30 (I guess I was still on GMT time) and I was also really excited about everything I’d seen already and was going to see next.

Nosy Be, N. Madagascar

When we landed in Nosy Be, I was SO excited. It looked so lush already, very very pretty airport, tiny, but you could smell the humidity in the air and the trees were covered with yellow flowers. I re-kindled my connection with Africa instantly. It always amazes me to see how much I feel like I ‘belong’ there – it’s almost bordering on euphoria. The good thing too was that we were just one hour ahead of Paris time so there was no jet-lag. This can make such a huge difference after a 9 hour flight.

Everything is written in French in Madagascar so in some ways, I also felt instantly ‘at ease’... all the documents you have to fill in on arrival (Visas are now free for 30 day stays, they were 65 euros last year but people complained too much and stopped coming and tourism gives jobs to 95% of people in Nosy Be so the government had to scrap it), all the signs... and people’s French is just as good as mine, not ‘broken’ or ‘creole’. Just perfect: good grammar, good accent. My parents would have had NO problem there... such a pity 9 hours is a bit far.

Our guide was there and took us to their office so that we’d have a chance to change clothes before ‘hitting the road’ as we had a long day ahead. We’d been living in our clothes for 72 hours by then and I desperately needed a strip-wash in the bathroom. It was so hot that we were sweating doing nothing. We also needed to get to a cash point as it is forbidden to take money out of the country so no banks outside Madgascar can supply the much needed Aviary. Thankfully, my Visa card worked fine and I could withdraw cash easily.

‘Nosy’ means ‘Island’ in Malagasy, so there were lots of ‘Nosy’ something in the area. Having landed on an island, we needed to get to the mainland to continue our trip. This therefore meant a compulsory boat transfer for about 30 mins. From that moment on, it really felt as if the adventure had begun ! After an hour driving we stopped in a nice restaurant where the food was excellent even though it lacked a terrace or some ‘green’ area. Still, they served some beautiful avocados that were the biggest I’d ever seen, more like a mango than an avocado. It was beautifully ripe and I really enjoyed it. Sylvie number 2 was really keen on prawns and she got to eat plenty of those throughout the trip. They gave us far too much food, we couldn’t finish it all, including a whole tuna each (complete with head & tail !!!) when one for three would have been too much. Dessert was fresh fruit (every time).

We then drove for a further 2h30 to get to the Tsingy of Ankarana. It was a true case of ‘the journey was more beautiful than the destination’. The landscape was just stunning, with so many paddy fields that were a vivid green and patches of red earth and yellow-ish grass that made it look like a constant rainbow was sweeping across the land. It was just picture-perfect and I asked to stop quite a few times to capture this and remember it forever. I always think that my photos will be my memory one day... and I hope that, even if I get Alzheilmers and can’t remember I took the photos, I will hopefully still enjoy browsing through these lovely photo albums that celebrate God’s genius. I was enthralled... I am SO visual that I really really appreciate anything that is post-card like.

We also saw plenty of beautiful red birds (probably no bigger than a blackbird but poppy red). Extra splashes of colours in a very colourful land.

Madagascar doesn’t have cows (it’s too hot for them) and so there were zebus everywhere. All dairy products are made from zebu milk and except for butter that tastes about as good as in Europe, the cheese and ice-cream were quite a bit different and ice-creams in particular, seriously “lacked something”, sadly.

I didn’t really know what to expect with the Tsingy but I realised that they were pretty similar to what I’d already seen in China in the Stone Forest. Same grey weird formations. If I’d been alone I’d have turned round pretty quickly and cut the walk short but as Sylvie was really keen to see more shapes we carried on until it got too dark to see much so I had to borrow our guide’s torch otherwise I’d have been really uneasy. I was also getting very tired as the walks were quite difficult and it was our first day and not one of the easiest.

We left in pitch dark to drive to our ‘kivouac’ for the night. I had no idea what a ‘kivouac’ was but our driver said the location was really beautiful, “in the heart of nature”. However, as we had set off so late due to our having re-scheduled the whole itinerary we never saw the landscape driving in. But I remember it felt like we would never get there. The roads were quite bumpy and we all had a sore back by the time we got to the lodge, esp. Patrick who had a weakness there.

