Meandering in Madagascar & a little more ambling in Africa…via the Hunter Valley

[JohnM]

I'm baaaack!

Service will resume shortly . A lot of rewinding and photo sorting to do.

Meanwhile, a new avatar :mrgreen:.

 

[love_the_life]

.....

Meanwhile, a new avatar :mrgreen:.

Well that will upset some people. I remember the stick when a few of us changed avatars a while back.

 

[JohnM]

Well that will upset some people. I remember the stick when a few of us changed avatars a while back.

Pffft...

 

[Major]

There's nothing wrong with sunrise or sunset avatars

 

[JohnM]

OK, rewinding 6 weeks or so.

QF PER-SYD was originally listed as a bird with new-style J but that failed to materialise. Overnight in SYD, then a day trip by car to the Hunter Valley to meet Bindibuys and mrBB and scope my new home and responsibilities at BB Estate later in the year.

Testing my view from the manor and, for those concerned about the lawn-mowing, the neighbour’s sub-contractors were already on the job. I’ll handle this gig!

After a walk around the Estate, it was a very pleasant lunch before heading into Cessnock to scope the local facilities and then back to SYD and overnight at the Rydges.

The usual pre-departure view after the FLounge breakfast, then slipping comfortably into 1A like into an old pair of slippers on the unrefurbed bird to JNB.



We were alerted that the flight path would take us well south and the crew left it to the pax to close shutters if they wished.

We were richly rewarded .



And one from the other side - and can’t resist a pic of some modern agriculture coming into JNB.

 

[JohnM]

Overnight at JNB (I like the City Lodge Hotel at the back of the parkade/rental car area. Convenient walk-to location, modern, very reasonable price, cooked-to-order breakfast included), then next morning down to collect a rental car and head east. Objective: exploring the Drakensburg.

Now, this is where it gets a little confusing, as maps show ‘Drakensburg’ in a few locations. So, a little Wikipedia help:

The Drakensberg escarpment stretches for over 1,000 kilometres (600 miles) from the Eastern Cape Province in the South, then successively forms, in order from south to north, the border between Lesotho and the Eastern Cape and the border between Lesotho and KwaZulu-Natal Province. Thereafter it forms the border between KwaZulu-Natal and the Free State, and next as the border between KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga Province. It winds north, through Mpumalanga, where it includes features such as the Blyde River Canyon, Three Rondavels and God's Window. It moves north again above Tzaneen in Limpopo Province, where it includes the Wolkberg Mountains and Iron Crown Mountain, at 2,200 m (7,200 ft) above sea level, the Wolkberg being the highest mountain range in Limpopo. It veers west again and at Mokopane it is known as the Strydpoort Mountains.

The two areas I targeted are marked on the map below. What I call the ‘N Drakensburg’ (Blyde River Canyon, Three Rodavels and God’s Window area), was the first area visited, and the ‘S Drakensburg’ which forms the NE border with Lesotho. On the ground, travelling about 600 km between the two, there is little evidence of an escarpment, so it seems like two separate sets of mountains.

While on geography, it might be worth showing the true relative sizes of Africa/Australia and the rest of the world. Flat Mercator projection school-type maps are sooo misleading. Africa is a BIG place!:shock:



But the problem with my definition is that, within the southern part, it is broken locally into the N, central and S Drakensburg. All this became clear once I had reached what I was calling the S Drakensburg.

Anyway, some spectacular scenery awaited in both areas.

It was a 5-6h drive from JNB to Graskop, my base for a few days, and a pleasant small town thriving on tourism.

Anyone who has been to the region out from JNB (on the ‘highveld’ at about 1800m) in winter would know that it is the dry season. Great for wildlife viewing in places like Kruger NP, but the downside in the settled areas is smoke from the endless burning of the extensive maize crop stubble and the perennial sub-tropical grasslands - and sometimes fires in the HUGE eucalypt and pine plantations. It can be really thick and obscure views, while the cold conditions at altitude in the Drakensburg can cause sudden very thick fogs as wind roars up the escarpment from the lowveld. These provide cloud forest effects and associated vegetation.

Sure enough, fires dotted the landscape coming into JNB and it was smoky at God’s Window and The Pinnacle – plus it is difficult to capture the scale of the landscape in photos.



Clearer air at Bourke’s Luck Potholes, where the Blyde and Treuer rivers meet, but smokier near the main Blyde River canyon.



The aptly-named Three Rondavels. Morning view gives shadows, but ended up dodging cloud in the afternoon. Some nice waterfalls in various locations around Graskop and Sabie.



