Discover Top Posts Tagged with #antananrivo

Ampefy, Madagascar

Last Friday we went to Ampefy a town around 2 hours drive from the capital with Mam's little Sister Mino and her boyfriend Douda. The initial plan was to leave at 8pm but we ran on African time so we were all ready around 9.30pm... but what happened was... we went partying at the Carlton Hotel Club instead. #wisechoice The Club brought together Madagascar's finest people so to say because it's a bit expensive but still cheap as hell for Europeans. So after a lot of "Ti Ponch" we finally got home, pretty late. We agreed on waking up at 7am African time, so we left home at around 9am to Ampefy.

Voyager tel un clandestin

Douda had his car from work. We were 4 persons and the car was a transporter with only 2 seats. Solution : throwing a mattress in the back of the car with 2 peeps on it ! it was a good idea actually because we didn't get controlled by any police, a thing that happens a lot when you are a white man in Africa... So I was basically hiding in the back of that transporter for a couple of hours like a gypsy running from something. It was a really fun experience.

(Me in my Limo)

The Lake

One of the first things I saw coming out of my clandestine ride was the huge lake that surrounds the whole town of Ampefy. In the Afternoon after finding a hotel with view we went to the Lily Falls in the village right next to Ampefy. On the way back we bought some fresh fish right next to the road. So again, I was in the back of that small truck, at some point we stopped as I smelled rotten fish. I got out and I saw Douda buying one kilo of that fish. I wasn't pretty confident about eating these smelly little things...In that street “shop” they were just laying everywhere, on the ground, in dirty plates, on dirty tables... anyways, we went back to our hotel and the cooks helped us preparing the fish with salt and Rosmarin and we put them on the barbecue... Guess what, they were EXCELLENT, the best fish I ever had and I had not even a small sign of sickness ! Of course, we bought some rum as well to go with our fresh dish. Madagascar is pretty famous for making good rum, so we bought a small bottle of "Cuvée Noire" from Dzama, the most famous rum brand here. we payed 1,30€ for that bottle. In the evening after chatting with the maids and cooks and after playing Dominos, we went to bed really early in our double bed plus small bed plus mattress from the car room. Mam was snoring as usual, so we had to hit him until he stopped. it worked.

(View from the Hotel)

(Sunset from the Hotel)

Jizzer

On Sunday we woke up really early to go to the Geysers 24km away from Ampefy, the road was only good for a couple of kilometers than we went off road for around 30 minutes. So before starting that trip, we had a little breakfast of our own. Douda and Mino went to pick some fresh Guyaves in the garden a couple of meters down in direction of the lake and bought some avocados as well. The Maids helped us to make Juice out of the fruits. Fresh breakfast with view to start a perfect day. Mam and I could actually sleep all the time we travelled in the car, the mattress and our positions were really confy. At some point after 30 minutes of bumpy road we saw the light again. The Geysers are natural and clean gas water sources that splashes out of some random rocks. To get there we had have to cross a bridge made of maybe 3 pieces of wood and about 2 nails every 4 meters, it was crossing a river with strong flow...