Today we were to visit the 3 bays around the Diego area. Unfortunately, for the first time in our trip, the weather has altered our plans. We did go out for a tour, but were not able to do everything we wanted to do because of the rain and the poor roads that resulted from it.
After breakfast on the covered patio by the pool, we set out towards Ramena, northwest of Diego, and here are some photos from the journey. Here is our truck crossing the first of many road obstacles.
We were supposed to go out here in a boat. Obviously, that didn’t happen!
We made it through this obstacle…
This one we had to go around…
Flooded road. We’re not having much luck here…
What is with this road?
Here is our driver walking ahead to see if we can make it…
No, we weren’t going to make it. Here is our chosen alternate route.
We met this guy coming the other way, stopping to pull the forest off of his truck.
As we continued, we found some of the previous guy’s window trim left on the trees.
Still trying to get around the blocked road by going this way…
No go. Now we’ve given up trying to get to the next bay, and are heading back to Diego.
I managed to capture a few short video clips on the return of what this rainy drive is like, and just what these simple dirt roads become with a bit of rain.
Trying to decide which muddy bush route is the lesser of several evils?
Continuing to make our way out…
Going through puddle after puddle…
A bypass through a field around another flooded section…
Continuing to try to make our way out of the maze of mud…
Well, we came in this way, but I guess we’re not getting out this way…
We finally made our way back to the paved road…
Even the paved road has it’s rough bits…
Here’s a volcanic rock beach we passed on the way back.
Pain de Sucre or Sugar Loaf…
Before returning to the hotel, Nadine asked the driver if he could take us to an authentic Malagasy restaurant where she could eat some of the foods she remembered. I didn’t want to take a chance eating anything, but Nadine said it was good. Here is Nadine and our driver eating lunch. I just drank the Coca-Cola.
Back at the hotel, we returned to the room to relax. I finished updating the blog entries up to Dec 28 and uploaded them to the site. (I won’t write this entry until January 3, and won’t upload it to the site until January 5 when I’m back in Tana and have an internet connection).
In the evening, we had a refreshing swim in the fabulous pool at the hotel before a late dinner. Today wasn’t the trip we had originally planned, but we did have quite an adventure!