And fascinating geology and plant forms.

 

[JohnM]

Moving south to the section of the Drakensburg that forms the border with the independent kingdom of Lesotho (probably what most people recognise at the ‘true’ Drakensburg).

Rugged escarpment coming into view. Lesotho lies above and beyond, with very limited accessibility from this eastern side (4WD only). Again, the immense scale is difficult to capture in photos. Home sweet home in a farmstay-style lodge for a few days. Needed the cosy open fire as it was very frosty in the morning – but the dawn view was stunning.





Nice place to have a farm, with the Drakensburg as a backdrop. Dry season but plenty of centre-pivot irrigation systems. To someone accustomed to harvest in the heat of November-December, it seemed a little strange seeing the header out in July.



Scenes of typical scattered dwellings and small villages – and the inevitable burning-off. Women doing the laundry in the river.



The best raptor centre I’ve seen is well worth the visit. The swooping peregrine falcon was waaay to fast to photograph. One of the things I really like about the buildings in east Africa is the thatched roofs. More big vistas and seemingly endless eucalypt plantations.

 

[JohnM]

I took a drive up to Sani Pass, the only eastern entry point to Lesotho. I only went as far as the South African border post where signs said 4WD vehicles were mandatory beyond the border – although I’m not sure whether that was truly the case and enforced, at least in the dry season. I only had a dinky 2WD Nissan X-Trail, but in any event I couldn’t take the rental car into Lesotho. The road on the SA side to the border was a bit of a goat track but the X-Trail handled it OK. I imagine it was rougher on the final climb into Lesotho and my map certainly showed the interior road into central Lesotho as WD only.

Some rental cars can be driven into Lesotho, with an extra fee. The better way to enter is from up on the Highveld on the western side. I kind of regretted not allowing a few more days to go into Lesotho and adding the extra rental fee as it sounds fascinating. Ah well, next time…

(As an aside, I often say to people that “Africa is more addictive than heroi_.” As my shorthand way of saying just how it gets into one’s blood. But don’t forget to ditch stereotypes… For anyone who gets the weekend AFR, today’s article in the ‘Life & Leisure’ insert on Tanzania had what I thought was a great quote: “Africa is an addictive destination. Visitors are initially attracted by the chance to see animals in the wild – a thrill that never fades – but find also an elemental and visceral connection to the continent’s wide horizons, big skies and sheer abundancy of nature at her most inspiring and revelatory.” Just so true IMO! And I can say I’ve wined and dined in the Greystoke Mahale lodge in the Mahale Mountains chimpanzee reserve shown on the front page. )



Next up was a helo ride near Champagne Peak (3377m) near where I was staying in the central part of what I’ve dubbed the S Drakensburg. Luckily for me, travelling solo, they picked up sufficient extra pax to make a flight following my previous day enquiry.

The ride took us across the face of the scarp and a landing on the sub-range for a ‘champagne’ stop. Quite neatly done: we were dropped off, the previous pax were picked up and taken back while we had 15 minutes or so in the solitude to down our ‘champagne’ and take in the sights.

The bird, on the way up, including a peek through ‘the eye of the needle’.



The landing spot on the edge of a steep precipice, departing with the previous pax, ‘champagne’ from the esky, solitude and views upwards.



Helo coming back for the dustoff, over the edge, inbound base.

 

[love_the_life]

It's a fascinating area JohnM, though it's been over 10 years since we were there. Great pics bringing back many memories.

 

[JohnM]

The northern section of what I have termed the ‘S Drakensburg’ is accessible in Royal Natal Park, most noted for the Amphitheatre and lots of hiking trails. Again, the scale of the feature is difficult to appreciate from a photo.



Then it was on to a cute, albeit very touristy, little town called Clarens through Golden Gate Reserve.



And on to JNB overnight before the next destination: Madagascar!

For the B788 fans: the view at JNB from 1F on the SA RJ85 (aka BAe146) (which SAA Airlink uses quite extensively on regional services). Crossing the coast of Africa somewhere over Mozambique, first glimpse of Madagascar, on descent into TNR (Antananarivo – pron. An-tana-narivo – aka ‘Tana’).

OK - enough of this wussy South African stuff . The real adventure is about to begin !

 

[JohnM]

Madagascar – what do I say?! Absolutely sensational! One of the most fascinating trips I’ve ever done! But, that said, it is probably not for the faint-hearted and definitely not for the luxury-only traveller. Not because it is unsafe – far from it IME, but the infrastructure makes it challenging – although at the same time therein lies a large part of its immense appeal.

