Kirindi and Baobab Alley

After the rain, the road conditions had deteriorated.

Red Fronted Lemurs.

The baobab 'In Love'.

Baobab Alley at sunset.

Two great guys: Patrick our driver and Morgan our guide.

Tuesday, November 1^st.

I was woken up as usual by the village cockerel. He starts at 4 am before it gets light, by beating his wings and then letting rip with 'cock-a-doodle-do'. He is answered by others near and far. We were up for an early breakfast, and then said goodbye to our hosts at Camp Croco. Patrick had stayed on the north side of the river to get the 4x4 fixed, which was a relief to all of us and meant that we could use the aircon again.

Now we had the long and arduous return journey to Morondava. The long drive back to the Tsiribihina River was made more interesting by the rain from last night. There were big puddles and small lakes in the road at in places the dirt and dust had become muddy and slippery, which slowed us down a bit. Luckily after a couple of hours the water disappeared as it didn't rain that far south. When we arrived at the Tsiribihina River Patrick drove the truck back on the ferry and we sailed up river for an hour and across to the other side.

Since we didn't see the fosa when we visited the Kirindi Forest on the way north, Morgan took us there on the return trip hoping to find it. I think it hangs around the local garbage dump there, like bears, but again we had no luck. However, we did see a number of Red Fronted Lemurs in the trees. We watched them as they fed and jumped from tree to tree. I also saw a few beautiful birds including the male and female Paradise Flycatcher. Then Morgan found another group of the lemurs nearby. Because of the presence of tourists they have become habituated and will come down out of the trees for water. This was amazing! We poured water into the lid of a water bottle and they would come down, hang off a tree or branch, gently grab your hand with their soft fingers and lap up the water. Great to see them up close and not have to wrench your neck looking up.

Then we continued on to The Sacred Baobab. This is the largest baobab in the area and has special meaning for the locals. There was a fence around it and you had to remove your shoes to approach it. There were other baobabs in the area too.

The next stop was at the Baobab 'In Love'. This is a really odd tree as two baobab tree trunks have grown intertwined. It has also become a significant tourist stop with several little souvenir shops. I feel sorry for the locals who are trying to sell stuff to us that we don't want or need.

Finally we arrived at Baobab Alley about an hour before sunset. We parked and then were free to walk around the area. I watched several children who had chameleons on sticks for tourists to photograph for money. There were many other tourists here as this has become a very popular place since it was granted temporary protected status in 2007 by the Ministry of the Environment, Water and Forests, the first step to making it Madagascar's first natural monument.

Baobab trees, up to 800 years old, known locally as renala (Malagasy for "mother of the forest"), are a legacy of the dense tropical forests that once thrived on Madagascar. The trees did not originally tower in isolation over the serene landscape of scrub but stood in dense forest. Over the years, as the country's population grew, the forests were cleared for agriculture, leaving only the baobab trees, which the locals preserved as much in respect as for their value as a food source (they eat the fruit) and building material.

The area is not a national park, and the trees are threatened by further deforestation, effluence from encroaching rice paddies and sugarcane plantations, and bush and forest fires. Despite its popularity as a tourist destination, the area has no visitor centre or gate fees, and local residents receive little income from tourism. Indeed there are local people living in huts in among the trees. The children beg for 'bonbons', money or to have their photos taken for money. I couldn't help think of how the local people feel about a bunch of tourists showing up every night to photograph the sunset and then leave. They live a basic, subsistence life and they watch as tourists arrive daily, and then drive away to get to the Tsingy National Park.

When the sun finally set we, and all the other tourists, got back in our 4x4's and left. Our next stop was a the ATM in Morondava to get money for tips and the rest of the trip. And finally we stopped at Morgan's house to meet his family. This was really special as he was very pleased to introduce us to his five children, aged 18 to eighteen months (she was an accident he said). We also met his wife. Unfortunately as it was dark and late we could not stay for a good visit. Morgan and Patrick also wanted to get back home to their families, so they drove us back to Chez Maggie's where we started this trip. We said our thanks, gave them their tips, arranged with Patrick for a drive to the airport in the morning and they left.

When we got back Stuart was there waiting for us as he said he would. Margaret and I went for dinner with him to a local restaurant and Ryan and Sarah went to a pizza place. That ends the first part of the Madagascar journey.

The Big Tsingy

 Local traffic on the road.

Morgan climbs the Tsingy.

Decken's Sifaka lemur.

Life on the edge.

The suspension bridge above the gorge.

Views from the top.

Monday, October 30^th.

