Author Archives: todd

Toamasina – Ampasimadinika – Toamasina

Posted on June 8, 2008 by todd

Today, 5 days after my arrival, I set out for a first day-long ‘test ride’ on Malagassy soil. From Toamasina I cycled south on Route Nationale 2. The road was paved and in good condition. The (small) portion I cycled has moderate climbs. The countryside left and right is dominated by bushland and young forest. The central mountains can be seen on the west, The Canal des Pangalanes and the Indian Ocean on the east. The Canal des Pangalanes is a series of French-made canals linking natural lakes and rivers along the east coast of Madagascar, stretching south from Toamasina for more than 600km.

Every couple hundred meters there were people riding their bikes or walking on the road. Many greeted with a bonjour or salam(a) or salut and a smile. Many other answered when I said bonjour. One guy shouted bon voyage!.
I finally found a place with no people around and used the stove to actually cook something for the first time.

Right after the village of Ampasimadinika I stopped and returned to Toamasina on the same route.

Cycled: 99km

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Toamasina

Posted on June 7, 2008 by todd

During the past days I stayed with Heinz. He showed me around Toamasina, and gave me plenty of tips about traveling in Madagascar. He himself has been out and about all over the island on foot and with the bicycle, as well as (seemingly) all over the world.

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Arriving in Toamasina

Posted on June 3, 2008 by todd

Boring day on the boat.

At some point in the evening Madagascar came in sight at the horizon. We arrived in Toamasina but had to wait until long after dinner before we could touch Malagasy soil. Learned that I would only get my bike back tomorrow morning from 8am. Clearing customs was a hassle-free if a tad lengthy process.

Stepping out of the customs building at the city side, I was approached by a guy who asked me in French whether I had seen a German couple on the boat. Told him that I was German but hadn’t seen any others. Turned out he was a German expat himself, too, lived in Toamasina, and was waiting for German friends to arrive from Mauritius. When he was convinced that they weren’t on the boat he offered me a bed in his house for 30.000FMg (= 6.000Ariary ~ 2,40€) per night. I agreed and so we walked to his house in the outskirts/slum-like dwellings of Toamasina through dark, dusty, but interesting-looking streets. Sometimes the road was well-paved, sometimes it was badly damaged, and then again there were only sand or cobble stones.

Heinz has a simple brick house with 2 rooms and a kitchen; toilet and shower are outside in a separate building. I got a straw mattress and went to bed soonish. I hid entirely in my sleeping bag despite the temperatures for protection from the mosquitoes. The high-pitched ‘bssssssss’ was ubiquitous. I even wore my mosquito-net-cap-thingy! ‘bsssssssss!’ The night was kinda horrible.

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Leaving Réunion

Posted on June 2, 2008 by todd

Got up around 8.45am. Some of the folks in the house had already left at ~7am to go to the beach, surfing.

Put my bike together, said goodbye to Nils and left around 10am for Le Port. The road was quite hilly and the traffic there is pretty heavy. I soon realized I had forgotten a couple of things: my spare spokes and my bike lock, applying sun screen, having breakfast, taking some drinking water. Decided not to turn around but to try and call Nils from Le Port. Big mistake.

I mostly concentrated on road and traffic and didn’t see much of Réunion’s countryside or the villages I passed through. Eventually reached Le Port and easily found the SCOAM office where I had to fetch my ticket to Toamasina (aka Tamatave), Madagascar before 12pm.

Check-in was scheduled for 3.30pm. Tried to call Nils from my mobile. Friends of Nils’, Nico and Christiane, wanted to go to St Denis around 11am, and with some luck they’d not left yet and could drop by in Le Port. However, the ‘International Travel SIM card’ (SIM4Travel) I’d bought on the plane to South Africa didn’t work on Réunion. Bought a phone card at a post office but the public phones outside didn’t like my dialing. By that time I’d spent a couple of hours in Le Port and going back to Trois Bassins wasn’t an option anymore.

So I cycled to the eastern harbour where my ship was due to depart and stopped at the customs/check-in building. A couple of people were already waiting there. Among them a guy with wild beard and wild curly hair. He had a massive amount of luggage and came over to ask whether bike and backpack were my only baggage. I agreed to take one of his bags through check-in (but not through customs). More people asked if I could help them get stuff through check-in.