Upon arriving at the recently finished Iharana Lodge (the most comfortable ‘bivouac’ in the area) we were taken straight to dinner but the generator was down so we were given lanterns to help us see our food. The candles, however, would often be blown off by the wind. The food was pretty basic for me, as a vegetarian, mainly vegs & rice, but Sylvie was given some zebu meat and found it really chewy. She couldn’t eat ¾ of it. These poor zebus work so hard during their lifetime that if they only kill them at the end (my humble guess), there must be a lot of tough muscles in there.

I then asked for the key to my door and was told ‘there’s no key... there’s no door’. I looked so puzzled that the guy at the desk laughed and said ‘this lodge is meant to be like a typical Malagasy home and we have no doors, just curtains’. We were also told that the generator would be down all night as they’d run out of fuel. This was a pain as it was really dark in there. There were only 2 lanterns that burnt all night, mainly in the bathroom. They’d also made up the bed with the mosquitoe net on the top floor and one needed to climb some pretty steep steps to get there (with no handrail). In fact, considering it was so dim, it was pretty impossible to negotiate without a torch (thankfully I always have one on me as I’m used to power-cuts being common all over Africa).

I really wasn’t happy with having no door for privacy (I took my passport, money and camera to bed just for peace of mind ! I mean... wouldn’t you ?) and there were also big gaps in the walls upstairs for the air to circulate but I was worried about the bats... not to mention the mosquitoes! Yes, they had put a mosquitoe net over the bed but that’s pretty useless when you have to undress or have a shower (I had mine in a flash it was icy water – no hot water available). I could see by moonlight that we were near the water (the moon reflecting on a mirror) but not much else, I couldn’t wait to see the place by day though !

Well, as we had been pretty tired from all the driving on the bumpy roads, I ended up sleeping like a log regardless, i.e. didn’t have time to worry about someone coming in, or bats flying in, or anything... my head just touched the pillow & off to dreamland I went.

The next day was a real treat though. We had asked not to get up too early (though we had to make up for ‘lost time’) because we really wanted to see the place by day. It got dark at 5.45pm which is WAY too early by my books and the sun rose at 6am. At 6.30am, the light was perfect. We had to be up by then and it was a true ‘wow’ moment. Beautiful peaceful lake with a little ‘mountain’ as a backdrop, and lovely furniture carved in wood, everything all open, a big wooden desk to observe birdlife... and a playful dog for company. I really loved this place and was sad to leave so soon... I took as many pix as I could to remember it as vividly as I could (my photos being my memory). Patrick had a sore back and I gave him some of my Chinese oil to try and relieve the pain. I was seated at the front to enjoy the better view and take lots of photos (they were not as fussed about photos as I was) but it was still bumpy.

London – Paris Orly – Nosy Be

I left London on Wednesday 19 May at 12.30pm on the EuroStar and as they owed me a ticket as compensation for the mess in the tunnel over Xmas (I’d been delayed by 2 days) at least I didn’t pay the £200 ticket to go over (1 journey being flexi – always useful in case of problems). I arrived in Paris at 3.45pm, got the RER to Anthony Station in good time (I seem to recall it took about 40 mins), then took the Orly Val (overground rail) for 13 mins and was very pleased with myself when I got to the Nouvelles Frontieres (“NF”) counter for 5pm when we had been advised to get there for 5.30pm for our check-in. The Corsairfly flight was due to leave Orly at 8pm, to arrive at Antananarivo (“Tana” for short as the locals call it) @ 11am or so. “The direct flight to Nosy Be had finished the week before”, we had been told, which meant we were going to waste more time staying overnight at Tana as we would have missed the connection to Nosy Be @ 8am. This was truly infuriating but past a certain point, Air Madagascar were banning direct flights so that they could increase their business by forcing all passengers to use their internal flights from Tana to Nosy Be.

So, I picked up my travel documents at the NF desk and headed for check-in. When I got there though I noticed that the flight was going via Nosy Be though which totally baffled me. I had no desire to go to Tana as such (there were having riots in certain parts of town that very day and 1 person had been killed). I asked if there was any chance I could get off at Nosy Be as it’s pretty much where I was going anyway but they said they couldn’t as my ticket was valid all the way to Tana.

