World Trip Reports
Madagascar 2010 – an island apart
As the world’s 4th largest island and, despite its proximity to the coast of Africa, with a unique and varied fauna exhibiting a high degree of endemism, Madagascar is one of those places that must feature highly on any birder’s list of prospective destinations. Few countries offer such a high proportion of endemic bird species, add to that lemurs and some spectacular reptiles and you have a winning combination. I have wanted to visit Madagascar for some time and had hoped to do so in 2009, however the political turmoil and violence that engulfed Madagascar early in the year put paid to that idea, with many companies cancelling tours etc.
All of which brings us to 2010. Iain (ionemosia) and I last travelled together in 2006 when we visited southern Ecuador – a trip which is documented elsewhere on BF. Since that time we had not managed to coordinate our foreign trips but we were keen to do so again, particularly as there was a good chance that it would be the last big trip for each of us for some time to come. In my case, family holidays will become the main annual trip, whilst Iain is seeking early release from his job at Dounreay. In email discussions of places to visit Madagascar soon emerged as the favoured destination. When looking at organised tours it is very clear that some companies see a lot more than others (!), but it appeared that one commercial tour fulfilled our requirements very nicely. However on contacting them, the tour was already full with a substantial waiting list – back to square one. Not wishing to give up on the idea, I contacted Steve Bird of (the sadly now defunct) Birdseekers, as I knew he was planning a Madagascar tour. He had not been able to secure accommodation for a group for 2010, but offered to give me the contact details for his ground agent (also the long-standing Birdquest ground agent). It can’t hurt, was my immediate response, so I duly contacted Tiana Rakotoarimanana of Madagascar New Destination suggesting two outlines for a 2 week trip (one with Masoala, one without) at the end of September. Late September/early October is just before the peak season for birding tours and likely to have more settled weather being further from the wet season, which usually starts in December. With any luck it would be far enough into the breeding season for birds to be calling. I also contacted another respected ground agent, figuring that a second quote was a good idea. Both companies were very responsive and Tiana came up with a quote and itinerary for both options very quickly, nicely tied in to Air France flights and no more expensive than a group tour with UK leader. It was difficult to get a price out of the other company, and when they finally came up with one, it was significantly higher (albeit all-inclusive). It became clear that fitting Masoala into the itinerary would require 5 days to make allowances for possible disruption of flights to/from Maroantsetra. This would unbalance the rest of the trip and so, with regret, we abandoned this idea – helmet vanga would have to wait for another time …
Plans to book went on hold for a time due to Iain’s circumstances, but at the end of March it was all systems go. In view of Air France’s crazy so-called connections, we booked an evening flight from Edinburgh to Paris CDG and an overnight stay at the Hotel Ibis at the airport. I have used this hotel on a number of occasions with work and, whilst unexceptional, it does the job. Preparations continued through the summer including obtaining an mp3 player and speaker and loading the calls. Things then started to unravel a couple of weeks before departure when Sue’s mother was taken ill, requiring Sue to make several trips to Cheltenham, leaving me looking after Andrew who started school this year. On the Thursday morning before departure on Saturday I thought the trip was off! However Sue’s mum showed signs of improvement and a window of opportunity opened. Sue went down to Cheltenham again with Daniel, and I would drop Andrew off with friends on Saturday morning. Iain would then pick me up on his way from Thurso to the airport. Parting from Andrew was highly traumatic as he was very upset – I had to drive away and leave him before he would calm down, which was far from ideal. When Iain arrived I discovered that he had nearly had to cancel as well – his father had been admitted to hospital the previous day. All-in-all a rather inauspicious start to our trip …
Rob
Saturday 25th September
Iain, having allowed more time for roadworks than necessary, arrived as I was finishing my lunch. It seemed sensible to press on to the airport, so after some last minute packing we were off. Check-in proved unnecessarily complicated – all we wanted was to get boarding cards for both flights and check our bags as far as Paris! This seemed to cause great difficulty to the check-in staff. Eventually it was all sorted out. Air-side Iain got the reassuring news that his father’s condition was improving. The flight was uneventful and landed a few minutes early – less welcome was the board at the baggage carousel suggesting that it would take 45 minutes to deliver our bags! Fortunately this turned out to be untrue and we were soon on our way to the hotel after a lengthy trek to the CDGVAL. This was busier than normal as the RER was closed for engineering works and everyone was on their way to the bus station. Having settled into the room we went down for a bite to eat, and found that dithering meant that we kept missing out on items on the bar menu as they kept running out! Hunger pangs assuaged with a plate of penne (not a gourmet experience!), it was time to turn in.
Sunday 26th September
After a satisfactory breakfast at the hotel we returned to the airport to drop our bags off at Terminal 2C. The check-in zone displayed on the screens turned out to be incorrect as were directed elsewhere. The queue was slow-moving but eventually the bags were dropped off and we went through security. There followed the usual tedious waiting around before boarding, which happened on schedule. One consequence of the check-in hiatus in Edinburgh was that Iain and I were seated on opposite sides of the plane. I ended up sat next to a Malagasy gentleman who, how can I put this? – Ah yes … he would have benefitted from a wash! Still, it was only a 10 hour flight …
Take-off was delayed by about half an hour, apparently due to striking air traffic controllers (this was France after all!). At this point I feel I have to say how thankful I am that our travel plans were not disrupted by the French pensions dispute. Not much to say about the next 10 hours, Air France food is pretty good, in-flight entertainment adequate and we got to fly over interesting places like Libya and Darfur! We landed at Tana at 22:15 local time (GMT +3) and then the marathon began. Earlier this year Madagascar waived its visa fee for tourists which, given it used to be about $90, was nice. However it did mean that the queue for people entering Madagascar without having obtained a visa in advance was very long and slow moving. Iain managed some expert queue jumping – dirty looks from those around me kept me on the straight and narrow. In the end it didn’t matter as, despite queuing for over an hour, the bags had still not been delivered! Two texts from Sue indicated that communication with home was feasible, whilst Iain even managed to phone home. Finally the bags appeared and we emerged, to be met by Tiana. After changing money and acquiring a fistful of Ariary ($300 = 588000 Ariary!) we were on our way (well, once we managed to get out of the car park). It was well after midnight when we arrived at the Hotel Orchid, a modern Chinese-owned hotel near the airport. We were glad to crash out, Tiana having arranged to pick us up at 7:00 the next morning for the long drive (~12h) to Ranomafana.
Rob
PS The next report will contain birds 
Fascinating so far and not a single bird! Eagerly await Round 3.
DiP
PS - You're right about transiting through CDG at the moment!