#morondava

Sunday September 10 – Morondava to Antsirabe

 An early morning today as we had a long drive to Antsirabe – about 11 hours including stops.  En route we stopped at a view point to take some photos of the countryside and heard our guide explain about the increase in “zebu gangsters”, which are essentially cattle rustlers but the term zebu gangsters sounded much more humorous and made some of us laugh despite the fact that it appeared to be a real problem given the corruption in the government and the fact that they did little to catch or punish the thieves. For lunch we stopped at a place where I had the zebu masala, which appeared to have been made with a very old and tough zebu as it was the chewiest meat I’d had so far.  We then carried on driving and did a brief stop in a village to walk down the street to see the local village life and take a few photos.   We carried on driving until we came to a one lane bridge where the guide decided it would be good for us to get out and take some photos – on the bridge.   We piled out and the bus drove up a ways leaving us to walk part way across the bridge on foot and giving us time to take some photos of the river.  They do not seem to have the same level of traffic standards in Madagascar as back home!  In fact,  we haven’t seen a traffic light or stop sign since we’ve been here,  including in the capital! We carried on again, passing a procession for when they remove the corpse from the tomb after 2 or 3 years to clean the bones and wrap it in a new shroud.  Apparently the party involves a lot of drinking for a few days and the group seemed pretty rowdy so we stayed in the bus.  Arrived in Antsirabe, which was cooler than Morondava, after a long day of driving.   Had a “Greek” salad for dinner,  which was not your traditional version but was fine all the same followed by some fish with sauce. 

Saturday September 9 – Bekopaka to Morondava

 Had our last driving day in the 4×4 jeeps on the way back to the beach town of Morondava. Along the way we stopped at a few of the tombs alongside the road, which were for the families of the villagers.   Some of the tribes visit the tombs of their ancestors while others simply construct the tomb and do not touch the tombs again.   We stopped for lunch at the same restaurant we went to on the way to Bekopaka where the prawns were amazing.   This time I opted for the grilled fish, which was also good and equally well presented.     After lunch we took the second ferry and managed to survive the 45 minute sail down the river,  this time with 6 jeeps on the craft.   We then carried back on in our jeeps on the bumpy road to the Alley of the baobabs to catch the sunset.   Had time for a beer in the little shack bar and watched the tourists begin to flock in for the sunset.  More tourists than we had seen before but nothing like the number of tourists waiting to watch the sunrise at Angkor Wat in Cambodia. I got my position for sunset and finally used my little tripod.   Had to reposition to a better spot but managed to get an amazing shot!  We then headed back to Morondava to the hotel on the beach.   Although since it was dark already there was not much to see.   Had dinner of shrimp curry,  which was good before retiring to my bungalow for the night.   Seemed a giant cockroach had “checked in” to my spare bed and was tucked in on the pillow for the night!  Fell asleep fairly quickly again. 

Wednesday September 6 – ‘Tana to Kirindy Dry Forest via Morondava

 Managed to wake up in time for breakfast and had a few bites but wasn’t overly hungry given the time.   We left for the airport around 4:45 with the plan to arrive around 5:30.  It was amazing how many people were up at that time and appeared to be starting their day.  The airline we were using was apparently a private airline,  which operated out of a hangar.   We walked in and “checked in” and went through “security”, which consisted of stepping up to the two desks inside the hangar.   Showed my passport and put my bag on the scale.   It was a few kilos over the 18 kg limit but they didn’t seem to care.   I then proceeded to the security desk, where a guy looked through my bags; although he seemed to get tired after looking through a few pockets and just had me pass.  We then watched as they started up the planes and load the luggage.   Looked like they left the door opened!  Given the hangar and the security I was surprised that the seats were assigned given there were only about 24 or 30 seats on the plane.   They finally started the boarding,  which seemed to be boarding by group,  with our group going last.   As we walked up the stairs I was even more shocked to see a flight attendant!  Got on and there was another one! We took off for the 1 hour flight and they actually came around with snacks, which included a bunch of little snacks including a quiche and a muffin.   Flight landed safely in Morondava, where our jeeps picked us up.   Went to the hotel we would be staying at in a few days time and did a walk along the beach.   Was a really nice beach with no one but fisherman and a few locals.  We had lunch at the restaurant where I had some garlic shrimp and fries,  which were also tasty.   We then headed out to see the baobobs at Baobob Alley before heading on to the Kirindy Dry Forest.  The road was bumpy and a bit slow but now at bad as we were expecting.  On the way we stopped to pick up our “road snacks” for our lunch in Grand Tsingy in a few days.  After getting to our camp we prepared for a night walk.   The camp is located in the middle of a very dry forest and is home to a few species of lemur.   The rooms are tents,  which are covered by a bamboo structure, with a bathroom in the back,  which did not include a door so the view from the toilet was into the forest!  The toilet seemed to be a swimming pool used by ants and every time I opened it there seemed to be a few hanging around the bowl! The nocturnal walk was in the forest around the camp and we were able to spot a few mouse lemurs,  which were hiding in the tree.   We also spotted a furry white lemur in the trees above my tent and a few brown ones hanging around the dinner area.  After the walk we headed to the diner hut for some food.  I had the vegetable soup to start,  which was probably a poor choice given the heat and the fish as the main.   It was tasty but given the early flight,  I had a difficult time staying awake.   Headed back to the tent and fell asleep quickly.