We ended up having a 4 day weekend since independence day was on Tuesday 26th June. We went down to the beach on the Monday night and watched fireworks that were set off over the sea. It was absolutely rammed with people. The roads were also busier than I have seen them before. We got a cyclo posse home (richshaw thing pulled by a bike) which was eventful to say the least - the rider fell off twice, was almost knocked off by several cars, his brakes on the bike didnt work so stopping in the traffic jam with a trailor on the back was interesting. The final straw was the blow out puncture we had on the pousse at which point we got out to walk.
The independence day celebrations involved whatching alot of people, service men and local workers be honoured - they gqve out over 220 medals.................. They then a procession of lots of groups of people including school children, scouts, police, health care workers the disabled etc etc. It was topped off with a very nice lunch at Moniqes house and we then spent the afternoon waiting for some perormance to start............ African time though as was supposed to start at 3 ans still hadnt at 5.15 when we gave up waiting.
Hope everyone at home is well and surviving the flooding. Hope yur head doesnt hurt too much today Si and that u dont get left with too bad a scar for the wedding photos!!!!!!!!! (Having problems accessing uni email so if you want to mail me use sarahlouisepotter at gmail dot com
Monday, July 02, 2007
The weekend at Foulpointe
As I had to finish the last post I was writing about the beach quite abruptly as I was going to be late back from work, I start again!!!!!
We arrived at Foulepointe on Saturday lunchtime amidst pouring raining. We were escorted there by one of Jens hosts, not sure they think we are capable of sorting stuff by ourselves!!! He then proceeded to introduce us to a friend of his and asked her to take us to church with her on sunday morning.... before helping us find a bungalow. He then started to show us round, although the routs he took us were somewhat off the beaten track and involved wading through knee high streams and jumping muddy ditches only to then have to exit the field through someones front gate!
The weather got better after lunch and after Jose had gone home we headed off to the beach where we were offered hundreds of necklaces, alot of which were made out of stuff we definately wouldnt have been able to import to the UK!!! We then spent the evening in a very french fish restaurant by the sea. The malagasy wine was interesting to say the least but still drinkable.
Sunday morning its was absolutely chucking down with rain again. Ventured next door to the rather inoquous looking restaurant only to discover it was run by an englishman, Marc. He was extremely surprised to see any english people let alone 3 of us since he might see 1 per year at best. Breakfast turned out to be free and we spent most of the morning chatting and waiting for the rain to stop. Eventually at 3 pm it did and we ventured out of town to the old fort whose walls have rocks on the inside and are covered on the outside by coral and shells stuck on with egg whites! We ate at Marc's restaurant in the evening: watched shaun of the dead while waiting for dinner, although I am not sure how much the other dinners appreciated it since the humour was very british!!! We were very pleasantly surprised by the quality of the food, Em and Jen had large pieces of duck while I had Zebu steaks - one would have been sufficient but ended up with 3 pieces bigger than the palm of my hand and about 1.5 inches thick. We paid for the food but the drinks for the rest of the evening just kept on appearing free of charge!!!!
On Monday we were met at the beach by Olga who I am staying with and Moniqe (Ems host) and some of her family. We hired some pirogues with guides. These and dug out canoe type things with a stabiliser on one side made from another smaller tree trunk and they are punted along..... We went out to see the coral reef and the managed to see sea urchins, cucumbers, serpants, star fish and very fun blue and black stripy fish that the guide attracted by crushing up sea urchins and pouring the remains into the water. The trip wasnt particularly environmentally friendly as he then pulled up a lump of coral to show us!!!!!!
The drive home was long................mainly on account of getting in a taxi-brousse which proceeded to drive around foulepointe for an hour and 20 minutes before leaving trying to drum up more passengers. It was less eventful on the way home since we didnt have to get out of the bus and wade though the river, maybe because the van was less laden, althought the unladen taxi behind up who had made his passengers wade though proceeded to get the van stuck and we had a good giggle at them trying to push it out as we drove off!!!!
We arrived at Foulepointe on Saturday lunchtime amidst pouring raining. We were escorted there by one of Jens hosts, not sure they think we are capable of sorting stuff by ourselves!!! He then proceeded to introduce us to a friend of his and asked her to take us to church with her on sunday morning.... before helping us find a bungalow. He then started to show us round, although the routs he took us were somewhat off the beaten track and involved wading through knee high streams and jumping muddy ditches only to then have to exit the field through someones front gate!
The weather got better after lunch and after Jose had gone home we headed off to the beach where we were offered hundreds of necklaces, alot of which were made out of stuff we definately wouldnt have been able to import to the UK!!! We then spent the evening in a very french fish restaurant by the sea. The malagasy wine was interesting to say the least but still drinkable.