The rainy season is about to begin and yesterday afternoon we heard a thunderstorm in the area, but it never rained on our camp. However, the river had risen substantially overnight from rain up river somewhere. The little shacks that the local people had constructed on the edge of the river and were using for selling food snacks to the ferry people and passengers, were all flooded and the river had a stronger current with natural litter floating downstream. The people were having their breakfast higher up the bank and watching the river.

Today we were off to see, hike and climb the Big Tsingy. We crossed the river in dugout canoes again and met our guide DeeBee again. We had about an hour and a half drive north to reach the Tsingy. It is called the Big Tsingy because it is higher and covers a much larger area. When we arrived we had a short walk to the bottom of the geological site. From here we had to climb to the top. Again it was a very hot, humid day and we were all sweating before we started. I gave Morgan my little camera and he had fun taking lots of pictures of us climbing. Because the rocks are very sharp and there are lots of places with steep drops into gorges we were climbing using harnesses and carabiners. These allow you to clip onto support railings to ensure that if you lose your footing you will not fall into the gorges. A bit like climbing over a glacial icefield, except it was much hotter and it was rock and not ice. As we climbed up and down we had numerous beautiful views in this amazingly strange place. At one point we had to walk over two suspension bridges across two very deep chasms. Not for people with vertigo. Later we had to descend again to the valley floor where we had a walk through the forest. We saw another species of lemur, the Decken's Sifaka and a beautiful little bird, the paradise flycatcher.

After our visit we drove back to Bekopaka to a hotel for lunch. The hotel had a pretty good pool, so after lunch we all cooled off in it. Morgan asked if we wanted to go for a walk through the local village, which we did. So he suggested we stay at the pool until the temperature dropped a little. Shortly after that a thunderstorm rolled in and it began to rain pretty hard. The rainy season is coming. I noticed that Morgan and Patrick had to push the 4x4. There was something wrong with the alternator and it was not charging the battery.

We hung out at the hotel until it stopped and then went for a walk through Bekopaka. The rain turned the dirt road into a mud bath and we had to watch where we walked. These villages are a real eyeopener. The people are very poor, the housing is quite shabby and most have dirt floors, and the town is very primitive. There is no electricity here. Unfortunately it was a school holiday so we did not get to see the students.

From there we got back in the truck and drove back to the river, and took a ferry back to Camp Croco. Shortly after we arrived it started to rain again. I stayed in my cabin and read and listened to the storm and watched the rain. We are on the last Intrepid trip to this region as the rainy season makes the dirt roads impassable. So I was thinking about the muddy roads, the 4x4 with battery problems and wondering if we would get stranded here. This is a very remote area. Even the local people are stranded here for four months during the rainy season. They have to stock pile food and supplies to get them through it.

After the rain stopped we had dinner and Morgan joined us. We are now the only people at Camp Croco. Morgan told us a lot about the history of Madagascar and the problems it faces today: too many people, corruption, and clear cutting of the forests among other things. He regaled us with several stories that the local people would tell their child to teach them lessons. They were like fables with morals. He told us why the chameleon had to walk so slowly and constantly look in all directions with his two independent eyes, because he used to be fast and get in everybody's way and God punished him by making him super cautious. And why the hen has to constantly scratch the ground looking for something that she borrowed and lost that belonged to the black kite, otherwise the kite was going to eat her chicks. He loves to tell these stories.

Considering where we are and how remote this place is, the food here has been pretty good. There was no menu and we got whatever the chef prepared, but it was all good. The chef was trained in French cooking and loved to make pastries and croissants for breakfast and for dessert on our last night he prepared a fancy dish. It was a crepe with custard inside that was stood upright and stuck to the plate with a sugar toffee. This made the trunk of a baobab tree and he put more sugar toffee on top in the form of the branches. Really quite creative and delicious.

River Cruise and Little Tsingy

A group of German dirt bike riders crossing the river.

Our dugout canoe.

A large stalagmite in a cave.

A family burial plot on the cliff above. We could see three skulls.

The bizarre limestone formations of the Little Tsingy.

Sarah, me, Margaret and Ryan.

Re-crossing the river to get back to camp.

The nocturnal Red Tailed Sportive Lemur in our campground.

Sunday, October 29^th.

While we were having breakfast Morgan had a local man paddle him across the river in a canoe to pay our the fees for our entrance into Tsingy de Bemaraha National Park and to hire a local guide. When he came back we all walked down to the river and boarded a 'tourist' canoe, which was two wooden dugout canoes tied together with a couple of wooden planks across for us to sit on. This is a safer canoe for tourists and older people I suppose, plus we had heard the story of how in September a 13 year old girl was taken not far from here by a crocodile while swimming.

