GETTING THERE

Madagascar are is a long ways from the northwest! From Portland, to Seattle, to Paris 11 hours, 24 hour layover in Paris, and another 11 hour flight to Madagascar. I spent the 24 hours in Paris pretty much trying to deal with one leg of my trip that was screwed up on the ticket, and pretty much relaxing and sleeping. I stayed at a hotel very near the airport, it was windy and rainy the entire time there. 

Arriving in Antananarivo, more commonly called Tana at nearly midnight, a very rough landing in a 777 that was nearly full with over 300 people. Amazing how large planes are! 

Thankful to be on the ground, happy to finally be starting the adventure. Though I will admit the weather looks grim, with days of rain ahead, I can only open it will change for the better! It is not the rainy season…

After going through what seemed like endless lines of customs/immigration in which the objective seemed to be for as many officials as possible to actually touch my passport, I finally got out of the airport after about 90 minutes, and found a taxi to my hotel arriving a little after 1 AM. 

Finally getting to sleep around 2 AM, the huge hotel room is a reasonably quiet respite from the otherwise third world ambience, noise and diesel smoke this city is.

After an early breakfast, Herb showed up at the hotel cafe having arrived about eight hours before me yesterday. Jetlag is a crazy thing, 10 hours difference here.

Herb and I shared a cab into the main town, having spoken to a guy at breakfast that has been in Madagascar for 25 days, he suggested we go into Independence Square. So Herb and I taxied in through hellacious stinky traffic. We started at the main market, where I was promptly bumped and my cloth shoulder bag was cut partially open by a thief with a razor blade, all I had in that bag was a jacket so nothing was lost, but I didn’t notice it for at least another 20 minutes. But not a warm start to the Madagascar experience. 

Many of the guidebooks said it wasn’t worth spending much time sightseeing in Tana, and I must regrettably agree. An unpleasant busy dirty disorganized place, and while I have been to many similar places, I hope that internally my tolerance for this kind of place hasn’t diminished with age and experience. I have been to many other outdoor markets in the world, this among the least favorable. 

Herb and I walked around for 90 minutes or so, then stopped at a place in a hotel that had pizza that was pretty good. Then we took a taxi back to the hotel, when nearly to the hotel the taxi sideswiped a small truck as it was passing, no major damage but they both stopped and yelled at each other for a while. After just a few hours, I think I am done with Tana already. Looking forward to moving into the country tomorrow. 

The currency is interesting, 30,000r is equivalent to about $10 US. A large bottle of beer is about $1.25us. 

Paul and Rebecca should be arriving at the hotel in about another hour, obviously Herb and I are here, don’t know when we will see Bill or Kathryn and her friend. But we should have a group dinner sometime this evening. 

After couple of days of extensive travel, it is afternoon nap time for me…

Segue…

After a luxurious 2 1/2 hour nap, Paul texts that everyone has joined up downstairs in one of the rooms so I try to wipe the jet lag nap-idue out of my eyes and join the gang. Everyone is there, Paul and Rebecca, Kathryn and her friend Lynn, Bill, and Herb. 

Instantly it’s as if I’m in a gang of old comfortable friends with smiles on their faces ready to share another cycling experience. It feels good. 

Though I knew already knew that Paul and Rebecca were delayed a day due to a screwup by South African Airways, I sadly learned that they actually have no bags with them and four different phone calls report the bags are in four different places, so that is distressing to them obviously not a good start for their trip. I’m thankful my connections were simpler, and hopeful that the helpful guide Lucien will be able to help with that situation.

After a quick gin and tonic, with gin supplied by Lynn and Kathryn from Australia, we all join up downstairs for the trip briefing by the guide Lucien, and the co-guide, Sulufu. Lucien has been doing the same route for years and is very friendly and positive so a great start to the group dynamic with an experienced positive friendly guide!

We have a satisfying dinner at the small hotel restaurant, catching up with each other’s lives since the last time I had seen or talked to some of these folks was several years ago, these will be great traveling companions for the hiking and biking in the 14 days ahead. 

It doesn’t take long to fade at the dinner table, I think by 9 PM everybody was yawning and ready for sleep after extensive travel. I think I was in blankets by 9:30 PM, ready for and hopeful for a solid full night sleep.

LEAVING ANTANANARIVO

A good sleep! A tasty omolette breakfast with Corossol fruit juice, which tastes like lychee. Tasty!!

In the vans now, heading very slowly through town to head south. Traffic very dense! We have traveled about two kilometers in one hour so far! Gives one an appreciation of the generally moving traffic in the more developed world. 

Five percent of all the world species are in Madagascar only. 80% of all species here are here alone. The most common language other than Malagasy is Francais. Most signage is in both languages. Tana has about 2.5 million population; about 22 million in the country. There are 18 tribes in the country, we will be traveling through the villages representing six of them. 

Brickmaking operations are common along the river. The kilns are also built right on the river and the bricks are fired there and then hauled up to the road by hand. Majority of the simple residential construction here is unreinforced brick. 

It is also common to see laundry operations beside the highway and all the laundry drying beside the road.

In some of the photos you will see the brickmaking operations by the river, also the laundry operation by the river. The men do the bricks, the women do the laundry, and then the kids in school will come down to the river and have lunch with the parents cooked riverside.

Malagasy houses always oriented to north/northwest. 

Lunch: I had Honombry Ritra which is a traditional and common Malagasy meal. It is roasted Zebu meat w rice, beans, tomato puree. It was great!!

Continuing the long drive day, we stopped at an aluminum pot making factory. It was incredibly simple but dangerous process. The aluminum pots or sold mainly in Madagascar, but other pieces of aluminum products made in other factories are exported. But all of the products are made from recycled aluminum. Bags and bags of old car parts and motor parts and cans and recycled old bits of aluminum window frame or door frame, all that sort of stuff is taken and melted in these outside stoves. The molten aluminum is taken a few feet over to where sand and wood forms receive the molten aluminum. We watched the entire process from start to finish and it was pretty amazing, but clearly OSHA has no presence here.

Guide note: Lucien is a very informative guide, tells us about everything we are seeing and the history of Madagascar. Excellent guide!

We finally got to Antisrabe and the hotel around 5 PM. We took a short ride on the bikes just to get familiar with them and a little 6k around this town.

Next heading to dinner with the group, then I think we will do a loop ride tomorrow here because we stay at the same hotel again.

A nice din at a pizza place, so much for Malagasy food! Despite the excessive driving, a good day with very nice people.

930pm and I can barely keep my eyes open writing this…

Here is the official summary for today: Today we transfer four hours to Antsirabe, 170 km south of Antananarivo, and on the way stop to visit an aluminium pot making factory in Ambatolampy. The drive takes us along a gravel road in the highlands past rice paddies and fruit plantations, with smiling and friendly locals on bikes waving to us. Due to its geographical setting Antsirabe and nearby thermal springs, at 1,370m/4,500 ft above sea level, has been a popular retreat since the late 1800s. Upon arrival in Antsirabe we’ll meet our bikes and go for a short ride at a leisurely pace with a variety of road conditions ranging from tarmac to back roads along with some climbs and descents before we truly start exploring wild Madagascar. Chambres du Voyageur. Ride 10 to 20 km. 

Ps; having minimal success uploading photos..