Mad as a Gas Car

Sorry for the delayed reply, Africa issues!

Re Madagascar, it's an awesome destination, still very untapped so lots to explore!

Contacts out there, search my friends and find Gilles Gautier, he runs an adventure company and sorted all ours and the young guns logistics on the island. I've another friend called Frank guillbert (sp?) that is going to be working for gilles this summer! In terms of the kayaking season, we were there in august, but it's probably not the best time of year, check nextsw.im, I put season details on there before I came away!

Flying, we flew BA to mauritius, then air Madagascar to madagascar. Easiest way is via an Mauritius or a French airline, though I'm not sure which are kayak friendly these days..,

Finally, I'd definitely go back, it's an amazing destination!

Catch you soon,

Dan

Got a few questions for you though to help with our choices!
1) How do you get there?! Seems a bit of a logistical nightmare
2) How expensive is it to get there?
3) Once you are there, is it expensive to get around?
4) What time of year were you there? What time of year is best?
5) Is there much exploring left to be done or has most of it already been ticked off betewen various groups?
6) Would you go back again?
7) AOB!
8)Does it look anything like the Disney Film??

Just badically wanting a general feel for the country. Type of paddling etc. It all seems fairly creeky from the pics and what you've said. From waht I understand theres some multiday stuff on one side of the island and on the other its uber steep and scary...??

And failing Madagascar, have you got any other suggestinons for exploratory summer boating?!

As for your questions:
1) We flew BA to Mauritius and then got an Air Madagascar Flight from there. These days I don't know but there were more options if you fly from Paris, I do know that.
2) The high season for tourism is August, those of us who went then paid £800-£1000, the girls went earlier and paid about £600.
3) We basically hired vehciles and drivers through Giles who is pretty much the only point of contact out there. It cost about the same as hiring a small car over here I think. That is the only way to do it really.
4) We did August, not sure about the season, there is a monsoon season but I can't remember when it is, if you are interested I can look up Giles contact and he knows it all, he organises rafting and has scouted more rivers than he has run.
5) We struggled a bit and this is 4 years ago bascially anything that was less 5 days long or easily accessed had been done. We did a couple of tribs and spent some time trying to find stuff. The group before us did much better because they had a guy who went out there for a month of so beforehand and explored on a motorbike to see what was possible. He eliminated those where the road had washed away or there wasn't much water, we didn't have that luxury. If you are after first descents there are some left but you will probably need to look at long multidays, we looked at what was probably at least a week, but looked amazing (Betsiboka).
6) Yes, it was an awesome place and there was some good paddling, but there are other places I would go first.
7) No
In the wildlife parks it is not far off, there are plently of weird and wonderful things.

It is definately a place you will spend lots of time driving for your time paddling, especially if you want new stuff. We found plenty of variety, some big multidays, the Ikopa was massive and then some more creaky stuff on the other side, although we didn't find anything really hardcore over there, I don't think that means it isn't there though. If you are on student timescales and can spend lots of time there then I would definately recommend it, short holiday, not so much.

We started writing a little wiki about it, but never really finished it:
http://www.tomhollis.co.uk/madagascar

If you want first descent heaven and have plenty of cash, Antarctica? Although they have the wrong summer and I don't think winter will be great. Greenland? Ride all that melt!

