Johannesburg – city of our civilisation dreams
After flying with Air Malawi to South Africa, the big airport, the shiny billboards, the illuminated six lane highway into town seemed to be misplaced or coming from a different world. The breakfast with croissants the next morning and the incredibly fast internet connection thereafter were almost unbelievable. The warm welcome by the family of a former colleague of Anja immediately made us feel at home in Johannesburg. A visit to the Apartheid museum and the Museum Africa gave us an insight into South Africa’s recent history and muesli with milk provided a change in our diet. We are ready for Madagascar!

Episodes from incroyable Madagascar: Aug 3 to Sep 5, 2003

We have chosen to enlighten your day with only a few selected stories from the big island in the Indian Ocean. With only four weeks to spend on Madagascar, we had to make some tough choices on what to see and where to go. Travelling is difficult and takes a lot of time, therefore, we only managed to see parts of the highlands, parts of the West coast, two national parks and a little paradise island off the East coast. On Madagascar, African, Asian and European cultures have mixed and mingled and it is a fascinating blend. The endemic fauna and flora and the brilliant national parks as well as the tropical islands are marvels. If you speak a little bit of French and are prepared for some long minibus rides (or have enough money to rent a 4WD) this is a(nother) destination which we do recommend.

The river, us and the rain during the dry season
After two days of nice and comparably comfortable taxi-brousse rides we arrived in Miandrivazo, the starting point for the descent on the Tsiribihina river in a pirogue. After buying the last provisions the next morning, we mounted our pirogue and were on the water for 140 km.
During the three days, we kept ourselves busy by watching the abundant birdlife, by discovering chameleons in the riverine vegetation, by spotting turtles before they jumped from the rocks on which they had sunbathed, by staring back at the lemurs in the trees, by planning our trip through South Africa or by just dreaming/dozing off admiring the untouched landscape.
The second evening we set up the tent on a sandbank in the river as we had done the night before and watched sheet lightning in the distance while eating dinner. We slept quietly until 10pm when it suddenly started to rain and we quickly had to throw over the outer waterproof layer of the tent. The thunderstorm seemed to wander within a radius of three kilometres for the next three hours. Astonishing amounts of rain fell and lightning and thunder kept us awake. The thought of being trapped in a tent that was standing on a sandbank in a river in the middle of the dry season and the sudden torrential rainfall was frightening. When the rain eased around 1am Anja had to get out of the tent to check the river’s water level. She returned relieved as no visible change had occurred.
The piroguer happily accepted one of our Maasai blankets and a rescue cover as he had been sleeping outside and got soaked. We learned the next day that most of the other tourists had been just as unfortunate as none of the rental tents had a waterproof layer…   
The following day was again hot and enjoyable. The river journey ended a bit abruptly with just another landing at the riverbank close to a village and the piroguer telling us that we had arrived. After lunch we trotted for five kilometres behind an ox-cart that was carrying our luggage. Several river crossings and many friendly encounters with the locals later we reached the village of Antsiraraka where eating dinner at the “hotel” entitled us to free camping. 
Overall those have been the most peaceful three days so far.

World Heritage Site – Tsingy National Park – and its natural protection
Getting to (and from) the Tsingy de Bemaraha Strict Nature Reserve was not fun. Do we need to say more if a 4WD vehicle needs six hours to master one hundred kilometres of piste?
The UNESCO’s brief portrayal describes the reserve as ‘comprising of karstic landscapes and limestone uplands cut into impressive 'tsingy' (needle in malgache) peaks and a 'forest' of limestone needles, the spectacular canyon of the Manambolo river, rolling hills and high peaks. The undisturbed forests, lakes and mangrove swamps are the habitat for rare and endangered lemurs and birds.’
The site is really impressive and obviously unique in the world. Unless Madagascar decides to do some major road constructions, the park has a chance to remain as it is today. Only a limited number of tourists make it this far and that is good as the excellently laid out walk/climb through the pinnacles can only take so many people.

