Believe it or not, I found a hairier being than Michiel. Yup, had to come to Uganda to find it. And, I fell in love at first sight too. Maybe there are some parallels there? Can't read into it too much.
We entered Uganda and set up camp in the first main town we came to, Jinja. Jinja bills itself as the adventure capital of East Africa, and there is plenty to do, but it is also a low-key place to hang out. We spent a day getting thrown out of a raft in class 3 to 5 rapids on the legendary Nile, and decided we wanted to keep nursing the adrenaline kick. So we jumped into kayaks for a few days to learn just how big that weany class 2 rapid looks when you are that much closer to the water. In the end, we ended up surfing a few. Nice warm water, and not even very many crocodiles. The campsite bar was perched high above the Nile so we could enjoy deserved late afternoon beers with an unrivaled view. A week later we were ready to hit the road again.
We've really enjoyed Uganda. It's lush and green, which pleases our Seattlite senses. And the people are friendly, open and candid. Conversations take unexpected turns, and people don't hold back in asking pointed questions. "Do you have cows in America?" is pretty easy to answer, but "Are you going to try to have kids as soon as you get home?" is a little tougher.
But we came to Uganda with one particular thing in mind above all else. It required us to travel to the eastern edge of the country, to the afromontane rainforest bordering the DR Congo. After an extremely long and dusty bus ride, where all we had to eat was skewers of liver which we promptly threw back out the window for the dogs, we arrived in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.
After a morning of very extreme birdwatching, we were able to mark off lots of new species. It was crazy. Kelly was holding the binos as Michiel would go through the bird book. Michiel recieved a papercut and Kelly got an elbow sprain. You have never seen such extreme birding before. This was a 4 day event.
Later the first afternoon we visited the local traditional healer who taught us what ailments all the local plants, trees, and barks can treat. He was clothed in goat skin and came from the DRC. He had 2 posters and a button on his shirt of the American Healer, Obama Man!
The pygmies tried to show Michiel how to make fire by rubbing 2 sticks together, but as a white suburban kid, he had no luck. But we are real pros at buying lighters.
After the stop to the local banana gin distiller where we tried the local wine and gin we happily and merrily skipped over to the local resturant and at a nice meal with some locals of the village. The dinner comprised of matoke (mashed green plantains), posho (maize flour and water), and some meat. It was good. We laughed and joked with a local crafts woman and shared our banana gin with others in the 8'x8' room.
Then finally, it was time for the grand finale. It was our turn to see the gorillas. We woke up with a smile, and hopes to see the gigantic hairy human like creatures. We were going to trek through the impenetrable forest to see our cousins. After about 1.5 hours of an uphill hike through thick brush and shoulder high ferns, and bugs the sizes of golfballs, the guide pushed back some grass and revealed the silverback. A 440 pound, 200 kilo, giant. After admiring him for a while and his ability to pull down trees we watched an 8 year old male in a tree eating some leaves. He would stare at us as he ate his morning brunch. Eyes fixed on us, he then swung himself to the ground with a thump.
I could swear he was eyeing me. He was looking right at me. He was just beautiful. He ambled over and sat right next to me. Just inches away. It took all my will power not to reach out and touch him. It would be against the gorilla-tracking rules, for disease transmission among other reasons. But you could not wipe the smile off my face. This little guy was so curious, it was so evident in his eyes. And so close...
As I, Michiel, stood away by about 3 feet, I saw that he was eyeing my prize. But the experience to see an 8 year old gorilla, jump off a tree, to meander over to my wife, and sit right next to her as if he wanted to start a conversation, was spiritual. Can't really get much closer to feeling one with the earth than that.
In total it was a pretty small gorilla family--only about 8 individuals. We moved over to watch a mother with her baby for 30 minutes. The baby was born on November 4, 2008. The guide wants to name him Obama. We're crossing our fingers.