For anyone who can’t cope with long periods of time travelling over rough roads, constantly slowing down to negotiate very decrepit sections of even sealed roads, Madagascar won’t be for them. However, for the person who can sit for long periods watching a passing and evolving landscape, vegetation, social and agricultural kaleidoscope, it is a place nigh on impossible to beat IMO. Sitting in transport reading a book and hardly looking out of the window defeats the purpose of going to Madagascar, it seems to me. Despite infrastructure challenges, the standard of accommodation exceeded my expectations.

This may sound like heresy but for me, as a biologist, it rivalled – if not exceeded – the Galapagos (and I did the full two-week double loop in a small boat there). Challenging the Galapagos in landscapes, in many ways more exciting, unique and diverse in plant and animal life, and definitely far richer in the human culture (in the social, not artistic/construction sense).

Things can get a little shambolic with travel. Definitely do not rely on Air Madagascar internal flight schedules; they chop and change like mad! They have very few aircraft – but the ATR72 I flew on was very new and the B738 was in good nick.

It might be worth putting in perspective and giving some background information about this generally off-the-radar country.

Sometimes called the ‘eighth continent’, Madagascar is one of the world’s poorest countries. The population is about 24M, so about the same as Australia. The demographic profile is scary: >60% of the population is aged <25years and total fertility is 4.3 births/female. The primary ethic origins of the Malagasy people are Malay (predominant in the east and highlands) and East African (predominant in the west). A pre-travel factoid that I found interesting was that Madagascar is one of the darkest places on earth at night. Certainly small towns and villages had no distributed power and large towns and cities have very limited street lighting.

Madagascar lies in the tropics so most of the time it was like being at Broome - which of course is rather nice in July. The highlands have pockets of rainforest and can be very cold at night. True size superimposed on (the most relevant part of ) Australia. Latitudinal extent is about that of NZ. It’s the world’s fourth largest island. Another look at the (slightly inaccurate) schematic of the route.



Tana is a fairly nondescript city. The French influence is evident - 2CV taxis and baguettes. Buzzing markets. It was easy to walk around and hassling by street sellers was minimal to non-existent. Generally, I found the Malagasy people to be reserved, almost to the point of shyness. The old railway station is rather fine - now tourist-orientated shops and a French-style bistro.



The first item on the agenda was to head east from Tana to the Perinet NP for two nights and some fairly slippery trekking in the rainforest in search of lemurs. It is famous for the Indri lemur which has a very piercing, melancholy song. Tana and the park at about 1300m but the park, being in the east, is much wetter. Typical of most of the island, intensive agriculture dominated by rice paddies occupies coastal flats and river valley floors and terraces, with brick-making an associated enterprise. Architecture is very often region/tribe/village-specific in style and varies substantially. My first lemur (a sifaka or ‘dancing’ lemur – definitely not easy to photograph with a pocket camera!) sighting at a reptile reserve.

 

[JohnM]

OK – picture-heavy, word-light post.

Fascinating array of geckos and chameleons – from small to large. Just what are you looking at? And dinner was on the tip of my tongue. Leaf-like butterfly and comet moth. A frog not to be messed with. Roadside fruit & veg stalls. Night nature walk, then into the rainforest bright and early the next day in search of Indri lemurs.

 

[Boca68]

Great pics John!

If I could give 10 likes, I would.

Hard to fathom, but what's the scale on the big green chameleon in the middle set of pics? Using scientific knowledge...thumb size or hand size?

 

[JohnM]

Great pics John!

If I could give 10 likes, I would.

Hard to fathom, but what's the scale on the big green chameleon in the middle set of pics? Using scientific knowledge...thumb size or hand size?

Definitely hand size .

 

[Boca68]

Definitely hand size .

Amazing animals!

Have seen them before. So varied in size. Just amazing! Again, great pics!

 

[JohnM]

In luck! Heard the penetrating call of the Indri lemurs up in the canopy and managed to get a couple of pics. Lemurs seldom sit still! And another chameleon.



After lunch it was off to Vakona lemur island sanctuary for really close contact with several species of habituated lemurs. Canoed across about 30m. Then it was on - literally! Over the whole trip we encountered 20 of the 80 or so species of lemur in various habitats. Gorgeous creatures! One loved having its throat stroked and could hardly be dislodged from a shoulder. Fur is very soft.

