Our travels		Video+Pics		Cycling		Walking		About us
Madagascar 2006 part 2, from Ranamofana to Ifaty Day 9 Ambalavao Today we have a long trip ahead. This means breakfast at 7:15. We hear the first alarm at 5:30 !! The bungalows are not really soundproof and we are not sure from which bungalow the noise is coming. No matter how hard we try, we can't sleep anymore and long before we planned we are taking a shower. It looks like the entire group had the same problem because everybody is at the breakfast table at 7. Some people of our group went to the baths of Ranomafana yesterday. But they were closed on wednesday afternoon to be cleaned. We didn't go but the others say the baths are probably never going to open. Everything was looking old and dirty. Just out of curiosity we make a stop at the baths before we leave. And .... they are open. We drive the same dirtroad back to the RN7. The bridge is in a much better condition than two days ago and we can drive on without any problems. On a long driving day we make regular stops to stretch our legs. The first stop is at a small village, where every house seems to have a smithy. We walk through the village and take some pictures to get into the bus again at the other end of the village. Once back on the RN7 we are heading further south. At Fianarantsoa we stop at the shop of the famous photographer Pierrot Men. He made a lot of pictures of the all day life in Madagascar. He sells books and postcards. Next to the shop is a Salon du Thé where we have lunch. Next we drive on to the 'haute-ville' of Fianarantsoa, the upper part or the old town. There are some nice churches and large houses. But there are also many souvenirsellers. Children pushing us to buy postcards from them. As we have a busy day we don't stay long and we manage to get away without buying. We are still continueing southwards. Next is a short photostop at a mountain that was portraited at the old 500 Franc bill. People living here have one old bill for sale (ofcourse for double price). Bianca, Alex and Erwin want to buy it. Dorian picks a number and Bianca wins by guessing it. Ofcourse the two men think it is not fair and they didn't have any chance. Before we arrive in Ambalavao we make one final stop at a viewpoint. In Ambalavao we stay in hotel aux Bougainvilles. At the same lot there is a small paperfactory, where women make paper by hand. They start with treebark and after a long proces they decorate the paper with flowers. This so called Antaimoro paper is much wanted. We have a short tour around the factory. And we almost forgot to order dinner. Lets do it right away so we can enjoy a cold beer on the terrace at the same time. A refreshing shower later and it is time for dinner. When we order a nice rum after dinner the waiters are not amused. They want to close the restaurant. So we are kindly asked to drink it outside on the verandah. It is 11 when we go to our room. It is dark everywhere around us. Day 10-11 Andringitra Park Loes, Tine, Tom and Erwin leave at 7:30 with Dorian to get some food for the next two days. But Erwin comes running back first to congratulate me with my birthday. My birthday started the right way, the sun is shining exactly on our doorstep. Perfect for just sitting there and enjoy the day. At eight i meet the rest of the group for breakfast, Today we have another croissant for breakfast, but this time it is more like we are used to (a lot lighter). After breakfast there is a Happy Birthday song and a girl of the hotel is bringing me a nice bouquet. The group also bought a present but wants to keep it a secret untill Tom is back here. It isn't long before he is back. Tom is hiding something very large under his coat. I hope he didn't buy me a huge present. But i am lucky, it is a basket with 5 live chicken. It is my present but what else to do with than eat them tonight in the gite? After the shopping crew had breakfast we start to put all the lugguage we are taking in the bus. Sacha thinks we can't have anything on the roof because we have to pass under something. We left a part of the lugguage here at the hotel because we are returning in 2 days. Tine also decided she is staying here in the hotel. She is not feeling too well and wants to wait for us here in the comfort of this hotel, instead of going on a two day adventure. Just before we leave the group gives me a nice local hat and a lovely basket. I wear the hat the entire day, it must be a comical sight because everybody along the road laughs at (or about) me. Right after we left Ambalavao we turn into a red sandroad. But it is a much better road than expected and we make fast progress. Some wooden bridges along the way are good and absolutely not scary. The odd thing about this road is that it is a toll road. The only one we encountered in Madagascar so far. After a while we stop for lunch. The restaurant packed some very good sandwiches with cheese, egg, tomato and gherkin. We sit along a stream and discover some wildlife like a snake and a lizzard. After this relaxing time we want to stretch the legs and walk for a while. So we start walking in the direction of Andringitra and Sacha will pick us up in about 30 minutes. Then there is a fork in the road. What to do, go up or downhill? A group of children is telling