RN7

I'm writing this from our hotel in Toliara at the southern end of the RN7 - a road that stretches about 1000km from here to the capital, Tana. We made our way down here over a week or so using the local 'taxi-brousse', essentially a minibus that leaves when full...then usually gets fuller. The 'national' version of these carry 14 people and are relatively comfortable. The 'regional' version carry 18 (same vehicle) and are rather more chaotic.

But first a detour. Madagascar is a large island. In fact, it's three times the size of Britain and the 4th largest island in the world. Can you guess the top three? A clue, Australia doesn't count as it is a continental land mass. Trust the Aussies to go one better! Given its size, navigating it is a challenge. It does have about 20+ airports but flights are routinely late, often infrequent and usually booked up weeks in advance. Travel by road means taxi-brousse or hired driver and the latter is seriously expensive. There is also just one passenger railway.

The train from Fianarantsoa to Manakara is scheduled to take 7 hours. On the way it has 17 stops and passes through nearly 50 tunnels. The railway and the train were built in the 30's by the French and little investment seems to have occured since. Consequently our journey took 11 hours (nothing to do with leaves on the line) but apparently we were quite lucky! We travelled first class along with several groups of French tourists and there was an excitement on board reminiscent of the halcion days of the railways as we creakily pulled away from Fianarantsoa.

The highlight of the trip were the stops on the way. Every station was packed with locals staring at us staring at them, each of us caught in a bubble of fascination for the strange world in front of them. That this train passes through 6 times a week seemed not to dilute at all the entertainment value for the locals. Trayfuls of food and a variety of craft items were offered at each station - it was one long mobile picnic. Everything from samosas, dried fish, salads, chicken and even beer. The appointed lunch stop had the 'platform' bedecked with tables full of goodies - a spread that would not have been out of place at lunch during an English village cricket game.

I cannot adequately describe the wonderful colour and diversity of the lovely people all the way along our 11 hour trip. Endless amusement that is best illustrated through Jo's photos on Facebook. The stations were a cornucopia of laughter, smiles, waves and open incredulity at these strange white people grinning from the windows of the train. Between stations also, children lined up to wave like scenes from the Railway Children.

So we arrived, knackered, in Manakara where we rested before setting off on the rest of the journey back to and down the RN7.....and the taxi brousses.

First stop was Ranomafana where we visited the national park and saw 6 species of lemur. Then on to Fianarantsoa from where we caught a taxi-brousse. The station there is complete madness. As we rocked up in a taxi, about 6 guys started shouting at us to use their taxi-brousse (without any idea of where we wanted to go) and one even jumped into our moving taxi to get front of the queue. A couple of hours and three changes of vehicle later we set off and reached Ambalavao where we visited another national park. This was special. The groups of ring-tailed lemurs there are semi-tame as the local guide has visited them twice a day for 13 years. Consequently we followed them at very close quarters from their late afternoon feed all the way up onto high rocks where they bedded down together for the night. Many were carrying babies and so Jo's camera was white hot by the time we scrambled back down through the encroaching dusk.

So, fab place but one catch. The village is too small to have a taxi-brousse station. This meant some real shenanigans and a 4 hour wait for our 6 hour journey through a tundra-like landscape. However, we made it to Ranohira about 6pm, where we visited D'Isalo national park the next day. There we hade a beautiful 13 km hike, saw a few animals including an incredible big stick insect and had a couple of welcome dips in natural pools. Ranohira is also too small to have its own station but somehow our guide got his mate to find us and sort us out. Or so we thought.

Next day we're up and ready for our 7am departure. Half an hour later our vehicle arrives. Not a taxi-brousse but an estate car, designed for about 8 passengers. We were directed to the front seat which we had to share between us. The others were stuffed in the back. A few kilometres later we stop and there are about 6 people and several large sacks waiting to join us. Surely not?! Oh yes. We are now c16 people stuffed into this vehicle with 4 in front. The driver has to reach over a passenger to change gear. The car has no starter so has to be jump-started. Luckily we're on a downhill as we set off with our increased cargo.

About 25k along we're shoved out to await the actual taxi-brousse. We have booked three seats behind the driver having learned that these are the most comfortable and that two ain't enough. Of course these seats are all occupied but after some argy-bargy we get sat down. This is a regional vehicle so can carry 18. However, a good few more get stuffed on until I end up with the conductor virtually sitting on my knee! Every 30k or so there is a checkpoint with armed gendarmerie. Any overloading of the vehicle leads to a severe talking to and mandatory bribe. So whatever extra Ariary these folk earn seems to be entirely used up in bribes! Weird.

So, with the RN7 behind us we have a few days on the beach to recover before returning the 1000km to Tana over Monday and Tuesday next week, hopefully hitching a ride with a returning driver having dropped off his tourists. We have also booked ahead several domestic Air Madagascar flights for the next few weeks so we'll see how these go. Before leaving you however I should share another of our challenges. Money.

The largest note here is 10,000 Ariary, about £3. Many towns don't have ATMs so we need to hoard cash in advance. This means occasionally taking out upwards of a million Ariary. The cash machines will only dispense 200,000 Ar a time. Not because of any financial limit but rather the physical challenge of how many notes fit through the withdrawal drawer at one time! Forty is the max. So yesterday I stood for some time at an ATM using different cards, three times each (another limit) to withdraw 1.2 million Ar which we carefully stashed away in various pockets, wallets and sunglass cases. Madness.

Right, breakfast time now before heading up the coast to Ifaty along a rough track for 2-3 hours. Easy-peasy. A bientot!

Oh, by the way, Greenland, New Guinea and Borneo.