Wednesday 5th October 2022. Bekopaka
By the time we turned up for breakfast at 7.30am everyone else had already gone out for the day but after the previous day we just wanted to relax. So we treated ourselves to an American style breakfast which essentially just meant you got eggs as well as the usual piece of fruit, pancake and bread roll. We then packed our bags and wandered up to the car - it was at a weird angle and we both initially thought it was because we were parked on a slope. Sadly that wasn't the case as the back passenger side tyre was totally flat.
The workmen who were building new lodge rooms came over to help as the high jack was difficult to use and we all stared at the instruction pictures trying to fathom how it worked. In the end a lot of sweat and brute force on theirs and Ian's behalf enabled the tyre to be changed. Things then descended into farce as I went to the hotel reception to ask if they could direct us to a puncture mender in the village. The conversation was tricky as my French and their English were both terrible. After much internal discussion someone disappeared off and 10 minutes later a tiny housekeeper reappeared clutching a pillow! A further conversation with the receptionist resulted in them phoning a "mechanic" and insisting that they were coming out to see us. We waited for ages and were about to head off on our own into the village when a guide that we had met whilst waiting for the military convoy came over. He explained where we could find the puncture mender and that there was only one in the village. He said it was easy to find as it was opposite the Gendarmerie. We drove off really relieved only to discover that the Gendarmerie was not that easy to spot and that maybe we had completely misunderstood his instructions so we headed back towards the ferry. Luckily the guide had walked down to the road junction near the hotel and spotted us as we drove past him. This time he drove he escorted us to the puncture repair shop - the Gendarmerie was easy to miss as it was behind the school! He very kindly spoke to the wife of the tyre man and was able to ascertain that he was at a funeral but he would be able to fix it on his return so we duly left the tyre at his house.
This was not the end to our traumas that morning though. We headed off to the National Park by the ferry with the intention of going for a walk around the Petit Tsingy. We arrived to find the place completely deserted and the ticket office shut. We were about to give up and go back to the hotel when a driver came over and explained that we had to go to the main office to buy the tickets and pick up a guide. We were reminded of our Serengeti wildebeest experience when it took us 3 days to learn the etiquette. In both places self-driving was not the norm so no-one thought it important to explain what the procedure was. We drove back towards the village and found the main office and booked tickets to go on a river trip and visit the Petit Tsingy that day and go to the Grande Tsingy the next day. Our guide for both days would be a guy called Fa-Fa (no idea how to spell his name though).
By the time we got back to the ferry port where the canoe trip would start it was 11am so it was already seriously hot. The dug out canoe was paddled up river past fish traps, crocodiles, kingfishers, tombs of ancestors and caves with stalactites. The river was surprisingly shallow but it was beautiful and very peaceful.
After the peaceful river trip we headed to the Petit Tsingy for a 1.7km walk around the rocks. By now it was the middle of the day so even though it sounded like a short stroll the temperature made it feel like a marathon. The Tsingy were amazing though and well worth the searingly hot walk that involved clambering up and down ladders, across bridges and up and over rocks, We had the whole lot completely to ourselves as no-one else was stupid enough to walk at that time of day. Towards the end of the walk Fa-Fa heard something and disappeared through the undergrowth - he reappeared a few minutes later and gestured for us to follow. He had found us a family of brown lemurs - this totally made our day!
We returned to the village, dropped off Fa-Fa and went to pick up our tyre - it was exactly where we had left it! We chose to go back to the hotel to cool off in the pool - it was not a pool that you would want to swim in though as the water was a weird cloudy green colour. Ian went back out later to collect the tyre but returned at sunset without it. Turned out the tyre man had returned from the funeral and gone to the bar and got drunk. Luckily the guide that had befriended us appeared as if by magic and took Ian plus tyre to the house of a mechanic who promised that he would be able to mend the tyre but not until the next afternoon which meant we would have to drive to the Grande Tsingy with no spare the next day but it was better than nothing. I stayed at the hotel and watched the sunset.
By now our initial delight about the hotel from the night before had worn off a bit as it was pretty basic and the drinks menu was almost none existent - essentially beer or water. Ian chose beer and I chose water. Dinner was edible - I had duck with an enormous plate of vegetables and Ian had zebu stew with a huge potion of rice. We had to wait ages for pudding due to a very large French group who had descended on the hotel but the when it finally arrived it was actually pretty good as chocolate mousses go albeit a little sickly so we were pleased we had ordered one between us. Ian however ended up being pretty poorly for most of the night so not sure what had had upset his system.
