DAY 29
We arrive in Kenya after a short fly but with a 5h layover in front of us. The airport is without a doubt more modern than the Addis' one. It's boring to have to wait in an airport but in one of the shops we find an inflatable neck pillow for me. I don't use it in the plane but it works marvel when camping for me. Finally we board along with a class of English teenagers girls and their teacher. We end up string next to the French teacher if the group and she's happy to practice her French with us. They have been preparing this for 3 years and the two weeks camping adventure finally begins for them! Arrived at Antananarivo airport, we wish them luck for their adventure, go through custom in breeze (free 30 days visa, yeah Madagascar!) then start shopping for a local SIM card. The 3 operator are in the airport, it makes our life easier. The customary taxi haggling takes some time. Whenever the guy say it's his final price, we resume walking towards the shuttle. And he comes back with a better offer. Rinse, repeat until you have a fair price ;) The driver is super chatty and, of course, he has friends who organize tours. He calls him for us and we arrange a meeting for tonight to see what they have to offer. It seems we may have a tour with another couple lining up. The air is polluted but the views are very nice. The rice fields reflect the gorgeous sunset, it's beautiful. We just have time to drop our stuff in our room and we continue this very long day with a 2h meeting with Justin and Adrien. We learn a lot about our different option but we don't rush to a decision. We're starved and tired so we tell them that we'll discuss this between us peacefully and get back to them tomorrow. We finish the day with a treat. A delicious restaurant next door where we try local foie gras and carpaccio of zebu among other things... Divine!
DAY 30
The last time we did it was probably 2 month ago. It's a chore in a sedentary life but for us today it's bliss! Tana has grocery stores. Like the ones you would find anywhere in the western world. For once, no need to go to the restaurant, we can picnic in our hotel room with bread, cheese, sausage and yogurt... Did I say bliss already? The rest of the day is dedicated to organizing our visit of Madagascar. A few phone calls teach us that it's useless to go to the west coast (too expensive and no more diving shop there) which simplify the decision making process actually. We meet again with the guides and plan our trip with them. We'll go West first and join another couple to go down the river Tsiribihina then the Tsingy to end up in Morondava in about a week. More to come afterward of course but let's keep it for later.
DAY 31
Time to leave for the grand tour. We wrap up slowly and end up only having an hour to take a walk in Tana. We quickly find a giant market and wander about the stalls, declining the numerous attempt at selling us vanilla, cinnamon, spices, etc... On our way to the railway station, one of the noteworthy building, we stop by a guy who has a little show with snakes and a chameleon. He's actually a magician. He makes the chameleon appear and disappear and then start swallowing a small serpent! To regurgitate it a few minutes later...ew. It's too late to go the the railway station now and we head back to the hotel. We'll have one full day in Tana at the end of our trip after all so it's not a problem.
We have a short 3h drive to Antsirabe with a stop for lunch. The landscape outside of Tana is lovely; very hilly, a red soil with rice fields in terrace and brickyards. The houses blend in the red landscape. The road is so much better than what we had on Ethiopia so far; asphalt, no cattle traffic but many people with bicycle... Not as fun but more efficient. We stop for lunch at "Le coin du foie gras". The 5 flavor foie gras appetizer we share is divine (nature, raisins, red and black peppers and vanilla) and to stay consistent we share a magret de canard (duck breast) that is equally divine. We love the food so far here and we were clearly in need of a change ;) We're close to Antsirabe when the sun starts setting. The colors are amazing. The sun is setting behind the hills with the trees on the hilltops painted black against the reddish sky... Gorgeous.
To start the night here, there's one address: La cabane. It's skewers party with white rum and tonic. The meat on the skewers is zebu of course and it's just delicious. We spend a very fun nigh with them and even finish at the nearby karaoke! They eventually drop us off at the hotel but head for some additional libations it seem ;)
DAY 32
This morning, thanks to the supermarket on Tana, we are able to refill a bit the Spanish core of Mar with a breakfast from Andalusia (bread, salt and olive oil). This little bottle of olive oil will keep us happy for many more mornings. Maybe we can find tomatoes at some point to make the breakfast perfect!
It's the "tour de France" right now and unknowingly we have a mountain leg planned for us. We rent bikes and take off to check out the lakes around Antsirabe. After a short section on an asphalt road it turns into a bad dust road going uphill all the time for 3 hours... Gruesome. What we didn't know is that the lake is in "altitude" at 1800m. It's nice to see the countryside though and we pass through countless villages with everyone greeting us. But it's not nice to have trucks overtaking us every so often...we eat a lot of dust in the process. 2 things are striking us while we bike through the country side. Firstly, people play “petanque” here. Not so surprising for a former french colony after all. Secondly, the custom here is not to bury your dead in common graveyards but to build a personal tomb not far from home. The ones in the countryside are the size of a small house. On the road to Antsirabe we saw one that was completely outrageous... see below ;)
The lac sits in the caldera of a sleeping volcano. It's easily 200 to 300m lower than the ridge; impressive view. The lake itself is devoid of life. According to local legends it only has the remnant of 2 lovers, a story similar to Romeo and Juliette. Another oddity is its reaction to rain. The level is higher during the dry season and lower during the rainy season. It would be due to a complicated system of tunnels linking it to other nearby lakes. We have lunch down by the lake when a English tourist stops by. We talk for a while. He speaks a bit of french but it's the first time he can have a real conversation in English since he arrived in Madagascar almost a week ago. We both can relate to that ;) He's heading in the same direction in the next few days and is looking for a ride to Miandrivazo. We take his number and promise to see with our guides if we'd have a spot for him. It's getting late and we decide to skip another nearby lake and go back by the same road and maybe stop by the big one we saw first. It's downhill now but the road is too bad for speeding so it takes a while. After a quick detour by the big lake we're finally back in town. Our legs and butts are in bad shape. We'll need some rum to make the pain go away clearly. It's Cali's birthday, our future guide, and Mar's pre-birthday so we have more than enough excuses to drink rum tonight. We go back to La Cabane for another skewer party and meet the couple we'll be traveling with on the river and to the Tsingy. Lisa and Julien are from Brittany and moved to La Reunion two weeks ago. They decided to take some time in Madagascar before looking for jobs there. Jon, the Englishman, joins us too to discuss with the bosses (Justin and Adrien). After a few rounds of rum and skewers we head to a local shack to get some Malagasy food. Jon decides to take the bosses offer and he'll be with us all the way to Morondava. We finish the night with some epic singing and dancing at the karaoke place. We do much better that time with special award for bohemian rhapsody and Alexandrie Alexandra (we felt Meli and Peggy's presence during the last one!). Super fun night with a great group of people.