 

[JohnM]

A few pics in the local village after the leaving the lemur island and just before heading back to Tana for the night and a very early departure for the flight to Morondava on the west coast.



Baobabs dot the landscape coming into Morondava. There are nine species in the world; six occur in Madagascar and two in east Africa, while Australia has only one (called ‘boab’ here). Owing to Air Madagascar changing the flight to be extra early, we were collected by our 4WD convoy and taken into Morondava to kill a little time and get some provisions (notably bottled water) while the drivers had breakfast and prepared for what was to be, for me, one of the most fascinating parts of the whole trip – a lot of driving on rough roads.



A good chance to stroll in the market and on the beach, watching the fishers bringing in and sorting their catch.



Then it was on our way to Boabab Alley, followed by an overnight stop in Kirindy camp in Andranomena Reserve as the first part of our drive to Tsingy. Google Maps failed at this point – it could not even plot a walk to Tsingy from Morondava, let alone driving! This 200km or so drive, with two river crossings, was set to take quite some time!



Paddy fields and baobabs heading E from Morondava, turning N and getting drier. Driving into Baobab Alley from the S, Baobab Alley from the N. Dry season, so leaves shed, but some were flowering.

 

[JohnM]

Makeshift game of soccer on the pan on the E side of the Alley – the shrub line at the back was to be the location for taking sunset shots a few days hence. Curio stall. Mud face-pack is fairly common amongst the women – as is the numerous offspring... Back to the convoy and keep heading N. Much simpler dwellings in the western villages. Feels a bit like like a UN convoy roaring into town…



Pulling into Kirindy around lunch time. Afternoon in the Kirindy nature reserve and lucky enough to see a fosa, aka Malagasy civet, a cat-like predator of lemurs. Spiny-tailed gecko. Nature walk in the dry sclerophyll forest – definitely easier walking than in the upland rainforest. Interesting baobab.



More lemurs in the wild – a diurnal species active in the trees, a nocturnal species trying to get some peaceful sleep, two very small nocturnal species spotted on a night walk, ‘loving’ baobab, permanent tent accommodation.



Lots of sifaka lemurs the next morning, including some dancing, rare vasa parrot, walking back to camp along the ‘main’ road that we’d soon be heading further N on.



On the road again, passing through villages, staying on the straight and narrow, stopping to look at tombs of polygamous people (it is taboo to point at the tomb with a finger – notice how Armel (‘Mel’) is gesturing with the clenched fist), traditional cart drawn by zebu (‘Zebu’ is the generic name for cattle in Madagascar – they are all small-statured, well-horned beasts used for meat, as draught animals and an indicator of wealth).

 

[JohnM]

Can’t resist a slew of pics from along the road. I loved this! Obviously 4WD territory but, being dry season, low range 1[SUP]st[/SUP] was seldom required. Stopping for lunch under a shady tree, with shy onlooker.



Now came the experience of the first river crossing by ‘ferry’. The Tsiribihina is a fairly large river and the crossing was indirect, taking us about 15-20 mins downstream to the town of Belo Tsiribihina on the N bank.

The ferry ‘terminal’ was a hive of activity, handling freight, passengers and vehicles - the latter primarily of tourists. All aboard!



And we’re off! The twin-engine ‘ferries’ were two longboats connected by a wooden platform large enough for about five 4WDs. Interesting propulsion system – a low-revving motor with an appropriately OH&S-certified belt system connected to a differential driving the prop. The driver engaged it by tensioning the prop-shaft assembly against the belts while steering with the independently horizontally-moveable rudder. Simple and effective! Busy at the other end.



Off they come! Zebu market day at Belo Tsiribihina. Getting water at the local well. The Mad Zebu restaurant (Mad as in ‘Madagascar’, not as in insane) at Belo for a quick drink and collect our pre-ordered take-way lunch (time was tight and still some way to go). More on this on the return journey but suffice to say a BIG surprise. Hint: look at TripAdvisor… Pressing N to the next river crossing – this time straight across the Manambolo R to Bekopaka and nearby our base for exploring the Tsingy.



Some scenes on arrival at the Bekopaka ferry point. Kids playing games are the same the world over… (Ahem, I make no comment on any possible gender-specific matters…). Hi, dude. Large pods that I never managed to find out the origin, or use, of.

 

[JohnM]

After the long, somewhat rough, drive the accommodation at Bekopaka came as an unexpected surprise. I don’t think many Hilton housekeepers have quite this degree of panache… Another chameleon.



Lining up to depart on our assault of the Tsingy, the access road to the hotel :shock:, and on the way.