Day 72: Soaked But Stoked

A few weeks ago, we came across the term 'flashpacker' in our Borneo book. It refers to people who travel long-term, like a backpacker, but with much less stuff. For example, we wouldn't have brought heavy warm clothes with us or a sleeping bag because it wasn't something we needed for the first two months. We would've just bought warm clothing when we arrived in Madagascar and needed it, and then ditched whatever we didn't need. In some ways, it's something we aspire to, as it would be much nicer to carry a smaller, lighter bag. But it is more expensive so not something we will be doing on this trip. 

Seeing as we were totally soaked even with raincoats the day before, we knew we had to be better covered the second day for our longer hike. So Craig fashioned us a pair of matching rain suits constructed from garbage bags. When we'd been walking along for a half hour or so, Craig stopped and chuckling to himself said 'We're Trashpackers!

Notice the Trash bag skirts to keep our legs and feet dry

This hike took us deeper into the forest away from the sizeable tour groups for the most part. We saw four new lemurs, orchids, and many crazy plants. The hike was longer and harder including five river crossings, some necessitating getting wet (Craig's boots are still wet 3 days later), and many steep slopes, once again all through a relentless rain. The highlight of the day was watching the Milne-Edwards' Sifaka jump through the trees above us.

After hiking we thought we would walk down to a fancy hotel near the park entrance to have lunch. Entering the restaurant, with tables covered in white cloth three spoons per setting etc, we tracked mud along the floor as our drenched clothes clung to our bodies while pouring a constant stream of rainwater around our boot tracks. We were told quite politely that the cook had only prepared enough food for the guests of the hotel, we decided to try and call Ritza our taxi driver to take us home but our phone ran out of money. We must have looked quite pathetic and pitiful because as we discussed what to do, they decided that they could in fact serve us lunch and provide us a brief reprieve from the rain.

Days 70 & 71: Wet and Wild

Now that we didn't need an early morning hospital visit, we set about deciding the best way to get south to Ranomafana. Over breakfast we met a couple from Ottawa, the first Canadians we'd seen in Madagascar so far, named Heather and John. It turned out they'd flown in the day before and were headed in the same direction.

Knowing we wouldn't survive the eight plus hours crammed into a taxi-brousse we decided to hire one to take only us. This way we were able to stretch out and didn't have to stop in every little village.

As it was, the ride was long. We had a nice lunch along the way at a pizzeria with a wood-burning oven, but the rest of the day was cold and slow. We rode on, gaining elevation and new scenery as we entered the highlands. Houses were made out of brick and were often two-story, huge rocks protruded from the hills, resembling Scotland, and sweeping views helped to keep us motivated. At long last, well past sundown, we arrived in town.

Our first choice turned out to have recently elevated their prices considerably and we were ushered out the door and on to a more affordable option. They thankfully agreed to serve us dinner even though we were arriving at their 9 pm cut-off. Many steps led up to our private peaked bungalow but it wasn't until morning that we appreciate the great view we had of the river valley.

 
The next day at the park office, we found a guide, Rudy. In the rain, which would be our constant companion for the next two days, he led us through a series of circuits, up and down hills an through the brush in search of lemurs. We disappointingly found our first, the Greater Bamboo Lemur, was nothing more than a motionless brown mass hiding from the rain. Our next sighting, the Golden Bamboo Lemur was moving around and much more interesting. The forest was beautiful and varied; we were often alone, but unlike our time in the North there were large tour groups in Ranomafana. We would come across these groups at each lemur sighting, twenty people all asking each other if they could see it, complaining about their view/the rain, or narrating every move. This certainly detracted from our wildlife experiences in the park.

 

On our way back to the park office we caught a glimpse of a third species-the Red-Fronted Brown lemur. They scurried away through the trees quickly but not before we got a good look and a decent photo.


After a smoking hot shower to warm up, we treated ourselves to a relaxing afternoon and dinner at one of the nicer restaurants in town. Cristo, run by an adorable Malagasy couple, has a huge verandah and sweeping views of the river valley (we got a few minutes of the view when the rain let up momentarily). We enjoyed talking with the owners. The woman designed it, the husband built it, and the daughter serves.

At 5:30, we called up our new friend, the only taxi driver in town, Ritza, to take us back through town and head up the hill to our night hike.

A rainy hour walking up and down the road rewarded us with a few new chameleon species, a frog, and an adorable brown mouse lemur.

Erin warmed up with some Pineapple Flambé

Day 69: Bitten by the Travel Bug

For our last few hours in Ramena, we strolled the beach and swam one last time in the crystal-clear water. There was one local thing that Erin hadn't done yet: have her face painted like the Malagasy women. They use paste to protect their faces from the sun, then paint over it with avocado 'make up' to create designs. It was worth a try!

