14. Info center for climbers

Tuesday 19. 9. - Since we go to bed early, I am awake at 4 AM. It was the same today. Rado and Šaňo have decided for a rest today. Rasťo will not come with us today neither. There left three of us again to work on Lemur Wall. Rasťo wants to see the Vatovarindry tower. Not too much time left for him and he flies back home in a week. The time flows very quickly. Ivan Be persuaded me that today he will drill and hard job in the upper part of the face will be left for me.

At the morning, I finally constructed a hackysack. I succeeded in construction very well. I tested it immediately. The preparation of this ball is very simple. You will use one sock, fill it with rice and sew it.

We came under the Lemur Wall in record 30 minutes. It is a similar trek as from Popradské pleso to Ostrva in High Tatras. Only the heat is more horrible. It is Bahamian blue again. The dry season is a dry season. We were working in wall without any useless stops. Ivan Be placed his first bolt from hook and he placed them 7 together, actually 8, but he damaged one. He left the matrix screwed out and during the nailing of bolt he damaged the thread. We have to be careful in every detail. However, it is not so bad, at least we know what to be afraid of next time. In addition, it could not be pulled out. It was turning in that hole. Ivan placed the bolts very far one from another, it did not look as he was doing it for the first time. We finished the climbing at 17:00, corrected the anchors and abseiled down. We advanced next 40 meters. We stopped in Camp Catta that is right under the walls. You cannot miss it. We wanted to know who climbed here this year. We found there a notepad in which where all the schemes of first ascents in Tsaranoro area. This is something for me, finding out of information for climbers, I am the journalist of Jamesak still! Info center on Madagascar, great, isn't it? I will sit here and drink a beer, if it would not be so expensive 6000 francs.

According to sketches we found out all the ways on Lemur Wall and Karambony, we could not find only the Lemuren Schreck. According to British magazine High 1999 is this way on the Lemur Wall. It's authors are great German climbers Bernd Arnold and Kurt Albert who climbed it in the year 1995. In the mag it is described so unclearly that nobody knows the right path. We studied the sketch from authors very carefully but none part of the Lemur Wall looked like it. After a while, we found out why. Only the next information from Albert and Arnold revealed that their way goes to Mahasoa mountain. Not even natives could tell us where it is. The mystery remained mystery, even it was not so big. At least we knew that Lemuren Schreck does not go on any of the towers of Tsaranoro massif. Beside that, we had detailed scheme with the classification of single pitches, there are 8 of them (6a, 6b, 6c, 7a+, 6c, 5, 6a, 6a+) and the way is 300 m long. It looks like a climbing in plates.

Only climbers from Poland were here this year, they went away 2 days before our arrival. What a pity that we did not met them. They made two first ascends. They made a way Tato Tato (classification 6a) on Le Dondy that is a mountain just opposite to Tsaranoro in the days 27. - 28. 8 2000. It’s authors are Waldemar Nemec and Michal Zielinsky. It has 21 pitches, 1160 meters, pure climbing time is 9 hours, and they placed nine bolts in the way. They made a hard first ascent in the Tsaranoro massif on tower Kely, called Cucumber Flying Circus. It has 580 m, it goes left from the Out of Africa, classification 7b+, compulsory 7a. They climbed it freely at 8.9.2000. It is made up from 13 pitches (5+, 5+, 6b, 6a+, 6c, 7a, 7b+ [30 m, 13 bolts] 7a+, 7a, 7a, 6c, 6b+, 6a+). For its repetition is needed 15 expresses and two 60-meter long ropes. Authors are two climbers from Krakow: Boguslav Fic, Tomasz Samitowski, W. Niemec, Krysztof Zielinski. Another white place on Tsaranoro map is filled. Contact address is: kiesell@fb.com.pl

A very happy moment was awaiting me in our camp. Those idiots put sardines to spaghetti and I could only wipe my mouth. The fat will get slim and slim will croak, death to vegetarians! I wanted to start eat fish, but those sardines stink so much. So I ate just rice, mihinana vary – I eat rice. I was very pleased that natives found a big chameleon in our camp. One of the natives threw down a chameleon from the tree for 1000 francs. This creature survived a fall from the 12-meter height without any harm. Rado, Šaňo and Rasťo made photos of him and gave him to central tree. I am curious if I will find him at the morning when he knows to camouflage himself so perfectly.