January 15, 2013
After Thanksgiving, 7 of us decided to head a little further
south to Andringitra National Park, home of the highest peak in Madagascar. The park is definitely off the beaten
path. We had to take 2 taxi-brousses
south to a tiny town and then walk about 9 km to get to the places to
camp. The actual park entrance was an
additional 5 km. After spending the
first night all together, the group decided to split into two to pursue
different activities. Jessie, Eric, and
I remained at the campground to pursue some light hiking and sweet rock
climbing (my first outdoor climb!) while the other group decided to do the 2.5
day trek to Pik Boby, the highest peak in Mada.
But before splitting up, we decided to head up to the nice hotel to
visit the lemurs and have dinner. It is
baby season for the ringtail, and they all have twins!! They were sooo cute.
So after dropping the other kids off with their packs at the
park entrance the next morning, Jessie, Eric and I took a shorter (4 hour) hike
to a peak called chameleon, with a giant rock that really does look like a
chameleon. The next day, we rented
climbing equipment and a guide to take us climbing. The first thing we did was hike to the
starting point (which was blazing hot and nearly an hour itself) and then we
did 2 pitches of a 3 pitch climb up the mountain. This meant that the guide went up and laid
the rope for us to belay. Then, we can
go up until the end of the rope (first pitch) and clip ourselves to the rock
and sit while he lays the work for the next climb (second pitch). So cool!
The view was amazing. Then we
came back down and did some sport climbing, which is more like what you would
see at a climbing gym. It was a big
boulder with 3-4 different ways you could go up. So we spent the rest of the day doing that ad
cooking dinner together with the staff at the camp site, who got a big kick out
of us speaking gasy.
The next day, we went back to the boulder without the guide,
since we already knew the way and Jessie and Eric are quite experienced
climbers. We climbed around for a bit
while we waited for the rest of our crew to come back down the mountain so we
could start heading back to Fianar. Part
way through the morning, a ringtail lemur popped up from behind a tree and bounded
up the path that had stumped the three of us for the last day and a half. If only we could climb like that! It was
pretty funny.
The rest of the crew surprised us and beat us back to camp,
they must have booked it! So tired and
sore, we started the hike back to town to catch the two brousses back to Fianar
to head back to Tana the day after.
Needless to say, we slept pretty well that night.
Overall, one of my favorite trips here in Madagascar. I can’t wait to go rock climbing again!
-Sarah
