Defs a slow start this morning. Our initial plan was leaving at 6am but decided 10am sounded better, but we didn’t end up leaving until like midday whoops! But it ended up taking me a million hours to unpack from Japan then repack again for camp but I think I have everything that I need. We headed off and since we left so late, we didn’t have time for our Malagasy lunch so we stopped by a beautiful French bakery (Madagascar still has a strong French influence, as it was a French colony until the 1960s, and French remains one of its official languages) and I got a delicious chicken baguette. Yes so far, I’ve not had any native food just yet, BUT I did have native earl grey tea with my breakfast. That counts right?
After a bumpy bumpy bumpy (did I mention it was bumpy) ride, it took like 4.5hrs to get to our camp in La Mananara, and it was so fun to drive through and see all the towns and communities, we had some cutie patootie kids run along the side of the car waving and it melted my heart.
I have to admit that I may have fallen asleep (no surprises for those who know me) but the bumpiness just made me sleepy so I just rested my eyes for like 2 seconds. They’d had some rain so there were some enormous pot holes, that some roads, there were more pot holes than road. Apparently like 2 years ago it only took about 2 hours to get out to camp, but the roads have deteriorated so much that it now takes double the time!
We then made it to camp, and we drove in and saw the building taking shape, the workers still hard at it. They’re putting a new deck, toilet, kitchen, dining/meeting space, new rooms etc. It’s just so exciting to see it all in person! Ok I have to admit I was probably more excited to see there are TWO CAMP DOGGOS on site! It’s a mum and pup and they are so ridiculously cute!
We moved into our tent – Debra and I shared a tent between the two of us, and the tents were so roomy it was great! Not that it mattered since we only spent time in there when we slept. I had my excellent new Mont Blanc sleeping bag I got in japan – a kid’s one (150cm) that is a bear. Yes you heard correctly, it is a bear. It has arms and a zip at the bottom so I can stick my feet out. BEST. THING. EVER. Couldn’t wait to test it out hahaha
For dinner I finally got to eat some native Malagasy food, which was fried chicken (it was so good, it tasted like KFC) with some rice and veges. It sounds boring but it was so yummy! Then it was bed time since we were getting up at 6am for breakfast and to search for lemurs!
