Beaver Fever

Yep, beaver fever.

So, I'd not been feeling too well for a while and despite fasting, shunning alcohol (well, for one day anyway) and lying in bed for a whole day, we arrive in Mahajanga with your humble correspondent still somewhat sickly. Grateful as I was for having now shed the pounds gained back in London, it was time to seek medical advice. The title above is the less common, but much more entertaining name of the particular illness afflicting me. I'll leave it to you to imagine why it got that name - I really don't know - but it's more familiar name is Giardiasis.

Just seeing the man in the white coat made me feel more positive and I went in search of a pharmacy that could serve me up the three wonderful medicines prescribed by the Madadoc. Eighteen hours (okay I slept 8 of those), five pharmacies and two pousse-pousse rides later I had them in my paw. Double strength anti-biotics to kill the little blighter off, a powder you add to water that tasted exactly as I imagine dilute cement mix would (and was designed for a similar purpose) and a lovely strawberry tasting concoction to revitalise my poor wasted body. This last medicine, I later discover on reading the instructions, is however designed purely for children under 2. One consequence of this is that the zinc tablets that handily came with it are recommended to be crushed up and mixed with breast milk. I didn't imagine the chemist would stock any of that so swallowing whole with water had to do.

Happily today I feel that I'm well on the road to a full recovery and my body can return to dealing only with the psychosis inducing malaria pills and the 100% deet mosquito repellent. Goodness knows what this stuff does to your skin as it leaked in Jo's sturdy, Paperchase plastic bag and burned almost right through it. The locals here mostly can't afford western medicine so rely on medicinal plants - maybe I should take a leaf from their book. The ladies here also use plants cosmetically. They have something called Masonjoany which is a paste made from rubbing a particular stick on a stone with some water. This is then applied to the face, not at night, but left on all during the day and usually removed at night (I'm told). So, one often sees these ladies walking around, bucket of water or fruit or whatever on their head with a yellowy/white face smiling at you. Very becoming in a strange sort of way.

Mahajanga, where we flew after Ile Sainte-Marie, wasn't our favourite place but airline schedules and a curtailed national park visit (more later) meant that we spent five nights there. These included my 49th birthday, celebrated with a pretty decent pizza after which the waiter chased our taxi down the street with such gusto we thought we'd not left enough money. Actually, he said, 'you've left too much'. Er, that's your tip dude. He was actually quite shocked and we've realised since that tipping is somewhat of a rarity here but much appreciated. We also spent two days doing absolutely nada at the Piscine Hotel. For £3 each you get to laze around (and use) their 50m swimming pool. It's very hot in Mahajanga in November so this was absolute bliss, despite the diluted sea-water contents and the dozens of screaming kids clearly on swimming lesson #1.

So, we did spend one night at the Ankarafantsika national parc, 120km from Mahajanga. On the upside we saw a tiny nocturnal mouse lemur on our night walk and and a new (for us) species of sifaka lemur by day which was beyond gorgeous.  I really never expected to love lemurs this much but they are beautiful, inquisitive, entertaining, athletic, cute and cuddly with amazing piercing eyes, pointy snouts and at this time of year, often seen with babies hanging on to mum. What's not to like?!

Sadly, our visit to this park will be best remembered for another reason. While on our night walk, our bungalow was broken into and they stole a bunch of cash as well as a bunch of stuff. Most annoyingly they took my prescription sunglasses (police are looking for a local with cool shades who keeps bumping into stuff), both our binoculars, Jo's iPod and speakers, my sleeping bag, Jo's hiking boots, her snorkel and mask and possibly worst of all.....our East Africa Lonely Planet. I mean, the cash I can understand and that doesn't hurt too much. But most of the rest of it....!!!!? So, having moved bungalow for the night, we go to meet the (ultra contrite) parc director the next day. I've never heard anyone grovel in Malagasy before but he did it well enough that we suspected this might not have been the first robbery at the parc. A small bribe (to not go public, but we will anyway, in a nice way) and a written apology later, we get to spend a happy half hour in the presence of two of Madagascar's fine young police officers. They were thorough and detailed in their questioning but we doubt very much if the thieves will ever be caught. Probably snorkeling off the Mombasa coast by now.

A few days later we board another plane (on time yet again Air Mad!) up to Diego Suarez near the very North of Madagascar. We're staying in a really lovely place with great views, friendly staff, excellent wi-fi, linen changed every day, air-conditioned en-suite room and BELIEVE IT OR NOT a mini-bar in our room. We were blown away. All this for a mere £22 a night. One thing I do love about rooms like this is how having a mozzie net erected around the bed gives it a real 4-poster, fairy-tale kind of feel. Oh, and even better, the bed here is so comfortable. Most of the beds here in Madagascar, for some reason, are severely bowed in the middle like Babar the elephant has been hibernating there all Winter. I have to keep some basic mountaineering equipment near at hand in case I have to scale the mattress to visit the loo in the middle of the night!

Today we visited National Parc Montagne d'Ambre. We had a lovely walk in the relatively cool forest, spotting lemurs, chameleons and birds as per usual. (We really never tire of this.) Today though, we met a record-breaking beast. The smallest chameleon in the world which is a tiny 3cm long. Despite it's microscopic size it exhibits all the usual fab features of these crazy creatures (poetry!) ie 360 degree independent eye sockets, funny grabby hand thingies, colour changing trickery and the elastic super-long tongue. Obviously this one's not that long though. Tomorrow we head for a day sprawled on the beach by the turquoise waters of emerald bay (was that a non-sequetor or an oxymoron or just crap writing?), then we head by taxi-brousse to our next parc.

Before leaving you though, I must share our excitement at having to choose our relevant sizes, online, for our London Ambassador (Olympics) uniforms. In anticipation of your question, we don't yet know what these will look like (those cunning organisers are keeping us salivating for now) but I can reveal of what they consist (including my sizes):

2 x polo shirt L (42-44")
1 x jacket L (42-44")
1 x fleece L (42-44")
1 x pair black trousers length:Tall (33') Waist :34"
1 x trilby hat L

Apparently, we’ll also be sent a London Ambassadors baseball cap, water bottle and backpack - and you get to keep the lot. You may see me patrolling the railway stations of London in early August on my late shift one evening. Do come and say hello. Until then (or the next blog) a bientot!

Robert