Some really good news came early on, we are now remoniterised with Youtube after a month in the wilderness. It's no use saying anything, they are the main outlet outlet for our revenue now that the transport rally scene has gone down the pan. I've got the Reunion trailers online at Youtube already. There was certainly a good mix of vehicles there and the trucks in Madagascar are myriad in their origins although the German Mercedes L class short bonnet jobs were very widespread. Anyway without further ado here are the covers of the DVDs completed and ready to go on the PMP shop.
Not a bad day really, we managed to re-adapt to our normal nights sleep albeit we went to bed at 9pm as we were falling asleep. We had a mountain of DVD orders to clear, finally got them to the post office at about 2pm by which time with our normal postie on leave we had our days post. There was so much there was no chance of adding it to the days post but it is all ready to go tomorrow. Mandy has started making our Christmas cake. I started editing the Madagascar DVDs after getting all four of the Reunion ones finished and covers done, 3 out of 6 from Madagascar finished leaving three to do tomorrow. The weather looks as if it might be on for Newcastle on Thursday and perhaps Chesterfield Friday, we'll double check before setting any alarm clocks. Some really good news came early on, we are now remoniterised with Youtube after a month in the wilderness. It's no use saying anything, they are the main outlet outlet for our revenue now that the transport rally scene has gone down the pan. I've got the Reunion trailers online at Youtube already. There was certainly a good mix of vehicles there and the trucks in Madagascar are myriad in their origins although the German Mercedes L class short bonnet jobs were very widespread. Anyway without further ado here are the covers of the DVDs completed and ready to go on the PMP shop. Next lets have another look at the photos I took on the Indian Ocean trip. We are already looking forwards to planning next years trip but meanwhile lets start with Reunion. A long trip home via Madagascar to Mauritius and then an awful Air France flight to Paris, old Boeing crate, awful food, plane falling apart, entertainment channel of yesteryear etc but a much better short hop from Paris to Manchester. Fed the birds, sorted out the shops, downloaded DVD orders which will go out tomorrow. Trying to get back on top of things which have piled up in our absence. Nothing major has happened although the sink hole in the pavement outside our house has been fixed. I'm downloading all the footage and of course there are masses of photos which I realise many have been waiting for since we left ,the first batch start in Madagascar as I think that is the part most are wanting to see So there we are the lodge where we stayed for several nights near RN2 the main road to the port which we visited last. Lets look first at some trucks on the RN2 Very few full sized buses in Madagascar mainly confined to the Tana to Tamatave road linking the capital and port, we a meagre tally it was increased by three on the way back to the airport but they were involved in a serious crash. The height of the mountains from Tana eastwards necessitates many hairpin bends and subsequent accidents and breakdowns are the norm at frequent intervals marked by a couple of branches piled up before and after the incident or breakdown. Bus fans will get more out of Reunion where Transdev is the major interurban operator who also have several operations in England. The truck tally in Madagascar was quite good but new Chinese lorries are starting to filter through Today was our last full day in Madagascar, the weather yesterday was mainly dry, hot hot and sunny and today followed suite akbeit tropical downpours thriugh thenight woke the girls bu not me.. overallowe enjoyed the sunny golf hotel eventh its few faulta the foodf room and pool eere allaspot on other than the random breakfast which was aala carter but just came without asking in a weird mixture which changed daily. I suppose it's as bad as the spell check on the blog using Stanley to create it. Terry our driver was about late even at his revised later time as he can't get up as he is so tired even when he hasn't done much but he has been a good soul and done everything we asked and driven safely within madagascan ideas of safety on the road. It was the drive back to the forest lodge at vakoma after I had tweaked the trip to accommodate the slow progress on the roads which were generally better than envisaged but tortuous at times. First though we went to the main market to negotiate for some vanilla which Terry bargained down from .hundreds of pounds to about twenty-five, sue and mandt are splitting it between them. Twe filled up with fuel ready for the journey, it uses quite a bit , we haven't covered many miles really but lots of steep climbs and white of off road. The journey first took us north to brickaville then East which goes through the mountains to nearly akilometre above ground level and only descends a bit to thehotel. En route we saw as many full size buses as I'd noted at the bus station but this time they were piled up in a nasty multiple pile up, another crash more mundane was climaxed by the last which had a lorry and trailer down the mountain side and an assorted amount of vehicles suitable dented off the road. Back at vakoma finishing the last of the reunion gin, Terry the driver is joining us shortly for a drink. In the morning we have breakfast at six thirty and depart at seven which hopefully will get us to the airport with some hours to spare the trip is fairly involved and obviously a different routing going via Mauritius then to Paris with air France and again with them to Manchester. I always rate them as there is good wine and food and ice creams through the night but we hope the fuel protests don't have any effect on the airport. So next blogs probably at airports if possible otherwise back at home l ,Click to edit.
