Masoala is the north east arm of Madagascar. Four of us went for a little walk across it. We had a fine time with the help of some friends. Meaning; a guide, a cook, and two porters. Food is heavy by the way. Bits and pieces were primary rainforest with a climax of a huge waterfall. We hobbled our way through to the other side. For now here are some pictures of our seven day hike.

Fresh out of Maroantsetra, our starting town, we took a dugout canoe. It should have been a few hours but ended up taking twice as long because the rivers were abnormally low. We ended up pushing the boat at some parts and walking through the mud. But we took it all in stride, as you do in Madagascar. Its part of the adventure.


Here is the whole gang. We picked up the second porter mid-way.



Sean had to buy shoes for the trip, so he chose jellys. That way his feet could breath and not get trench foot. The problem was he could not find his size so he opted for too small. Cedric the cook burnt a hole to make more room to accommodate the too large big toe. Days later Sean had to cut a huge hole in the jellys. Weeks after the trip Sean’s toe nail fell off. It was gruesome. 



After five years of faithful service Helen’s Chocos finally bit the dust. They were declared dead after one cracked in half. Needless to say she gave them to our cook who will try to get some use out of them, Good Luck! Knowing that her shoes were on their last leg she also bought some jellys. On day three she decided to give them a shot and the buckle of one came off rendering them useless and her barefoot. Luckily Gasy ingenuity came through, our guide tied the buckle on with a string, and she was on her way.



Leeches, wow and lots of them. Faith was a main target, but an hour or two into the first leech day Helen got bite and sucked on. They got a meal. Her comment was “It hurt”. We picked leeches off of us for about three days while we hiked.



Helen was repaired quickly by an old Malagasy natural remedy ‘leaves’. She was good as new and sported a new ‘back to nature’ style.



We made it to the waterfall that is in the middle of the park. It was awesome, we were surrounded by primary growth rainforest on top of a sizable waterfall.



Here is us at the top of the waterfall.



Since we took a cook we suspected that he would cook, but he did not start cooking until day four. We got talked into eating at small restaurants for the first few days. We decided to take some snacks for a picnic our first day. This is our spread for seven people. The Malagasy get a little uneasy if they don’t eat rice three times a day, but they were good sports for a few meals. The restaurant food for seven people adds up quickly. I would recommend having a cook and porter that know the trail and send them ahead to cook and have everything ready for a quick meal. Our cook was talented but being 18 years old he didn’t cook enough sauce for the rice. We told him “vazaha tena tia ro”, “ty ampy ro” translation Foreigners like sauce a lot”, “not enough sauce”. He never got the picture, but he is a good kid.



Another picture of the gang.



Here we are crossing a river, one of the hundred river crossings on our seven day journey. One crazy river crossing almost swept Helen down stream. Our guide caught her.




Here is us on a dugout canoe going down stream for three hours to end the seven day hike. By this time Helen’s ankles hurt so bad she could barley walk. She was a trooper. Sean and I had many infections on each foot that caused us to wince in pain if our foot slipped or we caught a stick in the wrong place while hiking. Weeks after the hikes we still had infections that had not healed. Faith came out of it with only a minor blister that healed over quickly.



On the trip down stream we saw a guy washing a cow and it seemed he also was taking a bath. We saw three crocodiles and signs of many many more. I would not have gotten in that river even if I did have cloths.




Marojejy

Sean, Faith and I went on a four day hike in Marojejy. It was awesome, organized, professional and worthwhile. Our guide Moses was very knowledgeable and very professional. If you are up near Antalaha check it out. It is between Sambava and Andapa in the northeast part of the Red Island of Madagascar.

Here we are buying beans and rice. We bought three cups of beans for each meal to feed us plus our cook and guide. We really like sauce or ‘ro’ as we say. We ended up running out of rice but had plenty of beans, it was great. Sometimes you just get tired of rice.



From the ANGAP office we hiked for three hours to the park entrance. We walked along rice fields and through two small towns. They have set up a buffer zone around the park, I think people can not live there but they can still farm. In the background you can see three jagged peaks, we camped across from them.



Here is a chameleon that we saw on our way up to the park entrance. Our guide know how to point out animals and call birds. He especially knew our pace, he kept us slow and steady so we had time to look around and soak it all in. It was great.





Here is a picture of Sean, Moses and Me.



Tree Boa just hanging out about head level right on the trail.



I am not sure their name something Silky Sefika, I will fix that later, but they are in the top 25 endangered non human primates. Of course humans are far from endangered.



We had very accommodating accommodations. We were far from roughing it. We had lunch at camp one then continued up to camp two, where we spent the night. Our second night was at camp three where it was rainy and cold we were in bed by 7:30 pm. Day three was dedicated to climbing up to the summit.



Faith found a few chameleons when we were bush whacking looking for the lemurs. She found a tiny one that we thought it was the smallest, but Moses said there is a smaller one. Then we saw the next size up. Pretty cool.







Can you find the frog? Moses pick it right our on the side of the trail. He pointed to it with his umbrella and we still could not pick it out, but we finally saw it.



Here is us at camp 3. The next day we walked a good pace for two hours to the cold windy cloudy summit. It was only two hours between the different camps, very manageable and enjoyable. The trails were very well taken care of and easy to hike. Even though they were cut back our old friends, the leeches, ate on us, but not too much. Faith is a leech magnet and had to stop every so often to do a leech check.



Here we are heading up to the summit. You can see the three jagged peaks of marojejy that were so far in the background many days ago.



We are heading down, back to camp 2. The next day we headed out of the park and back to the ANGAP office and waited to hail a bus. It was a fun time and only took us six hours to get out of the park and down to our cooks house for a quick lunch of beans. He was a great cook and really knew how to take care of us. We had honey roasted and salty peanuts waiting for us after our day hikes each day. Bee, our cook, and Moses made the experience.



Us just below camp three. There were a few scenic overlooks that we stopped at and really soaked in the view.



Cap East

We went to the furthers east point of Madagascar known as Cap Est. There was a park we checked out and a solar powered lighthouse. We had a good time and it was fun standing still for a while especially after the Masoala trip and we needed time to regroup to prepare for the Marojejy trip. This is us at the furthers Eastern point of Madagascar.





Our guide Pauline was super duper it was as if we were in the states being lead around by ranger Joe. He really knows his stuff. He is describing the picture plant, here are some random photos. Don`t worry Sean recovered.







And of course we saw a chameleon.



We stayed at Chez de Justin. Justin hosted a Volunteer a few years back so we got a discount on lodging and meals. In all we stayed two nights. Here is our caretaker, Justin showing off dinner.



For our last meal we had lobster, awesome especially at 2 bucks a person. We had grilled lobster and lobster with sauce. It was yummy.