Sunday 2nd October 2022. Antananarivo to Kirindy

Booked the shuttle back to the airport for 9.15 to ensure we had time to convert some money to Ariary but when we arrived the airport was not even open and there was a long queue already.  Thankfully the currency exchange opened just as we got through the initial security check as we had been starting to worry that it wouldn't open at all on a Sunday. Flight was on time leaving at 12:25 and the views showed how red the island is.

We arrived at Morondava airport to find our Roadtrip Africa 4x4 was not there.  We had a frantic half hour trying to call the local rep's number on our mobiles but just couldn't get through because we hadn't had an opportunity to buy a local SIM.  Just as we had persuaded one of the Malagasy drivers standing at the entrance to phone on our behalf we saw the vehicle arriving.  The driver spoke no English and our French was not good enough to ask the questions we would normally ask but he did assure us that we could get to the National Park and back without need of a Jerry can of fuel.  We were somewhat dubious about this and I was really frustrated having specifically requested a Jerry can but there was nothing we could do so we signed for the car and headed to Morondava to buy some food.  Even though it was Sunday afternoon it was still busy with cycle taxis and tuk-tuks but no sign of any supermarkets. We eventually found a little general store and managed to buy some essentials (water, toilet roll, pasta and a sauce, biscuits, bread and butter) that would enable us to survive on a camp site.

We then headed back out of town and using the Maps.me app were able to navigate onto the N8 towards the Avenue des Baobabs.  It took about 45 minutes from Morondava to reach the baobabs along a reasonable sandy road.  Arriving at about 3pm it was quite quiet so we were able to walk along the avenue without too many people getting in the way of our pictures, and got to see the baobab nursery.

The drive from the Baobab Avenue saw the road become more bumping and corrugated but we arrived at the Relais du Kirindy lodge at about 4.30pm with plenty of time to spare before sunset.  We soon realised that the large group of American photographers who had been on the plane were also staying here which shouldn't have been a surprise but did make us slightly worried that we would end up following them around for the next 2 weeks.  Rather than rushing back out to the Kirindy reserve we chose to have a relaxing evening with a beer followed by dinner at 8pm of vegetable soup, zebu stew and caramelised bananas.  Over dinner we discussed at length the fuel situation and in the end decided to ask one of the other guest's guides.  He was super helpful and promised to get us some information about where we could buy some petrol the next morning.  Feeling much more relieved we headed to bed as it had been a long 2 days of travelling.