Andy Oakley

Taken from the Madagascar Team 1 Journal, originally by Sally

The last day of trekking came quickly and it was an extremely sad occasion because although I was looking forward to the R and R, this signified the beginning of the end. We walked in a long meandering line from the Piscine Naturelle into Ranohira laden with our packs for the last time. As Hannah and Katie proceeded to perorm the Hokey Kokey, I couldn’t believe that this was the end of our trekking. In a way it was a relief that we had made our final objectives but it also meant that in about a week’s time we would be going home. Ranohira came into view as the Gravy Diggers sang their last medley together. It was the end of an era.

We all smelt really bad, not that we particularly noticed, and so some of us bought T-shirts and changed into them. What a refreshing change! Our first mission was to eat lunch – not rice, and have a good cold drink. We stored our packs and at lunch. It was then time for a swift wander around Ranohira before departing for our second football match of the expedition.

There were lots of strange men in little bits of leather playing football which was a bit scary really. Unfortuantely we lost the football and were also cursed by a paricularly nasty boy in the annoying group of children which surrounded us on the goal line. These children were a cause of much distress to some as they kept poking and prodding us and would not leave us alone.

After the football we walked back into Ranohira to find the hotel. There were very few women around but lots of men holding hands! Ranohira was the first place that we had met hostility and that we found the people quite strang. It was a very uncomfortable place here you were never 100% sure about being there. Perhaps it was because it is subjected to more tourists being next to the national park and so they resent it and feel bitter than their lives are continuously invade by foreigners.

I was extremely relieved when I found out that we were not staying at the Hotel Joyeux Lemeiurs which had been the worst “hotel” that we had stayed in. Instead we were staying at the Hotel Chez Thomas which was much cleaner with nicer toilets. They did not have a restaurant and so we cooked on our tangias outside the rooms.

That night was a particularly restless night for many. In our room (Charley, Han, Katie, Nat and me) the night started off by Nat almost setting fire to our room by burning the Mosquito repeller which Han and I had to put out in a mad rush of stamping as Nat, Katie and Charley went into hysterics. In the middle of the night we awoke to find that Katie was feeling very sick and so Han, Charley, Nat and I decided to have our midnight feast of chocolate and biscuits. Katie at this point rushed outside to be sick and came back in a few minutes later feeling much better so we offered her some chocolate. This was followed by a mass trek to the toilet before going back to sleep. No one slept in as we were all rudely awoken by a very loud inconsiderate turkey. Other strange happenings in the night had occurred including Werthers being attacked by a load of scorpions which were stopped by him closing his sleeping back tightly around him!