Posted by: christa&norbert
Re: Madagascar - 01/06/06 04:35 PM
Hi,
we were already in Madagascar and can report some experiences of our own.
Surprisingly there is a MTB-guidebook available. It contains tours in the Tana area and is sold in the departue hall of Tana airport. So we found it when we left the country.
We toured Nosy- Be and planned to make a tour through the Sambirano valley over the Massif du Taratanana. In the upper Sambirano valley the cyclabe roads and paths ended and we had to carry the bikes most of the time. After long hours we reached the last village in this valley and tried to find porters for the 2000m ascent that lay before us. But we found nobody who spoke French and we found it impossible to communicate with those villagers. They obviously don't see Europeans very often.
So we gave up at that point and rode all the way back to the sea.
Actually we regret having given up, because it would have been possible to find French -speakers and porters in one of the lower
villages. Certainly it would have been an amazing trip.
The bicycle is the best means of transport in Madagascar. Many locals own shiny and well maintained bikes, even though the country is extremely poor. People are very friendly and there is no crime
(Tana is an exception).
But it is extremely shocking and sad that they are burning all there forests, making there country a desert.
we were already in Madagascar and can report some experiences of our own.
Surprisingly there is a MTB-guidebook available. It contains tours in the Tana area and is sold in the departue hall of Tana airport. So we found it when we left the country.
We toured Nosy- Be and planned to make a tour through the Sambirano valley over the Massif du Taratanana. In the upper Sambirano valley the cyclabe roads and paths ended and we had to carry the bikes most of the time. After long hours we reached the last village in this valley and tried to find porters for the 2000m ascent that lay before us. But we found nobody who spoke French and we found it impossible to communicate with those villagers. They obviously don't see Europeans very often.
So we gave up at that point and rode all the way back to the sea.
Actually we regret having given up, because it would have been possible to find French -speakers and porters in one of the lower
villages. Certainly it would have been an amazing trip.
The bicycle is the best means of transport in Madagascar. Many locals own shiny and well maintained bikes, even though the country is extremely poor. People are very friendly and there is no crime
(Tana is an exception).
But it is extremely shocking and sad that they are burning all there forests, making there country a desert.