We met our guide DeeBee on the other side of the river and he joined us in the canoes and we began an hour long pole up the river past the some high cliffs to two caves. We stopped and walked into the two caves and saw a couple of large stalagmites. On the way back up river we saw nesting egrets on the cliffs, a kingfisher and a grey heron. We also saw high up on a rock ledge the famous tomb of the Vazimba tribe. Three skulls were clearly visible.

When we got back to the park entrance we began our hike and exploration through the Little Tsingy (means tiptoe because of the sharp rocks and edges). Right at the entrance I managed to photograph a paradise flycatcher and its young. This is a very unusual place in that the limestone rocks have been eroded in a very strange way and there are thousands of ribbons of sharp pinnacles. We clambered over various formations, using natural steps, ladders and chains. It was extremely hot going which sapped your energy. We walked for about two hours through this area before continuing through a forest area looking for lemurs without success.

Then we took the canoe back across the river to the camp for lunch. The food here is quite good, no choice of menu but quite edible. Then we had the afternoon to do relax. There is really nothing to do here and the weather and humidity makes it hard to want to do anything. I went back to the cabin and started a John Grisham book that Margaret gave me. Then I fell asleep in the chair so I went and lay down inside. It was hot, and the village on the other side of the fence was pretty noisy but I drifted on and off for a few hours. Then I got up and sat outside again reading until I couldn't see. Ryan and Sarah invited Margaret and I to the restaurant to play crazy eights. We did that for a bit and then Morgan came to get us because he found a nocturnal Red Tailed Sportive Lemur in a tree in our camp.

After that it was dinner time. We ate with a Dutch couple, Carl and Lydia, and swapped more stories before everyone retired for the evening. 

Baobab Alley

Slash and burn land clearing.

My home for three nights.

Baobab Alley.

Local peddlars.

Verreaux sifaka lemurs.

Local dugout canoes.

The car ferry to cross the Tsiribihina River.

Chameleon crossing the road... slowly.

Saturday, October 28^th

We had the included breakfast and then loaded up in our 4x4 with Morgan and our driver Patrick, and headed off through the village. The first stop was the ATM and the second a shop to buy lots of bottled water. Each of us was encouraged to buy six two litre bottles for the next four days as we will be doing some hiking and it is very hot and humid here.

Then we turned off the paved road that takes you back to Antananarivo (13 hours away!) and headed north on the dirt road which is called National Road 8. It is mostly dirt and dust and thankfully not too much gravel. About forty-five minutes later we came to Baobab Alley. This is one of the places I came to Madagascar to see. I love baobab trees and here there are a number of them lining the road. Once the government of Madagascar realized that tourists were interested in these trees they moved to protect them. Previously the local population pealed the bark off them for roofing material and to build fences. There are a number of native huts in and around the trees and as Morgan said they were here before the area became popular with tourists. There were a number of young children here wandering around with chameleons on sticks and letting people take photos for money.

The views here are stunning, but we were on the wrong side for lighting. So I asked Morgan if we could walk the alley, which is just a portion of the dirt road, to the other end and have the car pick us up there,he agreed and we did. Really amazing place. There are lot of baobab trees in the area and three different species. The ones we saw here at the Adansonia Grandidieri variety and have all their branches in an umbrella shape. They are really unique and very beautiful.

We got back in the vehicle and continued on until we came to Kirindi National Forest. Stuart had told us about this place and it is not on the itinerary but Morgan asked us if we wanted to go there to see the fosa. This is a large member of the mongoose family that preys on lemurs. We paid an extra 50000 ariaries for this. 35000 for entrance, 10000 for the guide and 5000 for extra petrol! (Morgan became our guide – what is that about? Perhaps a little extra entrepeneurship?) We went for an hour long walk through the dry forest. We did not see a fosa but we did see white, Verreaux sifaka lemurs, very cool. There was a group of five sleeping or hiding from the heat in a tree. Amazing to see them. There are 111 types of lemurs with some being diurnal and others being nocturnal. I also saw several birds, but had no luck photographing them in the forest.

After that we continued along the dirt road NR8, for 110 kilometres in three hours until we came to the little village of Bekopaka, on the south side of the Tsiribihina River. We had to take a ferry across the river. The ferry was made of two boats connected by wooden beams. We climbed out of our vehicle and watched as Patrick drove down the sandy bank and positioned the car to go up two narrow ramps onto the ferry from the side. Then we pedestrians boarded. The ferry was motorized and we sailed for an hour downstream and across the river. When we got to the town of Belo we drove our truck across three of these ferries, which were all tied to the dock, to get ashore. We continued on into the town to a restaurant where we had lunch. We had zebu fillet (cattle), fries and Coke.

