Driving to Bekopaka

 Kati and Me on the Ferry

Today we continued up the Malagasy equivalent of Route 1 - the dirt road that runs from Morondava to Bekopaka and is only passable during the dry season.  We had just 100 km of road left but it took us almost eight hours to get to Bekopaka!  Now, in all fairness, about 2.5 hours were spent crossing the Tsiribihina River and in Belo Sur Tsiribihina, but still.

The road is torturous.  In just the three hours before we made it to the Tsiribihina River, we saw four cars that had broken down.  The driver of one old-school jeep had apparently gotten a flat, but didn't have a spare tire, so he took the bad tire off, started a fire, and set out to patch the hole himself.  The Malagasy are nothing if not ingenious when it comes to fixing problems without spending money.

"Tsiribihina" roughly translates to "that river which you must not try to cross."  It got its name because of a large population of Nile Crocodiles that inhabit the deep river.  In the past, they had used makeshift wooden rafts to cross the river, and I was getting excited as we pulled up to have that kind of hardcore jungle experience.  Unfortunately (or fortunately for just about everyone else), technology has come to the Tsiribihina.  They had built a wooden raft on two motorized long-boats, which substantially expedited the crossing.  Interestingly, the crossing is not directly across the river.  Rather, the ferry takes you down the river 4 km to Belo Sur Tsiribihina.  They squeezed four cars, a motorcycle, and roughly two-dozen people onto a single ferry.  Now, getting those cars on the ferry was quite an ordeal.  The ferry was at the bottom of a steep, eight-foot hill and they put curved steel platforms from the hill to the ferry.  If your car went off those steel platforms, it (and you) were toast!  Faly, however, was a master and navigated onto the ferry with no problem.

As we waited on the ferry for the other cars to load, we got a look at the Malagasy river culture.  From the variety of hotels, "hostelys," and restaurants catering to the river traffic, to the commerce flowing south, there was a lot to see and we got some great pictures.  The crossing itself probably took 25 minutes, though it will take twice as long coming back up the river on the way back.  As we got off the ferry at Belo, we were accosted by young children talking very quickly in Malagasy.  After talking with Marc, we learned that they were asking for our water bottles, so that they could sell them for reuse or recycling.  Throughout Belo, the kids were very aggressive in looking for, and repeatedly asking for bottles, even if they weren't empty.

We stopped at the Karibo Hotel & Restaurant in Belo for lunch.  It seems to be the place that all of the tourists eat.  I suspect that's because it has walls separating it from the bustling streets outside, so tour guides and most of their clientele feel safer there.  Kati and I both had some great barbecued prawns and some THB while watching the Malagasies go about their daily business in the city.  My favorite was a guy across the street, smoking a cigarette right below a  giant "no smoking" sign on the front of the petrol station.  Kati also saw an old guy wearing an old bachelorette shirt!

Me at Lunch in Belo

After lunch we had another 3-4 hours of driving, but luckily the road was in better shape.  The last Malagasy Prime Minister was from the area and had promised to make the road better.  We passed a number of places where construction workers were busy rehabilitating ruined sections, laying out new dirt, of firming the road out with steamrollers.  In one instance, we got to be the very first car to drive over a newly laid section of road...right after the dirt spreader got out of our way!

Unfortunately, we also passed a number of areas that were being burned and cleared by the locals.  Some charred areas of the forest were miles long and went back as far as the eye could see.  They clear this land so that they can make rice fields.  The problem is that the Malagasy use antiquated cultivation methods and are not nearly as productive as they could be.  Even clearing large tracts of land will not produce enough rice to support a village or prevent them from having to purchase rice from elsewhere.  An interesting aside, the Malagasy eat more rice than anyone else in the world.  That includes Japan, Vietnam, and all of the other asian countries! 

About halfway through our afternoon drive, we stopped to stretch by a watering hole where a number of local kids were swimming and washing clothes.  Several of them were fascinated by my camera and kept insisting that I take pictures of them, even going so far as to dance while I did.  Finally, we got to Bekopaka and crossed one more river - the Manambolo River - before we got to our hotel, the Soleil des Tsingy.

The Soleil des Tsingy was only built in 2013 at the top of a mountain, and it is stunning.  The main building is completely open with thatched roofs, giant wooden beams, and a view of the forest around it.  There's also an infinity pool overlooking the forest below.  Our bungalow is also incredible.  We've got a king-size bed, complete with a mosquito net that makes Kati feel like a princess, an amazing front patio with a view of the sunset, and a giant bathroom where you can hear lemurs calling to each other as you take a shower.

Sunset at the Soleil Des Tsingy Pool

It was a long day of driving, and we were both hot and exhausted, so we decided to take it easy.  After taking a dip in the pool and grabbing a bottle of THB's "Fresh" (a disappointingly low-alcohol beer with a great and refreshing taste), we sat down to watch the sunset.  After that, we grabbed dinner, which included a zebu carpaccio with pesto and cheese, tilapia with roasted vegetables in a cream sauce, and some sort of panna cotta-like dessert.  It was all excellent.

Tomorrow we're going to split the day in half.  First, we're going to take a pirogue up the Manambolo River to see the tsingy from below, check out some caves, and see the Malagasy tombs built into the cliffs.  Then, after grabbing lunch back at the hotel, we're going to take an afternoon hike in the Petite Tsingy.  With any luck we'll see not only some great views, but some more lemurs and other wildlife!