I woke up early.
Paid for last night’s dinner and had a short (difficult) chat with an older guy. I asked him for directions to Manompana again and he pointed in the opposite direction, away from the wharf. Luckily I hadn’t taken the ferry last night, it would have brought me straight back to where I had come from!
The track was ok’ish to cycle. Massive flooded potholes that covered the entire width of the track made the ride very interesting. Some drizzle every now and then, most of the time for a few minutes only.
The countryside was extremly beautiful. Streams and rivers flow into the ocean without any human intervention, probably changing bed and mouth with every flood and storm.
Sometimes the track was sandy and I had to resort to pushing the bike again. Later the road climbed up some hills and the ground became stonier.
Came through Manompana, and some kilometers later I saw a sign saying something about a national park and some waterfall. I had seen the ANGAP (National Association for the Management of Protected Areas – national park service) office in Manompana, but hadn’t seen any people there (a rare thing) and didn’t know how all this stuff (i.e. visiting national parks) works here.
(Apparently I had some cold rice, cold chicken lunch in some village restaurant. Or so my notes say. Interestingly, I do not recall having lunch at all let alone stopping at a restaurant.)
Later I felt the need to find a place to sleep.
At that time, the road went parallel to the sea, with only a small strip of palm trees and thickish forest in between. The beach was beautiful! There were lots and lots of shells, sea urchin remains, and corals lying around. A couple hundred meters out was a coral reef were the waves broke. Finally I found a place that promised to be peaceful. I hung the hammock under a massive tree directly at the beach again.
