December 16, 2010
There seems to be rule among taxi-brousses: “The rougher the road, the rougher the seats”. On well paved sections, like Morondovo to Anstsirabe, I have found newish minibuses with quite plush (although cramped) seating. On RN5 from Monompana to Manara, I sat on a bag of rice. RN10 from Fort Dauphin to Tulear is awful but falls well short of the “Ditch with rocks in it”. I was upgraded to foam over plywood. Unfortunately, the trip took more than two days, with nearly 40 hours of bouncing and tossing back and forth. If I had not belatedly remembered that the padded back of my camera day pack could double as a seat cushion, I'm not sure I would have made it.
But at least it got here. Mathew and Katya opted to skip Tulear entirely on account that the expensive Air Madagascar flight was booked solid.
The trip was long and typical Madagascar. The taxi-brousse, a high ground clearance bus of Indian manufacture, was stuffed or overstuffed most of the time. The roof was loaded with luggage, goods, and animals packed as objects. The first night I slept in a hotel adjacent to the taxi-brousse station. When morning came, I could not see the taxi-brousse from my room but I was assured that it was still there by the occasional, pitiful wale of a goat tied to the roof. The next night was simply catnaps for the crew and bouncy progress down the trail. Unusual for the desert, the sun was kept at bay for much of the trip by a passing storm. The trade came from deep puddles that slowed progress.
There were a couple of places were I was tempted to jump out. Faux Cap is an interesting coastal area accessible from Tsombe, where we spent the first night. It is supposed to have spectacular scenery littered with elephant bird egg shell fragments. It would have made a nice day trip. Unfortunately, transport can only reliably be arranged once per week. Beza Mahafaly is where I would have good if I hadn't done Berenty. It is still very tempting although somewhat redundant. Unfortunately, access information I have is thin and informal, just the sort that is likely to change leaving no recourse for someone who can not easily chat with the locals. Riding a Zebu cart for six hours with potentially more rain coming also gave me pause.
When I arrived in Tulear, I hadn't bathed in nearly three days, and I still had two hours left of bad road to go. That was ride to Ifaty. It is the primary beach area near Tulear and the location of most of the dive operators. It was the obvious choice to stop. What wasn't obvious and the guide book failed to state, is that Ifaty has no ATM's and no Internet. Cash has turned out to be less of a problem that I expected but no Internet means I will probably not get an update on Beza before I need to move on.
After a day of recovery, I went out for two dives. Conditions were reasonable, though the water could have clearer. Unfortunately, I didn't see all that much. The second half of the first dive was interesting but the rest was largely a waste of time. I did photograph a white Stone Fish. It doesn't look all that impressive but both the dive master and her Malagasy partner were surprised that such a creature existed on the reef.
Day three was an early morning jaunt into a small private spiny forest reserve within walking distance. It was sold as a bird watching expedition but we also saw white footed sportive lemur and a couple of snakes. My two guides score points for effort expended but perhaps should learn to apply their own “mora mora” principle to wildlife viewing. I am quite convinced that I would have achieved my photos of the Long Tailed Ground Roller sooner if they had stopped chasing and let me wait quietly for the animal to walk into a clearing. I also don't want my lemurs prodded with a stick or my snakes captured and held, even it it does make for easier photos. The snakes, at least, were spared the indignity because I was able to voice my protest before my guides made their move.
Even though the first dive day had not inspired, I opted for a second try on my last morning in Ifaty. It was a little more expensive since it was just me and the dive master but the results were better. A couple lobsters, a morae, a nicely patterned star fish. No sharks. No turtles. I am told this is because of commercial shark finning and because the locals very much like to catch and eat turtles. The inshore waters are overfished. All the dives I did were out on the outside edge of the reef. The dive master had nothing bus disdain for government run marine conservation. The regional director in Tulear not only doesn't dive. He can't even swim.
There is a slim chance I may make it to Nosy Be and dive from there but more likely that was my last time in the water. Ifaty was decent diving but not great and I don't get the impression that Nosy Be is much better.
After the last dive, I cleaned up, packed in some lunch, and headed for Tulear. Sort of. Actually, I waited for nearly two hours for a taxi-brousse before finally finding one that was going in the right direction and had seats available. The fact that the floor was covered in baskets of raw fish and squid may have had something to do with that. Somehow I survived the two hour journey with my clothes or luggage smelling of fish.
I have a full day in Tulear. That's a bit more than ideal but the taxi-brousses to Isalo leave early in the morning. That means a choice of hanging around in a hot town for a few more hours or skiping through so fast there is barely time to hit the ATM, much less catch up on Internet and laundry.
Tomorrow I start heading up the road that everyone else seems to drive down: RN7 toward Antananarivo. First stop is Iaslo National Park. I'm not entirely convinced about this one. Many people enjoy it a great deal but it's more about landscapes and less about wildlife. That's not my preference but I think it's worth spending a couple of days there doing some early morning day hikes. No “grand tour” for me.