4. Finally Madagascar

Monday 11. 9. – I woke up at 3 a.m., active as a hungry fish. Dosky the same. I wish we were in the plane and had the airport ride behind us. Our airport transport came on schedule – my mother, and Kamila with her father. After packing all our gear and ourselves, every free space in the two cars was filled. At 4:30, we picked up Simko in Petrzalka, Sano in Jarovce 10 minutes later. Jaro appeared dressed in a tee-shirt and white hat, carrying only a small bag; Rado joked that he looked more like a cocaine dealer than a climber. But at least we are all together, with our gear, in the cars, heading for the airport, and the fun could begin.

We had a fortunately problem-free border crossing and by six a.m. we were at Schwecaht airport, just outside Vienna. Dosky was assigned the vital task of selecting the most friendly check-in counter agent, since he had practice from our Greenland expedition. Again he chose the youngest, prettiest girl and our gear magically checked-in with the 20 kilos overweight accepted at no charge.

Yesterday’s bean burritos attacked me twice and I was afraid I’d be in the airport toilet at boarding time. But we all made it, including getting our overweight carry-on bags aboard. Once we said we were “bergsteigers” the problem was solved.

Take off came at 7:20, we got a light breakfast and then landed in Paris in time. We had been afraid of problems caused by the petrol strike in France, but fortunately it was over on Sunday. But another problem appeared when the Air France employees got a look at our carry-on bags and decided to weigh them. We had 30 kilos! We were told we’d have to pay a huge overweight fee, high enough to destroy our entire financial reserve. But once again the magic word climbers pulled the right strings and our overweight bags were accepted as is. We were scattered throughout the plane and remained alone with our private thoughts and dreams for the next 12 hours. Nothing can make such a long flight comfortable, not the two meals and not the movies. During the night we crossed the equator and I was in the southern hemisphere for the first time. Unfortunately I was not able to see Kilimanjaro because of the darkness.

We landed in Antananarivo, Capitol of Madagascar, at 22:30. At the airport we had to pay $31 for visas. Nickname for this town is Tana. We hoped that Calvin would be waiting with good news about the car. When we got through customs, we went into the arrival area and saw a handsome black man holding a big sign with my name on it. We introduced ourselves to Calvin and the new members of our expedition – Calvin as guide, Doul as cook, and Jean-Jacques as driver.

Calvin had solved our transportation problem by acquiring a smaller utility vehicle for the previously agreed price, and then offered us his Seat Inca free of charge.

Just after midnight, we got to Calvin‘s house where he had prepared a small sleeping room for us. Frankly, we had not expected such a nice welcome as well as having our transportation problems solved on arrival. And so began our growing friendship with Calvin and a painless beginning to our expedition.