UP AND DOWN THE TSINGYS

Madagascar (July 2011)

The tsingy de Bemaraha is a nature reserve and national park located in the Antsiranana province of Madagascar, close to the west coast of the island. It is very difficult to describe the tsingy but according to most encyclopaedias it is a more than 200 million years old formation of coral and shells that originally was underwater and then due to earthquakes and other earth movements, was left uncovered and subject to erosion from rain and wind. That is the official version, I would say it is like a big big surface of stiff whipped egg whites, to the point of hard snow – for those with some notions of cooking, it is really hard whipped whites that can be cut with a knife. But it is not egg whites; it is solid and very sharp rock! So much so that if you are not careful or not have calloused hands, you end up with shredded hands and skin in strips. The peaks and crevasses and formations of all sorts can be visited, but physical condition is a necessity that is not always clear to unsuspecting tourists like myself.

To get to the national park we had to ride a whole day in the 4×4, cross two rivers with “pangas” or skiffs and put up our tents, prepare our dinner and be ready early in the morning. Once you get close to the entry point of this wonder of nature it is hard to realize where you will be. At the beginning the walk was at the bottom of the canyon, narrow passages not fit for people a little over the twiggy size, you can see up and only see more of the formation, it looks imposing but nothing extraordinary. Go on and it starts getting fascinating, difficult and scary and of course size is important, the bigger your size, the more difficult it gets to climb the rocks, pass through small openings in the maze of formations and the like, hold your breath might help but not for a long time, as the effort forces you to breath. Some parts of the maze could not be visited if some incredible engineering feats had not prepared metal stairs, rope bridges, handrails and some relatively flat passages.

The more I walked through the maze of rock solid stiff peaks the more fantastic it became, but it is good to remember that there are several kinds of birds and lemurs, but also of snakes and although it is said that there are no poisonous snakes in Mada, I rather not meet them personally, add to this your back pack with water, your camera hanging from your neck, where it risks of hitting all and every wall of the tsingy and prevent your from seeing the floor, which is not an even road, but a series of spaces for your feet, but not a walk in the park at all. Walking and taking pictures becomes an almost impossible simultaneous action, either you walk or take pics and hanging the camera from your neck is not compatible with keeping the health of your persona and of your camera, so I had to relinquish my camera to our guide, although I would have preferred to relinquish myself to him carrying me but no way, he was regular size malgache. Up up and again up through metal narrow staircases, solidly anchored to the rock walls but felling flimsy, rope handrails also well placed and some rope bridges, hanging over small and not so small crevasses or down and down getting on all fours to go through a tunnel in this coral barrier, unlike the Australian one because it is in dry land and sharper than a sharp knife.

After what felt like an eternity or two, we – my fellow travellers, the guides and myself, made it to the top of the climb, a panoramic spot that is breathtaking for its beauty, the vastness of this tsingy landscape, but also because to get there I had to go up and down like never or very seldom before in my like. After a short break the others were ready to continue, on the way out of the maze of tsingy and back to the 4×4 that would take us to the camp, lunch and a well-deserved rest.

However, I am not the others and I was not ready to continue. I do not know if I mentioned it before, but I am diabetic and should take good care of my sugar balances and strenuous exercise if not paced, can be a killer. By the time we got to the top, I was of course out of breath, I believe my sugar levels were in the minus 100 level and I was having problems with fixing my view, standing up became a joke and my heart was pumping triple speed. I believe the guides got a bit scared, what if I had a heart attack right then and there, where nothing other than “brute human muscle” can take you out, no chance for a helicopter to pick you up and take you to the nearest hospital, mainly because I believe there are no helicopters in the area and hospitals may be even more scarce, so to make a long story short they decided to accompany the group minus me down I would be waiting there for them, as if I could start on my own or extend my wings and fly down!!

During the time it took them to take the group down, I had enough to admire the landscape, really beautiful and worth the efforts, but definitely I did not believe it was worth dying for, so I insulted myself quite enough for not being attentive to bringing my sugar complements, for coming to this remote place, for being me and then I calmed down. The guides finally arrived and I sadly realized that the laws of physics apply to me and to the tsingy alike and what goes up, must come down, and if I was at the top of one segment of the tsingy, I had to go down, fortunately through a shorter way, not just turn around and back, but continue on and go down and back. I have always found it harder to go down a mountain or a stair or a tsingy and this was no exception, but had to be done. The guides were very supportive in more ways than one, helpful and patient but coming down also meant sometimes crawling under parts of the peaks or laying on your back and push yourself under another even smaller hole, at the end jumping over tree roots thick as an elephant leg or pushing ferns tall as a house. When I finally saw the car it was like arriving to the gates of paradise, although fortunately Saint Peter was not waiting for me, just the car. I was at the end of my tether and was running on fumes of sugar that needed to be replenished like immediately or else, so the moment we saw a little shop, I asked them to stop and got a one and a half litter bottle of a cola drink – no ads please! that I personally dislike but for recovering sugar levels there is nothing better or faster, unless of course you have a liter of sugared orange juice, the real one, that we did not have, so the cola drink that went fast, like throwing it into an endless pit and once it was finished I asked for another so in a matter of ten minutes, three littler of over sugared dark liquid went into my depleted body and in a matter of one hour or so, all went back to normal or almost.

By then we were back at base camp, where all the others were already finishing lunch and being of the French persuasion did not loose much time to reprehend me for taking the tour, for delaying them – which was not exactly true, and other niceties of the sort and probably they would have complained for me being of the non-French persuasion. Fortunately I was well enough by then to say to them ONE time only how sorry I was and then in a silent comment, send them to enjoy their own personal company, if at all possible.

The following day the group was going to the Big Tsingy – the odyssey I had just finished is known as the Little Tsingy!!! And of course the guide and the dear members of my group all recommended I should not go with them and “spoil” the day one more time. If they had known that this decision had been taken hours ago, when I was alone at the top of the Little Tsingy waiting for my rescue team, they might have kept their mouth closed, if at all possible. Anyway, the following day they left early and happy, and I was left alone and happy. I got up late, for the tour and after my breakfast went for a walk, just to stretch my legs a bit and then back to wait for them, telling me the beauty of the day, the landscapes, etc. etc. But… what they did not know was that I had given my camera to our guide, who besides being a good guide and guy, also proved to be a very good photographer and of course he knew where the nice photogenic spots, animals or plans were and being the guide, was the first there and then continued the trail, come the unsuspecting tourist, many missed the real thing, as they did not want not care to be left behind.

The moral of the story is that if you want great photos either be in top form or give your camera to the guide, who is going to produce the best of the series, will enjoy using your camera that probably he cannot afford but will take excellent care of it and you can come home and show the beauty of the tsingy and of whichever other place you visit.