Overall, seeing the gorillas was so much more than we had expected.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Thursday, May 14, 2009
It's Eat or Be Eaten...
After we arrived in Nairobi we managed to get into contact with a Masai warrior and arranged to see the wild animals of the African plains. It was to be a unique experience as no other Masai man has a similar tour operation and we were his first Mzungus (whities). The plan was to stay with him and his family in his compound which includes his brother's family and all his cattle, sheep, goats and dogs. We would eat with them, drink tea with them, chat and play with the children and go on a morning and afternoon game drive. He lives on the Masai Mara Conservancy which is larger than the Masai Mara National Park but has all the animals and none of the expensive lodges and Mzungus. He works for the conservancy so while the game drives would be in a private land cruiser the meals, teas and night time experience would be purely Masai.
So after a couple of long, dusty, and crowded Matatu rides (local transport) to the town of Aitong, we bought some supplies and headed off to set our tent next to his mud hut. He had a round compound that was fenced with branches and bushes with 3 inch thorns; inside that circle were all the huts and another fenced circle for the cattle and sheep. The week prior to our arrival, his neighbor and dear friend was trampled to death by three elephants, a leopard jumped both fences and stole a baby sheep at night, and one of his cattle was taken by a male lion while grazing just outside his compound. So, basically, we are in the thick of it.
Each morning, we would rise at 5:30, drink some Kenyan coffee and be on our way in the private land cruiser, fitted with a roof that opens so that we can stand and watch the animals. After spending a little bit of time getting aquanted with the zebras, giraffes, wildebeasts, Thompson's gazelles, topis, impalas, and good god all the other boring animals, Kelly spotted a cheetah basking in the morning sun. With no other jeeps around we were able to view this animal without him getting too disturbed. Later the first morning we watched a few families of elephants slowly making their way across the plains, trying to eat enough grass to compensate their gigantic mass and appetites. In the afternoon, after Kelly spent some time watching ostriches and the secretary bird, we spotted a large group of impalas and Thompson's gazelles with all their eyes fixed in one direction. With all of them looking to the west, near some bushes, not eating, we knew there was a predator lurking. As we slowly creeped over, we saw 3 male lion brothers wrestling and playing with one another. Growling, and pawing, stretching and yawning on the lazy spring late afternoon. Eventually they would break up and sit on a boulder or a mound of dirt and lay like the kings they are, over looking the plains and gazing without a worry in life. You think i am being poetic? Just wait for the pictures! But can't here, the internet is too slow.
Oh yeah, and then we saw the cheetah prowling and another male lion.
Anyway, we also made it out to a sanctuary to see some white rhinos. Gorgeous 2 ton beasts that look like a minivan made of fat. The land cruiser stopped and the ranger from the sanctuary stopped next to us and told us to get out. Wait? Get out of the car? Yep, we jumped out and ended up walking with the rhinos. But don't worry moms, we never got closer than 4 feet. So we walked for about an hour just in awe. They are getting reintroduced and are thriving. There was a baby rhino, 4 females (one was pregnant) and the male.
After the game drives we would go to the village, or 3-family compound, for lunch and tea or dinner. Lunch was comprised of fruit and veggie sandwiches and dinner, well. . . that was another story. There might have been a little bit of miscommunication, misunderstanding or a clash of cultures, but what was supposed to be a "bring your own food and my wife will cook for you for a buck," turned into "bring enough food to feed my family, wife and 5 kids, my brother, his wife and 4 kids and my cattle herder and goat herder and buy meat and you cook for us." Yeah that's right. We thought that we had to supply our own food, but though what might have been us being exploited for our wallets, we ended up feeding the compound. Not a big deal, because the cash value was trivial and it is hard to eat a meal with meat and veggies when the kids are eating flour and water. So we went along with it.