After lunch we had another 100 kilometres three hour drive to our camp. This is an even rougher section of dirt road NR8 that is very rutted and corrugated. We bumped and jarred around the whole time. En route we saw kilometres of slash and burn. The local people in the villages set fire to the underbrush to burn it off. This allows new green grass to appear and they set their zebu cattle out to feed on it. However they are destroying the habit for other animals and apparently, according to Morgan, the practise is disturbing the normal rainy season which is now occurring almost two months later. More evidence of human created climate change.

At one point we followed a truck/bus full of local people, until we were able to pass it. It was amazing how many people they crammed inside. At one point Morgan saw a chameleon crossing the road, so we all got out and took photos.

After bouncing along on the red dirt road we finally arrived at Camp Croco on the Manambolo River. We were assigned our cabin for the next three nights and we put our stuff inside. I went for a short down to the river and watched the local people going about their lives and two young girls practising balancing water buckets on their heads as the sun set.

We all met again in the camp restaurant for dinner and a couple of beer. Ryan and I talked at length about our experiences climbing Kilimanjaro. Then it was bed time when the power went out at ten. No wi-fi for the week and only four hours of electricity from 6 to 10 and created by a noisy generator. I found a frog in the toilet when I was getting ready for bed.

Morondava

 Margaret and Stuart in front of our Air Madagascar flight.

 My beach hut at Morondava.

 Street scenes in this bustling town.

 And fishing scenes on the beach.

Friday, October 27^th.

Had the buffet breakfast and then went to pay my hotel bill and my Visa card was declined. That was the first time that happened. So, I went up to finish packing and came back with the Mastercard and that worked, thankfully.

I had arranged for a taxi to the airport with a man outside the hotel who talked to me every time I stepped out the door. We had agreed on 60000 ariaries. Last night at dinner in the hotel I met a woman from Sydney named Margaret, who is going to be on the same trip as me, so we agreed to take the cab together. So away we went. Again it was an hour 20 kilometre drive through this congested, polluted city and past the rice paddies. When we got to the airport we found it was not open yet. There were other people waiting, but with only a couple of domestic flights a day they were in no big hurry to open. We waited about a half hour and then had our passports and temperature checked. When I went through the scan they decided to totally empty my carry-on backpack. She took everything out and confiscated my hand sanitizer. Once inside we had a couple of hours to wait. Margaret and I got talking to an Englishman named Stuart. All three of us have done a lot of travelling and we swapped stories and tried to solve the problems of the world. Finally we boarded the plane five minutes before it was due to take off and it was only about five minutes late in doing so. The plane was only about half full and the flight was only an hour.

When we arrived in Morondava on the west coast of the island, three of us got in a taxi which took us to our guesthouses. There is a road from the airport directly to the beach where it meets at right angles the beach road, and that pretty much is the main roads of the town. Stuart has been to Madagascar twice before and was staying at a beach house very close to ours. When we arrived at Chez Maggie we checked in and got sorted. Then Margaret and I walked back into town to get to the ATM. We took out some money, bought some water and a snack and then walked back along the beach to our guesthouse. On the way there were lots of things to see, including the houses of the people and the fishing boats coming in. They are called outrigger canoes and have one stabilizer wing and a sail that looks like a sheet. The fishermen brought in the catch and I was surprised by the size of the fish. They were very large. I watched as the women butchered the fish on the beach.

We went back to the guesthouse and Margaret stayed there, while I got a new camera card and returned to watch some more. I saw a canoe that brought in a three foot hammerhead shark and another that had caught a large leopard ray. I walked all the way back to the main intersection and then walked back along the road rather than the beach.

When I got back I chilled by my room because of the heat. Then Margaret came and got me and said that Stuart was there. So we all sat and talked until 6 pm when our guide, Morgan, from Intrepid met us. We had a brief meeting where he gave us the itinerary and told us the start time, 7 am. We are a group of four, plus Morgan and a driver. The other couple are a young couple from England.

After the meeting the young couple, Ryan and Sarah, went for dinner at a different restaurant and the three of us ordered here. We had a drink and talked more about travelling, or rather we listened to Stuart. Dinner took an hour and a half to come and was nothing special. After dinner Margaret went to bed and Stuart and I talked for a bit before he called it a night. Back to a wi-fi-less room where I typed up the day and got ready for bed.