Saturday 15th October 2022. Antsirabe to Antananarivo

The morning started with another phone call to Roadtrip Africa to confirm that they were alright with us driving the rest of the way with the warning lights on - we had decided that it was probably a loose connection rather than an issue with the alternator otherwise we would never have made it this far.  Our breakfast had been quite substantial and accompanied by the sound of a guitar lesson which had been delightful. We took the opportunity to walk around the hotel grounds which were like an oasis compared to the scorched earth outside the perimeter.  They were growing all kinds of fruit and vegetables as well as keeping their own bees,

The start of the journey was hair raising as we were driving through the city of Antsirabe at rush hour and there were people, cycle and cars in all directions. We had also expected the road to improve as this is the major highway but it was just as terrible as the last one and in places worse as the potholes were huge due to the number of lorries.  The drive was slow but interesting as we passed by huge terraced fields and through town after town.  The entire route was urbanised and we started to see lots of road side stalls selling everything from wooden trucks, religious statues through to baskets, plants and even bunnies - each village seemed to have its own speciality. Despite the huge increase in urbanisation we still saw lots of zebu carts and families doing their washing in the rivers.

The farming was definitely more intensive the closer we got to Antananrivo with huge amounts of terracing having been created with intricate water channels to keep crops watered.

It was difficult to know that we had actually arrived into Antananarivo as we had been going through solid urbanisation for miles with each town essentially joined to the next one.  The traffic was crazy though and we were having to rely on the maps.me app to follow the road as it twisted and turned, crossed bridges, went round roundabouts and crossed junctions.  We were about 10km from the airport and the end of our road trip when we made one wrong turn and ended up having the worst driving experience of the entire trip.  We were supposed to turn left but we were in the wrong lane and ended up going round a big lake in the centre of Antananarivo.  We thought we had managed to get back to where we had started and turned onto what we thought was the main road but turned out to be the road in to the absolute centre of Antananarivo market.  This was definitely not somewhere a car was supposed to go as the streets were really narrow and everyone had their stalls set out in the street.  There were thousands of people in all directions and it was impossible to see how we could drive through especially as no-one seemed willing to move.  Ian was shouting "which way" and the map.me app was helpfully saying "turn right and then next right" on a continual loop.  We ignored the app and just tried to go in a very slow but straight line with the aim to firstly avoid running anyone over but secondly just to get out of the market as quickly as possible.  We eventually escaped only to find ourselves stuck down another narrow back street with cars and vans coming towards us and them signalling that we had to go backwards.  After much hand waving and eye-rolling from the locals we managed to manoeuvre backwards to give the cars coming the other way enough room to come past us.  It had been a tough end to our drive and the picture does not give any sense of how bad it was because at the worst point there was no way we were able to stop to take a photo!

Thankfully we did eventually find our way back onto a main road and headed towards the Relais des Plateaux Hotel near the airport past more paddy fields on the outskirts of the airport which looked serenely calm after the experience we had just had.

We arrived at the hotel at about 4pm and found ourselves a seat in the bar area as we had hours to hang about.  Roadtrip Africa were coming to collect the car at 6pm and we had booked dinner at 7.30pm.  We managed to arrange to join the airport transfer bus which was leaving at 10pm for our flight at 1.15am Sunday morning we would not arrive home until 6pm Sunday afternoon so a long day ahead.

It had been a fascinating trip in which we had only really scratched the surface of Madagascar.  Lasting memories will definitely be the Tsingy rocks as well as the lemurs but we will also remember how helpful everyone had been throughout the trip whether that was when we had a puncture, we needed directions, we had got stuck in the sandy riverbed or even when we took our car where no car should ever travel into the middle of Tana market.  The driving was certainly a challenge at times but we are definitely glad that we chose to self-drive - it was always supposed to be an adventure holiday afterall!

 Friday 14th October 2022. Miandrivazo to Antsirabe

The overnight rain had already pretty much evaporated from the ground by 7am when we emerged for breakfast but it was very humid and claggy.  Had another chat with the other self drivers to pass on a couple of useful points from our own experience such as how helpful maps.me had been on the sandy tracks and the normal practice of checking over the car first thing every morning - we had noticed they had a slow puncture.  We drove into Miandrivazo which was quite a large town and were pleased to see lots of petrol stations so were able to fill up ahead of the long drive (estimated as 5 hours but sure to be longer with photo stops and potholes).  We were amused to watch a taxi bousse pass by with a motorcycle on its roof - it is bad enough lifting a road bike onto a roof-rack. We immediately started climbing into the mountains with views back to the town. 

