Around the world - Madagascar - The mind is set but is the body?

22. September 2013 - Ranohira

When you decide to do a 3 day trek in Madagascar, you need to understand that the 3rd day isn't really going to be as busy (or difficult) as the first 2 days. You might feel frustrated about it because in fact, you are paying for 3 full days and 2 full nights. But sometimes you will feel OK about it. Our 3rd day of our 2nd trek started early, as always but we didn't leave the camping until 7:30am. We only had 6km to walk in order to get back to the Ranohira village where we left our bags the other day.

Alice from the Chez Alice was happy to see us return in one piece and she proudly showed us her future natural swimming pool that she bumped into on her terrain and was now going to exploit it. For the moment, not many people know about it and her ambition is to finish it on time for the arrival of her parents who live in France. It's supposed to be a surprise for them and a refreshing get away for her future guests.

We didn't stay long in Ranohira because first of all - there is nothing to do nor to see and we had a T-B waiting for us. And today's destination is Ambalavao where JB from JB trekking company and our next guide are waiting for us.

23. September 2013 - Ambalavao

This morning was disorganized. I was going to say slightly but I would not be loyal to my criteria of that word and its meaning. We met Gégé "the gorgeous one", who turned 29 in July and got married on Saturday. He is kind, smiling, gentle, soothing, well educated and well spoken, it's a real pleasure to spend time with him. Too bad I'm in no mood for yet another 2h in a shady T-B, yet another 3h of walk under burning sun, yet another trek. 

My legs feel heavy (could it be my 1kg heavy trekking shoes or just the fact that my brain and legs are fed up?). The heart is simply not meeting the initial plan with as much enthusiasm as one could wish for. I must say, 3 treks of 3 days each - it's fun when you are used to trekking action all year through. Which, obviously, is not my case. 

The T-B took us to Vohitsaoka village and from there we walked a very boring and tiresome walk. It was a dusty hot road that many Jeeps took to drive other tourists to their destination. Dreadful. We arrived to Meva Camp at 2:45pm and immediately went into the tent to take a nap. The sun killed us and the little energy we had left. Which was fine because the plan of the day wasn't to go climbing but just to get to the camping site from where we would leave the following morning. After the nap, we went to the forest and watched lemurs (Catta again) eat and jump and eat and play. Even though they were more savage than at the previous camping site, they paraded their way out of the forest only a meter in front of us. It was as if they wanted to reward us for allowing them to live their lives without disturbing them.

Went back to the camp, drank lemongrass tea, had a shot of rum (grenadine, ginger - very nice!!!), had dinner and talked with Gégé until 10min ago. It's 8:45pm and off we are to the dreamland again. Alarm is set up for 5:30am, that way we don't get heatstroke right from the start! Wish us luck, for this time it looks like the most difficult trek of them all.