Lemurs
The trip
Below is a very rough sketch of my recollection of our trip
to Madagascar. Some of the exact events may be recorded in
the wrong days or missed and places may be confused. But it
does provide a broad indication of the visit organised by
Nouvelles Frontieres.
Sunday 16/10: Drive from Brussels
to Paris Orly airport. Overnight Corsair flight to
Madagascar.
Monday 17/10: Arrive mid morning
in Antananarivo (Tana) after the exit of some passengers in
the Comoros Islands. The 15 of us on the trip met by 4
4-wheel drive jeeps with our driver guides (Nono, Willy,
Jaime and Ary). We head directly from Tana south towards
Antsirabe. Lunch at Coin du Foie Gras in Behenjy. We
continue south, stopping for a while at a local market as
well as seeing fresh vegetables at stalls at the side of
the road. Check in to Hotel Hasina in Antsirabe, the
pousse-pousse capital of Madagasar. Explore the thermal
town.
Tuesday 18/10: Visit local crafts
activities (embroidery, making tin toys and horn objects,
sugar candies) and then pass through the Bongolava mountain
chain. On the way to Miandrivazo stop for a hike at
Andraikiba,
lunching at the Restaurant
Dera. Accomodation that evening at the Hotel
La Reine Rasalimo in Miandrivazo.
Wednesday 19/10: Pick up our
guide for the river trip and take, what then seemed like
(but much worse to come), a difficult track to reach the
embarcation point of Masiakampy. Finally at the Tsirabihina
river we watch even braver souls who have opted to travel
in pirogues! Much birdlife on the river. Lunch on board.
Visit a local waterfall, where several of our number bathe,
and we see our first lemurs nearby, as well as bats in the
cliffs on the river bank. Bivoucacs are erected on a
sandbank at Anosinampela and dinner on board the
boat.
Thursday 20/10: Local children
visit our camp early in the morning. Breakfast in boat, set
off again and visit several local villages on our way
downriver. Lunch and dinner again on bord and tents pitched
on the beach at Ambatomainty where some swam and we later
visited the local baobabs and were entertained by local
dancers by a campfire.
Friday 21/10: After breakfast on
board we head off again downriver seeing an increasing
number of baobabs on the banks as well as birdlife. After
picnic on board and watching basic carferries on the river,
we arrive at Tsimafana and meet up with our trusty guides
in their 4x4s. See many baobabs on our drive to Bekopaka
and take, in comparison with later vessels, a pretty modern
car ferry. Eventually we reach our dinner and sleeping
location for the night the Hotel Orchidée
de Bemaraha.
Saturday 22/10: After breakfast
we drive the difficult 17kms to the World Heritage
Grands Tsingys national reserve (in
English on Wikipedia). Hike in the heat. See white
lemurs. Attach our safety harnesses for the difficult parts
of the climb. Cross the typical swinging wooden bridge, go
through caves seeing the resident mongoose. After a picnic
in the park return to same hotel and a relaxing dinner and
evening.
Sunday 23/10: We return south and
head through the dry forest to Belo sur Tsirbihina. The 4
cars and passengers cross the river in an extremely basic
ferry. Picnic in a hotely front porch drinking ricewater.
Continue on the track to Morondava where we await the
sunset at Baobab Alley. Group split. Main group stay at the
Hotel Le Renala. Sue,
Renelde, Patrice and I stayed Chez Maggie, both of us in
one of the chalets
(Rooms 2 in the drop down box on that page), Sue and
Renelde in one of the bungalows. A great meal was eaten
that evening in the restaurant.
Monday 24/10: After breakfast the
town was explored and some lounging in hammocks. A
difficult but scenic 'piste' with quite a bit of driving in
water. See some salt flats and short baobabs. Arrive at
Belo sur Mer, a Vezo peoples fishing village, staying and
dining at the Hotel Ecolodge de
Menabe in a bedroom on stilts. We find out why in the
morning when the tide comes in. We investigate the local
village which suffered recently from a cyclone and eat at
the hotel.
