Toamasina (Tamatave), Madagascar
August 23, 2015
Set off after an early breakfast at 6:30am for a five hour trip. Three and half hours on a good sealed road through rolling hills of traveller palms, bananas and taro with occasional rice paddies. Most of the hills here have been deforested but there is at least some regrowth evident. Half an hour on an unmade road through thickets of the creamy-yellow flowered Grevillea banksii, until we came to a village, beyond which was a beach on a coastal lake. This is part of the Canal de Pangalanes, a chain of natural and man-made lakes, rivers and waterways that extend for 645 km down the east coast of Madagascar, separated from the sea by only a dune system. Many of the connections between the natural lakes were cut by hand during the French colonial period, using Chinese coolie labour and many lives were lost. An hour’s boat ride down the lake and along a channel with the occasional dwelling and fisherman, until we reached our destination on a beach at a resort. Very nice.
Lunch took a while and we didn’t get our bungalows until later, but it was pleasant just to relax and enjoy the peaceful atmosphere. A restful afternoon with Joy reading in the hammock (shades of ‘Death in Paradise’) and Austin taking a little walk through the local jungle. I don’t know – some people are never happy. While we were revelling in the beauty around us, Austin met one of our party on the track complaining about the insects around their ankles (he couldn’t see any) and that the beach was oh-hum and not as good as Australian beaches and that there was a lack of a real security system for their belongings. Another couple were bemused by the ‘primitive’ hot water system (a fire-heated tank) and that they didn’t get a view of the lake from their cabin. Austin refused to let his spirit be dampened by these negatives comments.
The evening found us on the beach enjoying the singing and dancing of a local village children’s group – 5 rows of 7 children each. Later in the program, the kids got us up to dance as well. A couple of the girls danced with flower pots on their heads and some of our group tried the same, without a lot of success. One little girl up the back, not in costume danced with a bottle of water on her head to show how clever she was, even though she wasn’t in the group.
