© Richard Randall

ANTANANARIVO (Capital)

We love love love Madagascar! We went to Madagascar a few years ago now, but it has remained one of our favourite countries. In fact if it were more stable we would probably be living there, or on Ile Sainte Marie (Nosy Boraha) as we love it so much. Madagascar is the fourth largest island in the world and we only got to see a very small part of it. The scenery is fantastic, the people are lovely and it has a very relaxed feeling to it, and it has the prettiest money/bank notes that we have seen. We arrived in the capital of Antananarivo and took a taxi from the airport to a hotel that we had chosen from our guide book where we planned to stay for just one or two nights. It was dark when we arrived at Hotel Indri, which was probably just as well because it was rather horrible and would look even more depressing in daylight. Our room was very large but it was so dark and damp, and the bed was one of the most uncomfortable we have ever had the displeasure of not sleeping on. We were both too tired from our flight to care too much, and we sat outside the front on a private terrace with a drink. The front wall was made up of carved breeze blocks and every now and then a tiny childs hand would appear through one of the gaps begging for money, and the hotel manager would come out and tell them to leave. Bright and early next morning we went to the tourist office, the lady who worked there could not have been more helpful, we told her where we wanted to go and what we would like to do, and she arranged everything for us.

ANDASIBE

We had agreed on a car with a driver to take us up the coast towards Toamasina (Tamatave), stopping off here and there at various places of interest, mainly Andasibe for the Parc National d'Andasibe-Mantadia (Perinet Reserve). We could either do a round trip returning to Antananarivo or travel one way and then just pay for the drivers return trip alone, which is what we did. We left early the next morning, very pleased to be leaving the Hotel Indri. The drive was pleasant and the scenery was pretty, eventually we came to the Parc National d'Andasibe-Mantadia (Perinet Reserve). We went out in to the forest with a guide (compulsory) looking for Lemur, well you can't go to Madagascar and not see at least one Lemur. The best time to see the Lemur is early in the morning around 7am before it gets too hot, unfortunately we were much later than that and just when it looked like we were not going to be lucky our guide spotted some Lemur way up high at the very top of a tree ~ success, now we could head back for a much needed drink! Madagascar is known for the Lemur, 90% can only be found there, the other 10% are native to the Comoros. We stayed the night there somewhere in a lovely thatched roof bungalow, but the name has escaped me. It could have been the Hotel Feon'nyala? Anyway, we had a lovely meal there sitting out on a pontoon overlooking a very picturesque lake. From memory the bungalow was very pleasant, en-suite and with a nice comfortable bed complete with mosquito net. We also visited a reptile farm, which makes it sound far more substantial than it actually was. Basically it was a back yard, which was full of rotten dirty old cages which housed various different reptiles. There were lots of iguana and many other lizards, it was nice to get out of the car for a while and stretch our legs.

TOAMASINA (Tamatave)

It must have been the following day that we arrived in Toamasina (Tamatave) and we said goodbye to our driver. We had only intended staying for one night in Toamasina before flying on to Ile Sainte Marie, but we had difficulty getting a flight so we stayed for about 3 days/nights. Toamasina is a lively enough place though so we were more than happy to be delayed. We chose the Generation Hotel which provided good service, a large clean room with a fan and very helpful friendly staff. At night the hotel restaurant was incredibly busy with guest and non guests. You could eat inside in the large dining room or outside the front of the hotel in a covered in patio area which is what we chose to do. After we had eaten we would sit and play some scrabble (along with books we always took our travel scrabble everywhere with us, you need something to pass away the hours spent waiting for planes, trains etc when travelling). By now we had mastered the art of travelling light, and I mean very light. When we originally started our travels we took so much stuff, clothes and all manner of things that just seemed to get heavier each day and we found we didn't use or need most of it. So after a while we only ever travelled with cabin luggage which saves a lot of time especially when flying, as once you are off of the plane and through customs you are guaranteed to be first in the queue for taxi's or whatever your next mode of transport is. Also by being one of the first people out of the airport we found that we didn't get the hassle from the touts as much as you do if you come flooding out with lots of other travellers (except for once in Zanzibar, but that's another story)! Anyway back to the scrabble, the staff at the Generation Hotel were very friendly to us and would often come out to the front terrace and chat to us between serving the guests inside. They would stand for hours on and off watching us play and eventually one of them asked us what this game was, so we explained. I don't think he was very impressed, I guess it doesn't sound that exciting really does it but it kept us sane! The local Pousse-pousse (pull-pull rickshaws) boys would hang out at the front of the hotel chatting to us and trying to cadge a beer or a cigarette. After a while they had talked for so long about taking us for a ride that we thought why not, even though we didn't really want to go anywhere. Well we picked the right day because it had seriously rained during the night and the roads were flooded so it was nice not to have to be ankle high in water and travel in luxury down the road to the Salon de The. I'm not sure how comfortable we really felt about be pulled along by a human beast of burden, but the pousse-pousse drivers need to earn a living for themselves and to pay for the rental to the pousse-pousse owners so ...

