Tsiribihina River

We met our guide in a car with the driver by his side. After brief introductions he asked me for the money. I reached into my daybag and pulled out a plastic bag stuffed with 240 10,000 Ariary notes and gingerly handed it over. He counted carefully but nervously as people rushed by in the crowded street. It felt more like a drugs deal than paying for a tourist trip!

The first part of our journey took us past the clay soil of the highlands, littered with piles of newly made bricks. The soil here is poor for growing rice and after a couple of harvests is good only for making bricks. Lots of them. We stayed overnight in Antsirabe, famous for its pushy pousse-pousse drivers but we'll remember it for the delicious Gastro Pizza delivery we scoffed in our room over a game of scrabble and a bottle of SA Merlot.

As we headed away from civilisation we passed through bustling villages and our car squeezed by people and zebu. Zebu are the local cattle and essentially the only meaningful asset and sign of wealth. Each one costs upwards of one million Ariary - about £300. A chicken, we learn later, costs less than £3. The local children must see plenty white people but that has not apparently reduced their fascination for us. They call us 'faza', wave, smile and sometimes ask for 'bon-bons' or 'stilos'.

A grand lightning storm kept us entertained over dinner and I was still excited by the enormous butterfly with a pink and white striped body that I'd seen earlier. In the morning we travelled to the village where we met our two boatmen and were introduced to our dugout canoe where we'd be spending the next 140 km over two and a half days. So, three locals, two faza, one chicken, camping equipment, food, water and luggage all made their way in this lovely wee boat. We saw chameleons, crocodiles, several bird species and our first lemurs! A Sifaka (Verreaux's lemur) to be exact. Quite a few of them actually. So gorgeous as they leap through the trees and bounce along like kangaroos.

The first night we made camp early to shelter from the biblical rain storm that howled around us. This hadn't been mentioned in the itinerary! The next night was spent near a small village under a perfect star-filled sky with lightning in the distance and our crew singing us local songs while they cooked our dinner. The children were there to wave us off soon after dawn and we completed our river journey later that day. Our tour continued however at the Kirindi national park where we saw more lemurs, really close up. As well as the brown lemurs huddled cutely together we also saw a nocturnal lemur asleep in a tree, before completing our trip at Baobab avenue where we gaped in awe at these amazing old hollow trees.

Time for a breather in Morondava before setting off on the next leg of our trip which will take us down the RN7 (road number 7) by taxi broussé. Meantime the poor boatmen will take 6 days to return to their village, pushing their boat upstream punt-style. Hard life but they seem to love it.

Nous sommes arrivé!

Arrived safely in Nairobi where I spent a disturbed night. Pourquoi? Stupidly failed to nab some free wine from BA so remained sober (strolling to a bar at 11pm in Nairobi is not recommended). Learned of Scotland's inevitable fate and so retired unhappily to a fitful sleep on a dodgy bed. Tired.

Next day we flew to Madagascar to spend 3 nights in the capital Antananarivo (Tana). Not a pretty place at all but for the exquisite purple blossoms on the trees. It's other saving grace is the plentiful supply of good restaurants at cheap prices. Our main purpose here was to book a tour down the Tsiribihina river and onward travel to Ifaty. Failed on the latter but we depart tomorrow on our trip canoeing and camping our way along. To pay we needed 780 Euros of local currency. This meant withdrawing 2.4Million Ariary, made up of 240 notes, each worth 10,000 Ariary. Every pocket was stuffed as I weaved between the beggars and pick-pockets back to our B&B!

Job done and with new matching sleeping bags acquired, we're off out for a nice Italian ahead of our adventure tomorrow. A bientot!

Last day in London

A frenetic social diary has been successfully negotiated with no signs of terminal liver damage, hours of research have resulted in a freshly updated and sync'd iPod and all the necessary medical precautions are in place. Tomorrow we fly to Nairobi where we will spend one night before heading to Madagascar the next afternoon.

This one night in Nairobi will be a nervous and possibly frustrating one for me. Nothing to do with being in the most dangerous city in Africa but entirely down to Scotland's fate being decided in Alicante and Kaunas that evening. What idiot decided to fly to Kenya on this date?!

The next 6 months stretch out in front of us with promises of exotic animals, stunning scenery and unknown adventures. They also offer the opportunity to learn some French (un petit peu), lose some weight (inevitable) whilst trying to avoid shark attacks, pirates and tropical diseases.

If you want to pass a few spare moments checking our progress then sign up as a follower of this blog and I'll do my best to keep it fresh and funny.  I'll even figure out how to doll it up with a few images and would love to get some feedback from y'all.

I'm off to do some chores before we leave these shores. Forever, yours.....BobbyOrbit