One night in Baobab Eden Village and the memorable ride to get there
What at first impression seemed to be the junkyard of some transportation business turned out to be the backyard of the house of probably one of Morondava’s richest families, the proprietors of one of the two salines close to Belo-sur-Mer. The patron himself wanted to leave for his saline that day in the early afternoon, taking with him loads of merchandise for his village and some of his employees and their families. Some of the merchandise had not arrived yet when we delivered our bags at 12.30pm. About five hours later the truck eventually started moving (we had gone for lunch in between). Apparently, according to the regulations, a merchandise truck is only allowed to take along four passengers in the cabin and none in the back. Well, there were the patron, his son and us and about forty other people all of whom had to take a taxi-brousse past the police check point to sit on the merchandise for the remainder of the way. As vazaha (whites/foreigners), we were invited to join the patron and his son in the cabin.
Nightfall was already imminent when we got moving. Two rivers had to be crossed and the unusually hot weather in the Northern hemisphere led to tidal movements being higher than normally in this part of the world (at least that is what the patron made us believe). Therefore, we also had to cross two salt water patches. After we had smoothly crossed the first two dangerous spots, much to the surprise of the patron, he considered himself to be exceptionally lucky. Thus, he had to thank the lord. Much to our surprise the 50+ year old fumbled around in his bag and got out a little box which produced at least 25 marihuana joints. The conversation had been interesting before but improved thereafter being interspersed by the patron’s singing of popular oldies from the days when he had been the lead singer of the famous Baobab band.

Sitting on only one buttock on top of the exhaust pipe, inhaling in turn exhaust fumes and the patron’s cigarette/marihuana smoke plus the bumpy road made Anja entertain the crowd by getting rid of her lunch twice during the five hour ride.

That night, we put up our tent in one of the future tourist bungalows still under construction as there was no onward transportation to Belo-sur-Mer at 11pm at night. Starting next year, the place will be known as Baobab Eden Village where tourists can swim in the pool, play a round of golf or tennis and relax in the vicinity of people utilising ox-carts and living in one-room huts in the middle of the salt desert… 

Crossover from West coast to East coast – vazahas were suffering again!
We would have loved to return to Morondava by pirogue. All was arranged for it but then the sea decided to roughen up making the journey too dangerous. Together with a few other vazahas, we tried to find a way out. Joining a funeral party that was returning to Morondava in a rented truck was the only possibility. Boarding the back of the truck with about eighty other individuals provided for painful six hours in which Christian haggled with the lady next to him on where to rest his arm on his leg while others comforted themselves on his feet. Anja was luckier. After the truck got stuck in mud, she was not fast enough to climb back on in order to secure a ‘decent’ sitting spot and the driver invited her into the cabin.
After a short night in Morondava we stupidly boarded the first available taxi-brousse only to discover later that the promised 15 hour ride to Fianarantsoa turned into 24.5 hours. This must have been Madagascar’s slowest taxi-brousse!

Nice animals and not so nice animals
Three days of trekking in Ranomafana National Park made for a nice change after all the sitting. Guides are obligatory but the pricing structure is quite peculiar: guides come in three categories, beginners, semi-professional guides and professional guides. Obviously, the latter being the most expensive, most experienced and too expensive for us. As guide fees have to be paid per group (and that can consist of up to four persons) we were extremely lucky to convince an Italian couple to join us for three days of trekking through the primary and secondary forest.
We were even luckier as their well-tarred lungs and unused ligaments made them return to the entrance gate after one day. Thus we had Emile, Ranomafana’s most experienced guide just to ourselves. During the three days we spotted many of the twelve resident lemur species as well as plenty of other flora and fauna. Camping in the researchers’ rest camps added to the unique experience. During the second night our tent again had to proof its water resistance. The next morning, before unseen fauna emerged out of the thick forest: Leeches. These little beasts usually came in troops of about fifty, trying to find warm bare skin somewhere on our legs and feet. Two pairs of socks helped to prevent them from sucking too much of our precious blood but picking them out of the shoes after leaving the forest behind took some time.

Finally behaved like real tourists and Anja wasn’t borne a diver
After many hours of taxi-brousse rides we treated ourselves to a week of beach holiday on Ile Ste. Marie. Here we were able to camp right next to the beach for EUR 2 per night spending the rest of the budget on an open water dive course. While Christian mastered all exercises, Anja had to (again?) find out that she loves being on boats and likes snorkelling and swimming but that metres of water over her head are not her cup of tea. Hence, Christian is still looking for a dive buddy (– Andreas, what about you?).
Between July and September humpback whales get their babies in the shallow waters of the narrow canal between Ile Ste. Marie and Madagascar’s mainland. We were fortunate to see them jumping about 20m from the boat. Magnifique but way too quick for our camera!
It was the first time for us to wear our swimming outfits openly and to give the yet pale parts of our bodies the chance to catch up with our forearms and faces. 

September 7, 2003
Tomorrow we will leave Johannesburg for Swaziland in our nice little rental car. A totally new way of transportation! The next update will hopefully reach within a week’s time once we reach Durban.