Since our hotel *still* didn't have working internet, we chose to head to Diego early and have lunch at a swanky hotel at the edge of the bay. The food was outstanding (baked duck stuffed with mango, and chicken in a pineapple-cinnamon sauce), and the view breath-taking. Plus we were able to get a few posts up. From there, a quick trip to the airport had us on our way back to Tana. The flight hosted stunning sunset views over the multi-layered clouds. That view never gets old! We felt well-rested after our lengthy stay in Ramena, and excited about moving on the the South the next day!

The first bite with trail working its way up

Before heading to bed, we had one last task of the serious sort - Craig has had some unusual bites with red tails trailing up his arm the past couple of days. We've been deligently watching their progress, marking it off with a pen. We felt it worth a trip to the doctor just in case. When we arrived at our Hotel in Tana, we were unsure whether to go out to the hospital or wait til the morning to visit a clinic because it was already 8pm. Luckily, they knew a doctor who did house-calls, so over dinner Craig was poked and prodded (literally), and it was deemed serious enough to run a course of anti-biotics to battle the toxins of the unknown bite. It felt good to have a worries laid to rest in a needle of cortisone and a sachet of antibiotics. By morning, the redness and swelling from the bites had severely diminished and he was feeling more comfortable.

Day 67 & 68: Three Bay Redux

 With an added day in Ramena, we took the opportunity to catch up on entries. Unfortunately the internet was still not working, but we wrote, edited photos, and enjoyed views of the bay. We watched local kids play in the sand - burying the little brother, endlessly filling up plastic bags with water then dumping them in holes they'd dug, waiting impatiently for the tide to go out so they could start a soccer game on the beach, etc. It was a day to recharge ourselves and our electronics.

Erin took full advantage of the relaxation opportunities by booking a half-hour massage at sunset for a mere $4.50. Needless to say, she's got another one booked for the next day!

 The next day we were optimistic that we would find the Three Bays, mainly because our plan was to take a taxi this time! In an effort to make things easier for Craig's foot, we thought we'd get driven to each bay subquentially, making it a relaxing expedition. Unfortunately, this wasn't possible, because two of the bays were inaccessible by car. So we agreed to get dropped off at the furthest bay, walk to the middle bay, then back to the furthest to get picked back up. In fact, we ended up walking the lengthy 10 Km to the third bay, which was lovely (the Bay of Dunes).

All three were pretty, but underwhelming after our trip to la Mer Emeralde. We were bascially on the open ocean, so the wind was strong and the waves rough. Craig spotted one little sandbar that sort of jutted out into the water at one bay, so we attempted a quick swim. The shape of the bay and rocks around the sandbar made it a point where waves from different directions crashed into each other and zig-zagged across in a weaving pattern. It was interesting and beautiful, but way too rough to actually swim. We were quickly tossed back to shore.

In the end, it was a great workout, and a nice way to end our time in Ramena, feeling like we'd tried out everything there is to do here. Another round of sundowners on the beach and a massage made for a perfect ending to the day!

Day 66: Mountain Rainforest and Desert Canyons

Craig's $1 hat says:
"BREAKERS lead the fashion sense of style original"

To allow us to spend a longer period of time in one place we decided to convert a visit to Amber Mountain National Park into a day trip from Ramena rather than spending a night or two there. Amber mountain is a rainforest that receives over 2000 mm of rain a year surrounded by dry desert, with the Mozambique Canal on one side and the Indian Ocean on the other. We were able to tie in a visit to the Tsingy Rouge, red spiky rock pinnacles in a canyon by the sea. In order to get to both destinations and back we had to charter a 4x4. During negogiations, in which we were being quite stubborn on price, the tout we were talking with lowered his voice, "If you want that price you can't take a 4x4... but there is a man with a jeep that would take you for that price." (*roughly remembered and translated). With a Jeep being exactly what we picture when we think 4x4 we were a little confused but we took the offer for an actual 4x4 rather than a pretty SUV. the jeep ended up being ex-french army named "Pekat", a smaller relative of our safari vehicle, Amkat.

Our driver, Said, arrived to pick us up with his 13 year old son in tow as he was on holidays.The drive out was speedy and the conversation good. (If you'd like to read Erin's talk with the son, visit her blog for the full interview).The road turned rough as we headed up Amber mountain. At the gate we learned that it was 'International Tourism Day' so we didn't have to pay entrance fees and we added a guide, Giselyn, to our merry band before continuing up higher into the forest.

