Awesome African Adventure. Day 32 – May 10, 2025

Morondava to Tana and onto Andasibe.

Our dinner drink made me extremely tired last night, I really appreciated the shower and air conditioner. I did a bit of backing up photos but reckon I was soundly asleep before 10, maybe even 9:30 and I slept well. Awoke a couple of times to change hard drives and SD cards.
Awoke early to finalise the back ups and a bit of touch base with the socials.
I got dressed and checked out the Hellot Canal beside the hotel. There was a small bit of sunrise colour over the boats at anchor.
Breakfast at 6:45 was American once again. This time Fruit salad in a parfait glass, fresh baguette with some butter and very dark jam, and our ham and nicely cheesy omelette.
Departure around 7:30, Benj was struggling to get the bill sorted – Mora Mora (slow slow)
Managed a 10 day delayed blog post during breaky. A great thing that Raw Africa Eco Tours does is cover all the tips (other than the guide) so Benj has been taking care of this odious task for us. This morning he gave Phil and I the tips for the drivers as it looks better coming from us. They have been great – little to no English but safe drivers and kept the cars pristine, cleaning them of dust each night and even in between times. They also assisted with luggage etc.

$800 000 Ariat was the tip.
Then into the Patrols for the last time and through the streets of Morondova to the airport.
We had a ‘human’ scanner today – looking through luggage – no issue. No question about our luggage weight either today. I was prepared and wore my camera and long lens to reduce backpack weight.
We are flying back on a newer plane an ATR 72. Very shiny on the tarmac.
Again the terrain kept me fascinated. Muddy rivers, clean looking lakes side by side. So much terracing for agriculture.
Landed into Antananarivo at around 10:20 to a much cooler 24 degree. I reckon it was close to 30 when we left Morondava at 9:20.
At the Tana airport we collected our new vehicle and driver. Nico and his 4wd Hyundai minivan. Room for all of us and our luggage up top.
Antana- means Village
Narivo means one thousand.
The trip today is 130km on the major National highway to the East. Benj told us it would 3 1/2 to 4 hours.
A brief stop at a shopping centre. We needed water for the rest of the trip and some lunch and I needed deodorant. Carrefour was the place for it all. (A French Supermarket)
Then out of Tana and up into the hills. Heaps of trucks as this is the national route RN2. Lots of villages too. The traffic is chaotic but controlled they know what they are doing – big trucks, Zebu (cow) drawn wagons, people on bikes both push bikes and motorbikes and people walking as well as local buses stopping for passenger pick ups and drop off and chickens roaming free beside and sometimes all on the same piece of road.
I slept a fair bit early on, could feel the hairpin bends. Slow and smelling of fumes from trucks going uphill especially.
I awoke to rain and lush mountainous countryside.
Everywhere there is gardens/rice growing. In Tana we saw them cutting Water hyacinths for pig feed. The road is paved and potholed in places. There are people selling all sorts of things at small stalls or just by the roadside.
We stopped to buy bananas and stretch our legs at one of the fruit and veg stalls. There was a river down behind it and people working – pulling rocks from the river and crushing them, we could hear the tapping of hammers on rock. Then we watched them load up two or three big containers full into a hessian bag and carry it across the river and up the steep bank only to unload on a pile of crushed rocks on the opposite side of the road. The girls who looked like teenagers were also carrying the same load – on their heads. Then back down for another load.
Across the road was a stall selling fishing nets and bait traps.
An older guy on a raft in the river was pulling in a fishing net. He was pulling something small from it.
There were also motorised oxen carts – which had a small tractor like engine pulling the cart at the front. Also some small trolleys running on tiny metal wheels (which seemed to be bearings. One of these was fairly flying down a hill with four blokes on it, with one on the back wearing croc type shoes dragging his foot as the brake. Not sure how long that shoe would last.
The roadside and hillside vegetation today was really dense and rainforest like as we neared the coast. There were lots and lots of eucalyptus trees and a smattering of pines and bananas too.

We passed through Moramango, a larger town about 25kms and 45 mins from the coast. It’s the crossroads to the North to the largest lake in the country.

On the 29 March 1947 an uprising against the French Rule began in Moramanga. Actual independence was achieved in 1960.

We arrived to Andasibe and our lodge Feony a La at 4:18pm