WEATHER: Low of 15C and hot tops of 37C
HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: Making it back to camp in one piece
BUMMER OF THE DAY: Not seeing any lemurs when the other group did
BUYS OF THE DAY: Didn’t buy a thing all day – this budget thing is great when there isn’t anything to spend it on!
WORD OF THE DAY: Ununa vow vow – what’s new?
ANIMALS SEEN TODAY: Beautiful crickets (wait till you see the photos). A small snake, lizards, iguanas, birds whose names I was only told in French and Chameleons.
Yes you read the title right. I hiked and I actually liked it! Now pick yourself up off the ground and let me tell you about my day.
I set my alarm for 6.45am, but after getting nearly 10 hours sleep last night I was awake just after 6am and drifting in and out till my alarm went off, I did then proceed to hit snooze twice, but I made breakfast on time at 7.30am and then I met my guide for the day Jean Paul at 8am. I am not sure if Alan normally comes on these hikes or not, but he was there all ready to go for mine. I didn’t bring my little backpack, I left that in Tanna, so I gave my bottle of water, spare camera battery and purse to Jean Paul and I only had to carry my camera, sweet deal. One thing I did notice was JP had a walking stick; you know the kind that serious hikers have when they are going to climb mountains!! So I knew some effort was going to be involved. Lucky I got 10 hours sleep last night!
JP explained that his English wasn’t the best, so he was going to French it and then Alan was going to translate. Okay, so not the best way to get a guided tour of the national park. JP would talk for like 10 minutes and then poor Alan would give me a 2 minute spiel, full well knowing that I wasn’t getting everything. I did get the general gist of everything, if not in full detail and I made sure that I just enjoyed the scenery and listened to them banter on all day. After all we don’t need a translator to enjoy the view right!?
So off we set, and a few minutes in we had an extra companion Lulu – one of the dogs that belongs to the camp. I wonder how far she will follow us – but welcome to the posse Lulu. We headed through the forest and this was where we hoped to see some ring-tailed lemurs that live here. As we hiked UP, through the long dry yellow grass, the scenery then changed to rocks and granite and further UP, we trekked into massive boulder territory and tall trees and vines. JP was using a harmonica to try and drum up some lemurs; he would play a note and wait for a response. We trekked around the forest for 2 hours and didn’t see one lemur. It was a little disappointing, but they are wild animals after all, so we then hiked over streams, through canyons, over ravines, rockeries, rock faces, ditches, dirt tracks, rocky tracks, grass tracks and around mountains with a few stops in between for rest stops. The sun was high in the sky and it was a hot day, I guess with the reflection of the granite as well helped keep things a toasty 37C. I did remember to put on sunscreen on my nose, so hopefully that puppy doesn’t get too burnt today. It has copped a flogging the last week sitting in the front of the car.
We got to a small village that has this magnificent view of the mountains in the background. The kids here were trying to sell you necklaces made from seeds of the local plants. They had them hanging off branches and there would have been some as young as 3 holding out the sticks with their wares on them. I am still in the habit after Africa of asking people if I can take a photo of them, but I think it’s just courteous now to do it and the good thing is the kids just LOVE having their pictures taken, as they love to see themselves on the little screen in playback mode. Emily and Christina would love it here, the kids are just beautiful, and not just in looks but in temperament as well. Their smiles would light up a small city, I tell you it is just a ray of sunshine and they haven’t yet learned that awful habit of asking for money for photos, so it is awesome to be able to snap away and both parties get something out of it. I spent around 20 minutes just taking pictures of the kids, they all wanted to be in them so they could look at themselves and in the end we had to keep moving with them all shouting out photo, photo take my photo! I did get another opportunity to get a Bernstar jump with the village kids, so I have around 15 of them all jumping with me, they love it and to see the 15 frames all play backed like a mini movie, makes them all laugh and smile to see the sequence, its priceless.
Our next stop was the small local hospital about a 30 minute walk on. This is where we saw the French group that is also staying at my hotel and they SAW LEMURS!!! WTF. I don’t mind not seeing them if they are not around, but their guide got them to a family and I didn’t believe them till one of the French guys showed me some photos on his camera. Dang it. It just goes to show it is the luck of the draw. I did get to see 3 chameleons on this section of the walk though, so small consolation, they aren’t lemurs. So 3 hours in and we still have Lulu with us, so the French don’t have her, but I think I would still take a lemur sighting, sorry Lulu.
The walking is now a lot easier. We are on dirt tracks and not too steep. We climbed over some massive granite rocks to get us to the top of a smaller mountain, crossing a few streams and having to rock jump to get to the other side and no-one fell in (namely me), we were on the home stretch to the cascades, a long rest and some lunch. We had to scramble down some granite rock faces to get us to the bottom of a watering hole that had a small waterfall coming down the rock face. It was beautiful and we set up lunch here. JP had a picnic blanket, but I told him not to worry, there was just a bunch of rocks with a small patch where he could have put it anyway, so we just pulled up a rock and I was given my foot long chicken baguette, a popper and some sweet biscuits for sweets after. So we started eating and then the French group arrived and joined us. Well their lunch was a little more spekky with cous cous (sauce also provided in a separate jar), baguettes, laughing cow cheese, bread and their sweets was pureed apple bought in 2 tins that had to be opened along with 2 cartons of apple juice. What a spread and what a load for the guide to have had carried for the last 4 hours! There are 12 of them in his group. OMG what a champion including cups, forks and plates! Yikes. My foot-long was too much and after sharing a little with Lulu, I gave the rest back to JP for him to take home. I was full and I had to decline the apple puree offered from the other group, I just couldn’t fit it in.
