Antsirabe, Madagascar 
August 20, 2015

We retraced our long drive back to Antsirabe today. Our bus is built for the slight and slim Malagasy. It’s a bit of a squeeze for most of us, particularly considering that in addition to our well nourished frames, we have to find room for our backpacks, water bottles, cameras, guidebooks etc. And if you happen to be sitting over the wheel well, it is worse again, with knees up to your chin and a bottom that feels every pot-hole and bump – which are frequent. Eight hours plus under such conditions is not much fun. At least we have curtains we can draw across the windows to keep the sun out. We all rotate around the seats every half day, so at least each can sample the delights of bad, very bad and extremely bad seating. After a while, the bad seems almost good. And because we are all in the same boat (I mean bus), a shared experience lightens the burden and the mood. 

Lunch at the same spot with the dancers. We wish they wouldn’t feed us so much. A three course lunch and dinner is hard work and probably doesn’t help our bus-seat squashing ordeals. At the end of our long, long drive, our guide took us to a gem stone shop, which most of us were glad was closed, as we had had enough for one day. However, we were then taken to a Zebu-horn carving shop, which despite our tiredness we did find interesting. All sorts of wares were available for purchase and we ended up with a fridge magnet of a oxen-drawn cart for Austin’s mum.

So glad to get to our guest house (Chambres du Voyageur), even though the beds were rather hard and the pillows thin. Lonely Planet makes the following statement.  “This ecolodge is a rarity in Antsirabe, an island of nature on the edge of the city. The owner’s passion is gardening and you’ll find some 800 species of plant in its themed gardens (Majorelle, Alhambra, Japanese etc), as well as 14 species of bird, tortoise and chameleon. The brick bungalows are pretty, spacious and very comfortable. The gardens were lovely with their flower beds of tropical plants, large pond with bridges, fish and Leopard Tortoises. Joy made friends with the owners’ dogs and we obtained occasional glimpses of the resident blue kingfisher and found a large chameleon in one the garden trees.