The decision was made so we had to start organising to get out of there. This isn’t too easy as the car that brought us to the area wasn’t supposed to come back till in a few days and there is no network coverage anywhere outside the bigger towns. We thought we could try to get two charettes, one for the luggage and one for us to sit on. Unfortunately we didn’t find two, so that we ended up only getting a charette for the luggage. Our plan was to pack everything up and leave the camp at 9 pm to avoid the heat of the day. A major problem was that we had only 1.5 L of water each as all the people in the camp had suddenly started drinking the filtered water as well so that there wasn’t enough for us. Well we had no other choice but to be fine with it. We all had a backpack with some of our stuff, a bottle of water and a headtorch. The charette was going first and we walked after it as the driver knew the way perfectly and it wasn’t too easy for us as it was extremly dark as there was almost no moon to be seen. We walked and walked and walked… it is a very rough path and difficult to walk at the best of times and very difficult when you can hardly see anything. We did have the headtorches on but the charette was causing so much dust in the air that is wasn’t easy to see anything. After five hours of walking we made the first real break of five minutes. We ate a Bolo which is a biscuit that has never ever tasted as good as it did on that trip. I was walking right behind the charette on the left hand side and noticed that some kind of cloth that was stuck inside the wheel was coming undone. I told Jacques to tell the driver but he said that it wasn’t a worry. Admittedly I was a little worried about it and kept watching it. Just a short time later it fell out and I told the driver but he said again that it was no worry… Bullshit! After about 200 m I stopped him as the wheel nearly came undone and if it had fallen of I guess the whole charette would have been broken. I believe the wheel was simply too big for the axis and they tried to make up for it by sticking the rice bag in there, which obviously didn’t work. We lifted up the charette with all the luggage and he put the wheel back on with the help of a big, bent nail he believed it being enough to hold the wheel in place, so we kept going. As time showed it wasn’t holding the wheel in place at all and everything came undone again and again. The second wheel was kept in place with an old thong (Australian not American word) but we didn’t have anything like that. After a few hours of constantly trying to fix the wheel in different ways we managed to attach it with a lot of string. It really is a miracle that worked and that we managed the trip without anything else breaking. One thing that we wondered before we started for our trip we were actually able to answer afterwards. Yes you are able to fall asleep while walking, it just isn’t really possible to stay on the path once you are sleeping. I also managed it a few times to wake up just as I walked off to the side and into a bush… lucky it wasn’t one of those huge cactuses. I was so bloody tired that I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I already didn’t have much sleep the previous nights and was buggered before we even started walking. For the last little bit of the way I climbed up on the charette which wasn’t really any better as it is not comfy at all and I was just trying to hold on to the charette and not fall off. It would have been extremly dangerous to fall off and possibly get under the wheels. Anyway I managed to stay awake more or less and the sun was starting to rise anyway so it was a lot easier to focus again. Getting closer to the town we got on a road and there was suddenly heaps of people on charettes. They were all transporting things for the market in the town we tried to reach. This lead to a few more “scary” moments as the driver got off the charette a few times and left me all alone. Unfortunately one of the zebus was a lot stronger than the other one and always pulled to his side so that we were constantly running through the bush and I had to duck and avoid braches and cactuses. Also the zebus always went to other charettes and started eating the sugar cane from the back. I tried to pretend I didn’t see it as I didn’t have a clue as to how to stop them from doing it. Arriving in the town we were a real attraction as I believe they have never seen any Vhazhas sitting on charettes (the others had also managed to get a lift on other charettes). We arrived at 8 am in the morning, after a over 40 kays walk. We were soooooooo bloody buggered. After our arrival we immediately organised a taxi-brousse that would take us to Fort Dauphin and then had a coke in a little hotely. It was the best coke I have ever had in my life !!! The trip with the taxi-brousse was quite rough but relaxing against the long walk. We sat in the back of the ute and had to hold on well as you really fly well with every hole the car takes. To get the car started everyone had to get out, push and then jump on. When the car stopped you needed big stones to keep it in place. Travelling in Madagascar is a real adventure. It was so good to get back to Fort Dauphin and after a few hours of waiting we got managed to find a hotel that had room free.
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