Road Back to Morondava
Driving Across Madagascar
People travel for different reasons; for relaxation, some for education and some for adventure. Travel opens the mind. Often our trips have a mix of all three. The first part of the Madagascar trip is adventure. We are driving across Madagascar.
Madagascar does not have a strong infrastructure. Because of the narrow dirt roads, it is challenging to get from A to B and it takes a long time because you can’t go fast when navigating through gullys, holes, bumps and bends. However, sometimes hard to get to places are the most rewarding and you don’t need to share them with crowds.
Morning of the Ferry Crossing
We leave Hotel Orchid at 6:30am because we are heading back to Morondava… the same eight hour drive that we took to get here. Now that we know what to expect, we are better prepared. We each take half a gravol at breakfast.
We soon reach our first ferry crossing and there is a morning 
traffic jam. While we wait in line Tony takes me out of the jeep to check out some of the village animals, especially the adorable piglets.
A young girl does laundry on shore near the ferry. People here rise with the sun and sleep with the moon.
Women carry packages and huge baskets on their heads. Their posture is so perfect and they move with grace and poise. People here do not generally have the cell phone slouch which is so prevalent in North America.
Boys are horsing around on the riverbank as boys all over tend to do.
The engine of one of the ferries has broken down, so they are pushing it across with long poles. Click here for a short video.
Snapshots of Life in Madagascar
Our ferry, which is working, comes back end we have room to get on and cross the river. We are on our way. Fortified with Gravol I’m able to people watch and get snapshots into daily life as we drive.
We make a roadside bathroom and stretch stop at a place where there are a number of other tourist jeeps. The bathroom is a 3 sided bamboo screen with a hole in the ground. I am horrified – it smells & there is no toilet paper. Scraps of used tissues lie around and people have even totn out pages from books and notepads to use as toilet paper. But when you have to go, you have to go.
At one point on the drive, we come across a large group of people and a few carts on the road. Tony informs us that it is a village funeral. The deceased is in one of the carts surrounded by family. The dirt road is narrow and it takes a bit of maneuvering around the funeral procession before we’re able to continue.
We pass many small villages and people swimming in waterholes and rivers.
Lunch at the Mad Zebu
We stop again in the town of Belo-sur-Tsiribihina to have lunch at the delicious Mad Zebu Restaurant.
Sacred and Romantic Baobabs
As we near Morondava we stop at the 1000 year old Sacred Baobab. Some villagers practice nature worship and leave offerings at the base of this baobab . Nearby is another Romantic Baobab tree that is only 500 years old.
We continue our journey past the Alley of Baobabs and soon we are back on paved road and at our accomodations on the beach in Morondava.
Evening at the Bungalows on the Beach
After quick showers, we watch the sunset on the beach and have supper at the restaurant.
John is in bed before me and just as I am heading to the washroom the electricity goes out and it is totally dark. While trying to find my headlamp, I run into the bed and trip over my backpack waking up John. A few minutes later, electricity is back on.
Electrical outages are quite common in Madagascar but the ones we’ve had are quite short. Larger towns have an electrical grid but places like hotels and restaurants have solar or diesel generators as backups.
Smaller towns & villages have no electrical grid and it’s up to each family or business to buy solar panels or a generator if they want electricity.
