Awesome African Adventure. Day 45/46- May 22/23, 2025

Madagascar Adventure ends – Free day in Tana/departure for Antananarivo Airport.

The Story of Sakamanga Hotel.
Some of the historic ephemera around the hallways and stairwells od the hotel. Spears.
A quirky window.
City scene.
Old irons and bits near our rooms.
With warnings to be cautious – take no valuables etc. we walked a short distance to the Avenue of Independence/Liberation.
Police.
Love the old cars.
A little Citroen with a touch of rust.
In a small Mall. We saw Kangaroo on the list of shops so went up to check it out.
It’s Mother’s Day next Sunday here. May 25.
Antananarivo Train Station
Three cool cars on display outside the restaurant at Train station.
No idea but I liked it
Just a nice old building. Loved the tiles.
A real statue. Not one of those spray painted buskers
Group shot
Bike parts/mechanic.
That’s where we are.
Sakamanga (Blue Cat) delivery. Uber Eats Madagascar style.
Our street.
Poolside lunch and cool drinks
A most Delicious dessert. I think it was a rhubarb panacotta
I loved the painting in my room. They had great art work everywhere. And warnings about theft (they’ve lost a few in the past).
My room. Best one.
Bathroom.
Cheers. Back in the restaurant for dinner – it was so good last night.
A tail less gecko back in my room. Ready to leave.
The blue cat appears again.
The hotel staff waving us off to the airport. 3am flight with Kenya Airways to Nairobi.

Sleep in today.
Up and re-organise the packing a bit prior to brekkie and meeting the others at 9:30.
We sat over a long brekkie before heading off for a walk along the Avenue of Independence or Liberation.
Before we left the hotel, we booked for lunch and dinner and asked about the walk, the man behind the counter was lovely and made sure that we had left our valuables in our rooms and that we take care. Benja had also made it clear that there were pickpockets and to be careful.
We wended our way through the traffic and looked at some of the shops and the Old train station before walking back on the other side just taking in street life.
There were three lovely vintage cars outside the cafe at the train station.
The station is actually now the offices of Orange Madagascar (a phone company.)
Back to the hotel for lunch at one, once again beside the pool with the same waiter as last night he has been such a helpful happy soul.
Then sometime in the room hopefully to sleep before dinner at seven and departure for the airport at 11 pm for a 3 am flight to Nairobi with Kenya airlines.
Our previous experiences with Kenya airlines have not been happy ones, so far so good with this one.
Sleep was elusive after lunch but a good chance to rest and update some blog which has been ignored recently.
Dinner at 7pm, then some more downtime before our airport transfer at 11:30pm. Still no sleep.

We met back at reception at 10:45 as the hotel team had indicated transfer at 11pm. Benj had said 11:30. It was 11:30. A very smooth trip with little to traffic across Tana.

Nicola Stuart

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