Madamax

Definitely, one of my greatest night, so far! A solo night ride on the lower Mangoky, last saturday night was certainly a nerving experience. it all started with a classic line of taking geologists out there for research.

Riding up the river with an engine was a challenge, with insidious sand bars and dead channels to get lost but that’s the kind of stuff we manage and there was nothing that special.

An indecent rigging job to motor up the flow!

For some reason, I ended up 30kms from pull out at night time although I had to be there by 6 am the next morning in order to drive to the airport and fly out to Tananarive.

So, here I am loading my ARK inflatable Croc boat at 7 pm on a moonlessnight and a good 4 hours of paddling laying ahead.

needless to say that I was moderetaly enthousiastic to leave by myself and leave my gun behind in camp!…

I had always thought that finally there wasn’t that many crocs on the Mangoky and I know the river well enough to handle this ghostly night ride.

How wrong I was to be, ……..

Less than 100 meters from camp two splashes and waves sharply remembered me that we were not in winter and females were laying eggs on the banks!

The rest of the trip was a thrilling and terrifying experience. i had to repeat myself the malagasy saying “crocs don’t attack dug outs” at least a thousand times every hour. I tried to avoid flashing the light to see how close those very inquisitive animals were as I needed to keep the little night vision a brilliant starry sky gave me . I spoke out loud and sang silly songs. I even (shame on me) spilled some gas on the boat to deter them. I peed on it!

An early evening visitor, …

More were to come!!!

Nothing did it I couldn’t appreciate the beauty and the grandeur of the scene. I had a few sections of great happiness when floating away from the shores I forgot for instants the presence, so massive, of predators to be respected, but the paranoia was hitting back at every occasion. Chasing crocs from sand banks on which I drifted inadvertly on too many occasions, having to drag the boats between reeds islands, lost on a mile wide river. I even rowed upstream for at least 15 minutes before realizing I hadn’t moved a meter!

Around 10.30 pm a young female, kind of “flew” over the stern, chased from a higher river bank by my noisy passage and that’s when my nerves decided to take a break. I aimed at a sand bar and tried to find a spot without too many close tracks, gathered dried wigs and reeds, built a wall with my bags and even my shoes, again, peed everywhere, spilled more gas, and finally crashed out in an uncertain sleep.

Back to life with the sun burning the last bits of morning fog.

I woke up after a night of refueling fast burning reeds, listening to splashes and crocos noises in a rather good mood.

They were all gone when the temp dropped late in the night.

The 2 remaining hours were really cool with all the beasts sleeping in their holes and the river for myself.

Arrival at pull out was certainly noticed and locals still wonder if I’m totally stupid or a real nerd!…

I do too, ………..

Tags: canoe, crocodile, kayak, madagascar, mangoky, raft