The confusion came after the first night, when we realized our rice and meat would be split amongst the elders. Well, when Michiel wants a meal, he wants to eat. So if that was going to happen again, I wanted to make sure that I got a belly full. But on the second night, it turned out that he wanted us to cook. So after the hard day, sitting in a car looking at animals, and staining our fingers on the camera buttons, we came back to the compound that had a campfire and hot coals of charcoal in a small stove and started cooking dinner. First night, the menu at Chez Mac and Kell was cabbage and carrots with carmelized onions and seasoned tomatoes accompanied with seasoned lentils and rice. This menu item will feed a family of 15 plus 2 whities and will be cooked on a single stove of charcoal by campfire light. As we prepared the items you could hear the male lions whoofing and hyenas laughing in the background.
The house special for the third night at Chez Mac and Kell was carmelized onions, seasoned tomates and about 3 pounds of goat that was browned to perfection. This will lay on a large plate of spaghetti. Of course, after they ran us around town trying to find spaghetti, it turns out Masai don't really like spaghetti, they just know that Mzungus eat it. Needless to say, while the work and extra $7 of food was unexpected, the kids were licking their plates and the elders were making sure they got seconds before I did. We got a good story and they got a meal (or three). And our favorite thing.... after buying all the food, and preparing all the food, and then cooking all the food, the brother of our Masai guide says to us "You are welcome!" HA! We love traveling.
By the way, we didn't stay longer in Madagascar, choosing to start our adventures in East Africa instead.
Rafted the Nile today. Sick!
So after a couple of long, dusty, and crowded Matatu rides (local transport) to the town of Aitong, we bought some supplies and headed off to set our tent next to his mud hut. He had a round compound that was fenced with branches and bushes with 3 inch thorns; inside that circle were all the huts and another fenced circle for the cattle and sheep. The week prior to our arrival, his neighbor and dear friend was trampled to death by three elephants, a leopard jumped both fences and stole a baby sheep at night, and one of his cattle was taken by a male lion while grazing just outside his compound. So, basically, we are in the thick of it.
Each morning, we would rise at 5:30, drink some Kenyan coffee and be on our way in the private land cruiser, fitted with a roof that opens so that we can stand and watch the animals. After spending a little bit of time getting aquanted with the zebras, giraffes, wildebeasts, Thompson's gazelles, topis, impalas, and good god all the other boring animals, Kelly spotted a cheetah basking in the morning sun. With no other jeeps around we were able to view this animal without him getting too disturbed. Later the first morning we watched a few families of elephants slowly making their way across the plains, trying to eat enough grass to compensate their gigantic mass and appetites. In the afternoon, after Kelly spent some time watching ostriches and the secretary bird, we spotted a large group of impalas and Thompson's gazelles with all their eyes fixed in one direction. With all of them looking to the west, near some bushes, not eating, we knew there was a predator lurking. As we slowly creeped over, we saw 3 male lion brothers wrestling and playing with one another. Growling, and pawing, stretching and yawning on the lazy spring late afternoon. Eventually they would break up and sit on a boulder or a mound of dirt and lay like the kings they are, over looking the plains and gazing without a worry in life. You think i am being poetic? Just wait for the pictures! But can't here, the internet is too slow.
Oh yeah, and then we saw the cheetah prowling and another male lion.
Anyway, we also made it out to a sanctuary to see some white rhinos. Gorgeous 2 ton beasts that look like a minivan made of fat. The land cruiser stopped and the ranger from the sanctuary stopped next to us and told us to get out. Wait? Get out of the car? Yep, we jumped out and ended up walking with the rhinos. But don't worry moms, we never got closer than 4 feet. So we walked for about an hour just in awe. They are getting reintroduced and are thriving. There was a baby rhino, 4 females (one was pregnant) and the male.
