It's 8am and my guide is on time at Suarez Hotel. The pilots are leaving at the same time. They go to the airport, I go to Joffreville. A Renault 4L takes us there, amazing how this little car from the 70's is still the most used car around!
Before leaving Diego we go to the local market for supplies to get malagasy style camping food: rice, dry and salted fish, 1 can of sardines, 1 box of Vache Qui Rit, and soup ramen!
From Diego to Joffreville the landscape goes from dry yellow to lushy green.
Then, we hike 6km to the trailhead. Thanks to Julio, my guide, we spot countless chameleons, geckos, snakes and spiders! Wow!
Julio also tells me he hasn't gone much further than the close by cascades so he isn't sure about what we will find. I tell him to grab a machete and I have my GPS phone with Google terrain map downloaded, we'll be fine!
After a few hours I understand we must make it to one of the lakes closer to the summit: there's no running water or spring on our way. My pump filter is put to good use on the only puddle we find, filled up by drops falling from moss.
Day light goes fast and by 4pm it's getting darker and we start rushing to find a camp next to the closest lake. By miracle Julio finds a path leaving the main track and then asks me: how far are we from the lake? Just 300m on a straight line I reply. Let's go!
We can't see the lake, just forest, and we speed up our pace hoping we're going to find a place to camp. After a few minutes we see the lake below our crest and quickly after we reach it.
After so many hours spent under the green canopy we are struck by the beauty of this place.
We still have to find a spot for camping though and are surprised by the tall grass or hanging grass carpet I should say. We expected a nice grassy area but are stuck with a knee deep and unstable mattress of grass. Now we're tired and desperate to find something. We end up by going back to the edge of the grassy area hoping to find firm ground. Then we see a small wooden hut and decide to check it. It's probably a fisher's shack. Ground is firm around it so we decide to stay.
Time to filter water, boil some rice with the dry fish, eat and go sleep!
What a day!
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