Not one to be deflated, I went back up to the NF to question this fiasco and bumped into the couple who was booked on my trip. She was 52 I seem to recall and called Sylvie as well, and he was Patrick, 56 maybe and we struck up a rapport straight away as they had just been to check-in and were on my same wave length, questionning as well, why on earth we had paid £250 more to go to Tana and stay overnight in a 3* hotel when we could have got off at Nosy Be !!!

The rep for NF had no real answer except that Corsairfly’s website was obviously not updated properly and it looked as if the direct flight had been ‘cancelled’ one week before it actually was. He also said that as a rep would be waiting for us in Tana with all our travel documents, we now had to go to Tana anyway and back-track to Nosy Be next day ! We were not impressed but being just 3 of us, we felt our moans didn’t have much impact.

We went for a drink and a chat and then our separate way for a little while to explore the airport and knew we’d see each other again at the boarding gate. Our flight was first “delayed to 9pm”... then “delayed to 10pm” and then ... shock and horror “cancelled”... due to the flight “not being waterproof”. Hum. Back to NF... ‘now what do we do?’. The guy was pretty cool ‘don’t worry, I’m sure they’ll take off early afternoon which means you’ll still be able to make your connection for Nosy Be as you’ll be landing at 4am instead of 9am”. Easier said than done because unless we slept on the plane, we were going to be pretty wrecked on arrival and it was going to mean a much shorter night too... but still workable.

We were given vouchers for a night at the Ibis Hotel (within the airport) and vouchers for breakfast & lunch. No complaint on that one, the hotel was very comfy and the buffets just gorgeous (boy, French food is truly something else!). However, Corsairfly would not let us get our luggage back “to save time the next day, in order to leave as soon as possible”. So it’s a good thing I had a toothbrush on me and some make-up too. Patrick kindly lent me his comb (“as I have less hair than you do”), otherwise it’d have been tricky to wash my hair and I really needed to !

We had agreed to meet up for breakfast and then head back to the NF desk for 10am to get an update on the situation. When we got there, the guy said that unfortunately, the flight would now take off at 9pm, no longer 4pm, meaning we would definitely miss our connection to Nosy Be. This was no laughing matter since we only had a 7 day tour as it was and it was shrinking to five right in front of our eyes.... Considering I’d been waiting 4 years to make the trip I was just speechless and deflated... The other Sylvie being even more assertive than I was (must be something in the name !) really pushed for our being allowed to get off at Nosy Be. We had worked out between us that the only way we would not lose too much time would be to turn the itinerary on its head and instead of landing in Diego Suarez and driving down to Nosy Be, do the route in reverse. However, we would then need to get our luggage out of the security area and have them re-labelled as we didn’t really want to get off at Nosy Be and find our luggage went onto Tana ! Corsairfly agreed that, in view of our unusual circumstances they would retreive our luggage.

By then, we were getting seriously desperate to GO... I’d left work at 11am the previous day, it was now 24H later and I felt I’d barely moved.... Orly airport is not the most exciting airport in the world either so we went back to the hotel and chilled in the garden (it was a beautiful sunny day) and we were given more vouchers for use in the cafe upstairs. We were eating lots... but exercising very little... and I could feel myself ‘widen’ (not great for pictures me though as it always goes in my double chin, yuk).

At 9pm we eventually took off.... They served us more food on the plane (!) and then I just took a sleeping pill and dozed off. The plane wasn’t very full thankfully and we all managed to have 3 seats to ourselves which makes a huge difference when one tries to grab some sleep in a cramped space.

Corsairfly, as a ‘cheap’ airline, isn’t bad at all. Their return flights to Tana was around £700 (i.e. £300 cheaper than AF or Air Madagascar) and their seats were comfy, lots of leg room, nice staff, good food... but no control over the choice of movies. Still, they showed Avatar on the way out (by then I was out myself so I missed it) and Evictus and Sherlock Holmes on the way back. They also were quite happy to re-shuffle passengers to ensure that everybody was as comfortable as possible (i.e. everybody had 2 seats for good measure - to ‘spread’).

MADAGASCAR (20-27 May 2010)

Madagascar is seriously under-rated by English travel agencies. I can only assume it’s because French & Malagasy are the 2 main languages and therefore English speaking people may feel a bit out of place? It’s also one of the most expensive destinations in Africa and I cannot get my head around why.... why is it that an English tour operator will tell me that they cannot possibly organise a small tour for me for less than £3,500 (incl. single supplement) but that a French tour company will charge £2,500 for the exact same itinerary (with more activities, if anything). The English tour operator had assured me that they “only use the best hotels so would rather not compromise their standards” but the French one had also put me up in really nice hotels (only one was a bit dodgy).