us to go downhill, but can we trust them? Do they understand where we want to go to? Then a car passes and tells us to go downhill. We take the chance and half an hour later Sacha is stopping next to us. At the entrance of the Andringitra park we stop at the informationcentre. Not really a must see. But they have some nice pictures. Only 2 kilometers further we find the gite where we are staying the next two nights. The group is on the upper floor, 2 rooms with 7 beds and 1 room with 4 beds. They tell us another group is coming with 11 people. They are staying on the seccond floor. But all we can find are two toilets and two showers one for each sexe. While the cooks are preparing the chicken for dinner we have a drink in honour of my birthday. It is gettting dark and Erwin is coming in with two candles. A 5 and a 6, but i only turned 46 …… Dinner is served on the ground floor. We have to go outside to get there. It is getting cold in the mountains. The 'spectators'who where sitting in front of the gite the entire afternoon have gone home. After the tomato soup, chicken with rice and vegetables, and fruit for desert we take another drink (it is a festive day). At 10 uur the light goes out, the generator has stopped. Because of the noise it stops at 10 every night, but we didn't know that. On to bed, what else can we do? Today we are going for a walk in the mountains of Andringitra. The first and also smallest group is going for the long 9 hour walk. We think 6 hours are more than enough. Again the guides are not as good as before. They don't speak english and don't tell anything about the things we see. But they do wait for the last one. The walk is great though, nice scenery. We lunch at a waterfall. This where we are told this is the sacred waterfall. The queen bathed here, while the king bathed in de waterfall a bit further. And miraculously they had a baby nine months later. So no bathing here. The rest was welcome, all we did was go uphill. The guides show me where the path is going next and i am glad to see it is mostly level or going down. That night Wim and Erwin play on the drums we found in the dinnerroom. Wim wants to buy one. He is told the drums are property of one of the guides. Dorian takes him to the house of the guide. It is dark inside, the family is already sleeping. But Wim manage to get a good deal for the drums. We are asked to be quiet after 9. Ofcourse we don't manage that exactly, but we are all in bed before the light goes out at 10. Day 12-13 Isalo Park At 5! the alarm of Liesbet wakes the entire group. A little bit early, because we only have to leave at half past six. Nobody can appreciate it. But everybody is absolutely on time in the bus. We drive back to Ambalavao where Tine is waiting for us, she looks a lot better than since we left her here. A good breakfast with fried eggs and the day really started. After 15 minutes driving we stop at the Anjà Park. A great place for a nice walk and seeing some lemurs from up close. The ringtailed maki and the brown lemur are not very shy. The walk is adventurous because we have crawl into caves and climb on rocks (we even use a rope to get up). Two hours later we drive further south to Ihosy. Here we have lunch in a hotel/restaurant. And again we go south. After a long warm trip the sun is threatening to go down under the horizon. Annemarie asks for a photostop. And there we go again, we are really tired and want to rest or have a nice shower. Just to be funny i say: it is not far, i can see the hotel. But all we see is a grassy plain. About 2 kilometers further the bus turns right into the parkinglot of the hotel, where we just catch the last glimpse of the sun disappearing. Like the tradition wants we start with ordering dinner before we find our room. Tonight we have snails, crocodil and ananas flambe. Around 5 the light is on, the generator started again. Switch it off and turn around, time to sleep, breakfast is not before 7:30. The water in the shower is cold, icecold. We will wait to wash untill after the walk. The bus goes to the village first to pick up 3 guides and a porter then we drive back into Isalo Park. From the parkinglot it is quit a walk to the Canyon des Makis. We walk through a hot open and flat landscape. Just before we enter the canyon we see the ringtailed maki and sifaka. Then we walk further a short track into the actual canyon. Just like the other groups that are here. And then everybody walks the same road back. Not very exciting and too crowded. Sacha stops at the hotel to drop Erwin, Patricia, Bianca, Adriaan and us. The rest of the group is going for another walk at the Piscine Naturelle and Cascade des Nymphes. We go for a relaxing afternoon around the hotel. First we have lunch in the restaurant. We get a menu with only 3 course meals on it, but when we ask the waiter they are prepared to make us a sandwich with fried eggs. Delicious! Tom and Erwin are changing into their swimming trunks, they put air in the beachbal and take their towles to the swimmingpool. The swimmingpool?, wonders the cook from the kitchen, but that is not ready yet… The builders, not very hard workers anyway, stop for almost an hour to talk about the two crazy tourists playing with a beachbal in an empty hole. Then we have 'french