To Foulpointe

Window scenery as we drove along...

Street scenes as we walked through a small village on the national road.

The lady I bought the lychee from.

The spice market.

National Road 5.

The beach at our resort.

Thursday, November 16^th.

We were off by seven for another long day of driving. It's a good thing I like looking out the window and there is lots to see. We drove for over five hours in the morning. We are still in the rainforest region and at one town Patrick dropped us off at one end of a little village and we walked along the street, which is a national road. There were lots of trucks trying to work their way through town and around all the human obstacles and potholes. We walked and looked at all the tropical fruit for sale. There were bananas, pineapples, mangoes, jackfruit, etc. I bought a kilo of lychee nuts which were delicious.

Eventually we arrived at the city of Tamatave which is the port on the east side of Madagascar. This is where all the trucks are either coming from or going to. We stopped there at a very nice restaurant for lunch. After lunch we visited an ATM and money exchange facility, a local market to buy spices (Madagascar is a spice island) and then a supermarket.

The afternoon drive was along NR5 which travels north along the coast. Unfortunately it is in terrible shape. It is paved but full of huge, deep potholes and mini lakes. That plus the fact that there was a fair amount of traffic going in both directions made for a really long 60 km drive to our hotel, the Manda Beach Resort for the night. We arrived just after sunset, checked in, pre-ordered dinner and then had a quick look around the hotel, (which is like a resort you'd find in the Caribbean), and the beach, before it got too dark. I went back to the room and put my bathers on to go in the pool, but they were just closing it for the night. So I headed back and had a great shower. Unlike the last few days, this shower was hot and had lots of pressure. I shaved my whole head with the new razor I bought in the supermarket and was presentable again for dinner.

As a little aside: Last week I shaved my head with a lousy razor that would not get into the ridge at the base of the skull. As a result I had a little line of hair that I could grasp with my fingers. I didn't think much of it until Florien asked if I was trying to grow a moustache out of the wrong side of my head. Everyone had a good laugh and Patrick said he saw it but didn't comment because he thought it was a new style and that I wanted it that way. So I got a razor and told him to fix it, which he did.

We had a good dinner and the group stayed up for a few drinks as well. I think people are sensing that the end is nigh. Tomorrow we have to get up really early to catch a boat.