Cactus in flower
Beside the road to Berenty, we found cactus plants and forests of strange triangular palm trees, found nowhere else in the world outside Madagascar

This page about Madagascar and the eclipse is unashamedly about the photographs I took, as it is about travel. It is inevitable that when a trip is planned around an eclipse, and is to a place as rarely visited and beautiful as Madagascar, I will want to show off bigger images than on my other pages. Bigger images take longer to load, but when you see them, I hope you'll think the wait is worthwhile.

My other apology will become obvious as you read on. Madagascar is a place for Travellers rather than Tourists, and things will go wrong. Very little went wrong for us, and had we felt what happened during the eclipse was unavoidable, there would not be any polemic about the way we were treated. Customer service is something excellent firms increasingly spend time nurturing, empowering, exceeding expectations and all those other buzz-words which we have come to understand. We recognise a satisfactory goodwill policy when we see one. And whilst I am quite prepared to accept that Okavango Tours organise good holidays, they most certainly cannot be recommended for the way they treat clients when one goes wrong. So read on and see what happened.

I do not think we would ever have planned to visit Madagascar were it not for the total eclipse of the sun which took place on June 11th 2001. We saw the last eclipse of the 20th century from Cherbourg , and that was only because advance publicity warned that all the accommodation in Cornwall had been taken in advance, and the west of England would be so crowded. The easy answer seemed to be to reserve a cabin on the cross-channel ferry from Portsmouth to Cherbourg, thereby guaranteeing a bed for the night at a reasonable price and seeing the eclipse from the wider spaces of the French coast. It was an unexpected bonus that we actually saw totality. Had we  to gone to Cornwall the cloud cover would have blocked the sun completely, but that was the luck of the draw. I only tell you this because that was how we caught the bug, and became "eclipse chasers."

Sights of Madagascar
Children as young as 8 looking after babies, dressed in rags but happy and fun Chameleon posing in Isalo National Park

Very few people have seen one total eclipse, and fewer still two. Some of the people we met and  with travelled  had observed several, from Turkey to Mexico. You can see some of their pictures and read their adventures at the Clock Tower web site. The best photographs are on Derek Hatch's page, and these superb images, taken with a Fuji S1 SLR digital camera, are also available on CD ROM. Our own story starts with a departure from London to Paris. Regular travellers will know how bad Charles de Gaulle is in every respect. It is dirty, it is immensely ugly, it is painful to get from one terminal to another, and the maintenance standards are non-existent. And the authorities could not even provide toilet paper in any of the toilets, male or female. Baggage handling is one of its worse sins: our bags arrived in Tana on the outward leg, but were lost in Paris CDG for up to 4 days on the return leg. Sadly the only way to Madagascar is by way of Paris, so there was no alternative.

Air Madagascar does not sound promising as an airline of choice, but all the flights we took over a two week period were on time, and the experience was altogether a good one. Our arrival in Tana was uneventful, but the rule which says that the smaller and less important the country, the harder, more expensive and troublesome are the entry formalities certainly applies to Madagascar. We became very familiar with Tana airport during our stay, since almost every flight to anywhere in the country passes through the capital. This is inconvenient to say the least.

Sights of Madagascar
Looks like a Baobab tree, but this one isn't. Fly catcher being grown in a swamp field

The Mercator projection makes Madagascar look like a small island off the East coast of Africa, but in reality it is the size of France and the UK put together. It is the fourth largest island in the world. The drive from the airport into the capital is much like any other third world country. Lots of people walking or sitting around. Food cooking by the dusty roadside. Little in the way of street lamps. Old cars and lorries spewing out gagging levels of pollution. Expert recycling, with nothing thrown away. Visible poverty but no obtrusive begging. Guide books full of warnings about crime on the streets, but no visible threat.

Madagascar is said to be the twelfth poorest country in the world. Its communist government has presided over a drop of 50% in the country's GDP over the past 5 years alone. The infrastructure is in a bad way and deteriorating rapidly. All of the roads are full of potholes which makes travel a lengthy and uncomfortable business. Bridges are in a state of collapse: if you know a bridge has received no maintenance since 1962 when it was built by the French, not even a coat of paint, and you look down on wooden planks which have replaced corroded metal struts with holes appearing all over the remaining ones, it is not surprising that passengers offer up a prayer when the minibus safely reached the far side. To be told you have to re-cross the same bridge the following day is not encouraging.

