Arriving at the camp

The normal precedure in Madagascar is that if you go and set up a camp somewhere you have to go to all the surrounding villages and houses to tell them what you are doing and show your respect. Often you are invited to join them for some Manjoc even though they are so poor and don’t really have enough food for themselves. Unfortunately they simply unloaded all of our stuff before we got to the place we wanted to camp at and then started an endless discussion about wanting more money to bring the stuff all the way. They really try to rip you off all the time and get the most money out of you. That is quite annoying and costs a lot of time… so it was getting dark and that doesn’t really make it any easier to find a place for the camp and set up all the tents. We walked and climbed through the bush and after a while found a place for the camp and started preparing everything. The others didn’t get there till a few hours afterwards (so much to the 3 kays). We employed a guard, two guides and a cook (you have to do that to show them that they can actally earn money with a National Park and it is a lot safer if you got peple from the area in your camp). After that exhausting day we were just so glad to have warm meal and then go to bed…. Oh and some rum ^^.