7. Further to the South

We slumbered till 8 AM. Calvin scared us a little bit, that he has spoiled car. But it is a miracle that such an old thing works. We had to stop and look 3 times under the bonnet yesterday. Something was broken and an engine was gradually falling. It had to be welded. We used this time to seethe city. We bought phone cards in Centre Diantana, and we started to call in the nearest phone box. The price of a card is 12700 francs and it last some 30 seconds of calling to Europe. We went to service; the car will be ready at 10:30. We were watching rickshaws, those men who pulled it could go to the Olympic games. They were pulling rickshaws on the asphalt and dusty roads barefooted. Very often, they were quite old runners. The price for a ride was 1500 francs that is about 10 crowns. We went back to the mission, where Dula was waiting us with the repaired car. We did not eat anything for breakfast, at least we had nothing to vomit. The distance between Antsirabe and province city Fianarantsoa is 240 km, which we made in 5 hours. A short distance before our aim we stopped at village called Ambohimaha, because we were so hungry as hunters. Everyone swallowed two big rolls with butter to beat the hunger in our bellies. We continued shopping in Fian. We bought rice, vegetables for funny prices here: 1/2 kg of soya, beans, peanuts for 1500 F, 1 kilo of rice 2500 F., 1 kilo of potatoes 750 F., 1 piece of pineapple 2000 F…We used native boys as a carriers, it was a great chance for them to earn some money. We filled a tank, bought petroleum to lantern and fuel to MSR cookers.

About 17:30, we were another 56 km southern in Ambalavao. It was the last bigger city before our aim Tsaranoro. We stopped closely before the town in one small alehouse. This region is well known because of its great vine and Calvin wanted to buy himself 3 liters of pink one. We tried it and it tasted heavenly. Dosky’s comment: “Calvin not 3, but 30 liters”. Price was only 2000 francs (14 crowns), cheaper than water.

If we had more canisters, perhaps we would imbibe nose between our eyes. Slovaks, you know. Calvin’s eyes were beaming with joy. 3 kilometers further we stopped again, this time it was because of cognac 10000 F a liter. We were acting like true alcoholics in Ambalavao. We had a teetotalism. One box of beer was away and so we had to recharge. Luckily, it was night, so we did not have to be ashamed of our look.

Calvin was teaching me Malagasy. You can see the result of his work in my dictionary. Calvin, our guide, belongs to high positioned politicians here in Madagascar. In addition, he is a teacher, a guide and I do not know what more. He is really a hard working man. The fact that he is a VIP helped us many times during our trip. Police officers often stopped us, because they wanted to earn some easy money. However, they were very disappointed every time Calvin showed them his identification card. Coppers saluted and without any other discussions, they leaved us. We were happy to be with Calvin because cops were often trained very well and God knows what would they do if Calvin was not with us.

We decide to snooze on the digression from the main road under Tsaranoro near the village Antanabao. We arrived to the specified place about 8 PM. It was a full moon and somewhere afar was sketching something big. That is vato be – Big rock – Tsaranoro, for the sake of we came here. We could not wait until the morning to see all that nature. We tried to cook a soup, but cooker MSR failed. It seems like we really have to cook Dul.