On our last night in Toamasina we treated ourselves to a more luxurious hotel, mainly because it had a swimming pool and when we went to have a look round the sun was shining and the pool looked so inviting. Anyway by the time we had returned to the Generation Hotel and packed our stuff the sky was beginning to look a bit dull. We checked in to the Hotel Le Neptune and were just about to change in to our swim wear when the skies opened and it absolutely poured with rain for what felt like hours. So much for our plan of going for a nice cooling swim, in fact the rain came down so fast that the pool couldn't cope with it and there was water everywhere. They say that the east coast only has two seasons; the wet season and the season when it rains! We still managed to make the most of our night at the Hotel Neptune, we spent an enjoyable evening eating our dinner overlooking the swimming pool - what a view!

ILE SAINTE MARIE

We eventually managed to sort out our flight to Ile Sainte Marie, which would be aboard a twin prop plane, a first for us. The Air Madagascar plane was so small it didn't look very air worthy, and with just a couple of seats either side of the aisle, just like concord ... well actually nothing like concord! The flight was very short, we were offered a cold drink (in a can) and a packet of biscuits. It was all very sophisticated!

We spent most of our time on Ile Saint Marie (Nosy Boraha) a 57km long island just 8km off of the east of Madagascar. We stayed at a few different hotels there, the first one was the very cheap and cheerful Betty Plage at the north end of the island, where we had a lovely en-suite bungalow set overlooking the sea among the palm trees. The bungalow was simply furnished with a comfortable bed, and complete with a non torn mosquito net, which we thought was excellent as we have stayed in much more expensive places with no nets or torn nets, and you need all the help you can get to avoid the bite of a hungry mosquito! They had their own generator for the electricity and each night at 10pm on the dot the power would go off, unless we were in the bar/restaurant playing cards or chatting with the owners and then obviously we would be allowed to have a late night! The staff at the Betty were so helpful and charming that we stayed on longer than we had originally planned, and the food was excellent, all freshly cooked, it was a real pleasure staying there. The Betty Plage was right away from practically all of the other tourists and travellers which meant it was even more peaceful than the rest of the island which was lovely. We would go out and walk right along the mud tracks through the neighbouring villages stopping for a drink in a little bar we found, which was little more than a mud hut where we would share a beer or two with the resident chickens etc. At the time we were there Ile Sainte Marie was beginning to overtake Nosy Be; it's west coast counterpart as the prime tourist destination in Madagascar, hopefully it has not been spoilt too much. Ile Saint Marie was much more beautiful, quieter and considerably cheaper than Nosy Be too, it was a picture paradise of coconut edged beaches, stretches of rain forest, coral reefs, very shallow sea and lots of historic interest. It all felt too good to be true, and you know what they say, if something seems to good to be true it probably is, but that was not the case here, it really was paradise. The capital is Ambodifotatra which was the only real town, the rest of the island was made up of numerous tiny villages. Obviously you only have to look at the lush vegetation to know that it rains a lot all year round, apparently the island gets about 3.5 metres of rain every year! We went in May and we did see quite a lot of rain, often getting completely soaked whilst out walking, and with the humidity it was fun trying to get our clothes dry again! The best time to go for the drier weather is around the end of August to the end of November. Ile Sainte Marie is prone to cyclones, although thankfully we didn't experience any. We are not beach or sunbathing people, which was just as well as there was not a beach in the capital of Ambodifotatra, we were happy relaxing and wandering round enjoying the scenery and slow pace of life.

Caribbean

Sundries

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