Overland Tour

There a two options to get from the capital city of Antananarivo to the Blue Ventures site in Andavadoaka. They both involve travelling across the county to get to the nearest town, Toliara, but here are where the similarities end. The quickest (but not necessarily easiest) way is to hop on another plane and fly direct. However, as only a few days in the country has shown, Air Madagascar is not always the most reliable mode of transport where cancellations, delays, weather or strikes all mean that take-off is not guaranteed.

Instead I chose to take up the option of an overland tour to get to my final destination. This tour not only avoids the need to get on another plane but also has allowed me to see some of the other parts of Madagascar and get to know the county a little better.

Myself and six volunteers loaded ourselves into Dave the driver, guide and all around nice guy’s “Mazdave” mini bus and set off on our 4 day adventures at 5am on Thursday morning. The journey has involved riding along the R7, one of Madagascar’s main routes. However, this is not a three lane motorway or even a nice A road. Instead it is often bumpy, has huge pot holes and is only just wide enough to allow two lorries to pass each other. We have also many stops at police check points and witnessed some very interesting overtaking manoeuvres. Having spent the whole of Thursday in the minibus and most of Friday too (with a few hours off to visit one of Madagascar’s many national park) we were all happy to hear that the whole of Saturday would be spent using our legs to transport us rather than wheels in another national park. Similarly Monday was a “no bus day” with time to explore Toliara and stock up on essentials before the last day of travelling to Andavadoaka.

However, the spectacular scenery, plenty of stops for food, toilet and photo opportunities as well as quite a lot of napping has kept us happy and I am glad I made the decision to spend a few extra days travelling. Saying this I am also excited to get to my new home, unpack and start the hard but interesting work of a Blue Ventures Field Scientist.