Made the Plane!

Thought I'd better write this one to say that I made the plane.

Kevin picked me up about 8am and I'd incredibly been organised enough to pack before I went out the night before! I was dropped at the airport. Bought a new book and caught my plane to Joburg.

It's actually a bit of a weird route really Durban-Joburg-Madagascar, but never mind (I've actually plotted it on the map on this site if you want a look!)

I hadn't really known what to expect when I landed in Antanivo (I'll call it by it's local name of Tana from now on!)

The plane flew low over the country and I got a chance to see the extraodinary landscape - wide meandering rivers, small clusters of mud(?) huts and scatterings of paddy fields, I really had never seen anything like it.

The airport was shabby but I managed to 'clear' customs pretty quickly courtesy of my makeshift visa obtained from someone's bedroom in Shepherds bush.

The guy from the hotel who had promised to get me didn't show up and instead I was pestered by a crowd of touts all trying to drag me to their taxi. After about 10 minutes when it was obvious nobody was showing from the hotel I went with the most persausive bloke (was that a good idea?) to his old old taxi.

We were joined by his mate who turned out to be the driver of the Renault 5 and the three of us made our way into town. It was all pretty frightening to be honest. I've learnt that roads between major cities and airports are never the best - try taking the road from Columbo in Sri Lanka for example - come to that Heathrow - London!

Eventually after thinking I was likely to end the journey with my throat cut we reached Tana. It was now about 7.30 and dark. The Lonely Planet makes Avenue d'Independance (the main street in Tana) sound interesting - I'd imagined a Parisian street. In fact there were throngs of people and broken up old French cars filling the evening air with a thick smog. The road was blocked in both directions.

I'd been in some dodgy places but this was very near the top. Incredibly the driver dropped me at my hotel Sakamanga which was actually very nice. It had a small courtyard and I even had a tele (not bad for 15 quid a night) - shame all the programmes are in French!