Andisibe to Antsirabe – via National Route 2 and 7.
330km and 11 hours with a couple of rest breaks and lunch stop. Why? The state of the road.
Today we left our lodge Feon’y Ala (sounds of the forest) for another travel day. We left Andisibe to return to Antananarivo and onto Antsirabe.
Suzie asked Benj about all the places starting with ‘A’
The ‘An’ prefix means place of
Andisibe – place of big campsites
Antsirabe – place of salt
Antananarivo- Village of thousand
Anjiro- place of light.
I jumped into the front seat this morning to save needing a travel sickness tablet which also puts me to sleep. So I has great views of the countryside and villages along the way.
The railway line basically follows beside the road and was built by the government using Chinese labour. Then it’s stopped being used sometime ago. The infrastructure is amazing – every village has a station – now looking quite abandoned or being lived in and the rails and crossings are ok too. Benj told us that they’ve reinstated the train between the main port and Moramanga (which we drove through) twice a week. They could use it more as the amount of trucks on this National Route was incredible. We saw 11 broken down plus several changing tyres between Andisibe and Antananarivo. The railway ran for a few years about 25 years ago and they couldn’t afford to maintain it.
After a pizza lunch we turned onto National Route 7 to head south to Antsirabe – another 170kms. This morning was just on 3 hours with one loo stop and break for observations.
Nico has a fine line to drive between traffic of all kinds, nasty potholes, sharp drops off the bitumen.
The horn is a key tool to warn we are coming through and for bikes and pedestrians to move to the side – although at times we have to slow down to push bike speed as they have nowhere to go. Then there are speed humps and decaying road repairs. He ducks and weaves and slows to ensure a good ride.
The people reap and harvest, cut and crush and collect anything and everything they can to sell. (Firewood, sand and rocks from rivers or mountainsides.) There are stalls with neatly piled bunches of goods just by roadside, some at the market. Pigs, geese, chickens, rabbits, then there is prepared food as well. And more peanuts, corn, hand sawn planks, cut grass for Zebu feed, whisky, beer, rice cakes, fruit and veg, crushed rock, granite, drums, guitars, violins, grass for broom heads, brooms, charcoal, meat, carrots, persimmons, corn bread, loquats, cabbages, pickled onions, radishes, avocados, bananas, pebbles (smooth river rocks) baguettes, toy wooden trucks, ducks, geese, turkeys, ottomans, pot plants, vases, urns, stature of Jesus, statues of dogs, eagles, lots and lots of car/bike wash stations, tyre and vehicle repairs. Also along the route we saw pine and eucalyptus plantations.
Then there is rice, everywhere rice, in the fields at all stages of production. Rice being cut by hand, threshed by hand, laid out to dry on roadsides and hillsides, in bags being carted on heads, shoulders, Zebu carts, tractor carts, man powered carts.
Most villages seems to have two churches catholic and Protestant, along with Lutheran and Jehovahs Witness and Seventh Day Adventist yet only 40% of the population follow western religions!
Tombs and Ancestor’s.
Ambatolampy (popn about 30k) Place of big hill. Also the town of recycling aluminium and making pots. They were stripping the aluminium from wrecked cars.
We left this morning in misty rain which cleared on the other side of the hills, back into rain after lunch and we arrived into Antsirabe (btw the last consonant in most words is not pronounced)
Top speed for the day was about 70kmph, mostly 30-40kmh.
Two funeral vans carrying a basic wooden coffin with a wet body (signified by a flag flying on the left and side of the van). If the body was dry (bones) flag would fly on the right.
Reached Antsirabe at 5.35. A city of 200 000. Wet and raining and a lot of water lying in the streets- making the potholes even more of a challenge. Still in the Marena tribe area as part of the province of Antana. (One of 6 provinces). People are still out and about, rickshaws, local buses and tuk tuks everywhere. Kids walking home from school. It past dusk but not fully dark. Peak hour in Antsirabe. It was soon fully dark as we wended our way to the Flower Palace our hotel for two nights. This is Nico’s home and he pointed out the light of his house. He will stay at home while we are here. He is married with one boy and one girl. He is forty and has been driving for forty years. We met his Dad in his Ute earlier in the arvo.
Some reflections of the day.
Mary – Each Village had something specific to them.
Phil – The road – got worse. Why don’t they spend money on the road.
Suzie – staggered by the amount of food and rice grown in a poor country. The poverty is distressing.
Benj shared the poorest is not here it’s in the South. They are agricultural people.
Hotel looks good, dinner was good and we have a supermarket downstairs.
Travel adventures with Nicola & co. 