lessons', the most weird words are being found in the dictionairy. And at the end of the afternoon we can says weird sentences in franch. A game of yahtzee, some pictures of two men sitting behind the flowers (dutch saying, for doing nothing), and the afternoon is over. Just after sunset the group returns from their walk. It was a beatiful scenery, but a tyring walk. We are glad we didn't go. As usual we have dinner at 7:30, so there is some time for a aperative on the veranda. Dorian bought a bottle of rum and a coca cola just for this occasion. Dinner was good: snails, calamares and fruit for dessert. Day 14-16 Ifaty Breakfast at 7. The bread is heavy, very heavy, thay feel like bricks. But we all manage to be in the bus at 7:30. Again we follow the RN7 south in the direction of Tolear. First photostop is at a rock called 'Queen of Isalo', if you look really hard you can see a queen sitting on the throne. We think the other rocks of the massive are much better looking and make pictures of the other side. Not much further the landscape changes dramaticly. The rocks of Isalo dissappear. In the flat landscape we see the some Baobab trees. Next photostop is at a very small village where soem Baobabs are nearby. The view is getting worse. The flat landscape is looking black and burnt. A nice stop is at the graves at Antandroy. These tombes are painted with stories of the life of the dead people burried here. Sometimes it is about their occupation, sometimes about films they liked or other personal things. In Tolear we have 30 minutes to have a sandwich and a drink. Then we take a sandroad for two hours to Ifaty. Not far before Ifaty we stop to make pictures of a mangrove (or because Sacha wants to smoke a sigaret, it is not clear). At hotel Ikotel, just a few bungalows at the seaside, we say goodbye to Sacha. He is directly going back to Tana to pick up another group. The keys are being handed out. There are not enough 2 person cabins so we have to share a cabin for four with Erwin and Patricia. It is mostly clowded and there is not much to do at the cold beach of Ifaty. But there are the souvenirsellers who want to sell us everything: necklaces, shells or massage. The sun set behind the clowds, it is time to have a drink. Dinner is good, but it is much, a bit too much. Breakfast at seven because we have to leave on our whalewatching trip at 7:30. The small ship that is waiting for us is a bit of a disappointment. It is very small. We have to move and push a little bit to all get aboard. All our bags are in watertight compartments, and that is a good thing because we are all soaked before we reach the surf. Once we have past the surf the waves are too high to see anything, especially whales. Many people aboard get very sick and we ask to return to calmer waters. The ship turns but that doesn't make it better. The ship bounches against the waves and while we are full steam trying to conquer the waves Math is hanging overboard. But the captain says we can't slow down, we won't make it. When we arrive at the place where we were going to snorkel nobody wants to go in. Some want to go back to the hotel so we sail back home. Once back at the bungalow i am going to bed. I am feeling bad. And this is not seasickness. It is a pitty i missed Erwin, Tom and Dorian overturning the canoe. This afternoon some of our group go for a walk in the Spiny Forest. We didn't go. Tom thinks it is too hot and i feel too sick. Dinner comes in the same huge portions like yeasterday. But this time we were prepared and ordered less. I only take soup and go to bed. Tom stays for the rest of dinner and a drink and i am sound asleep when they return to the bungalow. It is only 6:10 when we and some others leave to the Spiny Forest for a birdwalk. We see a lot of rare birds like the longtailed groundroller, which actually lives only here. It was quit a show how the guides managed to get the bird in our direction though. They surrounded the poor animal and with UH noises they pushed it our way. Later we read that is almost impossible to see the groundroller without help. When we arrive back at the hotel it is time for breakfast. After the lovely fresh baked cake and bread Dorian, Math, Ria, Erwin and Tom go snorkling with local fishermen. That same boat was going to pick us up to go for a beachbarbeque at lunch. Bu there was too much wind and the tide was too low, the boat couldn't turn to pick us up. So we have to walk to the lunch. The fishermen made great grilled lobster and some baked fish. After the lunch the water is higher and it is possible to go for a short boattrip. Because of the strong wind i decide not to go. The ship is shooting away with the wind in its back. At the end of the afternoon there is a possibility to go for an excursion to the turtle shelter centre. We don't go, jsut because we think it is too zoo like. When we try the shower it is for the first time this three days that we have warm water! So the people living in bungalow 6 have a lovely shower before dinner. It is our last night here that is why a band is playing Malagassy music outside the dinningroom. Follow us to the north of Madagascar Or go back to the first week of our trip, from Antananarivo to Ranomafana. Our travels    Africa    America    Australia    Asia