Tom

 Time to go
Madagascar is pretty much an open book, when you go is only restricted by what you want to do:
The general dry season runs from March to September – the weather is pleasant,
there is little rain and the crocs are more docile in the relatively cooler
temperatures. Here the runs on the larger rivers are good and access to remoter
areas is greatly increased (dust as opposed to mud).
November sees the start of rain. Although rivers run, this month see an increase in
crocodile activity as they are often agitated by the change in season. This does not
rule November out just highlights the care required and rivers selected.
The rainy season is December to March, road conditions deteriorate and a 4x4 is
more likely to be required. Big volume rivers such as the Ikopa are likely to be too
big but the many smaller runs open up. I can see this becoming the season of steep
creeking in Madagascar. That said the Italians organised an extremely successful
intermediate Xmas trip, so successful they returned in Xmas 2006.
 Getting there
Being an Island you‟re fairly limited here – I flew with Air France but was seriously done over
when it came to my kayak so basically don‟t fly AirFance.
I suggest you follow the Poly Boys option and fly MadaAir from Paris, making your own way to
Paris (budget airlines etc.)
 Maps
Stanfords claim to stock the series of maps which split Madagascar into 12 sections and are
1:500 000. These maps are better for road navigation than a national map and mark the
rivers in reasonable detail. Depending on your chosen rivers you have ; 5 (Maintirano) ; 6
(Toamasina) ; 7 (Morondava) ; 8 (Antananarivo) ; 9 (Toliara) and 10 (Fianarantsoa).
Available at www.stanfords.co.uk or FTM (Rue DAMA-NTSOHA RJB B.P. 323
Ambanidia – Antananarivo. E-mail ftm@bow.dts.mg).
Also from FTM are maps usually of 1:100 000 and sometimes 1:50 000. Since a lot
of the rivers are multiday these become extremely helpful. Though a little old they
are reasonable at 3-4 euros each.
 Logistics: There are 3 choices here:
Firstly you paddle the rivers mentioned here. While great fun this would be a small
injustice to the vast potential that is Madagascar
Secondly you plan to spend part of your trip in recce mode; where by you arrive and
purchase maps and work out which rivers work and then go find out. In the spirit of
exploration this is a good option.
Thirdly and finally you call on the aid of Gilles Gautier, a Frenchman living in
Madagascar with a vast knowledge and passion for adventure. He has organised
trips for a successful intermediate Italian group, worked out an itinerary to keep the
Young Guns happy and rafted/recced a large amount of rivers. Not to mention the
help I received. From an all out supported trip, to navigation, to guiding and
tackling the language issues, I am sure in some way Gilles will be able to enhance
your trip.
One thing for certain is that you can‟t expect to turn up, hire a car, load the boats and go paddle
some rivers (not yet anyway). Madagascar is new to the world of WW Kayaking and while there
is vast amounts of potential the road network is poor, navigation difficult and rivers long. For
your trip to be a success you need to plan carefully.

Hey Dave - I've done a few World Challenge trips now, they're pretty good fun. Seems like a long time ago that I was in Madagascar though, but here's an attempt at your questions:
1) I flew Air France, which was expensive. The cheaper way to get there was Ryan Air to Paris and Air Madagascar from there. Once you are in Antananarivo then there are many buses and taxis (as you'd expect in these types of countries)
2) The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust stipulated certain things and I was forced to go Air France which was just over £1000. The boys who flew out to meet me paid somewhere between £6-700 (this was the Air Madagascar option).
3) We hired a minibus/van and driver - it wasn't too bad between six. Maybe £50 a day. Depending when you go though some rivers would be better accessed by 4x4.
4) I was there in Aug and Sept. This is the dry season and was great for the bigger rivers in the west (i.e. Ikopa), but maybe a bit low for the creeky stuff in the east.
5) I felt as though I barely scratched the surface - they have some infrastructure issues in terms of access, but they have a lot of potential for some big water multiday descents.
6) I would go back again, although I'm not fond of paddling with crocodiles...
7) Gilles Gautier was my contact for logistics.
No!

It's an amazing country, with lots of potential, but also some logistics to work out.

Exploratory summer boating hey....?!

I had a great trip to SW Turkey in June - there's some fantastic stuff out there - I'm sure we got some first british descents, but the Germans have done most things already. Heard rumours of good waterfally stuff in South India and that was happening post May I think. I looked into Rwanda a while back if you're feeling brave with a dash of stupid. I kind of feel there should be stuff in eastern europe with the snow melt - Romania and Poland both have some pretty big peaks, that snow has to go somewhere!

Let us know what you decide - I'll not be paddling much this next year, but it's good to know what's being done!

Chris