So from here JP said we had one more hour to go. Cool I could handle that, I was tired but knowing we were just walking back now I could handle that, if we were to be hiking, I would have had to have a good talk to myself to keep me motivated. So back up the granite slopes, walking across a dam wall and through forgotten dried up rice fields we started to make our way home. We did stop at another camp restaurant for a hit of coca cola, at this point it was 1pm (the hottest part of the day) and we needed a sugar hit, so I bought a round and we rested for 10 minutes before getting back on the road again. Okay so now I am starting to feel tired and the sun was relentless. We stopped one last time at a tiny village we drove through yesterday to get to the camp and they were preparing the rice for consumption. After the rice is dried, they need to bash the hell out of the rice to remove the outside husks revealing the actual rice grain, and then the grain needs to be separated from the removed husks through a sieve to get the actual grain all good to go for the cooking. There were about 6 girls all pounding away in what looks like an oversized mortar, some sharing the same one, some doing it on their own, and these girls would have been 8 or 9 years old and what a tough job. I guess if they don’t do it they don’t get to eat?
We powered on now with the huts of the camp now in sight. JP did ask if I wanted to head back into the forest to try our luck again with the lemurs, but now I was hot, thirsty and tired and I knew the boys were also knackered. What guarantee did we have of seeing them anyways – so I said thanks but no I think I will give it a miss. Soft you say? Tough, I gave it a crack, I have just walked/hiked for 6 hours in the hot bleating sun – it was time to head home. I don’t feel bad in the least that I didn’t give it another go. In total we hiked around 8km in 6 hours, so it gives you an idea on how much we actually did. We didn’t set any pace records, we kept it nice and slow (mura mura) the whole day, some-one with more experience probably could have done it in 4-5 hours, but it suited us all and JP was awesome, always checking on me and offering an arm or hand if the going got a little tricky. Also happy to report that our extra companion for the day Lulu, stuck with us to the end as well. There was one point when we were on the last stretch home, she knew where she was, and JP stopped to talk to some-one for 5 minutes and when we set off again she was waiting for us at the bottom of the hill looking over her shoulder to say ‘hey what’s the hold up’. She was so cute and made me miss Scoobe’s even more. Love ya puppy and I haven’t forgotten about ya!
So there. I did hike and I did like it. I’m not converted if that is what you are thinking, but I am glad that I did it and there’s a feeling of accomplishment in doing something I normally wouldn’t do and what a beautiful setting to be doing it in. The main mountain Tsaranoro was always in sight and made for some stunning photos, so that could have been part of keeping me enthused. I swear I have taken a gazillion photos today of that mountain and surrounds, it was just magic. A big THANKS also to JP, Alan and Lulu who were very accommodating with the picture stops, opportunities and offering to take my picture all the time – it was weird that only I had a camera and didn’t have to worry about getting in other peoples photo’s or having to ask people to take mine. Alan is a Bernstar convert photographer and now gets all the jumps on the first go, so that is also awesome for me. You guys rock.
So after showering and feeling like a million bucks I headed back to the open restaurant and got blogging about today’s events. I haven’t had internet since my second night in Madagascar, but I now have all the blogs lined up and ready to upload the second I get some Wi-Fi. I don’t even have cell phone service out here, which can be a little frustrating when you know you have messages coming through, but what can you do? 3 days of no access hasn’t killed anyone right, I am so techno savvy and always connected it is a little disconcerting to not have any access at all, via anything! Not even Alan’s phone works out here. It really has only happened once in Africa, I was off the air for 2 days at the end of our Namibia stint – I hate it – call me what you want but it is my contact with my loved ones and I hate it. Well as my itinerary says ‘back to civilization tomorrow’. I better have some messages sitting there.
So I got a little burnt, um I mean tanned today, as you would expect spending 6 hours in the Malagasy sun. As I was applying my ‘Dawn’ cream after my shower I was assessing my travel injuries since I have been away. My first major was my fall in Greece. This has scarred quite nicely and still seems to peel now and then, no matter how much dawn is applied, but it no longer hurts which is good. My next major injury was my fall in Lake Bunyonyi. This is still sore after nearly 8 weeks. I don’t think this is a good sign; there is a scar the size of your hand, so it has healed, but I think there may be some internal damage for it to still be sore at this point. I may have to get that looked at if I get a chance, even if I bang it on something it gives me a lot of pain. The only other injury still lingering is on my third last night in Fish River Canyon I got a massive (well grain size) blood blister on my left pointer finger which is just about dried up, so in the end I didn’t have to pop it which was good. I did get some massive bruising from my skydive on my legs where I was strapped in which is just about gone. But for 6 months, I think that isn’t too bad at all. Touchwood.
As I have time, I have also gone through the books to just make sure I am close / still on budget. So after entering everything in and really sitting down and working it all out, I am over budget by only $256. Not bad after all the optional expensive excursions I did in Swakopmund, going over budget on my MSC Cruise with ChelC (alcohol), going over budget for all of my 4 Contiki tours (alcohol) and I did go over budget for Morocco but that was due to the postage of $250. So I am really happy with that outcome and that is also based on the $75 a day budget, that I scaled back from the usual $100, so really, technically based on my original budget I am well and truly in the clear, but using the scaled back version saves me $11,525 which at the end of the day could give me an extra 153 days away and still be within my original budget. Have I sold it to you yet? Sounds good though right! Let’s just see what happens but at the end of the day, I’m looking good in the accounts department and my POA will be happy as well.
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