Give Morondava another try...Abort...Abort!

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Geo: -20.29, 44.27

what's good for motorbiking, it's bad for the charisma of a place...a paved road...Travelling for many, many years...I have learned that a paved road leading to a town will change their personalities away from strangers forever...What did I see here?...The road has been paved all the way to Morondava...To bad, it was time to arrive and leave at the same time...

Staying in Morondava for 2 nights to service my bike a bit as I will have one of the most difficult rides in front of me...Morondava simply upholds that statement I have made...The paved road has changed them to the bad forever...No reason to keep lingering...I got ready to leave...

Leaving this time had it's difficulties...The raining season started and submerged certain areas I was intended to drive under deep mud...

Well...it's Madagascar...an adventurous place is calling for an adventure indeed.

I met a french guy in town, he was married to a Malagasy and lived here for many years...He was planning to join a cargo ship that was leaving town the very next morning...Well...we are not talking about a container ship here...It's a single mast 12m long wooden schooner...Down I went to the harbor in search for the captain...I just seen them loading the cargo onto the ship and inquired if I can join the ride along with my chink bike?...Sure...we agreed on an extremely fair, local price...he started loading the bike and told me to be on the boat at 4 AM the next morning.

Ok, so I woke up the next morning at 3 AM just to make sure my motorbike is not leaving without me...I must truly say...that's as well a valid statement for all my previous visits...Malagasy people are extremely honest and they certainly don't steal from you just like that...You must do something wrong to them first...

Ok, there I was waiting eagerly at 4 AM near the pier of the harbor...no boat to be seen...I got shocked at first sight...Than a guy told me that the boat is already on the outer mouth of the river because of low tide there is no way to anchor in the harbor...So I went to the mouth of the river and he was indeed waiting for me there.The french guy from yesterday was also coming along. The boat was really old and a few Malagasy family have taken refugee on the boat for the passage as well...

There we go and I felt like a famous German song once recalled "Wir lagen vor Madagaskar..." is a well known German folklore song. It is attributed to the composers and lyricists Just Scheu from 1934.

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