By and large the hotels were acceptable. A couple were very comfortable indeed. If you are planning a trip to Madagscar, here are my usual health warnings. Firstly, avoid Rova Tours. They are local agents in Madagascar. If your tour company uses Rova Tours, choose another tour company. Secondly avoid Okavango Tours . They are good at planning itineraries and are efficient, but have no idea of how to sort out difficulties when they arise, and their goodwill policy, far from exceeding your expectations or dealing generously with the inevitable problems along the way, will just leave you baffled and angry.

But first, what does Madagascar look like from the bumpy roads? There are large flat areas given over to paddy fields. Rice is a staple diet. Wherever the earth is red clay, people make and fire bricks in stacks beside the road. With so little money and even less power, trees are becoming scarce. Deforestation is ever present, as trees are cut down and turned into charcoal for heat. As you would expect in such a large country, there is a great variety of terrain and climate.

There's not much to see in the capital, Antananarivo, but you can drive to the summer palace of the Malagasy kings and queens who ruled until Victorian times and whose names are as long as an erstwhile Welsh railway station. King Adraianampoinimerina (and that's an abbreviation of his name) and Queen Ravalanova lived in a palace comprising a primitive wooden hut alongside what looks like a Victorian summer house, complete with fading Victorian furniture and wall hangings, stained glass and gifts from the Queen of England herself.

The Eclipse
Diamond Ring (above) Just before totality (below)

Getting to the Isalo National Park from where we saw the eclipse meant a flight to Tulear and an all-day drive by minibus into the heart of the country.

Lots of bottled water was a must - we loaded up with crates of it because water was said to be expensive and scarce in the National Park as traders cashed in on the eclipse-chasing tourists. We already knew that we had been bumped out of the best hotel in the park, called Le Relais de la Reine, but expected to be camping in the grounds of another hotel and using their facilities. What we actually found was a group of cheap dome tents in a field miles from the nearest town Ranohira, with no sanitation or facilities of any kind. Asking women to relieve themselves in bushes in full view of the road with no washing facilities and just a shovel provided is not likely to please clients who have booked the best available accommodation, even when hotel rooms are in short supply during an eclipse.

Food was served in a primitive "hotel" several miles away, generally comprising thin cold omelettes at every meal, or gritty rice with boiled greens which had evidently fermented judging by the fizzy taste, all cooked in conditions unlikely to pass even the most basic hygiene test. Twenty people sharing one shower and a broken toilet added to the challenge. And for almost three days, mercifully without serious illness, Okavango Tours judged a compensation payment of £100 each an adequate recompense. Thank you Chris Durham, see you in the Small Claims Court.

That's the bad news. The good news was that we saw totality, where many others nearby did not. Maybe it was Vicky's knowledge of meteorology and topography. Maybe we were lucky. Ten minutes after totality, the sun disappeared behind a black cloud, not to  reemerge until sunset, so let's say we were made the most of our luck.

On this particular eclipse, the shadow passed over Angola, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Mozambique, but by the time the sun reached Madagascar it was only 12 degrees above the horizon and was still in partial eclipse as the sun went below the horizon.

Watching the Eclipse
Doodah and Desiree our drivers (top left) The group watching the eclipse just before totality (top right) Paul our expert eclipse chaser watches through filtered binoculars (bottom left) Vicky watches through her shades (bottom right)

I suppose our digestions were sufficiently bound by the time of our last breakfast at the "Hotel Berny" that we gave away our cold omelettes and soggy bread to the hungry kids outside, and passed on the coffee and condensed milk. But we were on our way back north to Tana again, a two day drive stopping overnight at Fianarantsoa where the Tsara Guest House provided comfortable beds and hot showers, oh bliss, and even a loo that flushed, oh good.

Berenty
Lemurs at Berenty

Tana was another 400km the following day. Our drivers - Doo-dah and Desiree (I kid you not) were keen to get home, but were hindered by a 3 hour lunch break at a restaurant of painful slowness, and where to speed things up we cancelled our order and dined off excellent baguettes. Madagascar is a country for travellers, not tourists. If you expect things to flow smoothly, choose another destination.

