Brace Thyself

I’m no stranger to mundane schedules. In fact, since I returned to Madagascar in December, I’ve had an extremely mundane schedule, not having left the sprawling yet congested capital at all with the exception of going to Antsirabe in March for a few days for the workshop I led. And so, when the public schools got two full weeks off for Easter break, I decided that it was time to make a long sojourn from my humble abode in Antananarivo and explore some new places in Madagascar.

At first, it was my intention to revisit Ranomafana, my previous favorite place in Madagascar, and where the rivers flow through the mountains covered in rainforest canopies. From there, I was going to drive south to the second most famous national park on the island, Isalo, before finishing on the west coast in a town called Tulear where I would catch a domestic flight back to Tana. It’s an exciting itinerary. Nearly a full two weeks, packed with activities, and brimming with new places and people. But it was also incredibly expensive, and I realized that I would be spending almost half the time on the road rather than actually enjoying the locations themselves.

So I scrapped the idea, sent a new itinerary to my good friend, Jean Be (pronounced bay), who is a tour guide company operator. The itinerary was similar. I cut one of the stops and added a few extra days in the rainforest. Nonetheless, it was still going to be too long and too expensive. It was back to the drawing board for the lucky third attempt to create an itinerary.

The lucky third attempt was a week-long trek through local villages starting in the mountains in the south-central part of the country and finishing in Manakara, a beautiful fishing town on the east coast. It was perfect. The hiking was easy, there was a diverse array of scenery ranging from forested mountains to rice fields, the price was good, and I was going to meet plenty of locals. It was a real taste of the Madagascar I don’t get to visit as often as I would like. However, it’s not the season for such a trip and impossible to do in April.

So my fourth and final attempt was to spend a few days in Antsirabe with my new friends I made in March before taking a car down to a place called Tsaranoro in the south of Madagascar. After presenting my idea and potential itinerary to my friend Jean Be, we negotiated a price for the car, budgeted out the bungalows, met to discuss final details, and signed our contract.

Now since you are probably unfamiliar with traveling in Madagascar, there is no easy way to get anywhere. The lack of infrastructure makes land travel long and arduous at best. In fact, when I inquired about Andringitra national park, Jean Be told me that the only way to currently access the park was on a two hour motorbike ride. This is because the road had become so bad and unmaintained that it is physically impossible for even a 4x4 to make the trek. Mind you, that’s not all the roads, though most are not much better. From the capital of Antananarivo, my friend Mananjara and I took a higher end taxi-brousse (essentially a 12-person van) to Antsirabe where we spent 2 full days with our friends. On the third day, my driver, Omega, picked me up from the countryside house where we were staying, and we headed off to a town about 8 hours away named Ambalavao whereas Mananjara headed back to Tana.

Omega and I arrived in Ambalavao in the midafternoon where I decided just to relax and get some dinner before heading to bed. I spent a full day in Amabalavao, and the following day (a Sunday) I went to mass before meeting some of my American friends who happened to be doing a day trip to the community park in not-so-far-away Anja. Afterwards, Omega and our new passenger, Manal who was my general guide from Amabalavao, headed off on a 2-hour drive on one of the worst roads in Madagascar to reach Camp Catta which sits at the foot of the Tsaranoro park, my final destination. Once there, I had three full days of activities and meeting new people before leaving early on the 4th morning and visiting the largest zebu market in Madagascar in Amabalavao. After perusing the cattle there, Omega and I dropped off Manal and headed for Fianarantsoa where we got lunch and spent the afternoon to prepare ourselves for the rough 12-hour drive back to Antananarivo the next day.

That is essentially the outline of my 11 day and 10-night adventure. Over the next few weeks, my dear reader, I will share with you the specifics of my adventures and where they took me. But for your benefit, having this general timeline of events is always nice. So in short, brace thyself for a whirlwind of adventures. I left Antananarivo to find the way less traveled in Madagascar. And although not the craziest adventures possible on the island, I certainly found a way that is much less traveled.

As always, know that you are in my prayers each morning. All I ask is that you do the same for me.

May God be praised.

P.S. For my more visual friends, here is an actual timeline.

Tuesday April 11: Taxi-brousse from Antananarivo to Antsirabe and afternoon stalking markets.

Wednesday-Thursday 12-13: Ambohimanjaka hike and the lakes.

Friday 14: Drive to Ambalavao with Omega

Saturday 15: Walk the streets of Ambalavao and visit the silk workshop

Sunday 16: Mass in Amabalavao, Anja community park, and bumpy ride to Camp Catta in Tsaranoro

Monday 17: Chameleon peak

Tuesday 18: Tsaranoro Circuit

Wednesday 19: Peak Dondy (Doon-Dee)

Thursday 20: Drive to Amabalavao, inspect zebu market, drive to Fianarantsoa

Friday 21: 12-hour drive back to Tana