So thetjourney nearly cimes to anvend, we hsve been comfortable andaenjoyed our dtsy at the happy golf hotel ehich we selected after rejecting the seedy looking restaurant ocean 501 but sitting by the pool this afternoon as I was out filming Mandy and she spotted a suspect European with a very young looking local girl checking in. It has it seems long been a problem in the country but this morning we passed on our way to a nature reserve the stone chippers. A sight I first saw in 1980 in Sri Lanka when we met up with Mandy's cohesion Bernie. They chip ricks ricks yo ever smaller pieces, back breaking monotonous work but this morning we saw them still engaged in such labour near the reserve which many westerners must pass through. The animals have a lot of care and attention but humans care less well. The workers included children down to about 06 or 7 years old, a large proportion of rural kids in Madagascar have to work to support their fsmilies. In the reserve as well as some more rare or endangered captive species of lemurs were other living here in the wild although we only appointed the one black and white lemur and nothing else of note. The girls went back to the hotel with its huge pool and I went out with driver terry and started my filming by the port entrance, no hassles at all and then moved out to the roundabout where traffic enters the town and port, I got some great shots of some golden classic trucks, some of the best I got all week plus lots of lovely sunshine as it climbed back to about 30c and humidity soared after the rain, a few drops later in the day but she and Mandy had enjoyed the unexpectedly luxurious sun beds which looked home made but we're super comfortable. It's been a good spot to end in but we start our travels back tomorrow with a trip back to famous forest lodge and then Sunday an early start to the airport at tana. I've felt safe and secure everywhere I've filmed althalthough asking around at night would be stupid. I think I would tackle tana itself after the second city but the nearest I'll get is shots through the vehicle window. It's an Hyundai car from South korea, it hasn't let us down, Terri got the tyres and oil checked this morning. I had a local ice cream today, not that good to be honest, far better a banana split in the hotel. I'll blog from famous and maybe from airports on return via Mauritius and Paris. We get back Monday breakfast time.
We are now at Tamatave on the Madagascan coast and it has rained much of the journey from vakona forest park through the mountains to the coast. When we arrived we all thought that the ocean 501 hotel I'd booked felt a bit seedy with a number of dishevelled Europeans sitting around drinking beer, fly covered and shabby although the room looked acceptable. Anyway we got on wifi and ended up at the cavernous golf hotel by the decrepit airport which reminds me of the old style Burmese rural air strips. The room is very spacious and even had world service and decent sir find in the room, a huge swimming g pool but generally the hotel is empty. Hoping for sun tomorrow should be back at top twenties again and sunny if so we'll go to ensure park a few minutes further north and then drop the girls back at the hotel swimming pool and I'll go truck filming near the port. The bus station seemed to have some full size buses which I'll have a look at on Saturday before we depart back to vakona to overnight and on to the airport on Sunday, if the weather is good I can get nice shots of trucks which make up most of the traffic as we travel along
out again with our driver terry and covered similar locations to yesterday stsrting with the railway crossing wghe
where a lorrylhad broken doen addjng to the slow passage already dictateddby the rail, road hump etc. The crossing man said we had missed seeing a traintby less than an hour, im diubtful if any passenger service now exists on the east west line probably justjfreight although the track is in good repair and concrete sleepers ii ok condition. The weather was overcaste to set and cool, the girls are now stir crazy with the rain forest and heading for the coast might with luck see an jncrease in temperature. I didnt see anything much different to the lorries I've already filmed but did find a nice raised hillock near the hotel turn off and got a great response from drivers as they could see me a long way off. Food at the lodge is very good but ringing a change won't be a bad thing, we actually got a safe key last night took three days of asking but great to be able to discsrd money belts for a day anyway. I got news from friend Roger that the remembrance evenrn the 11th saw a full house at st oswaldsOsa first for over a decade, some people were without seats, great to see the effort rewarded so well. Hope I can get a signal to blog tomorrow from the port and some different lorries to film. Apologies for not blogging last night I just forgot as we went on a very long nocturnal wildlife walk at teatime. So yesterday we went around the famous lodge grounds and to the islands where the various species of lemurs can be found, we were greeted by the brown lemurs which are the most cheeky chaps and will ounce all ober .You but you must not touch or stroke them. We were both buried in them some great photos, living near by were the tiny bamboo lemurs, a family group with a one year old youngster. We didn't see on young from this year, they tend not to breed if they have reached a certain population density. We went on to see how it and white large lemurs and ruffed lemur. The black and white on which is big climbed on me, a brown one came along and jumped on me as well and they had a scrap and I got acute on my chin but thankfully they are a fastidious oh clean animal and free from dressed, I hope. The food at the lodge is superb considering our location, local beer and French wine. Our own lodge is comfy but small and it is difficulty to sort all your clothes and kit out. Last night we had a 90 minute long nocturnal safari, saw a black and yellow striped tenric at very close quarters a couple of nocturnal lemurs one possibly a dwarf lemur. Huge quantity .of all manner of bugs, lizards, camelions etc. Then today aahour long slog to change money at a bank in the nearest large town on a full set morning, the first such on the trip and it was my filming day but by lunch time it cleared and we had a fair bit of sunshine. An eclectic selection of lorries of various ages, notable ex French and german that Clic here