After the game drives we would go to the village, or 3-family compound, for lunch and tea or dinner. Lunch was comprised of fruit and veggie sandwiches and dinner, well. . . that was another story. There might have been a little bit of miscommunication, misunderstanding or a clash of cultures, but what was supposed to be a "bring your own food and my wife will cook for you for a buck," turned into "bring enough food to feed my family, wife and 5 kids, my brother, his wife and 4 kids and my cattle herder and goat herder and buy meat and you cook for us." Yeah that's right. We thought that we had to supply our own food, but though what might have been us being exploited for our wallets, we ended up feeding the compound. Not a big deal, because the cash value was trivial and it is hard to eat a meal with meat and veggies when the kids are eating flour and water. So we went along with it.
The confusion came after the first night, when we realized our rice and meat would be split amongst the elders. Well, when Michiel wants a meal, he wants to eat. So if that was going to happen again, I wanted to make sure that I got a belly full. But on the second night, it turned out that he wanted us to cook. So after the hard day, sitting in a car looking at animals, and staining our fingers on the camera buttons, we came back to the compound that had a campfire and hot coals of charcoal in a small stove and started cooking dinner. First night, the menu at Chez Mac and Kell was cabbage and carrots with carmelized onions and seasoned tomatoes accompanied with seasoned lentils and rice. This menu item will feed a family of 15 plus 2 whities and will be cooked on a single stove of charcoal by campfire light. As we prepared the items you could hear the male lions whoofing and hyenas laughing in the background.
The house special for the third night at Chez Mac and Kell was carmelized onions, seasoned tomates and about 3 pounds of goat that was browned to perfection. This will lay on a large plate of spaghetti. Of course, after they ran us around town trying to find spaghetti, it turns out Masai don't really like spaghetti, they just know that Mzungus eat it. Needless to say, while the work and extra $7 of food was unexpected, the kids were licking their plates and the elders were making sure they got seconds before I did. We got a good story and they got a meal (or three). And our favorite thing.... after buying all the food, and preparing all the food, and then cooking all the food, the brother of our Masai guide says to us "You are welcome!" HA! We love traveling.
By the way, we didn't stay longer in Madagascar, choosing to start our adventures in East Africa instead.
Rafted the Nile today. Sick!
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
surprise!
hmmm, where did we last leave off?
i think we were in the central highlands, where it was a huge relief to wear warm clothes and not feel stupid for bringing them (even the hat). we used the highlands as a place to arrange a trip down the Tsiribina River. It is supposedly a typical Madagascar trip, but no less cool because of it. especially at a time when there are so few vazaha (tourists) in the country that you have the river to yourself. we took a taxi-brousse to Miandrivazo, the actual jumping off place, which of course took us an entire day. the next morning, after a candlelit dinner (because the electricity was cut, but dont think that it was romantic, the candles attracted lots of bugs and this soon added some flavor to the meal) we headed out on a pirogue, or dugout canoe, with two boatmen. one spoke french and a fair bit of english and the other only malagasy. over the course of the next three days, we navigated down over 120 km of river, spotting lemurs and sifakas, passing cliffs with hanging bats, cruising down a small gorge, and seeing many small villages without access to roads, electricity or other services. the boatmen sang the entire day as they paddled and we thoroughly enjoyed our evenings drinking rum and local moonshine and chatting the night away. local rum loosens the tongue and after a few sips we would be telling jokes and stories in french, english, malagasy, and a little spanish under the southern hemisphere stars. since he's always got to do something different and manly, of course michiel killed the chicken that became our dinner, along the banks of the river.
at our pull-out point, what waited for us? a zebu cart. the ride was rocky, the water at some points along the "road" was so high that we stood up in the cart and put our backpacks on to keep everything dry as the zebu swam and grunted. but after the novelty, it was more fun to hike barefoot behind the cart through the mud and water.