The road took up high into the mountains passing village after village and spectacular views around every corner.  The road just seemed to go uphill for hours but the difference in village life in the mountains compared to further west and terracing of paddy fields was fascinating. We started to see more brick built houses and allied brick building industry as well as gold mining higher into the mountains.

The paddy field terraces became more frequent with some spectacular terracing in place. We eventually started to descend on the the high plains with beautiful views of the peaks around us but much more intensive farming and brick making industries evident as we got closer to Antsirabe.

The warning lights started to come on again with about 100km to go - it looked as though at speed the fan belt was not charging to battery effectively so the "fix" in Morondava had not resolved the problem.  This meant that we didn't feel that we could take any chances and just needed to get to the hotel without doing any deviations to see some lakes in the guide book. We arrived at Souimanga Hotel at about 3pm to find the gate shut and no-one around.  There was a pedestrian gate so I went through and opened the main gate myself which alerted the staff to our arrival.  They clearly hadn't been expecting us and looked pretty perplexed.  Luckily they did have a room but they then explained that the chef wasn't working tonight. I clearly showed my frustration - a combination of tiredness and stress from the long drive - but the receptionist was amazing and said they would get someone to cook us a meal.  We spent the afternoon having a refreshing beer before being presented with an amazing meal for our dinner.  We both felt very guilty as we could just have had the pasta and tomato sauce which we had bought the first day when we had been expecting to camp.  It turned out one of the young lads who worked there had done the cooking - presumably he cooked for the staff normally.  He created samosas to start followed by rabbit stew for me and zebu with black beans and rice for Ian, and a chocolate mousse for pudding.  It was definitely much better than our pasta would have been!

 Thursday 13th October 2022. Morondava to Miandrivazo

We planned to leave at 9am so we would arrive at the next hotel early afternoon but sadly it was not to be.  When we started the car two warning lights came on and we had no choice but to phone Roadtrip Africa to work out a plan of action.  They spoke to the hotel and a local mechanic was arranged who turned up with two screwdrivers and a pair of pliers which didn't exactly give us a huge amount of confidence.  Much discussion then took place about whether the alternator needed to be replaced which would have taken hours and would have almost certainly have meant having to stay another night in Morondava and then have a really long day of driving.  In the end though the mechanic assured us he had fixed the problem without the need to replace the alternator and we were able to leave the hotel by 11.30, and on the road by mid-day having visited the bank, bought more water, got more air pumped into the back tyres at tyre shop and filled up with petrol.  The estimated journey length was 4.5 hours so we had enough time to get to the next hotel before sunset.

The drive was now on blacktop but it didn't make it much easier than the sand as there were so many pot holes.  There were also a surprising number of villages which meant slowing down each time but also meant that they were always people on the road either walking, cycling or in zebu carts.  We passed lots of paddy fields on the plains and rice being dried on the road sides as well as increasing signs of charcoal industry.

Gradually the scenery became much more mountainous with stunning views and we saw more rivers with village life in full swing. We also saw lots of fires on route, some caused by the heat but often clearly started by villagers clearing land for agriculture. 

As we neared the hotel the views of the Tsiribihina river were stunning and having crossed it further west it was fascinating to see it closer to the mountains.

 We finally arrived at Hotel Tsiribihina at 5.30pm so it had taken an hour longer than estimated but we had stopped multiple times to take photos.  We were in time to have a quick dip in the pool watching the sunset over the river valley.  The hotel was a popular stopping off point for groups doing the canoe trips down the river and as we were eating dinner a large group of very noisy brits turned up and seemed to have no appreciation that there were other guests.  We ended up chatting to an American couple who were just starting a month's self drive.  Later that night we were woken to a huge thunderstorm and torrential rain - the first rains for six months.  We were pleased our self drive was reaching its end as the thought of trying to drive on some of the roads we had been on in the rain was just horrendous.