Matenga Cultural Village & Getting To Maputo from Manzini

Woke up Thursday morning with a plan to get to the Matenga Cultural Village to learn about Swazi culture. It had pretty good reviews on trip advisor and I had been recommended it by a few people, so I was keen to go. At 11:15am and at 3pm there is a performance at the village, so I was hoping to catch it. I had woken up a bit late and it was a bit wet outside, so I called up ‘Taxi Tom’ and arranged him to take me there for E180/R180/$18aud.

Combi Rides in Swaziland & Milwane Animal Sanctuary

I was offered a ride the Mozambique embassy in Mbabane to try and get a Mozambique visa before I go. Unfortunately, when I got there they wanted hotel reservations, which I don’t have so I wasn’t able to apply for one. Plus it would take 2-3 days to process. If I arrive at the border and get a visa I should get one automatically and they won’t ask for a hotel reservation. I’m not really sure what all the fuss is with applying for one at the embassy, but anyways. After trying at the embassy, I got dropped off in Mbabane to spend the day and have a look around. To be honest there wasn’t all that much there to see except a few markets and shops, and I spent most of my time searching for free Wi-Fi (which I didn’t really find).

Johannesburg to Swaziland on the TransMagnific

While the flight from Joburg to Antananarivo was half empty, allowing me a whole row of seats to myself, the flight back to the African mainland was much more packed and basically full. The three-hour flight seemed to drag on and on, but finally we reached O. R. Tambo where I was picked up by my accommodation at Shoestring Airport Lodge. It’s close by to the airport, where I needed to be the following day to catch a bus to Swaziland (and where I had stayed previously and also left a bag in storage to get when uni starts again).

Lemur Spotting at Andasibe National Park

I had one last thing I wanted to do before I finally left Madagascar - see the Indri Indri lemur, the biggest lemur in Madagascar and only found in the eastern region of the country. So on my last day in the 'red country' I organised a driver to take me to Andasibe National Park for 350,000 ariary (driver, car and fuel), $142aud. Quite a lot to spend for a day trip, and for one person, but I didn't have enough time to try and use public transport. This is also the only region in Madagascar (and also the world) you can see these lemurs, so I was pretty excited.

Birthday Week at Anjiamarango Beach Resort - Nosy Be

After 6 luxurious and relaxing nights at Anjiamarango Beach Resort, it’s finally time to fly off from Nosy Be and head back to Antananarivo. Tomorrow will be my last day in Madagascar, and I’ll hopefully be going to a national park and seeing some more lemurs, and then the day after I’ll be flying back to Johannesburg. I’ll see have a bit over a month until university starts again to continue travelling around southern Africa – next stop: Swaziland.

An Unpleasant Trip to Nosy Komba and Snorkelling at Nosy Tanikely

After spending the past 3 days doing literally nothing except swimming in the pool, reading, eating and sleeping, it was time to get out and actually do something in Nosy Be. Staying at this resort is super nice, but isn’t making me particularly adventurous when it is just so easy and comfortable to stay where you are (plus when the days are so hot and the pool is so cool).

The Pleasant (And Not Spewy) Trip from Morondava To Antananarivo

I had been dreading the trip back to Antananrivo after the horrific trip I had on my way to Morondava and was weighing up my options. There was the taxi-brousse for about 45,000 ariary (about $19aud), flying with Air Madagascar for around 600-700,000 ariary, or hiring a private car and driver for 700,000 ariary ($285aud). Should I risk spewing to save over $250?? I couldn't really justify spending that much on the plane ticket when I was planning another (pricy) internal flight in Madagascar, so it seemed like all I could do was book a taxi-brousse ticket and hope.

Avenue of The Baobabs and the Kirindy Reserve

If you ever want to feel like the only tourist somewhere, go to Madagascar during the rainy season. At Kirindy reserve I was the only person staying the night in the lodge, and apart from the workers, my driver and the lemurs, the only person there.

Paddling Around Morondava

Awoke at 5am this morning when my fan stopped working to open up my windows. This was apparently one of the time periods when there is no electricity in Morondava, and I had to wait until 7am when the power came back on to be able to connect to WiFi and plan my day.

I was feeling considerably better than the day before, although my stomach was still a bit off after all that constant spewing, and was happy to spend the day in the quiet little fishing village of Morondava. At around 9am I finally got dressed and went to embrace the heat to go and find breakfast. This consisted of a plate of fruit and some fresh juice at the Baobab Café where I was the only person at the restaurant. After eating (and then dashing back to my hotel to get my wallet to pay for my meal … I had somehow left my purse on my bed instead of putting it in my handbag), I went for a sweaty walk around Morondava.

A Hell-Ish Journey from Antananarivo to Morondava*

*title decided upon 1 hour into leaving Antananarivo.

After establishing that I was actually leaving this morning, rather than last night as I had presumed, I went to bed early and woke up at about 4:30am. By 5:15am my taxi driver had arrived to take me to the station. We got there at about 5:30am and there were a lot less people crowding around me unlike the day before. The guy who sold me my ticket (and tried charging me 250,000ariary) the day before, quickly came up to me and took me to his stand again where he asked me to pay the rest of the money I owed him -150,000 ariary. I was not having any of this and was quite mad at him. I refused to pay and he left. 

A Day in Tana & Trying to Get to Morondava

It's been a full day in Madagascar, and while I haven't yet fallen in love with the country, I'm hoping that once I leave capital city Antananarivo (which I have only just figured out how to pronounce) and start seeing some of the countries wildlife and scenery I'll finally see what the hype of Madagascar is all about.

The thing is, travelling through Madagascar is hard work. I've done my fair share of long journeys via bus, recently through Namibia, but the roads in Madagascar are barely even roads. From what I've heard the intense rains the country receives destroy any roads that are created. So I'm not exactly looking forward to the 650km journey, which is supposed to take around 15 hours, that I'm catching tonight. Its a night bus that leaves at 6pm for Morondava, a town on the west coast of Madagascar and is close by to the Avenue of the Baobabs, ie. the whole reason I'm going there.

Melbourne to Madagascar

After a brief hiatus (ie. going home to Australia for Christmas and New Years), I'm finally back and ready to update my blog with whatever travel adventures I get myself into (because to be honest if I wrote stuff about my time at home it would mainly consist of pictures of my dogs (in santa costumes) and all the food I ate - which really you can just see on my snapchat anyways). It was good to be home for a few weeks, to see my family, catch up with friends and spend my days doing absolutely nothing.