Itenerary: Passing Tsimanampetsotsa to complete the drive to Itampolo where we camp tonight.
We woke up, in the clearing we had camped in, at about 5:30 am. I had a pretty good night considering I have a problem sleeping when I'm hot. I guess we were all so tired from the first day that everyone slept well. It gets light very early in Madagascar during the summer. At times, we would wake up at 4:45 and it would already be getting light out.
Our hosts were very efficient. Klaus and his group were up before us and had breakfast already going. It was very tasty, consisting of French bread with jam and cheese, juice and coffee. The coffee there is a true eye-opener, very strong.
While we ate, Klaus and his group began to strike camp and get packed up for the drive to Itampolo. We pulled all our luggage from our tents and they packed everything up for us. We wandered around the campsite again, looking for more critters. None of us showered, but who really cares.
After everything was loaded, we all packed into the trucks and took off south. We knew that it was going to be another full day of driving. We continued on down Route 10, the now infamous dirt highway. Along the way, we stopped several times to take pictures of the indigenous wildlife.
We had been travelling for a while on some very narrow roads. At times, the branches of trees were coming inside the trucks with us. We could see some zebu (the Malagasy version of cattle) through the trees at certain points. Eventually, we came upon a clearing with a pond in the middle. Several boys (some looked as young as 7 or 8) were herding the zebu to the pond. We decided to stop and take some pics and video.
As we took our pictures, more and more zebu kept pouring out of the tree line. It seemed as if we had hit the community zebu watering hole. Most of the zebu would drink or walk right into the middle of the pond to cool off. It was really a sight to see.
We found several snakes and groups of very colorful butterflies around the pond. At one point, Bill offered a few bucks to the first of the local boys who could produce us a tortoise. They all scattered and we paid out to one who brought us a small turtle.
We also realized that this pond was a place for the boys to cool off as well. Unaffected by the fact that scores of zebu had already washed (and probably relieved) themselves in the pond, we witness a few of the boys go in waist deep and splash water over their faces and heads. I don't think there is enough money to have made me get into that pond.
Since it was about noon, we decided to eat lunch by the pond. Klaus and his team set up our tables and broke out a really nice salad that had corn and tuna in it. It was very good, but it was also difficult to keep the flies at bay as we ate. A funny side note to our meal; before it was served, we asked Klaus what was in the salad. He told us that it had what we heard as "mice" in it. After a few startled looks and some further questioning, we realized that he was saying "maize" (corn), but with his German accent we had misunderstood. Nothing against you Klaus if you are reading this, just our American ears are not used to hearing a lot of accents!
After a while, we packed up again and kept heading south. Around mid-afternoon, we stopped at a small village for a pit stop. I didn't go, but from what I hear, the restroom was an experience. We loaded up again and kept going.
We stopped again along the way in a small village that had a place that sold local art. Most of it consisted of wood carvings. Suzi found a really cool looking carving of a zebu being attacked by a crocodile, but it was too big to take with us. We ended up buying a couple of carved masks. They had lemurs on them, and when Suzi asked about them, he carved rings on to the masks while we watched, making them ring-tailed lemurs.
We kept driving south from the art village for a few more hours. We drove through a small village just as it was getting dark. We found out that this was the village Suzi and I would get remarried in on New Years Eve.
We drove out onto the beach at dark. There was a small camping area we were heading for and I think most of us were ready to get there. After some dune driving and a couple wrong turns, we ended up at the campsite.
Klaus' team got all our tents set up for us as we explored the area. I saw a scorpion on the sand near our tents, which was interesting to me. It was the first wild scorpion I have ever seen. We also found a small hole in the side of the dune near our tents that was inhabited by a spider. We got some very good pictures of him guarding the entrance to his burrow.
We found the bathroom/shower on top of a dune near our campsite. It was very rustic to say the least. A place on either side to put your feet and a hole in the middle. More about the shower later.
After a bit, everyone crawled into their tents to get some much needed rest.
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