On the Way to Andasibe to camp at Mitsinjo

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Geo: -18.9495, 48.2301

Why Mitsinjo?

One of the things we have realized works for us in our travels is to go somewhere and stay there
instead of moving all over the place. When doing research on Madagascar, Robert mainly, it seemed the area around Andasibe fit what we would enjoy. There were several places to explore, and Mitsinjo besides being a place we could camp also had a awesome environmental philosophy. If google Mitsinjo you will find many projects they have going on. From their website, nature bad tourism, conservation and research. One of their big projects is reforestation of the area clearcut around Andisabe and Madagascar. From their webpage, "Mitsinjo has therefore embraced reforestation and rainforest restoration since our early days of existence. Small rainforest fragments are being linked up by the planting of corridors, which will allow the movement and genetic exchange of animal populations between them." From everything we have heard, Mitsinjo has an incredible record as a non-profit making a difference. We decided this would be a great place to support by camping there and going on walks with them!

Set an early alarm to make sure we were ready for our 7:00 a.m. departure. Of course being the night before we leave did not sleep well worrying if the alarm would go off. Had breakfast and Hasiana arrived shortly after 7:00 a.m. and we got things loaded and off we went. Traffic was already in full swing as we left but Hasiana managed to move through it with ease. Tana is surrounded by hills and we were gradually climbing from the center of the city where we had been staying. As we headed out of the city you could see more of the French influence in the architecture of the buildings on the hillside.

Soon left the city behind and headed out into the countryside. There were only two cities of any size
we passed through on our way. What you mainly saw were villages stretched out along the main road with fields of rice behind them. The N2 is the main road between Tana and the port city of
Toamasina/Tamatave . As a result there was a constant stream of oil tankers, transport trucks, along
with taxi brousse loaded to the gills, tourist vans, and cars along the road. Add in the occasional
ox drawn/human drawn cart or people on bicycles and you have an idea of the traffic along the way.
Even though there was a lot of traffic, we moved along smoothly.

The road is hilly and there are a lot of curves which made it dangerous in some instances. Hasiana
was a considerate and careful driver and so did not experience the "mad dash" driving some of the
tourists did experience. There were several times we passed broken down transport trucks on the side of the road and also saw two that had overturned. One of the vehicles that had overturned was being unloaded and guess they were going to try to turn it back upright! We also saw a transport truck (18 wheeler) that the cab had disengaged from the load on a curve. Poor guy looked pretty miserable in the cab. Don't know how they were going to take care of that situation.

Passed through forested areas, clearcut areas, terraced hills of rice in the growing cycle and some
fields that were just being plowed with oxen pulled plows. We also saw a lot of brick making going
on. Like in Zambia they fire the brick by building a fire under the bricks as they dry.
Stopped in Moramonga to change money. We had been told that there might be an ATM in Andasibe but did not want to take a chance. Moramonga is the only major city on the road between Tana and Toamasina and really the hustle and bustle going on! The N2 goes through town....so imagine those oil tankers going through a narrow two lane road with shops on both sides, people, bicycles, cars, oxcarts, and more! Were able to change money and back on the road after a short coffee break for Hasiana.

Got to Mitsinjo about 11a.m. and went and checked the camping area. Things looked OK and so we
decided to drive on the Andisabe and visit the market while we were in a car to help carry the food
back with us. Passed the National Park as we headed there. Just for the record, some information
about distances in the Andisabe area. From Panga la chare..crossroad turnoff from the N2 to Feon ny ala and Marie's (more about these places later in story) 300 metres, Feon ny ala to Mitsinjo 1 and 1/2 kilometres, and from Mitsinjo to the village is 3 kilometres.

The village is not very large but does boast two churches and a mosque as well as a train station.
There are some hotels in the area but we did not check any of them out and so cannot report on what you would find there. There are several small stalls along the road with various fruits/veggies for sale as well as a covered marketplace with stalls with more of the same produce. There are also
stores selling packaged goods, bulk rice, beans, maize, and other bulk items.
Hasiana helped with the shopping, haggling with the shop owners, and giving us advice on the buying o f some items. Said it might be cheaper to buy a kilo rather than just 4 or 5 of something, namely tomatoes because you can get a better price. On the rice, let the shop keeper fill your bag per your instructions, on eggs you pick them out. Got tomatoes, green beans, squash, potatoes, red onions, shallots, garlic, carrots, pineapple, papaya, bananas, oranges, eggs, and rice. In most cases got about seven or eight of the veggies, bananas, and eggs. Picked up two different types of greens to be cooked because did not see any lettuce to be bought. I know this goes against what many say about buying fresh veggies but have been doing this for a couple of years now and wash all of them in a soapy solution and it has seemed to work!

Got all our food loaded in the car and back to Mitsinjo to unload everything and get set up. There
was a great deal of activity in the kitchen where they were washing all of the dishes so we just put
our food stuff in the other room and went to set up our tent. They have a refrigerator they plugged
in so we could store our food in there. (Sadly we discovered the fridge froze everything and could not be adjusted up or down.)

Chose A#l campsite because the others nearby looked like one would be on the path to the group area and the other had some wicked roots across the path. They have built these nice shelters for you to set your tent under. They had lightbulbs in some of the sites but the one in ours did not work. Got the tent set up and it just fits with about 3 foot space in the front of the tent which was perfect!

Set the chairs outside, had a lunch of apples, peanut butter and crackers and then got some water
filtering.Fixed a dinner of vegetable soup with noodles and ate in the meeting area. Mitsinjo has an office area, a gift shop and then this large area with tables and chairs and as far as we were concerned the best part, electric plugs and a light in the evening. We spent most of our evenings eating dinner here, visiting with others staying here and were able to work on our story and picture uploads. The kitchen is run by charcoal fires, there is a table for preparing your food, and a large tank with water to wash your dishes in the sink. Sink does not have running water. We had our gas stove and cooked with it in one of the spaces that could be used for a charcoal fire. There was a worker from the village, Devanr working on fixing food in the kitchen. Was trying to help me learn more Malagasy words for cooking. Seems there will need to be a great deal of repetition!

Tudy had told us there were some other people coming the next day and there was some sort of gathering going to happen but not quite sure what. Found out later when a group arrives after dark. They were researchers from around the world working on a three year project and this was the second year of the project. They were studying two topics as I understand....forest restoration and what it does to water quality and the effects of land use on downstream flow. From the Mitsinjo web page, this can be added, "Can paying for ecosystem services reduce poverty in Madagascar? This is the question the P4GES Project hopes to answer through their three year research initiative involving scientists from the UK, Madagascar, the Netherlands, and Switzerland." They were going to be making a presentation to the Minister of Education and Environment, the Mitsinjo Association and the British Ambassador had also been invited. Guess this is the reason for the preparations we saw going on.

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Photos

Taxi brousse
they load from the rear and the person hanging on the back takes the money, whistles for stops, and helps unload things from top

Hasina,right, our driver helps at Market A
Andasibe Village Market