The sexiest fruit

We got out to begin our hike while the jeep continued on up the mountain so that we would not have to back track. This was wonderful since earlier that morning (far to early for Erin who was rudely awoken by the incident) Craig had, in the process of getting up, firmly planted his foot down on the small pointy metal holder for mosquito coils which had been buring on the concrete floor so as to be as far away from our very flamable walls. After a moment's shock the dagger was removed and in the dark Craig noticed he was bleeding by thick wetness spreading along the floor. Hobbling and howling to the shower Erin quickly rose and took charge applying pressure and getting the foot elevated. Although it had been a relatively deep wound Craig does not seem to have sustained any serious injuries. It did however make hiking the same day a little less than comfortable.

It did not take long for the beauty of the place to remove any memory of pain from Craig's face, within minutes we had seen a Crowned Chameleon (above) and (one of) the world's smallest reptiles. The hike (Erin calls it a walk) continued along the 'Path of a Thousand Trees' with many interesting plants, birds, and a few more chameleons until around the halfway point we reached a view of a beautiful waterfall where an elderly man was laying down at the top of the falls to get a picture looking down. Our hearts stopped as he tried to stand, stumbled, took a few staggering steps along the precipous trying to steady himself before falling to the ground on the rocks at his feet rather than those 20 metres below just a step away over the cliff's edge.

The rest of the hike took in trees planted by the French long ago from around the world (France, Chile, and Japan. The only criterion seemed to be that they be strange looking trees), and another waterfall, this one sacred. It was a wonderful time, even though it was our first nature hike without any lemurs, this was made up for when during lunch we got to see some Crowned Lemurs in a tree just behind where we were sitting.

After lunch it was back on the road to Tsingy Rouge; we were running behind schedule, racing against the setting sun. The road was dusty and bumpy but Pekat was up to the steep slopes and tight corners. The canyon was stunning, but we didn't have time to relax and enjoy the view as we had to make it to the Tsingy Rouge before they dipped into the shade. The Tsingy were quite pretty in the red light of the fading sun, but were slightly underwhelming after seeing the Tsingy in Ankarana that were so much greater in scope. Arriving back in Ramena we quickly washed the thick layer of dust from our faces and had a few glasses of wine while Craig whined about his foot.

Day 65: The Emerald Sea

If Day 11 in Madagascar had felt like paradise, it had nothing on Day 12! We joined a French family heading out to La Mer Emeralde for a full-day excursion to a seculded islet in the sea. We walked down to the beach, hopped aboard, and sailed out past where we had walked the previous day (we couldn't see the Three Bays, so we realized we'd made the right decision turning around from our search).

The captain shared some insight into the depth of the bay and the types of boats that could go through, but we were up near the front so the wind swept most of his French words away. The basic gist was that the bay was very deep, but the canal we would be passing through was extremely shallow, so it meant large boats found it impassable. This helps keep the traffic down and the islands more secluded. It was easy to see how the sea had gotten its name, there were kilometers of crystal-clear emerald waters that glimmered like jewels.

A huge ray that was outpacing us

About an hour later, we turned a corner and saw our destination - a small island that rose quickly from the emerald water. We didn't waste any time getting into the water and settling into the sand. The rest of our group chose to accompany the crew back out in search of our lunch, but we stayed behind to enjoy true paradise!

Upon their return, we shared a lunch of the freshest fried fish we'd probably ever had, along with rice and salad. It turned out, the French family (a Mom, Dad, and 13 year-old son) was also travelling for a year! They follow a similar schedule to us, ending up in Vietnam around the same time we're scheduled to be there. So we exchanged emails and talked about meeting up or at least exchanging tips on the area.

We had another hour or so relaxing in the water, then sailed back to shore, this time spotting a giant sea turtle flying by. It was the perfect ending to our day in paradise!

Day 64: Three Bay Adventures

We awoke the next morning in paradise. Ramena boasted many day trips and activities so we tried to decide how to best spend our time. In the end, we thought the first day would be best spent exploring so we'd know what there was that we liked close by. There were supposed to be three bays connected by paths along the shore - a 15 km walk one way. We thought we'd just see what the first bay was like, as we'd read it was the best for swimming. We declined the offers for a guide or a taxi and set out on our own to discover.

We knew which way down the beach we were supposed to go. We walked past the restaurants, then the rundown houses and fishing boats, and around some tall rocks. Here we paid entrance to the 'military' section of the beach that had some old ruins, which we ignored. We continued on to a lighthouse but here reached a dead-end as waves crashed against jagged rocks. So we doubled-back, figuring we needed to follow the road.

After walking directly away from the ocean on the windy road for a while, we saw a well-worn path off to the left that headed up the hill. Guessing this was the way, we strode onwards. It didn't take long before we were tired from the incline and the heat. We were now far from the beach, without any ocean views, and it didn't seem promising we would get any soon. So we decided to throw in the towel and return to the perfectly fine beach we'd already passed by.

We did not make it to the elusive Trois Baies, but we did spend an hour lazying in the sand and ocean on a secluded beach. Not too tough of a day in the end!