(Vanga curvirostris)
Ranomafana
Madagascar
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This may be the only photo I will show here from our first day/afternoon in Madagascar. We started off on the wrong foot!
To give you an idea, I need to provide some context. We left our home on the 8th at 6 am. Flight to Paris-Orly at 8:35 am. 1 hour and 30 minutes to change airports, via OrlyVal+RER-B, and reach Paris-CDG. At the check-in counters terminal, there was only one McDonald's. Of course, I preferred not to eat!
Flight to Nairobi at 7:20 pm (local time). Upon arrival in Nairobi, after two landing attempts, the pilot gave up and diverted us to Mombasa, where we stayed inside the plane while it was refueled (as we were told) and waited for conditions in Nairobi to improve. Since we were facing a long layover, we didn't worry.
Once in Nairobi, we waited in a nice and calm lounge for boarding, which happened in a very friendly and almost informal manner. We landed in Antananarivo at the scheduled time.
We found our driver at the passenger exit, along with our friend Rosa, who had already been in the country for a week. I withdrew 1,600,000 Ariary from the ATM in 20,000 banknotes (sometimes 10,000), totaling 80 banknotes that I had to distribute among various pockets ;-) and bought a SIM card. We loaded the luggage into the jeep and had to tip a swarm of "helpers" who gathered around the vehicle, and I had no idea what assistance they had provided. I think (I'm almost sure) that for some, the only effort made was reaching out for the tip.
We left the airport around 5 pm (on the 9th, 2 pm in Portugal) heading to the Souimanga Hotel-Restaurant in Antsirabe. Just to cross the capital took us more than 2 hours. Along the way, faced with an endless array of food stalls, I tried to choose one to have something to eat. However, my cautious wife was uncomfortable with the food safety, so, following our driver's recommendation, we went straight to Antsirabe.
When we arrived, it was 11 pm, and there was no place to eat. Besides, we were exhausted from the journey, so we decided to go to sleep. We hadn't felt the comfort of a bed for 40 hours.
The next day, the 10th, we left at 5 am, and once again, the overwhelming offering of food along the streets/roads didn't give my stomach a break. However, the conditions were not suitable for a tourist. I spoke with the driver, the very friendly and smiling Angelico, to stop when he saw a place with minimal conditions for a Westerner, and he agreed. But after 2 hours, he still hadn't found such a place. I reiterated the request 2 or 3 times, and he kept reassuring that he hadn't forgotten.
It was only on leaving Ambositra that Angelico finally stopped. I thought it might be a clean café, with tables and a glass counter displaying cakes and other treats, but it turned out to be just a small space of about 8 square meters with a one-meter-wide window facing the street and some tempting cakes.
The samosas immediately caught my attention. There were also some cakes that looked good, but they seemed loaded with sugar, so we opted for the samosas and the promised (since that morning) Madagascar bread (in practice, a cake with some sugar). Ana wasn't convinced and chose to continue fasting, but Rosa, Angelico, and I ordered tea (coffee for me), plus 3 or 4 samosas and as many Madagascar breads.
When it came time to pay with the 20,000 Ariary note, the lady widened her eyes, crossed the street, and returned with the change of 15,000 Ariary. The total bill was 5,000 Ariary, which is about €1 for 2 teas, 1 coffee, and 8 or 9 cakes. I was pleased; unfortunately, I didn't have another breakfast like this.
Meanwhile, on the way, Angelico was providing feedback on the expected time of our arrival to the guide who awaited us in Ranomafana. However, we wouldn't get there without Ana vomiting and having to move to the front seat. (Un)fortunately, she hadn't eaten anything for over 20 hours, so she only vomited stomach acids.
Upon arrival in Ranomafana, two guides were waiting for us, explaining the conditions and ready to start the activity. It was around noon, and although breakfast had been satisfactory for me, we hadn't had dinner the day before, and Ana hadn't eaten since the sandwich they gave her on the flight from Nairobi.
I explained that we needed to have lunch first, but a misunderstanding with the guide and my naivety led me to believe they had lunch for us in their backpacks. They did, but it was only for them. Worse was the trail, one of the toughest we've ever done. I already knew it would be challenging, as I had read reports of much younger people complaining about its difficulty, but I expected to have a picnic halfway and with the anticipation of an abundance of birds, I hoped the effort would be relativized. A pure, big, and gross mistake on my part.
Birds were almost non-existent. We could count on one hand the number of species we saw, many of them hidden behind dozens of branches, trunks, and leaves with no possibility of get a camera's focus on them. The heat and the constantly steep path, often consisting of steps of various heights/widths (which I preferred to avoid and circumvent), combined with our lack of energy preparation, led to the worst day of photography in our lives. We had some tough days in Vietnam, but here was 10 times worse.
Until I spotted this species, we might have seen 2 or 3 species. And after this one, we saw the back of a Pitta-Like Ground Roller, and that was it. We returned with great difficulty, with dozens of breaks, using the steps as benches to catch our breath, already with little water, which we rationed. When we arrived at the parking lot, I dragged myself to the car and looked for water, which I couldn't resist drinking without moderation. Immediate consequence: I vomited!
We went to our hotel, the Setam Lodge, and after check-in, they pointed us to our rooms set on a beautiful slope, but we had to climb 20 or 30 steps to get there.
It was the end!
The next day brought consequences, but I will talk about that on another photo! This is a truthful (I think) and perhaps tiring report, but it doesn't come close to conveying our suffering.