Tuesday 25/10: Morning swim for
Patrice before the tide went out and the sand had taken
over. After a picnic lunch (with mangos) on the way we
continue the 105km piste, with one difficult crossing,
along the coast to Manja. There we stay at a bush camp the
Hotel Kanto (some
photos from others).
Wednesday 26/10: An early start
for 160km (est. 7 hours) of piste. We cross the river
Mangoky to get to Bevoay continuing up to Morombe. One jeep
sticks in the sand and requires a push from the many locals
used to this eventuality. Picnic under strangler tree.
Happen on a market with many live turkeys in baskets. Many
baobabs along the road. Buy a baobab fruit and sample.
Night and dinner at the well located Hotel Baobab - a
review.
Thursday 27/10: Continue our
journey as far as Andavadoaka, a fishing village on a
magnificent bay and the most westerly point of Madagascar.
Picnic lunch. Then on through the baobabs, with a slight
delay as one car gets stuck, to Salary Bay where we dine
and stay two nights.
Friday 28/10: Stay in Salary Bay.
The ladies go scuba diving in a catamaran pirogue with a
sail out to the reef. A papaya is pureed in evening before
our second dinner there
Saturday 29/10: After breakfast
again along the coastal route, now a little better through
Ifaty and lunch in Tuléar before joining Route
National 7, one of the few good roads on the island. From
the baobabs and tombs of the southern tribes we ascend to
the higher plains more dessert like before the rainy season
arrives. Pass through the gem rush towns with many sapphire
dealers and seeing the sunset though the rocks at the park
before arriving at Ranohira and the Hotel Orchidée de
l'Isalo where we spend two nights.
Sunday 30/10: Early start with
two local guides to the
Isalo National Park (in EN
on wikipedia) and a walk of several hours there in the
heat. A stick insect pointed out by the guide when no one
could find anything on a branch. Burial rites were noted,
several people cooled off in a pool, and other insects and
plants were examined. After viewing the surrounding
countryside from on high headed down into lemur country
with several troups disrupting picnics. More ring tailed
lemurs present at he campsite but they were more polite.
Evening in Ranohira.
Monday 31/10: Started early to
head off on the 269km ride to Fianarantsoa crossing the
Horombe desert plateau and the legendary gate of the South
where we stopped at a locally run reserve and saw iguanas,
strange butterflies and more lemurs. Had a slow lunch at
Ambalavo and saw the production of handmade paper and silk
articles from cocoons. Passed into the area of the Betsileo
people. After passing by the studio of a photographer the
evening was spent at the Hotel Cotsoyannis in
Fianarantsoa.
Tuesday 1/11: After breakfast and
purchases of several framed embroideries in the hotel, we
visit the old town of many churches. On the way
subsequently to Antsirabe (250km) we stop off at a local
market and again at Ambositra where the group stocks up on
wood carvings and torrential rain signals the start of the
rainy season. We continue to Antsirabe and stay again in
the Hotel Hasina having the good bowls of soup in the
café at the front of the hotel.
Wednesday 2/11: After breakfast
we reurn to the craft shops visited early on in our visit.
Then to Ambatolampy and lunch before a visit to an aluminum
foundry and completing the 170kms to Tana by way of the
raffia stalls at the roadside and finally the craft shops
of Tana. Stay in the fancy Hotel Tana
Plaza and treat ourselves to dinner at the excellent
Café de la
Gare.
Thursday 3/11: To Tana airport in
hectic local traffic. Departure just before midday on
Corsair. Good meals. Arrive Paris Orly just at 9.45 p.m.
local time. Drive 'home' to Brussels.
Go to
Madagascar 2011 pictures from
others page
Return to main Madagascar page
Or go
to data for the index to Lenn*n
entries.
Alternatively, go to my
railwayana.com pages
for Irish railway data
Or even, go to my railwayana auction price pages
