Our boat trip of three days and two nights came to an end just after lunch on Sunday 28th July. I actually don’t say this date with much confidence as once we started on the trip I didn’t regularly look at what day it was or anything. I hadn’t bought a SIM card at the airport and I hadn’t signed up for an e-sim like some of the more seasoned travellers on the trip. I was having a digital detox. At some hotels we had wifi in the public areas but signal wasn’t great and texts to family were brief. We all went on the assumption that no news was good news.

We docked at Belo sur Tsiribihina, a bustling town by the Tsiribihina river. The town boasts the Lonely Planet’s most famous restaurant in Madagascar, Le Mad Zebu and so we asked Barnabas to have lunch there but lunch was included on the boat on our last day. We had to go back through Belo after three days and we were hopeful that we would be afforded the opportunity to go.

We said goodbye to our crew and walked over the gangplank for the last time. We were met with another horde of kids before we got into our battered 4x4s. With twelve of us in our group we divided ourselves into 4 groups. Janet and I went with Jill, an Aussie from Adelaide.

The 4×4 was a crucial mode of transport as we were bumped along the sandy road for four hours. The road led from one river to another.

I was in the back, Jill went in the front for the first two hours, and then after a bushy bushy stop Janet called shotgun. We were jiggled and shuggled around. These 4×4 drivers were expert and we had plenty of room to stretch out. We wouldn’t have been so happy if we had had only 3 4x4s and 4 people rather than 3 in each one.

With there being only one road from Belo until our destination it was clear that it operated as a one way road – one way in the morning towards Belo and the other way in the afternoon. We were going in convoy and after 30 or so minutes we stopped because the 4×4 in front of us had pulled up and had its bonnet open. We didn’t think it boded well but after some tinkering the vehicle in front gained air-con again – but suddenly that 4×4 was put to the front of the convoy! That 4×4 with its cracked windscreen also had issues getting up the ramp after the car ferry and its three passengers had to get out before it attempted the ramp (which it failed on its first attempt).

Eventually after four hours we arrived at the river. A 10 minute drive on the other side would be the hotel for the next three nights. The ferry took three vehicles at a time and as the video showed about 41 seconds in there were men/boys bouncing up and down on the ramp. The bouncing was necessary to ensure the front of the boat was kept up. We had been told that in the previous couple of days the boat’s engine had broken down so it had had to be pulled across. Clearly a bridge would be so much easier but it certainly is not something in construction just now. Ticket on the ferry for the vehicle was about 70,000 Ariary (about 12GBP).

News

After just 1 minute 40 seconds of river crossing we were back on the “road”. 10 minutes later we were in our hotel and shortly after that I was on wifi. The news that I got was from Eleanor and my friend Rebecca was that our good friend Avideh had died suddenly. Avideh was one of the first people that I met in Suzhou and was the kindest, most genuine lady that you could ever hope to meet. Her Iranian meatballs were also superbly delicious and always a hit on International Day at the school. Her son, Obteen, was in Eleanor’s class and they left for Portugal from Suzhou a couple of years ago. She has gone too soon.

After receiving the sad news and texting Eleanor a little bit, I went for shower. When I returned to the public area, wifi had gone and so we entered into several games of Monopoly Deal. A quicker card game version of the board game. Still cut throat though. The game had been introduced on my sick day on the boat, and had quickly become a favourite as pairs had ganged up on other pairs and individuals. Lisa was the games monitor overseeing gameplay to ensure everyone took no more than their requisite three actions and confirming that those actions were playable and not contrary to the rules.

Dinner that night was lovely, but the winner on the plate was the unassuming plate of chips that came with my chicken. The next day I woke up early and Janet was woken up by our next door neighbour coughing and seconds later the familiar sound of sick hitting the toilet bowl. We both outwardly groaned, got dressed and went for an early morning breakfast. At breakfast we waited with bated breath to see who would turn up. We got a message on WhatsApp from Jen, she too had succumbed to illness. It was like we were living a real life version of Traitors, the BBC hit show though of course it wasn’t one of us “bumping them off”, it was what people were eating – but even then there was no rhyme nor reason to it, since Henrik and Jen had the same as others.

Leaving our sick travelling companions in the hotel, we went back to the Manambolo River and were introduced to our local guides.

Canoes and Caves

We were divided into two groups and into two traditional dug out canoes. Actually each group was in two canoes tied together. The wood is naturally waterproof and doesn’t need treated. Locally made we were glad we were sitting on planks of wood across the top of the canoes rather than squeezing ourselves right down into them – it wouldn’t have been so elegant getting out of them (speaking for myself – I couldn’t possibly comment on anyone else!)

I sat beside Jon and every time we had to get out of the canoe, we had to hold hands and come off the canoe simultaneously, we were very elegant in doing so, just neither of us wanted to have a dip in a river where there were crocodiles. Our canoe was piloted by a local who punted us down the river. During our journey to two caves and ancestral tombs our guide stopped another canoe and bought his lunch – river fish.

It was a very tranquil morning on the river which we had pretty much to ourselves. We wondered if this had been pre-covid if we would have had a similar experience. The two caves that we journeyed to had been naturally formed, and we needed our head torches to explore. They didn’t go deep, but they were cool in temperature except for the crevice that we got through and found that we were in an oven.

From the caves we headed further down the river to the tombs that were hundreds of years old. Nestled in among the crevice of the gorge we couldn’t point with our fingers as that would have been disrespectful to their elders, pointing could be done with an open palm or with a closed hand using the knuckles. We saw them from afar before turning back and headed back up the river to the village.

That was only the first part of the morning. The next blog will cover the rest of the adventure that morning together with the adventure that happened the next day. The afternoon of the first full day in this hotel was spent poolside. The pool was on the cool side, though compared to the next day it was a touch warmer and we had the pool to ourselves that day. The day after we had to share with others.