Madagascar 1

After over a years planning Jen, Emily and I finally left for Madagascar on the 10th June. Having fought our way through the queues at heathrow, including a queue to get threw to the departure gates that started outside the terminal building, we had a relatively easy flight to Mauritius. We had a 10 hour wait in Mauritius for our connecting flight and we confined to the airport due to the 3 kayaks we had with us. It also gave us a chance to rearrange our luggage as the weight limits were very different to BA and the 30 kg limit had to include our boats. When we finally got to check in, Em and Jen did alot of surrupticious holding of the baggage (or sticking a foot under it) to make it lighter and we managed to get all the kit on to the plane!!!!

We arrived in capital (Antananarivo, or locally known as tana) and were met by some guys who work for a raft guide in tana. They deposited us in a hotel and took our boats off to store at the raft guides office. The follozing day we had to battle our way round tana trying to get permission off the ministry for health to work here and then got the overnight bus from tana to tamatave. It was quite an experience on the windy roads off the plateau that tana sits on down to the eastern flatlands, more so because the bus we were on had a blow out at about midnight which we all got off the bus for. In the time it had taken to fix the puncture, the bus's battery had become flat so we had to wait for another bus to come along that was willing to stop ...and have jump leads with them. We finallf arrived in tamatave at 3 am and slept on the bus till day break when we were met by one of the doctors from the clinic.

Our culture shock began when we arrived at her house. The toilets at qlot of the houses in tamatave qre holes in the floor and alot of the houses have no running water. Jen and I both have to pump water should we want to use any while Em is lucky that her hosts have running water!

we are all staying with the families of Dr's that work at the clinic or the local hospital. They are about 15-20 minutes apart so we dont really see much of each other except at work. Jen and Em have pretty much been intergrated into family life with their hosts....... I just do alot of sitting in my room in th evenings!!!! However as it gets light at about 5.30 thats when people get up. It goes dark at 5.30 pm and not many people go out after dark and tend to go to bed at about 8 or 9pm.

We spent the 1st week and a half working in a local clinic (v similar to the GP but people have often had to walk 14 km to get there, not many people have cars). Theres alot of malnutrition and a catelogue or infections which to people training in a western society are perceptively treated in a very bizarre way!!!

The first weekend we were here I spent most of saturday helping prepare food for my hosts neices wedding while Jen and Em went off to a much more exciting Lemur park. We all met up later that day for the wedding and reception. Most of the wedding customs here seem to be the same, except for the groom using the top tier of the wedding cake to symbolise his love for the bride, and wiping cake all over her face only to have to lick it off, of which she then returns the favour!
Sunday was spent at church with our hosts - the 3 of us had to stand up in a congregation of 600 people and be sung to having been introduced to everyone. 3 hours later.... We spent the afternoon at a vazaha (white person/tourist) bar by the beach drinking pineapple juice and eating pancakes with hot choc sauce.

The second weekend was spent in a town called foulpointe which is 50 km north of tamatave. The taxi bus ride was an experience. Where the road crossed the river via a floating bridge, the bank and bridge didnt meet up by about 5 or 6 metres, so we were all made to wade through the knee high water so that the taxi could get through it. Our second stop was to empty the 5 extra people we had in the bus just before entering a village so that we had the correct no of people for the police check point...... we then picked them up again after they'd walked round the corner from the village!!!!!!

In foulpointe we hired a bungalow for 2 nights (10 pounds for al of us!!!!!). The beach here is shark free due to the coral reef 200 m off shore so we were able to swim. In the evening we sampled the local cuisine and the beer and wine.

For Sarah's last couple of weekends prior to leaving for Madagascar, we decided to relax a little.

We escaped to Scotland for some kayaking on the Grand Tully. Met up with JP for some biking at a nice newish biking center - good fun even if it did rain all the way around.

Then visited Glentress on the way home, I even managed to get Sarah riding the doubles (jumps to you mother).

The weekend before we went biking up in the borders, I think I must have been feeling the lack of sleep caused by the early start as I proposed to Sarah at the top of the mountain.

She said yes, so we prompty headed back to Newcastle for a celebratory bottle and meal.



With that out of the way Sarah has now headed off to Madagascar for 12 weeks - so I'll allegedly be tiling the bathroom till she gets back ;-)

More pics here.