Andasibe-Mantadia

We flew back to Tana from Morandava, where we met Dorique, who would be our driver for the rest of our trip.  We’d be driving south and east, and would not fly again until we flew out of Madagascar.  The scenery was beautiful, and reminded us a little of a Miyazaki film; vivid rice fields surrounded by rolling hills, and villages with European architecture.  Also, this little gas powered rail car seemed like it had driven right out of one of his films.

On our way to Andasibe, where we’d spend the night, we stopped at the Mandraka Reptile Farm.

Madagascar: Ankarafantsika

Our ferry trip back to the mainland from Nosy Be was pleasantly un-chaotic, by comparison to the other direction.  As we approached the port (ok, the shoreline) at Ankify, we spotted two men wearing green Cactus Tours shirts, and they definitely spotted us.  It was the two men who had sold us our original ferry tickets, and later carried us bodily onto the boat.  We had second thoughts about having given them the shirts—we hope they wouldn’t abuse the logos to pose as Cactus Tour representatives.  They pulled our luggage off the boat for us, and we met our new guide, Ndemy—pronounced Dem-bee—and our driver (we didn’t catch his name, and it became awkward to ask again later).  We got into a minivan, and settled back for a day of driving south.