Day 21

My last full day here at Babaomby. Everybody is pooped, music played till 6h30 in the morning...
I went to sleep at midnight or so. I'm fine and make a long session again. Winds are even lighter, for the first time I get out on a 100l board and 5.5m2 sail.
My whole body hurts nevertheless, with so much partying and windsurfing for the past few days. I go for a massage then. Feels good, I almost fell asleep!

Day 20

Life keeps going by. I am totally out of touch with the rest of the world. No internet here and barely some phone signal at the top of the hill.
Winds are lighter today, not only can I windsurf for a long time but I also take a kite lesson. It's amazing how easy they can be flown nowadays.
It's Madagascar's independence day (from the French!) also. A DJ arrives by the fishing boat (like everything else by the way) and another party starts. Wow, 2 parties in 3 days!

Day 19

Winds got even stronger today. I had planned on a kitesurf lesson but we have to cancel it.
I then go with the fisher to snorkel and see how he does to bring so much fish everyday. Bad luck: I leave with a non working snorkel, I can't breathe...
In the afternoon I go see the local Tsingys. This place is very dry.

Day 18

Island downwinder. I was flying and holding my sail, 4,2m2. Huge swells, 5km if going on a strait line, but at least twice as much when sailing. This island has a flat sandy spot with jaw dropping emerald colors. I was so tired and the arrival on the beach was so spectacular, I was almost crying of joy. The last km we navigated between the corals and then, as the swells diminished, we did a few more runs on the crystal clear waters.
Then it was time to sail to another beach for lunch. Another downwinder! Winds have picked up a notch, I start the ride but I'm exhausted, the small fishing boat that followed us since Babaomby rescues me, it looks like we are going to capsize every second, the swell is so big!
We ride to a beach protected from the winds and have lunch. This feels like Robinson Cruzoe's island!
The ride back to camp is upwind and I definitely can't make it. Only Laurent and Angelo go for it on a windsurfing board, it will take almost 4 hours for the last one to arrive! The swells are huge, we are completely soaked on the boat. This feels like an epic. Water keeps filling up the boat and we scoop it out non stop, for the entire ride back. We all are so tired and so happy.
But it's not over!
Malagasy musicians arrived from Diego and a party starts. I haven't danced in eons, but I can't escape African music magic!

Day 16 & 17

Like yesterday winds are pretty strong and they shape big swells, at least 1.5m high!
It's a lot of work for an amateur windsurfer like me: I am holding the smallest sail I ever use, 3,7m2, and keep my speed low to avoid unwanted take offs and crash landings!
I finally get dialed on the 3rd day. Winds are a bit less strong, 4,2m2. I spend 3 hours in the water; I'm pooped. Feels good.
Crab at lunch! Food has been great all the way.
Tomorrow we sail altogether to an island.

Day 15

Yesterday's flight finished well. We flew from Mayotte to Comoros Islands first and then to Antananarivo. Seats were really close to each other though, not only my knees were stuck against the front seat but I could barely open a magazine!
At Comoros Islands two passengers were boarded from an ambulance and laid flat over three seats. Apparently it's usual the crew tells us. Very sick patients fly to Antananarivo for lack of medical resources. But by the same token corpses are regularly flown back.

This morning I flew to Diego Suarez while Muriel started her flight excursion. We'll meet again in a week at Diego.
Strong winds have shaken the Boeing 737 at landing, good, I came here for windsurfing!
What an arrival at Babaomby. First a pot hole infested road then a small boat to cross a sea pass. The strong winds and big waves force us to wear raincoats!
After the pass the magic colors of the Emerald Sea are everywhere.

Day 14

Hiking and flying day.
We were lucky enough to be able to leave our packs at the airport and then take a taxi to a trailhead.
It's a great trail; first around a crater lake and then along two beaches with turtle nests everywhere. Cool. The view to the airport when arriving is awesome.
I think I had never hiked to an airport before!
We'll leave to Antananarivo late afternoon. And tomorrow we split: Muriel starts the flying excursion and I fly to Diego Suarez, the windsurfing capital of Madagascar!

Day 12 & 13

Wake up
Eat some bananas
Go dive
Get baobab juice
Go dive again
Enjoy diner with fish on the menu.
Sleep
- Start over. ;-)

Day 11

Wow, we swam with turtles today at an incredible beach with baobab trees.
I love this nature. The botanical garden was great also this morning. Trees with famous flowers and fruits, like ylang-ylang or cocoa!

Day 10

Morning: climbing up mount Choungi. Short but intense root climbing.
Afternoon: snorkeling. Did you know Mayotte is one of the greatest diving spots on planet earth!!!?????

Day 9

Today we fly from Madagascar to Mayotte to see our friends Jaco and Adeline and their kids.
We first fly above the red lands and then leave Madagascar's coast.

