Up at 6am this morning, travelled a short distance to the local town, where we bought supplies for the trip down the
T Siribihina River. After reporting to the local authorities, we were cleared to start the journey.
When we arrived at the river we were accosted by children, speaking their best french in an attempt to get a "stylo" or pen from the foreigners. As we fought our way through the swarm of children and cackle of women washing their clothes in the river, we got into our awaiting Pirogue (wooden canoe type boat, carved from the trunk of a tree).
We were put in a Pirogue with a French girl named Irena and two guys named Max and Paddy (couldn't remember the second guy's name) who were aged 18 and 15 respectively.
Max and Paddy's job was to slowly row us down the river and point out anything vaguely interesting, unfortunately when they did this, it was all in FRENCH!!! Luckily for us, Irena could speak perfect English, so she soon became our personal translator :-).
After a few hours in the Pirogue we stopped for lunch in a little village along the river where there were more awaiting children ready to ambush us asking for more pens. Irena sat down under a tree and lent a pen and paper to one of the younger boys (aged 5). To my amazement, he wrote his name on the piece of paper in exemplary joined up hand writing. The village was so tiny and consisted of just a couple of huts made from the surrounding habitat. These people are extremely poor. I was amazed that these children even attended school yet alone able to write joined up handwriting at such a young age!!! I must admit that the real tear jerker was the fact that they constantly asked for pens and paper so they could practice their skills. I would like to see a 5 year old in this country with so much enthusiasm to learn!!!
Meatballs for lunch!!! Mike's favourite meal of the entire holiday!! lol all this was fully prepared and cooked to a high standard by the guides from scratch, with the minimulist of equipment. Impressive!!!
Back on the boat in the afternoon, with the chickens accompanying us on one of the other boats. We travelled another 4 - 5 hours down the river on the Pirogue to a flat sandy beach, which was to be our hotel for the night, lol, we set up our tents and sorted ourselves out for the evening. We were all sorted ready to watch the gorgeous sunset over the distant mountains, and gorgeous it was!!! Whilst we were gawping the guides were busy preparing our evening meal, a surprise to us, we were served with a thick juicy slice of Zebu Steak, rice and fresh cooked vegetables, Gorgeous.
Unfortunately this meant that later that night a shovel recce was required ;-p..........
Well after giving a £100 deposit to some random guy for our trips, we waited nervously outside the Sakamanga Hotel (http://www.sakamanga.com/eng_index.html) which was a great place to stay by the way. Our "Travel Agent" Papoula (http://www.mada-tour.com/madatour.html), was supposed to meet us at 8.30 and by 8.40, there was still no sign...
Anyway, at 8.45, we met Papoula who kindly took us to the bank to pay the remainder of the money we owed him. We decided to pay in Ariary as it worked out cheaper for us than Euros. What we didn't realise is how many notes you get in Ariary and how little the actual currency is actually worth. We withdrew 1,620,000 Ar (600 Euros) in 10,000 Ar notes which made me wish I had brought my little tin lunch box with me to store it in!!!!
First stop in our little mini bus was at the market to buy some rope to tie the luggage to the roof. It was quite scary as this was are first real insite into the life people lead in Madagascar. As fruit sellers tried to sell us oranges and pineapples at the windows, random beggars also tapped on the window, wanting some of the western wealth. There was one guy in particular though who reminded me of a bad taste zombie!!!! Scary...
After the market, we started our 3.5 hour jouney to Antsirabe, where we had lunch and bought a painting. After lunch we left for Miandrivazo and slept in some lovely bungalows in La Pirogue hotel. It was nice but the whole town seemed to be powered by one generator which kept stopping and sending the whole town into darkness!!!
The scenery along the way was magnificent with wonderful rolling hills. It was definitely not what I had expected. I thought Madagascar was going to be arid and dry, but it was extremely colourful with the green trees reflecting in the green water against the vivid red soil. Beautiful!!!
G`day, Mike here, (soldier boy) well, we started the day off well, up nice and early, straight to the airport, dropped the car off, only to find that our flight was delayed by 3hours!!! grrr!!! Finally got to Madagascar about 1500 local time, to be met by our hotel transferee, and an orange sim card................
First impressions, well what can I say.... but wow!!! It`s a total different world, in a good way, it puts you London drivers to shame!!! lol Only nearly killed 7 locals on route to the hotel, but that`s the norm here! Anyway, many local beers later (might I say very tasteful), and a chat with a local, we`re now booked up for the next 2 weeks :-)
I shall let you come back later and sample the delights of what we have got up to :)
Mike n Rosie
xxx
Today we hired a car so we could have a look round the island. The little man turned up with a Nissan Micra ( for those of you who don't know, there is a history between me, Mike and a Nissan Micra ;)).
We set off with the intention of going to Ile aux Cerfs. A little island off the coast of Mauritus, supposably paradise. Paradise if it didn't start to pour down half way there!!!! We then decided all you can do in the rain was go shopping... We went to Port Louis, the capital and of course, as soon as we got there, the sun started shining!!!
We had a lovely lunch on the harbour, a mooch round the shops and a drive back to the hotel (we didn't realise how small the island was but it only takes a couple of hours from top to bottom).
Mauritius is a beautiful country, but it is one of those places you come to relax and sit by the pool... not for us, we drove round the island and are now bored. Off to Madagascar tomorrow!!! Yay!!! Speak to you crazy cats soon! Going to go now as this internet is costing an extortionate rate of 10 Euros an hour!!!!
Well we finally arrived in Mauritius and to our amazement, there was a little man with our name on it.... Mr Middleton..lol..Mike looked really worried but I was too tired to argue.
We arrived at the hotel and it looked like paradise. Gorgeous room, pool, right on the beach.... (they didn't advertise the weather though when we made our booking!)
As we are backpacking in Madagascar for 3 weeks, we decided to splash out and get a lovely hotel for a couple of days and then slum it!!
The hotel is gorgeous but the weather is really really windy. After a walk on the beach and two meals, it was time for bed. Let's see what tomorrow brings :)
OK, I have started from day one again as it is the first day of this set of travelling stories. We (Me and soldier boy) start off in Manchester airport, getting a flight down to London. Check in with BMI (yes, I know it sounds suprising but I actually made this flight!!!!). Look at seat numbers for plane... flight to London (1 hour), fine sat together... flight to Mauritius (11 hours)... sat 10 rows apart from each other?????
Ok, so we complained, not a good way to start the holiday, 11 hours sat on your own on a plane. Not good. When we got to London, we complained to Air Mauritius. After a lot of begging and seeing quite a few different people we managed to get seats together...ahhh.... if only I'd have known I was going to sleep the whole way anyway!! At least soldier boy was comfortable (to lie on!).
