Wow, what a long flight! That is the longest I have ever spent in a plane. Luckily, the flight wasn't completely full, so I did have an opportunity to spread out a little.
It was dark the whole way, and we could see scattered lights when we passed over the African continent, although they were few and far between. I would really like to have been able to see more, but maybe another time.
As it got light outside, we crossed over the Mozambique Channel and crossed the coast of Madagascar.
As we flew toward Antananarivo (Tana), I saw the country for the first time. It really is a very beautiful place, especially from the air as we would see on all our other flights throughout our trip.
One thing I noticed first was the lack of roads. Most places you fly in the U.S., you can look out the window and see the endless string of roadway below. Mostly, I saw dirt roads, not pavement.
As we neared Tana, I saw the first paved road, but only one car along the whole stretch. Granted, it was still early (about 6:30 am) but it was also a weekday. In the states, there probably would have been gridlock at that time.
We passed over many small villages, and saw many small groups of huts on the outskirts.
Soon, we were over Tana, the capital. The city is very large, stretching out over a broad area. Most of it is set in the hills, with the buildings looking as if they are on top of one another as they go up. Shortly thereafter, we were on the ground!
We were very excited to be there, and the first thing I wanted to do as I got off the plane was take a little video of the airport. Bad idea. I had a couple of the airport security people tell me that taking pictures of the airport is not allowed. The airport was not very big, with only one runway.
The weather as we got off the plane was beautiful, sunny and mild (It is summer in December in the southern hemisphere). As we walked into the terminal from the runway, we met with Klaus, one of our local guides that we would be spending a lot of time with later in the trip. He was very friendly and helpful in helping us collect our bags (they made it with us this time). All the porters at the airport wanted to carry our bags and get that tip out of us.
After collecting our things and gathering together, we made our way to a tour bus to go to the Mahavelo Hotel. We drove out of the airport for the short ride to the hotel, where we were going to have breakfast before leaving on our next flight to Tulear.
There were a lot of people in the street, and they didn't seem to mind the large bus barreling down the road at them. There didn't seem to be a speed limit, either.
We passed through town and ended up turning onto a very narrow dirt road between two buildings. It was a very bumpy trip to the hotel on that road, which was about a half mile away. The Mahavelo was a very nice hotel, or so it seemed at the time, but we'll get to that later.
We got out and found the dining room where we were going to have breakfast. There, we met up with Ray and Kathy, our last two tour companions.
We had breakfast, which consisted of french bread, jam and butter. We also had coffee and juice. I still wasn't too hungry after my stomach upset in Paris, but I ate a little. After breakfast it was back to the airport for our flight south.
Larry
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