What a weather change! A balmy 26c welcomes us. Instead of the 8c or so in Madagascar!

Day 8

Got to Antananarivo.
Herr... Diesel fumes, traffic jams, and the usual dirty streets.
Who misses this???

Two stops on the way:
One to visit the foundry that makes the local cooking pots out of recycled aluminum from car engines, window's frames, etc.
They make a casting mold for each pot. Bare foot, no masks, no gloves, no glasses, they pour the burning hot liquid metal to the cast. One at the time, 50 a day. It looks like a factory from Émile Zola's books.

The second stop was at a foie gras place. Yeah, I know, it sounds ridiculous here in Madagascar, but it's an old French colony!

Day 7

We keep heading back to Antananarivo.
We also have decided to make a long stop at a random village on this famous road, la Nationale 7.

Tanzouna, our driver and guide, suggested to buy pens to give away to the kids that might flock us on our adventure. After some thought we decide to simply go to the school and give the pens to the teacher.

After an hour or so of driving we stop in a village and Tanzouna asks where the primary school is.
I will never forget our arrival at the school.
The kids got totally wild instantly.
They all got out of the classrooms, some jumping off the glass free windows, others running away, and all screaming like some extra terrestrial invaders had reached their school. That was the first 5 seconds. Then, when they realized we were from the same specy but with just a different skin color they flocked us. And not just one class but all the grades! At least 150 kids got out !
The poor teacher I thought. What a mess we made!
Things got quieter after a few minutes though. We managed to get the kids back to their classroom and presented ourselves. French is not spoken though.

Back on the road. We arrive at Antsirabe and fall in love with the ecolodge Chambres du Voyageur. There are turtles, birds, magnific gardens and even a chameleon hunting bugs. Wow! What a cool place to finish the day!

Day 4

Second day trekking
We move to the primary forest after a search for more lemurs.
Hery, our guide keeps amazing us with all his knowledge about this place. He knows a lot about plants, birds, insects, animals, you name it!
He grew in this forest; in Ranomafana village exactly. He has spent months with researchers that come and spend days looking for a particular gecko or bird or fern. He has also traveled quite a bit in Madagascar, all the way to the North, where the army is literally fighting to keep the Rosewood alive in another National Park.

We arrive at camp 2 and a big group of young workers from Ranomafana arrives at the same time. At least 20! They are going to spend the week here building the shelters. We watched them preparing diner siting around their fires and pots. Rice and beans for a week; breakfast, lunch and diner!!!

One funny event though. Muriel managed to sit atop a caterpillar that stung her butt cheek. Ouch! She got a little panicky with the growing pain and rushed to ask our guide what to do. He suggested to apply some hand purifier. Guess who got the task to apply the purifier??!!! And right there, as quickly as she could she put the cheek out and Joao applied the paste. All this went quite fast, and suddenly we realized everybody was by now watching the scene, including the young workers!!! What a laugh!

When everything got quieter we went out for another night excursion. They always are a success. Tonight we saw 3 different frogs and 2 chameleons. I got better at night shots!

Day 2-3

12pm We finally got to Ranomafana.
One big event on the way though.
A flat tire that could have been a trip stopper: The screws for the spare tire were hiding at the bottom of the trunk. They were shorter than the ones from the flat tire and the first one we tried went all the way off the threading, behind the wheel holder against the fixed part. Ouch! When we left the screw was still too far in and a scary screeching sound stopped us just after not even one meter. Back to the wheel. We finally managed to get it out, but the threads are gone. 1 screw out of 5 is missing now. It should hold.

Meanwhile tens of kids gathered around. They had their fun watching us and more particularly Muriel that kept taking pictures.

First day trekking
The rain forest showed us a lot: Several lemurs, bamboos, frogs, chameleons, orchids; all in a dense vegetation. We got lucky: the rain had stopped just one day before we got in. Beautiful blue skies and less leeches. No mosquitoes either. It's colder than I thought, but it keeps them away!

Ranomafana national park is basically a lemur center. Most visitors get a couple hours hiking and almost always manage to see some lemurs in the wild. There's cell phone coverage so the guides call each other as soon as one finds lemurs.

Our first night is spent next to a creek. There's still phone coverage, but tomorrow it will be gone.
Before sleeping we make a night walk searching for frogs and chameleons. Loved it.

Maçonnerie à Madagascar

Ces photos pour mes copains maçons en France.
Quelle surprise de voir de la maçonnerie dans la forêt tropicale humide de Ranomafana! Des poutres préfabriquées, du treillis fait sur place, des coffrages faits avec des planches coupées à la hache, il n'y a pas de scie! le mélange pour le béton est concassé à la main sur place à partir des cailloux de la rivière, etc.
Au village les maisons sont un peu mieux faites quand même!