We stayed in the Tana hotel three times as we passed through the capital. After the thrill of the eclipse and the camping experience, we were pleased to have a little luxury again and the restaurant of the Palissandre serves memorable French food at little expense. The following day it was back to the airport once more for a flight to Fort Dauphin. We stopped once again at Tulear, but this time had a few hours to explore and ended up lunching at the Etoile de Mer. Fish n chips actually, but not bad. The guide book warned that the sea shore is used by locals as a public latrine, so perhaps Etoile de Vue de Merde might have been an equally appropriate name.

The famed Miramar Hotel in Fort Dauphin is set high above the sandy beach, with a restaurant a little walk away down an unlit road. Take a torch and walk fast. It was wet there, and everything became very damp, something we became used to once we got to Isle Sainte Marie. But for now, it was a reasonable if misty and cold stop for the night, and the next day we drove north into hotter weather, briefly pausing to admire a field of fly-catching plants and some ritual burial sites. In Madagascar the local people kill zebu (oxen) during a week-long funerary ceremonial, and the importance and wealth of the deceased can be judged by the magnificence of the grave and the number of zebu horns planted in it. Zebu to the Malagasy are investments. You don't eat them but each represents a bankroll. Hence the herders carry guns to ward off the inevitable rustlers.

At Berenty lodge we saw several kinds of lemur. Robert also contracted a nasty upset, which as the water cut off during the night and there was only half a toilet roll provided was distinctly uncomfortable. Vicky's makeup remover tissues came in handy. Whilst talking about sickness, Madagascar has most sorts of medical threats and you should protect yourself with all the jabs if you are thinking of travelling there. A word of advice: British Airways and Trailfinders are convenient but charge a lot for their services. I found my local GP had a clinic which updated all my jabs except yellow fever free. In May this year, Malorone was licensed for the first time in the UK against Malaria. It costs £90 from Trailfinders for 2 weeks, but only £60 by private prescription. Highly recommended: no side effects, and you only need to take the one-a-day pill for a week after you get home, instead of six weeks for the others. Vicky took Doxycycline and said it was pretty good too, and half the price of Malorone.

The next day it was back for the third time to Tana and the Royal Palissandre before flying north for 90 minutes to Isle Sainte Marie and the Princess Bora Lodge. Set on the sea shore you are taken by ox cart from the landing strip only 10 minutes away. The hotel is owned by a French chef and his architect wife who designed and built all the thatched bungalows and the main buildings. You can sit on the palm lined beach and watch whales out to see. They come every year from Antarctica to mate in these waters.

Unfortunately the climate is very wet. You can't choose the month of an eclipse so we had no choice in the matter, but the island would have been idyllic had it not rained most of the 4 days we were there. We did manage to bicycle half way round on the only sunny day, however. Other than that, it was a lazy, pleasant place to be, and quiet except for a trip out in a speedboat to get closer to the whales, which was decidedly noisy, very wet indeed, and pretty hairy.

That was Madagascar. A poor but fascinating country, with beautiful people of mixed racial descent, friendly, welcoming and inquisitive. Yes I recommend a visit, but only if you are prepared for the inevitable difficulties which come with travelling in third world countries where there is little investment in infrastructure. But as you pass through Paris on the way home, try and hang on to your baggage. Madagascar was no trouble, either with theft or reliability of travel. Paris CDG was both. And British Midland had little idea of how to match the owner up with their lost bags. We got someone else's after a day, and ours only came back to us after massive hassle and annoyance. None of that spoiled the trip though.

Sights of Madagascar
The rocks surrounding the camping site at Isalo glowed red at sunset As the sun was setting, it was still eclipsing. At Morombe the eclipse chasers claimed to have seen the famed "green flash" as the sun dipped below the

Having now seen two eclipses, I think we have done with this phenomenon for the time being. The next is in 2002, again over southern Africa. In fact there are places in Africa where, if you stand still, you will have seen two total eclipses in the space of a year or so. This must be rare, but if you want to know just how rare, or if you need any other conceivable information, Fred Espenak at NASA must provide the most comprehensive web pages. After that, I think we are talking about Antarctica. If there were to be a next time, I'd certainly take a bigger lens or a pair of binoculars. There is no substitute for seeing totality close-up. That for me was why I recall the Cherbourg experience so vividly. We might have only seen a few seconds of totality, but what I saw through the 600mm mirror lens was more impressive than anything in Madagascar. A great trip. It was fun.

Last updated 27 August 2001

Photographs © Robert Wright 2001