Today we go to Domaine de Fontenay, a remote lodge near Joffreville in the north of the Island. We will visit Montagne National Park and hopefully see Lemurs and other interesting wildlife. As always, the journey has it’s complexities. The group going to this destination is quite small (~15 people) so the plan was to fly us up to the nearest town - Diego Suarez in three small planes, then drive us to our destination. Such fun!
We left early and drove to the airport on a clear Sunday morning.
We boarded our plane with our friends Astrid & Per.
The pilot looked experienced enough but the co-pilot couln’t have been more than 7 years old!
The flight took 1hr 45min and was generally smooth until we got near our destination. Descending through the surrounding mountains the plane bounced about and we were tossed up and down. Despite our lives flashing in front of our eyes, we landed safely and set off to explore Diego Suarez before traveling to our lodge.
Diago Suarez is a French, post-colonial, hustle & bustle city. It’s a port and was a strategic site for the French up until the 1960’s when Madagascar got its independence. While there are still examples of colonial architecture, the place is generally run down, but full of life. There was a busy market going on.
We even got to see a cock fight. While we expected blood anf feathers, it was generally more benign with no cock being (severely) harmed in the fight. It felt more like fun than a fight to the death. Who knows, but it’s not every day you get to witness one of these things, good or bad.
We then set off by bus to Joffreville and our destination. Here emerged another pattern in NGS travel ,which is, they never tell you how long the journey is so you’re left wondering how far it is to go. Today was a good example. “10Km” they said. Well, an hour later, after traveling over some of the worst dirt roads on the planet, we were still not at our hotel. Eventually, of course, we arrived at Domaine Fontenay and was welcomed by the owner, Carl. Even he admitted we were now in the middle of nowhere. Luckily were were quite high up (around 4,000 ft) so it was generally cooler but still a bit sweaty. Anyway, remote location, no phones, no Internet, no air conditioning for the next three days. Exciting!