Sunday morning its was absolutely chucking down with rain again. Ventured next door to the rather inoquous looking restaurant only to discover it was run by an englishman, Marc. He was extremely surprised to see any english people let alone 3 of us since he might see 1 per year at best. Breakfast turned out to be free and we spent most of the morning chatting and waiting for the rain to stop. Eventually at 3 pm it did and we ventured out of town to the old fort whose walls have rocks on the inside and are covered on the outside by coral and shells stuck on with egg whites! We ate at Marc's restaurant in the evening: watched shaun of the dead while waiting for dinner, although I am not sure how much the other dinners appreciated it since the humour was very british!!! We were very pleasantly surprised by the quality of the food, Em and Jen had large pieces of duck while I had Zebu steaks - one would have been sufficient but ended up with 3 pieces bigger than the palm of my hand and about 1.5 inches thick. We paid for the food but the drinks for the rest of the evening just kept on appearing free of charge!!!!
On Monday we were met at the beach by Olga who I am staying with and Moniqe (Ems host) and some of her family. We hired some pirogues with guides. These and dug out canoe type things with a stabiliser on one side made from another smaller tree trunk and they are punted along..... We went out to see the coral reef and the managed to see sea urchins, cucumbers, serpants, star fish and very fun blue and black stripy fish that the guide attracted by crushing up sea urchins and pouring the remains into the water. The trip wasnt particularly environmentally friendly as he then pulled up a lump of coral to show us!!!!!!
The drive home was long................mainly on account of getting in a taxi-brousse which proceeded to drive around foulepointe for an hour and 20 minutes before leaving trying to drum up more passengers. It was less eventful on the way home since we didnt have to get out of the bus and wade though the river, maybe because the van was less laden, althought the unladen taxi behind up who had made his passengers wade though proceeded to get the van stuck and we had a good giggle at them trying to push it out as we drove off!!!!
Thursday, June 28, 2007
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.
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.
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
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).
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 ;-)
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.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
April and May
We've had a busy few weekends:
We spent a weekend around Newcastle building a new bannister in Sarah's house but also managed to fit in a trip to Teesdide, a bike ride out at Haydon bridge, a takeaway and a meal at the pub for Lou's birthday.
We spent the bank holiday weekend in North Wales with friends from Sheffield, Newcastle and Sarahs brother Tom. On the Saturday, we had really good weather for climbing Snowdon up Crib Goch and back down via Y Lliwedd. We finished the walk to discover Alex had put the steering lock on the car but left the key to it on the campsite, so we all sat in the pub while Tom drove Alex back to fetch it. The evening was rounded off by a BBQ and beers.
On Sunday we spent the day the river Tryweryn.
And on Monday, the sheffielders went and rode the Marin trail (in the rain!) while the Newcastle lot went to Stanley embankment for some hard core play boating before negotiating an 8 hour drive home - of which 4 hours was sat in a traffic jam in Wales!
The following weekend we went up to south west scotland for a weekend of mountain biking. Jenny and JP finally made it down to the cottage some time in the middle of the night - its still not clear whether this was because it is just a long long way from Inverness or whether JP was just acquainting himself with the more rural parts of southern scotland. We rode 2 of the 7 stanes singletrack routes - Kirroughtree and Dalbeattie. Both are excellent single track rides, made even better by the sunny weather than seemed to be localised only over this region!!!
Despite both Jenny and JP managing to throw themselves off their bikes and on to the rocks, everyone made in round all 50 km that we rode over the 2 days - including hard core dog Sam. Despite having Sam for only abour 6 months, Jenny and JP have managed to train him to run along side the bike at heel, even when racing along at 20 + miles per hour!!!!!!!!!
More pics can be found here, here and here.
We spent a weekend around Newcastle building a new bannister in Sarah's house but also managed to fit in a trip to Teesdide, a bike ride out at Haydon bridge, a takeaway and a meal at the pub for Lou's birthday.
We spent the bank holiday weekend in North Wales with friends from Sheffield, Newcastle and Sarahs brother Tom. On the Saturday, we had really good weather for climbing Snowdon up Crib Goch and back down via Y Lliwedd. We finished the walk to discover Alex had put the steering lock on the car but left the key to it on the campsite, so we all sat in the pub while Tom drove Alex back to fetch it. The evening was rounded off by a BBQ and beers.
On Sunday we spent the day the river Tryweryn.
And on Monday, the sheffielders went and rode the Marin trail (in the rain!) while the Newcastle lot went to Stanley embankment for some hard core play boating before negotiating an 8 hour drive home - of which 4 hours was sat in a traffic jam in Wales!
The following weekend we went up to south west scotland for a weekend of mountain biking. Jenny and JP finally made it down to the cottage some time in the middle of the night - its still not clear whether this was because it is just a long long way from Inverness or whether JP was just acquainting himself with the more rural parts of southern scotland. We rode 2 of the 7 stanes singletrack routes - Kirroughtree and Dalbeattie. Both are excellent single track rides, made even better by the sunny weather than seemed to be localised only over this region!!!
Despite both Jenny and JP managing to throw themselves off their bikes and on to the rocks, everyone made in round all 50 km that we rode over the 2 days - including hard core dog Sam. Despite having Sam for only abour 6 months, Jenny and JP have managed to train him to run along side the bike at heel, even when racing along at 20 + miles per hour!!!!!!!!!More pics can be found here, here and here.
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