another full day of taxi-brousse travel later, and we arrived in morondava, on the west coast. we had originally planned to use this as a jumping off point to visit a world-renowed site nearby (the Tsingy de Bemehara), but found ourselves with too little time to make the trip. true to form, we rented a motorcycle and headed out to see the avenue de baobobs, a line of these wild but stately trees along a rough dirt road; all of the trees are nearly 1000 years old. We made the 1 hour, 20 kilometer, excursion through rough roads, pot holes, deep sand, and passed zebu to the site where we waited for the red sunset sky that Africa and Madagascar are famous for. As the red took over the sky, trees, flowers, and clouds, we snapped pictures of the millenium old giants scattered among feilds of rice, casava, mud huts, and zebu. The ride back was delicious as Michiel had to navigate sandy terrain at dusk, when all the bugs come out, looking tasty and just happening to enjoy funneling themselves into his mouth as Michiel drove his lady back to town.
after a lazy day in town and at the beach, we boarded a taxi-brousse for the long 18 hour ride back into the capital to get ready for our flight to nairobi. we arrived at 4:30 this morning and they graciously let us sleep another 1.5 hours on the bus before unleashing the taxi drivers on us. this afternoon, we mozied over to the airport to confirm our flight. the lady at the desk had a perplexed look on her face. eventually after 10 phone calls and 2 air madagascar desks, we found out that our flight had been cancelled and they had rescheduled us on another flight...a week later. would have been nice if they had told us this beforehand. we have some ideas up our sleeves, and can surely take advantage of more time here in madagascar. at the same time, we would have done it a little differently had we known, and we'd already switched gears a bit to thinking about east africa.
i think we were in the central highlands, where it was a huge relief to wear warm clothes and not feel stupid for bringing them (even the hat). we used the highlands as a place to arrange a trip down the Tsiribina River. It is supposedly a typical Madagascar trip, but no less cool because of it. especially at a time when there are so few vazaha (tourists) in the country that you have the river to yourself. we took a taxi-brousse to Miandrivazo, the actual jumping off place, which of course took us an entire day. the next morning, after a candlelit dinner (because the electricity was cut, but dont think that it was romantic, the candles attracted lots of bugs and this soon added some flavor to the meal) we headed out on a pirogue, or dugout canoe, with two boatmen. one spoke french and a fair bit of english and the other only malagasy. over the course of the next three days, we navigated down over 120 km of river, spotting lemurs and sifakas, passing cliffs with hanging bats, cruising down a small gorge, and seeing many small villages without access to roads, electricity or other services. the boatmen sang the entire day as they paddled and we thoroughly enjoyed our evenings drinking rum and local moonshine and chatting the night away. local rum loosens the tongue and after a few sips we would be telling jokes and stories in french, english, malagasy, and a little spanish under the southern hemisphere stars. since he's always got to do something different and manly, of course michiel killed the chicken that became our dinner, along the banks of the river.
at our pull-out point, what waited for us? a zebu cart. the ride was rocky, the water at some points along the "road" was so high that we stood up in the cart and put our backpacks on to keep everything dry as the zebu swam and grunted. but after the novelty, it was more fun to hike barefoot behind the cart through the mud and water.
another full day of taxi-brousse travel later, and we arrived in morondava, on the west coast. we had originally planned to use this as a jumping off point to visit a world-renowed site nearby (the Tsingy de Bemehara), but found ourselves with too little time to make the trip. true to form, we rented a motorcycle and headed out to see the avenue de baobobs, a line of these wild but stately trees along a rough dirt road; all of the trees are nearly 1000 years old. We made the 1 hour, 20 kilometer, excursion through rough roads, pot holes, deep sand, and passed zebu to the site where we waited for the red sunset sky that Africa and Madagascar are famous for. As the red took over the sky, trees, flowers, and clouds, we snapped pictures of the millenium old giants scattered among feilds of rice, casava, mud huts, and zebu. The ride back was delicious as Michiel had to navigate sandy terrain at dusk, when all the bugs come out, looking tasty and just happening to enjoy funneling themselves into his mouth as Michiel drove his lady back to town.