That I noted today. The drivers are very friendly I had no problems filming and thus fortified we stopped in the town on the way back and got atmospheric town lorry shots. We then went to the railway station to see if any trains were expected, a lock was due in but over an hour onwards, they hadn't any old tickets they did search but gave us a valid one other than there are no passenger trains to use it on.tomorrow hopeful of blue sky and more trucks, Thursday we move on to the main port city of tamatave. Just have a beer before dinner, it gets dark at about five thirty. Well not a bad start yesterday, we had a very leisurely trip to reunion airport and dropped the car off then had a wait for the flight, we tried watching Corrie , reception was fine but it was a bit noisy but got the gist. The flight was fine and the hotel in tana was only a short drive from the airport, it was a bit of ashick to see where we were staying it looked a bit basic but actually it was very clean. It had everything we could have needed, was friendly and helpful and arranged a great zebu dinner and ice-cream to follow with real Madagascar vanilla. We all slept wiel, it was like a gites with three rooms one as a lounge and the others we used as bedrooms, we got coronation Street with sound plus emmerdale all in the mills of Madagascar with a better with to than reunion. The driver was a bit late picking us up but we had a good breakfast and enjoyed watching the hoopoes in the garden amongst many other birds. We were soon battling through what seemed horrendous traffic for a sunday, lots of trucks on the road. Nothing terribly ancient the usual mixed batch of hand-me-downs from Europe, lots of dafs, nerds, Renault plus a spattering of others .some go back a few marques but quite thick on the ground. Route taxis seem to provide a crowded if fairly consistent route network, I saw one old saviem bus in super condition. Too dangerous in tana to take pictures from the car with the window open. Generally a bit like Bangladesh all human life is in front of you on the pavement etc and all oblivions very visible. We have Terry our driver, very cautious driver, riads generally up to UK standards with a few rough bits but better than expected but it is the main road in the country, we bit about seventy mph at one stage, it's an ex Korean four by four, decide! Which is about a pound a litre which must be horrendoulyh expensive but then few own any sort of motor vehicle, thecamion orlorry is king. So much to see as we swept through the red eigth continent wait is sometimes called.. then we finally arrived mid afternoon at famous forest lodge which has its own areas of reservations and resident lemurs and crocs. We are going tometto some f the residents tomorrow morning. It's a bit of a nightmare for Mandy getting around the steps to our lodge which is nicely appointed but could be a bit bigger but I guess the verandah is where we will spend a lot of time. Some Brits here one night on a tour. I'm hoping to spend the rest of tomorrow filming the trucks on the main road, Terry will learn the basics in sure. Well back track to the last town one day as there was a junction and we lost a bit of traffic there. We are really on the fringes of the forest, there is lots to see, looking forwards to daybreak and the sounds of the forest animals and birds. Well do the nocturnes walk tomorrow evening.
Lets hopehthis blog makes it out to the big wide world better then last nights, its now esrly afternoon in reunion France in thetindian ocean and we are now enjoying time by the pool on the last afternoon. This morning i went down into the town where we have shopped at carrefours, we got some last minute suppliesyestedaysu and need totrefuek the carbefore returning it.its a volkswagen golg, hopeless boot and bewildering satnav but handled the steep mountsin hairpins with ease. Ive cleaned it out ready to return in the morning at the airport, after tea time we have been invited round to the owners house for drinks. The girls have got moxt of the packingdone. WeWare dropping the car off at eoeven am as we save a days rental and its opposite the check in so can alwayssit in the sun until later we probsblybosrd about three pm but iiguess there will be a lounge as it looks a good airport, lets hope Mandy's wheelchair is onboard with us this time. I'd looked up the timetable with the bus route for the double deckers and they stop by carrefours, first wasn't a decker but second in outbound directionality fly against the sun was got some good shots loading and moving off nearside. Did sometime near the sugar cane factory, a traffic jam developed at the junction with in and outbound tractors and lorries nobody would give way, then another decker went past, dived in the car, caught it up at the school stop but it moved straight off, followed until itvanished in distance in the grinding midday traffic, Réunion does traffic jams better the anywhere its size. Hoping to blog tomorrow perhaps in transit C here to edit.
Lost wholeblog as theowner came to invite us for dinner tomorrow and settleour rentalrfee, lost thetwholebloghe en here to edit.
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