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Today we ditched the minibus and moved to 4x4s and finally got to use our legs…although not before some more group bonding with typically silly breakfast banter. In between the omelette and fried egg orders we found a lot more about our trekmates names..and that confusingly Al is Clive, Mark Dave, Hannah  Chiggers and Kristine became Catherine…then Caroline.

After breakfast we headed to a local paper making workshop. Interesting to see long standing traditional methods and how flowers and leaves are embedded into the paper.

We moved into 4x4s. There was a slight misunderstanding on our part about how many people per vehicle and so ended up in the folded down seats in the boot which meant a cramped and uncomfortable ride…but think we styled it out. The 4×4 ride was fun and we stopped a few times. Sometimes this was deliberate such as a stop to view a local cattle sale (complete with the occasional stampede) and a meeting with a little lad who found an ingenious alternative to a backpack for his coke bottle. More often though the stops were unscheduled as one of the vehicles kept breaking down bringing the 4×4 convoy to a halt.

 

When we reached the entrance to Andringitra National park we left the 4x4s and  started the hike. This took us initially through a village seeing houses, rice stores, and a quick stop off to see their medical centre. There were many health information posters on the walls on hygiene and washing your hands (although no plague posters so we could all give a sigh of relief)

 

 

It was a privilege to trek through Andringitra National park. The granite of the mountains is around you at all times and scale is very humbling. The national park is a world heritage site and was established in 1969. It covers 31,160 hectares (77,000 acres) including much of the Andringitra mountains. The altitude of the mountains varies from 700 metres (2,300 ft) right to 2,658 metres (8,720 ft) at the peak of Pic Boby, the focus of our trek. Pic Boby is the second highest mountain in Madagascar. It is supposedly named Pic Boby after a frenchman’s Dog called Boby who was the first to reach the summit.  It is referred to by locals as Imarivolanitra meaning ‘close to the sky’). It is hard to see the peak as it is is behind the granite facade we could see but the huge rock face and big sky made the view impressive anyway. Especially those ominous smoke clouds…but they don’t mean anything right?

 

 

Our guide Fano kept the energy going and during one short break even rocked out on the rock. See the Fanoramic shot below.

 

 

We trekked over rocky landscapes over interesting formations and rudimentary bridges. Our local guide Martin (yep, Martin) outlined the route we would take to the peak of Pic Boby.

 

 

There were some great views and plenty of chances to pose on top of rocks with the mountain range in the background, even got a cheeky Brucie pose in.

 

When we finally arrived at the camp we were amazed to see that the porters and guides had already set everything up. Tents were up, meal was cooking, toilet was (eventually)…dug and we were given an amazing musical greeting to camp as we arrived. It was a magical moment and full of warmth and humour as Martin broke out into a solo dance too. I now take back any criticism of my own Dad’s dancing…I had never realised he was channelling so many Malagasy moves into his routines.

 

Mind you…that smoke? Anyone else thinking Mount Doom?