Feltre

I'm writing this retrospectively some 8 years after the event, but in 2005 along with (ex-Mayor of Newbury!) Garry Poulson, Clare Maynard and Richard Maynard I went to Feltre with Newbury Twin towns. I played in a tennis tournament there (losing all 3 games!) and afterwards we visited nearby Bassano del Grappa (where this picture is taken).

It was a lovely long weekend and it's a great place to visit with lovely food and wine. From memory both Feltre and Bassano were beautiful medievil towns.

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!

Lokaro Peninsular

I'd decided to go and have a look at the Lokaro Peninsular, a strip of land about 25k north east of Fort Dauphin and arra

Surfing in Fort Dauphin

In the morning I went to send some e-mails and ran into this guy called James. He worked for an NGo called Azafady (based in Fort Dauphin). Bqsically they are involved in various projects around the area from conservation, to teaching to health education.

James's speciality was water and sanitation and as well as fitting new wells he was also tasked with encouraging the locals to use toilets. In some areas (especially outlying ones) it is fady (taboo) to use toilets - meaning that the people take to the bushes or beaches (nice). They have a huge issue with fadys over here, there are some weirdest rules about things, many of them pretty nonesensical.

We chatted a while and arranged to meet up for lunch. He'd been in Madagascar for 3 months (he was intending to stay a year, but really loved it, so said he would like to stay for longer. From what I could make out he was salaried (sort of) they paid him 5k per year as a contribution to his living costs.

He introduced me to a few of his friends and we arranged to go out for a meal that evening.

In the afternoon I visited Fort Flacort (overlooking the bay) it's a military institution and I was shown round by a soldier (we couldn't really communicate as we both only had bits and bobs of French in common, and you can only say "it is sunny" so many times!)

I then met up with James and the others at the far end of Baie Des Gallians beach. I tried my hand at surfing (I'd tried once before in Oz) and yes, I was still rubbish. There were a couple of rastas there who were simply incredible surfers. Basically they hadn't worked for 12 years and had surfed all day, every day!

We had a nice meal that evening in a local resaurant, about 6 people from the charity and me. It was a scary walk home in the dark, but mostly I think because I'm not used to a town not having streetlights!!

Around Fort Dauphin

I'd decided to go and see the reserve at Nahampona. Essentially I was hoping to see lemurs for which Madagascar is famous. It was only a little way out of town (about 7k) and so travelled there by (overpriced) taxi.

It was a nice place, originally opened by the French about 100 years ago and with a lot of interesting plants and trees. I spied some lemurs high up in some branches, and we came upon some bamboo lemurs (which were also pretty cute).

My guide took me out of the reserve to see a small waterfall, and then onto a boat trip.

On the boat trip we passed a lot of huge plants called "Elephant ear plants", their huge ear shaped leaves clearly being the reason for this. I asked my guide why they were so called, and he told me it was due to the leaves resembling elephant ears (clearly irony is a difficult thing to convey in a foreign tongue!!)

I spent a lot of the afternoon on Libanona beach. It's on the other side of town and a really nice place. I had a sandwich and beer overlooking the bay.

In the afternoon I followed the throngs of locals and ended up watching a football match in the local "stadium". It was a ramshackle place, and the playing surface left a lot to be desired (the grass was about 6inches long in places and stopped the ball!

There were about 400 of us there (mine being the only white face). The match appeared to be a local derby between two Fort Daupin teams, one in yellow, the other in blue. The crowd support seemed to be behind the yellows (who lost 7-1)

The blue side were a lot stronger, and all of their players had football boots (about 2/3rds of the yellows played barefoot). Blues also had the advantage of a rampaging centre back, built in the mould of Paul McGrath, who came forward at every opportunity and took all of their set plays. Yellows weren't helped by their keeper, who was probably at fault for about 4 of their goals.

I did get a small section of the crowd shouting "get it in the box", although whether they really knew what they were shouting, or whether they knew what an ideal tactic it was, given the playing surface, I shall never know.

I gave my biro to a kid sat next to me. It wasn't anything fancy, but he held it like it was a jewel as he carried it home.

Flight to Fort Dauphin

I'd arranged to go and see the baobab trees with a guy who worked behind the bar in Vovo Telo.

I met him about 6am and the two of us trudged off through the nearby villiage. Madagascar has 7 different types of baobab, Africa only 1. We saw loads of wildlife on the way, birds, lizards and a huge brown snake (about 5 feet long) which smoothly pulled itself across our path. Mustapha told me it was poisonous, but I'm not too sure (not that I was going to find out!)

We walked round for about 2 1/2 hours. Mustapha was a nice bloke.

At about 1pm I left to get my plane. I can't begin to explain how bad the road is between Ifaty and Tulear. Basically a dustrack with huge holes and occasional lakes!! Along the way were occasional police "checkpoints", all of whom required a bribe of some sort before we could pass.

The airport café in Tulear is also amuising. There is a menu, but no prices. They seem to charge you what they think you can afford. I paid the same for my sandwich and coke as the next table paid for a family to have a meal. I queried it (in broken Fench/English) to be met with further shrugs and smiles.

After an uneventful flight to Fort Dauphin, I made my way to the Mahovoky Annex. The taxi driver picked up a number of other fares along the way!

I've probably stayed in worse places, but I'm struggling to remember them. Still, the view over the bay is lovely. There are a number of wrecks out to sea and it's a very interesting vista.

At this point I discovered I'd lost/forgotten my Visa card. It wasn't complete disaster, as I had about 80quid still in cash. A few frantic calls were made to the bank (no help at all) and parents. Hopefully a bit more cash will arrive on Monday! (thanks mom and dad)

In my defence I'd not been using my wallet (where my visa card was). Essentially because it hadn't been BIG enough to store the huge wedges of cash you have to carry round here!!

Ifaty

I'd decided to go to Ifaty to kill time until my flight on Saturday. At Breakfast I met some arrongant Yanks who were also going there. They refused completely to speak either French or Malagasy. As a result they got a random selection of things for their breakfast (half of which they left at any rate) I got my breakfast and referred them to my French phrasebook. One bloke was particularly annoying.

Anyway, I left Tulear (again!) and arrived at Ifaty about 11am. The place I'd planned to stay was "fermer" (that phrasebook coming in handy once more!) and so I ended up staying in a little place called Volvo Telo.

It was right on the beach and absolutely amazing (if basic!) I spent most of the day swimming and reading. The sea is so blue and the sand so white. I had a great seafood pizza for tea!!

I awoke about 2am to the sound of disco... two streets away. The music was so loud. I decided to get dressed and investigate.

It was really little more than a villiage hall packed with bodies dancing to (slightly out of date) music. One of the more distateful aspects was the amount of French expats (aged 45-70) in various clinches with their local "girlfriends" (aged 15-20). Some of the girls are very pretty, but it's a bit seedy nonetheless. I stayed for a drink and went to bed.

I woke up about an hour later with a two inch cockroach on my chest. not nice