January 28th: Trip to Ambila-Lemaitso

Hello Madagascar rainforests, my how green you are today. :)

Back on the road for another 3-hour trip to the east coast. Our reason for coming to the east was to survey the littoral forests, which is vegetation that grows from sand soil. It is really interesting, I have never been in a forest that resides on sand! I was hesitant once we got into the region about the likelihood of Marasmius, but I was excited to see if they were here. The landscape changed from the jungle mountain terrain, to a flat sandy spread of palms (the famous traveler tree, so named for it holds water after the rains for travelers to drink from) and coastal scrub community. We passed the roadside town of Brickaville and continued along the old train tracks. At one point we turn onto this tiny dirt road that climbs up behind the town and drops you down into the nearby coast land. I asked Rocky “Is this the road? Are we driving on this?” he confirms by gasing the car up and over into pothole kingdom. If we thought the potholes in RMP were bad, these were much worse. In some places the car went sideways trying to scale the small bit of road left to drive on. Other parts were remedied with planks of wood that the car had to drive over, not a bridge, just two planks of wood...I would total the car if I was driving in this. Danny volunteered for the back seat, and I think he was beginning to regret this decision half way through this section of the drive. I was not feeling any good either. These roads make me so ill, which is funny because I hardly ever get car sick usually. Goes to show you how mad the roads are!

Ravenala madagascariens (Traveler tree)

Soon enough though we cross a small bridge, and in the river below is a jolly man taking his afternoon bath in some red boxer briefs. Emile gets very excited, and asks Rocky to stop the car. The half naked man is all smiles as he approaches the car. Emile knows this area well, he has friends here and spends his vacation time in these parts. Why was I not surprised when we were informed that this man was the ‘president’ or chief of the area. We had a short introduction and he welcomed us “enchanté!”. We continued along the road until we reach a large shallow estuary/river, the sea water coming in slowly onto the land. Another Toyota Land Cruiser was in front of us, very handy cars in this country, and was boarding a ferry to cross the river. How cool!

River crossing to Ambila-Lemaitso

The ferry was composed of six metal canoe-like boats that were strapped together and had planks of wood laying across them. They would line up some other planks of wood from the edge of the road to the ferry, and drive the cars over them. *Do not attempt this without Malagasy supervision.*Two cars could fit on the ferry with all the passengers. The water is very shallow, so we were pushed across by way of long sticks against the ground. It was awesome to experience, and for a moment we forgot about the car sickness, and the pressure of field work, we forgot about our day of travel and we were just there slowly gliding along the surface of the water just off the coast of the Indian Ocean in Ambila-Lemaitso, Madagascar. It was one of those moments you savor in a busy trip. It was beautiful, and I was relaxed for the first time this day. Sigh.

Once we crossed the river, we drove up the coast for another 10 minutes before reaching our very cool bungalow-style hotel. The manager was a customer service master, in Malagasy terms, and darted out from behind the bar to greet us with this cheesy smile that grew on me during our stay. He and Rocky chatted it up. Danny and I are now so used to Rocky just handling everything for us, it is a real luxury. In no time at all, we were looking at rooms and I was excited. These bungalows are situated on the shore of the channel coming in from the sea, the ‘natural bath’ as Artour, the manager, described them. Electricity here is run on solar power, which was not enough to meet our needs, and so we purchased a generator to power all of our equipment. We settled in, but it was getting too late to do a quick survey of the nearby littoral forest, and so we enjoyed some time off in this paradise of a town.

View from the bungalows, solar panel power, and fresh water to bath.

Ambila-Lemaitso used to be a hot tourist destination when the railroad, located across the street from the hotel, carried passengers up and down the coastline, but since they stopped carrying passengers, this town has evolved from a booming tourist beach town, to an abandoned village, to a quiet community by the sea. People here are fishers. They take these canoe-like boats out to sea with some nets and brave the waves. They have a healthy diet of rice, fish, and fruit, and so everyone here looks very healthy, and strong. The people here are beautiful!

I have to admit, it felt like we were on vacation, but I know I am here for work. Work couldn’t start until the next day, so for this moment we enjoyed some ginger and cinnamon infused rum and appreciated the moment. Once the sun set, I bathed in the water and watched the stars for the first time in a while. I often forget to look up when I am hunting for mushrooms, and it was a clear night and a beautiful sky in the warm water. Trip highlight. “Rest easy tonight, tomorrow is another day” I said to myself as I drifted off into a rum induced sleep.