DAY 41
Another day on the road. We leave Antsirabe to go to Ambalavao, 320km away. We're stuck for about one hour by roadwork. There's no one working and we suspect they broke for lunch but traffic is suspended until they come back... whatever. The road is good at the beginning by it starts zigzagging so much that we have no choice but to look at the road to avoid being sick; so much for using these long hours stuck in the car for reading or writing the blog... Just before reaching Fianaransoa we get to experience the worst asphalt road ever. I don't see how it could be worse. It used to be asphalt but it now is a pothole after the next. We're going at like 10 km/h and it still is bumpy. How many years/decades did that road go without repairs? We pull up at our destination in Ambalavoa with the sun setting. The sky goes from red to orange to purple to dark blue with a crescent moon for good measure, magical!
DAY 42
There are other parks further south but Anja is the southernmost one we'll visit. Life is about choices so we'll leave Andringitra and Isalo for another visit. Anja is not a national park but privately owned by a the villagers. As usual we decline the short 1-2h visit and go for the half-day one. The park hosts lots of Maki lemurs (ring-tailed) and we get down to business right away. A group of 10-15 of these guys is waiting for us at the park entrance. We spend a good amount of time looking at them, taking pictures while they go about their business, close but mostly ignoring us. We then checkout the 2 crocodiles basking in the sun or their stone in the middle of the lake and witness a funny scene involving zebus. The herd is on our side of the lake coming towards us when a baby zebu realize it's on its own on the other side of the lake. And lake any kid would do, decide to use the direct route, across the lake, running and complaining at the same time... typical!
The park also has different species of chameleons. The brown ones are huge but difficult to spot and the green ones are smaller but much easier to see. We'll also come across a weird thing called a leaf bug. We first though they were some kind of fungus but it's indeed a bug. For now there are white but they'll turn green then red then into so kind of butterfly.
We run into a second group of Maki and the experience is even more incredible. They are so close we could almost reach out and touch them. They are clearly used to humans and thankfully they don't see us as a threat. It allows us to feel like we're part of their group for a short time.
The second part of the hike/visit takes us up in the granite mountain. On the way up we pass by the caves used by the Maki at night. These caves used to be a shelter for people until less than a century ago. Smartly the lemurs took over when the humans left. As we go up, we have a few nice vista points on the valley below. There's no animals up there but a great variety of cactus. The goal of that part of the hike is to go see the tombs in the cliff. They are halfway up the cliff. They had to lower the body from the ledge all the way down to the tombs. Zebu cranes, used as offerings, can still be see at the tombs entrances.
It's time to go back down. We take a different route, this time going down a steep granite slope. We're thankful to have good hiking shoes with good grip! With snow that mountain could be a lot of fun :D We do a quick detour to say goodbye to the lemurs but there's already 10 tourists there chasing them from tree to tree for pictures instead of waiting for them to come close...
Back in Ambalavao, we talk a bit with an Italian guy who just finished a contract with WWF and is now visiting the country before going back home. He had a gruesome experience with taxi-brousse the night before which makes us so happy to have our own car and driver. They arrived at 2am and they refused to drop him at his hotel and left him 2km away. Hopefully someone nice helped him but it seems in every country the percentage of assholes working in the minibus industry is much higher than the average. No time to linger too long, we jump back in the car and head for Ranomafana. It's yet another park but it'll just be a stop on the way for us. We go first to Manakara on the eastern seashore to take the train and will be back in Ranomafana a few days after. It'll give us the opportunity to make arrangement for the trek we want to do in the park though. The cattle traffic around Ambalavao is the more intense we had in Madagascar. The town hosts the second largest cattle market of the country and it takes place on a regular basis so there's always a lot of cattle going in and out. The road to Ranomafana goes through that horrible section of road again but it's not as bad the 2nd time around since we know it doesn't last that long. The park is in the middle of a rain forest in the middle of the mountain. It already looks impressive from the road even though we only see bits and pieces. One element that catches our attention but goes by too fast is what looks like an impressive torrent. We have no time to stop since we haven't anything booked for tonight. Accommodation are on the expensive side here unsurprisingly and we'll have to visit a few hotels before settling for one.
The video above is a weird plant we saw on the side of the road.
DAY 43
We start the day by going to the park entrance. We arrange our 2 days expedition that will take place in a few days. We'll explore bits and pieces of primary and secondary rain forest and camp there for one night. We're all exited by the prospect but it's for 3 days from now. The beach awaits us so we take off for a few more hours on the road. The region is mountainous and the road obviously follows the terrain making it impossible to do anything else but watch the road. On the bright side the views are great. It's 50 shades of green and the traveler trees are all over. This tree is a cousin of the banana tree and is a multipurpose tree. It contains water, can be used as an umbrella and it's large leaf are great for packaging. What else could you ask for?
The first impression of Manakara is lukewarm. Our driver told us we should not spend too many days there and we listen to him and shortened our stay there and he was right from what we first see. It's not a beach town like Morondava. It used to be a important commercial port but everything is now abandoned and the city is still trying to reinvent itself. It's on the Indian ocean with dangerous currents and on top of that the beaches are dirty.