WEATHER: Warm temperatures today. At 8am it was 24C and at midday it was 31C
HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: Not having anything on
BUMMER OF THE DAY: Tired
BUYS OF THE DAY: Haven’t bought a thing
WORD OF THE DAY: Welcome back reception
I’m tired. I am not really sure why, I got another great 9 hours sleep last night. That’s what happens when you’re in camp and the generator is switched off at 9.30pm. But that’s okay as I had a big day yesterday, so going back to my A-frame at 8.30pm to read for an hour was fine by me. Maybe it’s the heat that is zapping my energy? It really has warmed up here the last 4 days – maybe.
Well today was just a travel day thank goodness with 135km to cover today. As we left Camp Cata, the clouds were pretty low this morning and as we drove off Alan says ‘the mountains are touching the clouds today’ and how true. I couldn’t help it and took yet another photo of the same beautiful mountain that featured in 90% of my photos yesterday. It truly is a magic spot here. So we had to travel the 25km back to National Highway 7 that took us 90 minutes and then it was pretty much plain sailing. The roads are in better condition on this section and they are straighter as well, so we got to sit on 90km today all the way.
The scenery has changed again and we are now on flat plains with massive mountains now in the distance. With the dried yellow grass still a feature, it is really dry out here. The villages are poorer as they don’t have the water / river to sustain rice crops, so they can only really grow kasava (which is like a kind of potato) and sugar cane. Their houses are smaller and there are more of them dotted on the landscape.
With one scenery stop and another one to help a fellow tour guide whose car had broken down, we made it to Isalo National Park and the beautiful resort of Satrana. It was only mid-day and we have decided to jig the itinerary so we had no plans for this afternoon and have a rest. The resort is based at the base of a granite mountain and it reminds me of Latitude 99 in the Northern Territory. The accommodation is all self-standing tent bungalows. It is kinda cool as the tent section is made out of the same tent material as the ones I just spent 60 days in, but it is 6 times bigger and it is joined to a massive bathroom with two marble sinks and an outdoor private shower as well. All very posh. The bed is a KING with a desk and massive tent windows facing out to a wonderful view of a smaller mountain range. I am in the last row of bungalows so I have no other bungalows obstructing my view. Amazing. The swimming pool looks fantastic and it has those awesome moon shape chairs around the pool, with deck chairs and tables also facing an amazing view.
Lunch was from 12 till 2pm, so I decided to drop all my stuff at the bungalow and head to the restaurant. The service here is 5 star and the food was amazing. Not sure how much the lunch is going to cost me. It was just a set 3 course menu, which you got to choose off. Oh well how much could it actually be? The generator had just been switched off and doesn’t get turned back on till 7.30pm, which is a little strange as it gets dark here at 6.30pm, so that will be interesting.
After lunch I wanted to make the most of my bungalow. When there aren’t too many people around the resort you don’t want to be the only one around, I just feel bad. So I headed way down the back of the resort and decided to make the most of the harsh sun and get some stuff washed. I know it will dry within an hour, I had a shower had some SMS conversations and then sat on my deck in these snazzy deck chairs that also rocked like a rocking chair but not as awkward. Now this is the way to spend an afternoon with the Malagasy sun beating down, a cool breeze blowing and a view to die for. I am glad we had no plans today and this was a good stop to relax at. As it happens it sounds like tomorrow is going to be another energetic one. We are, well I am, going on my own with a guide tomorrow into Isalo National Park and the hike is a 4 hour journey. Talk about all this hiking business makes me tired but I am up for the challenge and if I see Lemurs then it is definitely worth it. So it’s an early start tomorrow with us leaving at 7.15am, the earliest start I have had all trip. But it makes sense firstly to beat as much as the sun as we can and we also have a fairly large drive tomorrow to get us to Fianarantsoa.
Well as it started to get dark at 6.15pm the power came back on early which was good. I have a wad of appliances to charge and it would stay on till 11.30pm and then off again till 6am in the morning. I set off for dinner at 7pm and had a cute little table to myself next to the open French doors that faced onto the pool. It really is a nice resort, considering we are in the middle of nowhere and the local village and the national park entrance was 15 minutes up the road. As there is just me, I sometimes feel I scoff dinner. As soon as you finish a course they bring out the next one straight away, I could be done and dusted with 3 courses in 25 minutes I rekon. But I bring my book and I am able to string it out for at least 45 minutes if I’m lucky. The restaurant was full; they had 2 massive groups of over 20 in each and a couple tables of 4’s around the place, so they must have come in later. Alan’s brother is here tonight with his oldie French group and every time he saw me he was nice and stopped to chat. I also had my mobile phone last night, so I was keeping busy keeping in touch with people. I have worked out not all my Malagasy messages have been getting through, but they are happy to charge me for them, the buggers. So I am back on my UK sim card as I know they get through and I am currently in touch with my mate Rach in the UK to see if we can get some credit added to my account. They won’t let you use a foreign credit card for a top up and I currently don’t have an account, so thanks Rach for doing some running around for me – it is appreciated. Hopefully we can get something to work.
So I did ask when I checked in if they had internet to which there was a yes! OMG, I haven’t been on Facebook for a whole WEEK!!! So after dinner I was let into the manager’s office and logged on. It wasn’t the fastest connection, but who am I to complain it was free, and I got a solid 30 minutes on there, didn’t get to do too much as it was slow, but I have 45 notifications to look at, photo tags, 5 new messages and 3 new friend requests. I can see I will be busy on my speedy internet connection tomorrow back at my Tanna Hotel, as well as updating my blog with 8 entries and loading more Africa pictures up, I will be a busy little bee tomorrow.
So a late night for me. In bed at 9.30pm and reading for an hour before turning off my light. The staff had come and closed all the tent windows and pulled out the massive doona for the bed, hmmm I’m thinking it may get a little cold here tonight. Goodnight from my luxury tent.
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