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4 may 2004

Madagascar 2004: Nightly Walk (day 16)

DylanL
2006-04-25 19:35:16

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In the morning, there's a limousine in the shape of a bright green Renault 4 waiting for us to take us to the airport. The co-driver is babbling non-stop to the driver who, after 30 minutes, suddenly turns on the radio on high volume. Did he had enough of his chatter?

We arrive at the airport where, after an hour of waiting, suddenly a loud air alarm sounds. We wonder if we have to seek shelter but it turns out it's just the signal of our plane arriving from Morondave. With only 30 minutes of delay, which is nothing for Malagasy standards, we leave to Fort Dauphin, Madagascar's most southern point. It looks pretty from the sky with green mountains and a rough coastline. Unfortunately we won't stop here as it's only our transit stop to Antananarivo.

As we arive at Tana safely Dina and Rija are waiting for us with the car. We send emails and buy groceries in a huge, airconditioned supermarket called Shoprite. I figure not many of the people outside the capital have seen something like this from the inside. Afterwards we drive straight through Tana, on our way to the east.

This part of Madagascar seems to be more developed and more densely populated than elsewhere. Like in Tana, there are lots of pretty colonial houses, but we haven't seen a single one that has had any kind of preservation since they were built, about 60 years ago. Madagascar became independent from France on june 26 1960, and i wonder how much this independence has contributed to the unprecedented decay of the buildings.

We stop in a small village to prepare a sandwich where we see a small boy with a very long stick. Two miniscule toy wheels are attached to the end from which a long wire runs to the top of the stick. On top a big steering wheel is attached so the boy can manoeuvre his stick through the street. It's amazing to see how people can make such an innovative toy out of nothing.

The road is starting to curve. Below ...