Lift Off

I’ve arrived safe and sound in Tana! But before I fill you in on the past few days in Madagasikara there’s a few cool bits and bobs which I want to blog about from blighty.

Gaz flew down to Bristol on Saturday which meant we got the chance to spend a few days together before he had to peel me off and send me on my merry way to a different hemisphere. I always love going down to visit Gaz at home. Somerset has a really great vibe and the Marshall family have 3 of the cutest dogs in the world (even if one of them did try to bite me this time. Rosie is so the coolest one). Saturday night we went for an amazing Dickensian style meal in Axbridge followed by several nightcaps of homemade blackberry brandy (get Gaz to make you some, it’s amazing!).

Sunday morning dawned foggy but soon cleared so I headed out to hold Gaz’s ropes as he worked a 7a down at Sandford quarry. After practicing the moves til he knew he’d got them down he went for the redpoint, and got it! Grrrr tiger! After that victory we packed up the truck and headed for Azafady HQ in Stafford. There was still some packing to be done come Monday but we decided to skip packing for a day and head to the Roaches for my last rock climbing trip of 2008. My climbing wasn’t at its best but I hauled myself up some weird and exposed mounds of gritstone and Gaz had a really good fight on an E1 called Safety Net. It was an impressive display of climbing but a terrifying belay. Luckily Gaz was high enough off the ground to miss my whimpering and only hear my words of encouragement. It’s a shame the weather hadn’t been better but to be honest it was really good just to get out and about on an adventure with Gaz after a few guilty weeks of being fairly house bound.

Happy Gaz, he got the 7a!

What route to do now...there is a lot in the Roaches

Then it was 24 hours to go. Gaz and I made a mad dash into Brum to catch up with Gaby and Lomba as well as doing a last minute bit of shopping. Gaby and Lomba both work for Azafady in Fort Dauphin and are over visiting family and friends. It was really good seeing them and it made me really excited about getting stuck in to all the upcoming projects in Fort Dauphin.

The day of departure dawned and the team, Mum, Dad, Chris, Gaz, trundled off to Brum to wish me on my merry way. Even though I’ve been planning for this trip for over 4 months I still wasn’t ready for good byes. It was a really hard leaving everybody at departures but I'm pleased they were all there to see me off. The support (financial or otherwise) and words of encouragement from team Jones, friends and Gaz has given me the courage to go and do this. This trip would’ve remained a flight of fancy for years if they hadn’t helped me so much. So I said good bye to my Mum, Dad and Chris and then I said good bye to Gaz. Gaz has been so supportive of me going to work for Azafady from day one. Not only has he listened to my stresses and worries and eased my often irrational fears, he has not once griped about the fact that I’m buggering off for a year. He’s been a total star and the fact that I will hardly see him this year is definitely my biggest challenge and biggest fear for the coming months (even more so than food poisoning and that's saying something). I’m definitely hoping that the next big adventure I have will be a team Jones - Marshall adventure!

So off I went! Brum – Paris (Charles de Gaulle is such a depressing place), Paris - Antananarivo (Tana). Arriving at Tana was strange. In one way it was like I’d never been away but in another way it’s like I was arriving for the first time. It still smelt the same though. The 14 km taxi ride to the centre of town gave me a chance to soak it all in and man up!

Tana's take on Hollywood glam

My first day in Tana consisted of sleeping and going to the Parc de Biologie e Zoologie Tsimbazaza (Tana zoo) to see a man about my visa. I have no idea why I needed to see the Director of Tana zoo to extend my visa but I presume it ticked a box on a form somewhere! It did mean that I got to wander around the zoo all afternoon for free and look at all the animals. All the signs were in Malagasy so I have no idea what half of the creatures were but it all added to their mystery!

Giant Tortoise from the Seychelles. It was the size of a sheep!

Sleeping Fosa. Big cat/mongoose type thing.

I have no idea what this tree/plant is!

My second day in Tana was totally up to me. There isn’t a lot to see in Tana in terms of “touristy attractions” so I wasn’t quite sure what to do with myself. So, I left the safety of the hotel, rucksack strapped firmly to my tummy and guidebook in hand, to see what Tana had to offer. I had a great breakfast in a café nearby then hacked my way through to hawkers, beggers and traders to the Avenue D’Independence which is the main drag in Tana. My hotel is in Upper Town (the posh bit) and the Avenue is in the Lower Town (the not so posh bit) and the steps linking the two parts of town are seething with bodies. Rubber stamps, vanilla, toy cars made out of scraps of tin cans and sunglasses were all on offer and being shoved under my nose but I didn’t feel the need to buy any of these things. There were two children who were singing, dancing and playing guitar who were adorable. An oasis of calm in a crazy place!

Next on my list was Lake Anosy which is back up in Upper Town. I get a good view of it from my hotel and though I should have a wander round it to see if I could understand what the huge monument was in the middle of it. There weren’t any signs explaining the monument, the lake was smelly and the area started to feel a fair bit seedier so I upped sticks, scampered back and took refuge in a pizza and coke in a café near my hotel. By then afternoon was drawing in so I decided to head back to base and get things ready for going to Fort Dauphin tomorrow.

Traffic jam in Lower Town

Smelly lake with unkown monument

I’m not sure what to make of Tana. I’ve felt safer and got less hassle here travelling alone than I have done in other places where I’ve been with family, but I wouldn’t want to spend any more time here than I have done. Maybe that’s because there’s not strictly much to “see” in Tana. There are things to see here but Tana is a difficult place to get around, gridlocked and full of people. I would love to have wandered the streets taking random pictures. There was so much going on all the time but I didn’t really want to draw attention to the fact that I had an expensive digital camera so only whipped out the camera on very rare occasions. Maybe if I’d been travelling with other people or if I’d been in Madagascar a bit longer than I have I would’ve felt confident enough to strike out and really explore. Having said all that, I’ve enjoyed my time here, I’ve seen most of what there is to see here and I’ve not been mugged so Tana’s not all bad.

Off to Fort Dauphin I go! Not sure what the web connection will be like but one thing I do know is that i won't get wifi in my room (damn shame) so hopefully I'll get some news up on here soon!