after a lazy day in town and at the beach, we boarded a taxi-brousse for the long 18 hour ride back into the capital to get ready for our flight to nairobi. we arrived at 4:30 this morning and they graciously let us sleep another 1.5 hours on the bus before unleashing the taxi drivers on us. this afternoon, we mozied over to the airport to confirm our flight. the lady at the desk had a perplexed look on her face. eventually after 10 phone calls and 2 air madagascar desks, we found out that our flight had been cancelled and they had rescheduled us on another flight...a week later. would have been nice if they had told us this beforehand. we have some ideas up our sleeves, and can surely take advantage of more time here in madagascar. at the same time, we would have done it a little differently had we known, and we'd already switched gears a bit to thinking about east africa.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Number of times . . .
Number of lemure speices seen: 6
Number of times we have been sick: 1/2 (kelly)
Hours spent on taxi brousse: too many
Number of kids we have made cry because mother tells them that if they dont go to sleep the Vazaha, white guy, will get them: 8
Number of new food items tried without knowing what it is: 7
Arguments on trip: 0
Motorcycle rides: 2
Bugs eaten on motorycle ride: 2,534 ( enough for a meal)
Cost for a meal at streat vendor: 40 cents to 1 dollar per person, depending on meat. So i saved a dollar on the motorcycle trip.
Our average cost of a hotel with shared bathroom: 8 bucks a night
Fund raising Carnivals visited: 1
Did I win money on my first bet at the roullete table? yes
Making of music videos seen being filmed next to our campsite: 1
Crocodiles: 2
Number of gold chained, tanned French men on Quad bikes: 14
Number of chickens killed: 1 by Michiel, on river bank
Pounds of Zebu eaten by Michiel: 1 Zebu
Pounds of "hot", stolen, zebu meat consumed: 1
Number of times the political instability has affected us: 0
Number of times we have been cheated: 26, well not that bad
Number of emails an hour at the internet cafe because of speed of internet: 1, sometimes 0
Number of containers of sunscreen: 5
Number of times kelly has freaked out when a jelly fish brushed up against her: 7
Number of times stung by Jelly fish: 0
Number of days left in Madagascar: 2
Number of times we have been sick: 1/2 (kelly)
Hours spent on taxi brousse: too many
Number of kids we have made cry because mother tells them that if they dont go to sleep the Vazaha, white guy, will get them: 8
Number of new food items tried without knowing what it is: 7
Arguments on trip: 0
Motorcycle rides: 2
Bugs eaten on motorycle ride: 2,534 ( enough for a meal)
Cost for a meal at streat vendor: 40 cents to 1 dollar per person, depending on meat. So i saved a dollar on the motorcycle trip.
Our average cost of a hotel with shared bathroom: 8 bucks a night
Fund raising Carnivals visited: 1
Did I win money on my first bet at the roullete table? yes
Making of music videos seen being filmed next to our campsite: 1
Crocodiles: 2
Number of gold chained, tanned French men on Quad bikes: 14
Number of chickens killed: 1 by Michiel, on river bank
Pounds of Zebu eaten by Michiel: 1 Zebu
Pounds of "hot", stolen, zebu meat consumed: 1
Number of times the political instability has affected us: 0
Number of times we have been cheated: 26, well not that bad
Number of emails an hour at the internet cafe because of speed of internet: 1, sometimes 0
Number of containers of sunscreen: 5
Number of times kelly has freaked out when a jelly fish brushed up against her: 7
Number of times stung by Jelly fish: 0
Number of days left in Madagascar: 2
Friday, May 1, 2009
Transport through Madagascar
Well, that poem acutally sounded better to me after a few beers.
Soon after the last post we flew back to Tana to head to Western Madagascar. From airport we took the local transport, a minibus or minivan that is generally packed to capacity with people, rice, corn or fish spilling out, to the southern taxi brousse (minibus) station. This was a hectic station with lots of transports going in all directions, food vendors, taxis, taxi brousse organizers, cheaters, and robbers. Got to be careful, especially as a tourist that sticks out. We hopped on the bus and headed South to Antsirabe. Let me explain a little about the transport here . . .