A French-Canadian couple arrived and we chatted a bit. They were going to Madagascar for the first time, too, and wanted to do some hiking and climbing over there.

Managed to get a phone from one of the other waiting passengers and tried to call Nils again. It worked but he didn’t answer. So I gave up on lock and spokes.

Check-in and clearing customs was easy. Got a cabin that I had to share with a Malagassy guy. He didn’t speak English and generally didn’t seem to be interested in conversation. Spent time on deck and in the lounge, had dinner, etc. Chatted with some of the other passengers, but all in all it was quite a boring afternoon and night.

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Johannesburg – Réunion

Posted on June 1, 2008 by todd

Finished packing the bike and my stuff in the morning.

At around 11am Kerry drove me to the airport before she went to work. In the queue of the check-in desk I met Nils from Berlin. He was returning from a surf trip to Jeffereys Bay/South Africa. He stays for 2 semesters on Réunion, studying biology. Talked about this and that, and also met Katie, a girl from the UK, participating in some kind of teacher exchange program on Réunion, returning from her trip through several South-African countries.

After landing in St. Denis, Réunion, we were waiting for our lifts. I had contacted a couchsurfing couple and they’d offered to pick me up at the airport. Nils and Katie were waiting for a friend of Katie’s. Neither showed up for quite some time. I went back inside to ask the lady at the airport information desk about an internet cafe nearby. As a reply she laughed me right in the face and asked me how I could have expected her to understand and speak English. I should have asked about that first, she said. All in perfect English, by the way. Eventually she pointed me at a café upstairs where I was able to check my email. There was nothing from my CS hosts, though.

Finally Katie’s and Nils’ lift arrived and Nils offered me to stay at his place for the night. So we packed my two bike boxes, four backpacks, and four people into one of these tiny French cars. Nils’ surf board was strapped to the roof.

It was quite a fun ride and Nils’ place turned out to be a good start for the ride to Le Port (where the ship to Madagascar leaves) the next morning, as cyclists are not allowed on the motorway between St. Denis and Le Port.
At Nils’ house I met Nico, Fanny, Fathme, Christiane, … and many more gals and guys who all trickled in from some festival they had been at and stayed at the smallish house. Some of them had even returned from a Madagascar trip recently. Had some beer and left-over rice.

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Johannesburg, day 3

Posted on May 31, 2008 by todd

Got up and continued building my little charging device. Kinda finished it – or rather a rough prototype. In the afternoon, Harry and I set out for a little trip – cycling. We rode out of the city – about 5km or maybe 10. There we met up with Michelle who cycled with us for a few more kilometers and then left the main route (and main road) to go by her own way. After reaching a T-junction and returning on a parallel road, we climbed quite a steep hill and enjoyed the view and the road down. Riding on the big roads that lead out of Joburg isn’t that great, obviously, but all in all the trip was very nice. We cycled approx. 50km in total. Like Joburg itself, the surrounding countryside has some hills. Everything is savannah-like brownish in colour. Kerry and Chantale didn’t join us as Chantale had twisted her ankle last night at the club.
After our return I started packing the bike.

Lance called from Amsterdam. Billy’s bike had been stolen despite being locked to the other two bikes, but they managed to buy a replacement in time for their first day of cycling.

We watched ‘Hitman’ in the evening, played some card games, and drank a lot of wine.

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Johannesburg, day 2

Posted on May 30, 2008 by todd

Friends of Kerry’s, Harry and Chantale, came over from Witbank for the weekend. Harry’s an avid cyclist, too, and brought his road bike.

Went out to Manhattan’s, some dance club, for the night.

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Johannesburg, day 1

Posted on May 29, 2008 by todd

Lance and Kerry, my couchsurfing hosts for the next few days, picked me up from the airport in the morning. They live in the south of Johannesburg.

Lance was about to leave for Amsterdam with two friends, Claudine and Billy, the same day. They were doing a trip they dubbed AmsterCow – cycling from Amsterdam to Moscow. So the day was spent packing Lance’s stuff. Later we drove to Billy’s house up in the north of Joburg, and then on to the airport. One of Claudine’s bags was snatched by a thief while we were having a fare-well drink at an airport restaurant, but luckily she dropped it and got caught. Claudine’s passport and tickets were in that bag…

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