It is all the more baffling when one knows that the standard of living in Madagascar is one of the poorest in Africa with the average person earning an average $1.25 a day (and at the time I went, $1 = £1 = 1 euro, it was roughly all the same).

My advice to anyone, therefore, would be to skip “the middle man” who will basically put £1,000 in his pocket for doing very little. In fact, pretty much ALL that the ‘middle man’ will do is pass your details onto a local agency to arrange your trip from A to B. The local agency has the vehicles, the drivers, the expertise... Besides, the ‘middle man’ is not allowed to send staff over to work with you because it’d take jobs away from the local population (and I think it’s a great policy but it just reinforces how little they are ‘allowed’ to do).

I had been really keen to go over to Madagascar for a good 4-5 years by the time I made this trip, but the insanely expensive quotes I was given were seriously off-putting. I originally wanted to go for 3 weeks as it’s such a vast, diverse land (the 4th largest island in the world) but back in 2006 I was quoted £4,500 for 22 days. Now, that was pretty much my rent for 9 months at the time and I just could not justify being that extravageant. £3,700 had been my limit... and even then, they’d have made serious profit on my account...

I was aware that the international flights could be extremely expensive, almost double the average African destination as Air France & Air Madagascar cost around the £1,000 return ticket (as you also had to fly over from London and stay overnight in Paris, etc).

Then in 2006 there was the chikungugnya epidemic in La Reunion where 40% of the population was affected by this crippling, uncurable disease caused by mosquitoe bites and the neighbouring islands were also getting gradually infected. Madagascar being quite near, I couldn’t chance it. Chikungugnya was classified a ‘natural disaster’ at the time and my travel insurance would not have covered me if I’d been stuck in bed for weeks on end on my return (it only killed the very weak or very young but for people my age I could have expected serious and painful inflammations in my joints + very high fever leaving you unable to get out of bed).

So, for all of these reasons, I felt that Madagascar, in 2006, was not ‘meant to be’... but you know me, once something gets inside my head, it’s hard to get it out – and I have to see it through as I’m a ‘live your life so as to have no regrets’ kind of girl.

So, fast forward to 2010 when I researched on itineraries to Madagascar and the prices were even more outrageous by now... and the choice of tours was very poor (too few). I then had a ‘light bulb’ moment when I thought I’d go onto Nouvelles Frontieres’ website. They are the leading tour operator in France, and sure enough, they had a choice of about 15 itineraries to this beautiful land. Their prices were also a lot more reasonable, sometimes 50% cheaper than their English counterparts were quoting for a very similar tour (same hotels, etc).

Since I speak fluent French (stating the obvious !) I figured it’d be easy enough for me to email them and make enquiries... and so, with one thing leading to another, within a month I was booked to go. I still would have liked to go for 3 weeks but the single supplement was a bit prohibitive and internal flights in Madagascar are very expensive (Air Madagascar has the monopole so there is no competition) so any itinerary that involved 4-6 internal flights (you often had to keep going back to the capital for a connection!) meant an extra £1,000 spent on flights before anything else.

Being still very reluctant to spend more than £2,500 for 10 days I had to make do with a smaller tour. The North End tour had a mix of mountains and beaches and sounded very diverse and it also had direct flights from Orly to Nosy Be, which was hugely appealing. It was a tour for “minimum 2, max 18” and thankfully ONE couple was booked on it, otherwise I would not have been able to go. I originally wanted to do a similar one, with a bit more walking involved but as no one else was interested, I had to forsake it.

The tour I’d chosen was called “Nosy Be & Les Tsingys de l’Ankarana”. Nosy Be being one of their prettiest islands and the Tsingys being some unusual rock formations, nr Ankarana (again, stating the obvious !). I wasn’t really fussed by the grey tsingys though having seen very similar landscape in China, but that particular tour included a day at Montagne d’Ambre (Amber Mountain) and I really wanted to go there as the bio-diversity in this particular park excelled with over 1,020 species of trees recorded.