Flying to Antananarivo

So day one and we have arrived in Madagascar at the beginning of nine months of travels.  After a hectic week of moving all our belongings into storage and getting our heads around packing for three months of rustic conditions, we flew to Antananarivo via Amsterdam and Nairobi. Stopping over in Nairobi airport whilst the terrorist siege of the Westgate Shopping Centre siege was ongoing made for a tense atmosphere, espectially as there had been arrests there yesterday. There was also recently a fire at the airport and it looked like operations were running from tents on the tarmac and the transfers were being organised from a whiteboard but in the end it all seemed pretty normal and flights were typically uneventful!

On arrival to Antananarivo we were prepared for things to start to get a little more interesting and it felt horribly unlikely that all our baggage would actually have made it. But sure enough it was fine, the only hiccup was that the police officer had stamped one of our passports with a date from twenty days ago. Fortunately we noticed this and got it adjusted, but you do wonder how many stamps have been wrong!

Antanarivo is the capital of Madagascar and is on the east of the island. We are staying for just one night before flying on to Toliara in the west, so just had an afternoon to explore the city. Our taxi driver, Monsieur Black, who wears a bright pink polo shirt with no front teeth, took us into town past rice paddies and busy traffic whilst rickshaws and zebu-drawn carts seemed to be overtaking us. An hour or so walking around the streets was enough to get a feel for the place before the busyness and persistent hawkers became tiring.

We stayed at Hotel Sakamanga (Blue Cat) and enjoyed dinner at its popular restaurant. Chocolate fondue seemed liked an over indulgence but we kept telling ourselves that our diet would be much more restricted in the months to come! We now just have to hope that Monsieur Black turns up at 0430 for our early morning flight out...