No matter what we think, it takes a day to travel 4 hours or 100 kilometers. From out little local hotel near the airport we thought that we would get into Antsirabe in a matter of hours, our book did say it was a 4 hour ride. So after breakfast we, got onto a local transport to the center of Tana 30 min., then got onto a "direct" bus to Antsirabe, of course they don't leave unless they are full so we wait for 2.5 hours. okay finally, we have enough people, enough as in we are all crammed. but we are off, alright. 2 minutes later we stop because the driver wants some smokes. Alright, no matter, whatever he needs to stay attentive. Then we are off, 5 minutes later we stop at a police check point. Then another, and another, then we stop qnd pick up some more people. No problem, get everyone on. But what is the hold up? Oh, we are also putting on 3 50kilo sacks of rice and a basket of chickens. 30 minutes from the station we have gone 5 Klicks.
Blasting Malagasy music, chewing on some leaves, the driver weaves around pot holes, zebu carts and everyone else using the main highway, one lane dirt road. We stare out the window and let the air hit our face, it is about 95 in the shade. but the scenery passes the time away quickly. After constant stopping to drop people off and pick people up, we make a stop in a small town to eat some food and run to the toilet. I immediatly run out of the taxi brousse and find myself some street vendors. Fried chicken, avacadoes, fruit, somosas, coffee, eggs, and a few items to go. Eventually the 4 hour direct bus gets to Antsirabe in 5 hours, just before dusk. The taxi brousse station is about 4 miles from the camping area so we start to walk, arriving at our new spot just in time for dinner, having started just after breakfast.
Travel in Madagascar is slow, but is part of the experience.
Soon after the last post we flew back to Tana to head to Western Madagascar. From airport we took the local transport, a minibus or minivan that is generally packed to capacity with people, rice, corn or fish spilling out, to the southern taxi brousse (minibus) station. This was a hectic station with lots of transports going in all directions, food vendors, taxis, taxi brousse organizers, cheaters, and robbers. Got to be careful, especially as a tourist that sticks out. We hopped on the bus and headed South to Antsirabe. Let me explain a little about the transport here . . .
No matter what we think, it takes a day to travel 4 hours or 100 kilometers. From out little local hotel near the airport we thought that we would get into Antsirabe in a matter of hours, our book did say it was a 4 hour ride. So after breakfast we, got onto a local transport to the center of Tana 30 min., then got onto a "direct" bus to Antsirabe, of course they don't leave unless they are full so we wait for 2.5 hours. okay finally, we have enough people, enough as in we are all crammed. but we are off, alright. 2 minutes later we stop because the driver wants some smokes. Alright, no matter, whatever he needs to stay attentive. Then we are off, 5 minutes later we stop at a police check point. Then another, and another, then we stop qnd pick up some more people. No problem, get everyone on. But what is the hold up? Oh, we are also putting on 3 50kilo sacks of rice and a basket of chickens. 30 minutes from the station we have gone 5 Klicks.
Blasting Malagasy music, chewing on some leaves, the driver weaves around pot holes, zebu carts and everyone else using the main highway, one lane dirt road. We stare out the window and let the air hit our face, it is about 95 in the shade. but the scenery passes the time away quickly. After constant stopping to drop people off and pick people up, we make a stop in a small town to eat some food and run to the toilet. I immediatly run out of the taxi brousse and find myself some street vendors. Fried chicken, avacadoes, fruit, somosas, coffee, eggs, and a few items to go. Eventually the 4 hour direct bus gets to Antsirabe in 5 hours, just before dusk. The taxi brousse station is about 4 miles from the camping area so we start to walk, arriving at our new spot just in time for dinner, having started just after breakfast.
Travel in Madagascar is slow, but is part of the experience.
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